Editor’s Note: We’ll always keep the downtown stories coming, but your 2025 reader survey responses told us something important: you want to hear more about the low-key local gems tucked into your own neighborhoods. Welcome to “Urban Outposts”, a new series spotlighting the quaint, quirky corners of Knoxville’s urban fringe. First stop, Fountain City.
For this first article in the Urban Outposts series, I focused on three local, very unique businesses in Fountain City that share a common theme. Whether it be a fantasy world with dragons, a garden with a sentient tree or superheroes and science fiction games, they offer you a chance to step out of your daily routine into fantastic worlds. What’s more, they give you a great experience and product. I’m excited to introduce you to, if you don’t know them, Fable Hollow Coffee and Bookshoppe, The Kraken’s Cup Tea Garden and Eclectic Eatery and Sci-Fi City.
Fable Hollow Coffee and Bookshoppe
Fable Hollow is our first stop on this journey through Fountain City. Owners Alyssa Stewart and Casey Jessen have built a book and coffee shop at 2910 Tazewell Pike that promotes community while offering books, great coffee and events in a fantasy-themed shop.
Like so many stories lately, the pandemic was a catalyst in the formation of Fable Hollow. Fountain City native Alyssa Stewart was an English major at UT and had considered opening a book store but chose a “safer” corporate career. Covid dropped the bottom out of her career path through a furlough. She found herself asking, “well, what is stability?” and thinking about a bookstore again, knowing she always wanted a coffee shop element.
Enter Casey Jessen, who managed a start-up coffee shop an hour outside Knoxville, giving her extensive experience. After moving to Knoxville, she and Stewart connected over a shared love of books and writing. Together, they envisioned a community space—a bookstore for Fountain City.
Fable Hollow was born from their vision of books, coffee and community, though not without challenges. A research phase in 2020 continued until signing a lease in 2022, and further delays from permitting created more delays. After 10 months of renovations, Fable Hollow finally opened in February 2023.
Jessen said that they “knew that we wanted to primarily be a space for fantasy readers, but we wanted to make sure that other people were included too, that we had other offerings for those who weren’t fantastically inclined.” Responsive to customer requests, the fantasy romance section has grown with the genre while general fiction has shrunk to one shelf.
The coffee shop aims to a middle ground between artisanal and corporate chains. “If you like the very highbrow coffee, you could probably still find something here,” Jessen said. “But we wanted to put our own twist on it with the fantastical branding and the fun with dragon’s breath and fairy’s kisses.” Food from local bakers is available, and the pair are working to expand their food menu.
Jessen described the decor as inspired by “Germanic fairy tales.” The shop features fantasy trees, fairy tale books, a sailing ship and a dragon, creating a rich, colorful backdrop. Wooden shelves line the bookshop area. The space offers reading and meeting areas, with various groups using it for gatherings and university students working on assignments. Dungeons & Dragons groups also enjoy the fantasy atmosphere for their campaigns. Stewart’s husband, a professional dungeon master, hosts sessions at Fable Hollow.
Book clubs range from 40 to 60 people and meet twice monthly for “open discussion about books in a way that feels safe.” Jessen said the clubs are safe because “We can practice disagreeing if we like or don’t like the dragon, because it’s a kissing book.” Participants are assigned to groups and many continue to meet, even outside of Fable Hollow’s space. Participants are not required to buy the book from Fable Hollow.
Author talks are held throughout the year, but limited space (70–80 people) require high-profile authors to be hosted off-site, including venues like Hi-Wire Brewing. Recent authors include John Scalzi, Carissa Broadbent and local author Emily McIntyre. Fable Hollow recently announced vampire rom-com writer Jenna Levine and fantasy romance author Hannah Witten. While they couldn’t reveal a November guest, they hinted at a big name.
The bookstore partners with local businesses and events like the Knoxville Book Festival, where it served as the official New York Times reporting bookstore. Festival authors often seek out reporting bookstores, as recorded sales can boost their standing on the NYT Best Sellers list. Another recent collaboration was a “boozy book fair” with Print Shop Beer Company in South Knoxville. The next book fair—an adult spin on an elementary school book fair—returns Oct. 11 with a Halloween theme.
Stewart said that as they considered future plans, one location was the answer rather than expanding to multiple sites. She mentioned that they would like to eventually find a larger space with more parking, but they definitely want to “want to stay in Fountain City. My heart is in Fountain City.” For now, the pair want to continue being a “welcoming environment for everybody … our goal is that we wanted coming into the shop to feel like walking into your favorite book.”
More information can be found on the Fable Hollow Coffee and Bookshoppe website.
The Kraken’s Cup Tea Garden and Eclectic Eatery
Nestled away in a shopping center at 4815 N. Broadway is Knoxville’s only English-style tea room, our second stop. Vallie Prince, owner of The Kraken’s Cup, and I chatted about this unique venue before her “What is Tea?” class. Her business started with childhood tea parties.
Prince told me that “I grew up having tea parties with my little sister, and we’d have a lot of fun with that. As I got older and traveled, I was going to tea rooms. When I decided to leave the job I had with a larger company, I wanted to do something in food service again because that’s where I started. And tea just sort of was the thing I fell into.” Prince’s background is archaeology and anthropology, noting that every culture she studied has tea.
After returning from travel that always featured a stop at a tea room, she noted that Knoxville’s tea rooms had all closed with the nearest in Chattanooga. After exploring around 20 unsuitable or unavailable locations, Prince found Fountain City. Her landlord covered the infrastructure build-out while Prince paid for interior renovations.
The Kraken’s Cup name originates from Octavius Vanderdoodle, a clay octopus Prince was sculpting (her alter ego is a pirate, and octopus fit). Prince added a posh top hat with goggles and a teacup. She said, “oh, you’re perfect, you’re a kraken with a cup.” Her branding manager created the logo, and The Kraken’s Cup was born.
The Kraken’s Cup isn’t designed to be an elite tea room. I’ve gone to the tea room multiple times, and though the experience is elevated, it isn’t, as Prince told me, designed to be an exclusive place. No pinky fingers extended here unless you want. I’ve been to formal tea in England, and it’s fun, but I feel far more comfortable at The Kraken’s Cup.
Vallie said, “I wanted more flexibility so that people could come in and enjoy that, just on a whim, if we had seating. Or people that wanted to spend less time … grab a snack, meet a friend, we have options for that too.” The Karken’s Cup has no TVs OR Wi-Fi, but they have conversation cards on tables. Prince added, “I wanted people to come out and engage with others, or to just spend time with themselves. We don’t get enough of that.” And, if you want to become a tea aficionado, you can pick up a tea passport and log the various teas that you sample with notes on brewing and more.
Prince offers over 100 teas, with a food menu rooted in family recipes—I can personally vouch for the ham salad sandwich. For those seeking a more refined experience, a three-course formal tea is also available. She is passionate about introducing people to tea through her menu and weekly educational events. In addition to tea classes, upcoming events include tea-rariums (terrariums in teacups), a Ronald McDonald House fundraiser, and a Halloween event benefiting a local cat rescue. Many of these events are in partnership with local businesses and organizations.
That sense of community is central to Vallie’s mission. Groups like Sober Knox and a book club meet regularly, and the space hosts everything from client meetings and birthday parties to baby and bridal showers. Others simply drop by for tea, a snack and a board game with friends.
The Kraken’s Cup features two distinct spaces, including a 1930s-style Adventurer’s Library. With its Indiana Jones-inspired decor—antique books, shrunken heads, artwork and real artifacts—this room immerses guests in an atmosphere of exploration, complete with a vintage soundtrack from the 1920s to ’40s. The “other side is …more of the classic English tea garden, so Alice in Wonderland, flowers, a whole garden of fairy houses made from teapots, and their sentient tree, Mr. Peanut.” She adds items almost daily to refresh the space for customers and employees.
Seating is around 68 total with a standing capacity of over 100. The Kraken’s Cup is open Wednesday through Sunday. Prince would like to expand to more tea rooms inside and outside of Knoxville. She added, “everyone needs tea and tiny sandwiches.” She would also like to see more people support local businesses. She noted that customers will drive to a national chain to “sit in line longer than it would take them to walk into one of our establishments. So people are just making those choices, but not consciously making those choices. So that’s really, that’s the main thing … support your neighbors.”
For more information and to support Knoxville’s tea room, visit The Kraken’s Cup website.
Sci-Fi City
Finally, further north is Sci-Fi City, a long-running hub for comic book, toy, and gaming enthusiasts. Originally located in East Town Mall (it will never be Knoxville Center to me), the store moved into its current location at 5410 N Broadway about seven years ago. The building, once home to Fountain City Florist, underwent a full renovation to transform it into a mecca for fans. The move also allowed greater flexibility with hours—something the mall didn’t offer.
A geeky soundtrack and decor, including a dragon on the wall and full sized superhero statues, set the tone as you enter. The shop offers a wide selection of comics, games, and toys. Wednesdays are especially popular, as it’s new comic book day.
In the back, an open play space welcomes casual drop-ins and scheduled weekly games. “People can come in and play whatever games they want,” says manager Walt Ricketts. For larger events, the space can host up to 60 players, though they usually cap it at 36 for comfort. Popular titles include Magic: The Gathering, Warhammer, and BattleTech, with their current top game tied to the Star Wars universe. Alongside games, the shop sells drinks and snacks for players.
Sci-Fi City hosts qualifiers for larger regional and even international events. According to Ricketts, becoming a host isn’t easy: “You have to beg and plead. You have to prove you’ve sold the product before, and you have to send videos and photos of your play space to show it can handle the crowd.” Some players even earn invites to major conventions like Gen Con in Indianapolis or Adepticon in Milwaukee.
Ricketts added about the store “There’s something for everybody. That’s the big thing. A lot of people get overwhelmed when they walk in. Especially younger or older people … if they haven’t been exposed to this, they’re like, oh, I’d never be able to get into that.” Ricketts can help demo games for customers to help them get started. He finished by saying “one of the big differences between buying from us and Amazon is that we’ve got opinions that you can ask questions about.”
Visit Sci-Fi City’s web site for more information. And then, the next time you head north, take a moment to stop by one of these three fantastic local businesses.
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