I’ve probably mentioned Sapphire before, but I’ve never really focused on it that I recall. I know I’ve taken photographs there, though I may not have identified the place in the background. One of my first downtown meetings was to plan “Dancing in the Streets” with Knox Heritage and we met on a Sunday to organize the event. It was there a good while back that I met Kristin Kendall and talked to her about her art. The conversation with Buzz Goss and Jeffrey Nash that I wrote about last week happened there.
More recently, when these photographs were taken, City People met there for drinks and a meal. I had the salad pictured above and it was excellent, though the wedge salad my friend Don got looked excellent, as well. I’ve had the cheese plate before and really enjoyed it, and since the beginning of the year their entire menu has been re-vamped. The food is locally sourced when possible and the meat is grass-fed.
Of course, they are better known for their cocktails and wines. They feature an excellent wine selection, offering twenty different wines by the glass. Nightly specials include things like half-off wine bottles on Sunday night and $5 classic cocktails on Wednesday night. I recommend the Sazerac.* They are perhaps best known for their martinis with which Knoxville’s perennial “Best Bartender,” Amy, is always experimenting.
As with a number of restaurants downtown, they offer brunch on Sunday and that’s part of what prompted this post. This weekend they are holding the DreamMakers’ Sunday Funday Brunch from 12:00 to 3:00. In addition to an excellent meal, and the promise of the best Bloody Mary’s in town, raffles will be held for a host of items with proceeds benefiting Alzheimer’s Tennessee. It’s a great chance to sample some excellent food, aid a cause that is close to my heart and maybe win some very cool prizes.
Just for good measure, I’ll suggest that you hear some great music downtown this weekend. Friday night I’d strongly suggest you hear Katy Free at Remedy Coffee from 7:00 to 9:00. She’ll be joined by Wendel Werner and there’s not going to be a better mellow jazzy combination than that. Saturday night the nod has to go to the Black Lillies CD release party for Runaway Freeway Blues at the Tennessee Theatre. The music starts at 8:00 with opening artist Langhorne Slim who is awesome in his own right.
*The Sazerac is a local New Orleans variation of an old-fashioned cognac or whiskey cocktail, named for the Sazerac de Forge et Fils brand of cognac that was its original prime ingredient. The drink is some combination of cognac or rye whiskey, absinthe or Herbsaint, and Peychaud’s Bitters; it is distinguished by its preparation method.[2] It is sometimes referred to as the oldest known American cocktail,[3] with origins in pre–Civil War New Orleans, though there are much earlier published instances of the word cocktail.