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La Dolce Vespa
Who was that riding a Vespa the wrong way down Main Street Saturday evening? Why, it was Mayor Bill Haslam! The red Italian motorscooter emblazoned with the Metro Pulse logo is a promotional giveaway and spent most of the crowded Rossini Festival’s eight-hour street fair sitting sedately in the MP tent on Main in front of the courthouse. But when Haslam appeared unexpectedly at the tent at the very end of the event, a Metro Pulse employee suggested he give it a try. He hopped on the scooter just like Gregory Peck or Marcello Mastroianni or somebody, started the thing up and rode it down the street toward the City County Building. Staffers were relieved when the mayor dutifully returned it. The drawing for the Vespa will be at the Metro Pulse Best of Knoxville Party April 30.
Well, Glory Be....
A new movie is going to be filmed partly in Knox County, taking advantage of some of our historic sites, including the Ramsey House on Thorngrove Pike. The Manchester Pictures production of The Work and the Glory, a project of Vineyard Productions, is also on location in Monroe County. The love story, set against the backdrop of religious intolerance in early 19th century New England, is the first in a multi-film adaptation of a best selling nine-volume series of historical novels by author Gerald Lund. The cast includes Alexander Carroll, Eric Johnson (Whitney on Smallville), and Tiffany DuPont (Cheaper by the Dozen). County Mayor Mike Ragsdale says this area “had exactly what Vineyard Productions was looking for, beautiful landscape and historic landmarks to take viewers back to the early 1800s.” For the saga of family/religious controversy and bigotry, East Tennessee is being used to emulate the Palmyra, N.Y., of that period.
Experience the Grind
Gay Street is getting its coffeehouse today. Eddie Mannis, the president and proprietor of Prestige Cleaners, is opening Downtown Grind on the ground floor of the Phoenix Building, in front of his dry-cleaning establishment. Billed as “Knoxville’s own gourmet coffee experience,” the coffeehouse will serve specialty blends roasted by Vienna Coffee Co. of Maryville. It will also serve up frozen drinks and a variety of baked goods, Mannis says. It’s taken a while to get down to business with the coffeehouse, but it still beats the downtown Starbucks at the Hilton, which was supposed to be open months ago and still isn’t.
God Save the Corner Lounge
Knoxville’s coolest new bar was also its oldest. And unfortunately, the Corner Lounge closed its doors Monday. We hope it’s only temporarily. Owner Mike Moore—who reopened the Corner in February 2003—says the restaurant and bar on Central Avenue near Broadway was successful, drawing about 50 people a night. Local musicians RB Morris, Scott Miller, Todd Steed, Michael Crawley, Mic Harrison, et al. loved playing the joint. But Moore says it was a business he wasn’t familiar with and he was spending 100 hours a week running it. Enterprising types are welcome to make an offer to buy.
April 22, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 17
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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