Floral cocktails, karaoke bangers and a closet full of neutrals—here’s what’s new and incoming around the urban footprint.
Stem To Stem (1200 N Central St.)
Brooke Martin has already been running her floral business, Stem To Stem, out of the back of the building in Happy Holler that housed Raven Records & Records until its closure last year. Now she’s expanding to fulfill the name’s double-entendre prophecy, opening a cocktail bar in the front of the space.
Flower stems < stemware… you almost can’t not open a botanical-theme bar, right?
“The vision is a flower shop by day, cocktail bar by night,” Brooke says. She hopes to grow it into a space for private events and photo shoots as well. The menu will include botanical-themed cocktails, mocktails and what she calls “bestie basics”—classic drinks named after friends who’ve lifted her up along the way.
There will be flowers for sale, and she’s working with a designer to create a rich, cozy, plush-feeling vibe: “It’s going to be very moody—jewel tones, velvet, really vibrant. We’ve already painted the interior and it’s a dark charcoal-navy-green, accented with eclectic flowers.”
I haven’t seen it in person, but Brooke’s description is giving Blake Lively’s flower shop in It Ends With Us, and I am here. for. it.
Brooke came by the trade honestly; she grew up in her grandmother’s flower shop in Corryton. A few years ago, as a single mom with $500 to her name, she asked her grandmother to teach her everything she knew about flowers. She began specializing in funeral and celebration-of-life arrangements—her dad’s an undertaker—and fell in love with the work.
She also started bartending (“It feeds my passion for people,” she says) and spent seven years behind the bar at Stock & Barrel on Market Square. So Stem To Stem really is an amalgamation of her talents. “It feels very full circle,” Brooke says. “It’s like my story was being written before I was even born and this is where I was supposed to end up.”
She’s hoping for a fall opening but is savoring the lead-up. “The timeline is moving a little slowly,” she says. “But I’m trying to stay present and not rush things. I want everything to be perfect. I think Knoxville is really going to enjoy this.
The Pink Cactus (1147 Sevier Ave.)
When I first heard The Landing House space on Sevier Avenue was going to turn into a karaoke bar, I may have bounced up and down a little. Not that I’m big into karaoke (OK, a little), but Knoxville has a long and fabled history of nightlife in stately old houses—think Sassy Ann’s in Fourth & Gill, or the late Lord Lindsey’s downtown. Not to mention the collective memory of every house party you’ve ever been to in a slightly crumbling Victorian.
The former Landing House owners, Zach and Hao Land, used to throw a mean late-night New Year’s karaoke afterparty. I brought the house down with “Hard Candy Christmas” there a time or two. So maybe karaoke energy was already baked into the walls.
The new concept—The Pink Cactus—comes from local entrepreneurs Harold Goldston and Kevin LaRoche (Knox Box Karaoke), Jenny Salata (French Fried Vintage) and service industry veteran Vance McCarty. The new owners took possession June 21 and wasted no time getting the house prepped for its next life.
“You’re really painting the whole thing pink?” I asked Jenny about their plan to redo the exterior—fence and all.
“Yep,” she said.
“Cool.”
Thankfully, quirky Sevier Avenue is one of the few enclaves in town where you can pull off this kind of maximalist pinkification. “As Knoxvillians we’ve all seen what’s happening here,” Jenny says. “It’s exciting to be part of that growing scene.” They are undeterred by the Sevier Avenue streetscapes project happening just outside.
The house will feature five private karaoke rooms upstairs, rentable for groups as large as 20. Downstairs, you’ll find a full bar with agave-forward cocktails, mocktails and food, all orderable via QR code from your room. Plus, there’s space that has “dance party” written all over it. If South Knoxville has learned anything from Fly By Night, it’s that we know how to git dowwwn.
Outside, expect yard games and an adult-summer-camp kind of vibe. “I personally love patios, and a lot of Knoxville does, too,” Jenny says.
The team scrambled to get a banner up and the porch turned into a stage for SoKno Pride last weekend. “So that was exciting,” she says. The plan is to open mid-August just in time for the college kids to get back to school.
As for my Christmas karaoke catalog, which I’ve been known to unleash at random throughout the year: YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.
Brandy Melville (23 Market Square)
Last up in our urban footprint tour: Brandy Melville, now open on Market Square. It replaces Fruit Jar Alley, a women’s boutique open since 2021. (Recently, in April, we also lost Daché on the 100 block.) I never love seeing a local shop disappear only to be replaced by a national chain but judging by the crowd when I stopped by Thursday afternoon, people are very into it.
The first time I ever went to an Urban Outfitters was in Cincinnati, in the early 2000s. It was housed in a decommissioned church, and I remember thinking: what a cool repurposing of a space that no longer fits the neighborhood. Then I promptly bought a bunch of outfits that served me well as a Tomato Head server but would not, in any sense of the word, fit today.
Point being, national brands can sometimes serve a purpose. Urban Outfitters helped the 1905 Arnstein Building stay activated and injected some retail energy when downtown needed it. If Brandy Melville is bringing folks to Market Square, more power to it.
My first impression: so many neutrals. White, beige, light blue, soft stripes—aspirational J.Crew-on-a-sailboat vibes. They’re also selling Knoxville-themed vintage athletic prints, likely to feel more local and ingratiate themselves to the community.
I overheard one girl say, “I really want one of these Knoxville shirts, but everyone’s going to be wearing them.”
Which feels like both a complaint and a brand mission accomplished.