Urban Outposts: Driving Down Chapman Highway, Part I

In 2025, you told us you want to hear more about the tapestry of small businesses in your own neighborhoods. The urgency for spreading the word has only increased with a wave of closures recently. Our “Urban Outposts” series is back with a look at businesses along the Chapman Highway corridor. We have a lot of them to talk about, so this is Part I with more to come down the road. Today, we visit Basement Records, Nostalgia South and Ola’s Southern Cuisine 2.

Basement Records (5009 Chapman Hwy)

As a teen in the 1980s, I lived the music of the era (from Prince to Tiffany to Black Flag). Walking into Basement Records reignites a teen impulse of leaving The Record Bar at the Bristol Mall to have Madonna’s name tattooed across my chest. I didn’t (and still haven’t) but record stores take me back to that time and space. Basement Records is owned by Matthew Adkisson, who purchased the shop while trying to build a completely different business. Vinyl albums, CDs, cassette tapes and DVDs line the shelves. Glancing around at the cover art on the records reminds me of how much cooler getting music was in the pre-streaming era.

Adkisson walked me through the benefits of vinyl and going analog, a trend among younger generations of late. He said “the streaming thing is great. Everybody knows it’s convenient. It’s easy, but it’s compressed.” A customer recently told him that he had listened to an album via streaming for years before purchasing the vinyl. He had never heard a banjo part in the background.

Going back to college in his 40s, he was challenged to argue vinyl over streaming for a business class. He simply printed out an online playlist and then the same vinyl album, both from the band Whitesnake. He presented them side-by-side with liner notes and artwork. He observed that “people are wanting to re-interact with their music physically” again.

And interacting, they are. Adkisson sells over 1,000 items per month.

Basement Records sells both new and vintage, used albums. Multiple generations are shopping the store as parents who grew up with analog music are getting their children into the same. Physical media isn’t all that’s being passed down. “I see kids coming in and they want Led Zeppelin. They want the Beatles. They want classics. Rolling Stones,” Adkisson explained. “I do have younger people come in for hip-hop and rap and the Sabrina Carpenters of the world and Billie Eilish.” Vinyl collectors who stopped collecting have also been returning. He counted himself among those who returned to the fold. Never completely straying, he returned to vinyl as it was declining, picking up albums for two dollars.

After some time in the steel industry, then college, he wanted to create his own business. He had training as a chef and had planned on opening a restaurant at which customers could select records to play while eating. He visited Basement Records in 2012 to purchase a large portion of the original owner’s collection for his restaurant.

Three hours later, his plan changed, and he bought the entire business.

Basement Records purchases both newly-released albums and vintage, used collections. Adkisson buys records every day, ranging from as few as 10 records to a collection of 10,000 a few years ago. He occasionally purchases collectibles but doesn’t make that a focus.

Record Store Day is one of Adkisson’s biggest days of the year. Held on Saturday, April 18th this year, Record Store Day was created in 2008 during the low point in sales to encourage visits to local record stores. In the early days, demos and B-sides would be offered. 18 years later, over 400 brand new, special albums are released during the day-long event.

Re-releases, reissues of older vinyl, new records and special colored versions are just a few of the releases that happen. Not all albums are available regionally or even at other stores (like Lost and Found Records on Broadway), and Adkisson has to decide which releases he will order. The rules of Record Store Day are very specific, and he tries to get a sense of what customers want through social media. Crowds line up down the sidewalk before he opens at 8 a.m. Last year, one customer camped out 22 hours before the event.

Adkisson stocks every genre, even though he’s known as “the metal store,” and everything is highly organized by genre. Basement Records is open noon to 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. He will open at 8 a.m. on Record Store Day, staying open until 8 p.m., noting the largest surge lasts about two hours. Check his social media for more information.

Basement Records: Website || Facebook 

Nostalgia South (4022 Chapman Hwy)

Nostalgia South is appropriately named. As I perused this visually rich space, an older customer commented to her children that she was excited to see the same Raggedy Ann doll that she had as a child. Inside of Knoxville covered a version of their store on McCalla in 2013. Manager Katie Beck told me that Nostalgia South, their second location with the other in Bearden, opened June 1, 2025 in a site built as South Knoxville’s first Kroger (breakers in the store’s electrical panel still feature labels like “meat saw”), recently housing a Spirit Halloween and Family Dollar store. With no need for a large stock room, vendor booths stretch throughout the expansive 18,000 square feet.

Beck described vendor spaces as “small businesses within a small business.” Each operates independently but has to meet criteria through an application process. She explained that “All of our spaces are curated, and vintage does have to be 25 years or older.” Walking through the space, each booth had a specific aesthetic that created an elevated experience. One booth looked like a sitting room/library of a quaint mansion while another resembled a living room from the 1960s. Vendors source their own materials, and the store offers help in curating their space. Some vendors are artisans and feature items like homemade bath soaps, repurposed custom clothing, and original paintings. Many vendors work a full time job but are in their booths working two to four days a week.

Owner Amy Swanson Carrier said that they explored areas of the city for expansion, wanting either South Knoxville or very far North. She said that “South Knoxville has boomed in the past year. Once the Henley Bridge was done, so much has been happening down here.” They were shown the Chapman Highway space and moved forward. The location draws locals, but Beck shared that visitors to the Smokies using Chapman Highway / US 441 stop in on the way to or from Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge. Carrier has observed parents bringing their children in to share childhood memories and children showing parents items they found. Beck also shared that visitors during SEC football game weekends will drive down the store as something fun to do.

Carrier said customers from teenagers to visitors in their 80s have a “shared nostalgia of growing up and…seeing [the items] in person again.” A man recently started to cry at the site of their vintage Coke vending machine, telling her that his grandmother would take him for a Coke after church every Sunday from the same kind of machine. They sell vintage sodas in the front next to a fantastic seating area that features televisions and custom, period curtains. If you are really lucky, you might find Ozzy, the store’s beautiful French bulldog who was very excited to lick my hands before promptly falling asleep and snoring next to Beck. The Bearden store’s mascot is Felix the cat (whose brother Oscar sadly passed away).

The store can search inventory and will keep an eye out for specific items customers request. Nostalgia South plans to celebrate their one year anniversary in June. The store is open 363 days per year (closed Thanksgiving and Christmas). They regularly feature updates on new items and vendors on their Facebook page.

Nostalgia South: Facebook || Instagram

Ola’s Southern Cuisine 2 (7220 Chapman Hwy #109)

I’ve eaten at Ola’s Southern Cuisine 2 for some time now but never knew the story behind the restaurant. I sat down with owners Chef Blaac and Uganda, the Queen of Ola’s, after finishing a plate of catfish, okra and greens, to find out more. 

Chef Blaac’s grandmother Ola taught him to cook, a skill refined by nine years serving in the Merchant Marines. Traveling the world, he added touches of his grandmother’s cooking. Chef would “put [his] little seasons in there. The captain [would] come down and be like, man, the deviled eggs.” Each ship’s Captain complimented him on the eggs, which are on the menu. At Ola’s, they’re called Angel Eggs, because “Grandmother Ola is an angel watching over them.” The Angel Eggs are amazing.

Their original Atlanta catering business, named after Ola, blew up through the rapper Wocka Flocka. Chef Blaac’s sister, an R&B singer, worked with Wocka. The couple catered and was featured on his show What the Flocka? Wocka has visited Ola’s on Chapman several times to get his favorite: Shrimp Angel Eggs.

The husband and wife team opened Ola’s after moving to Knoxville, renovating the South Knoxville store themselves due to pandemic shortages of contractors. “Every wall, every floor base, every table, every refrigerator, everything we brought in here. And we painted every single thing.” Decor features diner-style flooring, DJ and karaoke spaces, a red carpet photo area, and a pool table.

Uganda explained “we’re more like family. When you come in, we got free games, Uno, Connect Four, Dominos, a free pool table.” They want families to be present and “eating good food like when you walk into your grandmother’s house.” The night I visited, a young couple started to slow dance to Motown music being played in the background.

Uganda explained the photo area: “Everybody that walks through the door is like a celebrity to us. So I said, we need to roll out the red carpet.” Customer photos, including celebrities like Wocka Flocka, line the wall. Customers use provided microphones to sing along with music. “It’s no barrier of race. It’s every nationality, everywhere. Our love brings everybody together in here, and South Knox’s got a lot of diversity.”

Uganda said Chef Blaac cooks fresh to order and is “real, real particular about how his food goes out. His recipes, his sauces, he does mix with his grandmother’s [recipes].“  The best-selling dish is Smothered in Love, a homemade gravy with boneless chicken on rice. The couple recently got a food truck with shrimp and grits as a popular seller. They offer special dishes on Sundays and recently added oxtail dishes: Soul Samplers, Abidjan-dillas Q, and Alfredo.

Another popular dish Chef Blaac created earned them  “Best Creative Spicy” award at the 2023 Big Kahuna Wing Fest. The couple entered the competition for the exposure, and chef created their now very popular menu item Jolly Rancher Jerk Chicken. They told me that, after a quiet morning, a judge sampled the dish. Unsure if he liked it, the judge soon returned with two others, insisting they try it. Word quickly spread, lines formed, and by day’s end, Ola’s cooked 7,328 wings, claiming the honor. Major chains have asked to license the recipe.

Their TikTok channel has drawn customers from far beyond Knoxville. A recent visitor from France discovered them on Tik Tok and called them from McGhee-Tyson to make it his first stop. The restaurant attracts guests from across the region, including church groups who often stop in on Sundays for specialties like turkey wings with dressing and homemade gravy.

The restaurant has developed a special relationship with UT Athletics. After a caterer backed out of a UT Lady Vols Basketball Event, the couple got a call to step in. After the event, they didn’t hear back for two weeks. They discovered that players were only eating their food, with other food going to waste. One of the Lady Vols insisted on bringing them back.

Shortly after, the entire team visited Ola’s. The Lady Vols “came in here, and they sat for two hours with us, laughed, danced, renamed our juice and ate our food.” The men’s team followed, then football. Basketball alum and LA Lakers player Dalton Cornett still still comes in to eat. Even visiting teams have started to order.

Their food truck has been a long-time goal. “Our number one thing on the food truck has been our shrimp and grits, salmon croquette and grits, and oxtail alfredo.” They set up at events and businesses around Knoxville, recently selling out in under two hours.

Ola’s adults-only event every last Friday allows customers to bring their own bottle with Chef Blaac DJing, a passion when he was younger. Games including hula hoop, Twister, “Tipsy Operation” and karaoke bingo. Food is available for “old school parties” for adults. The event usually runs from 7 or 8 to around 11 to midnight.

Uganda also has a radio show on WJBE (99.7) called 50 Shades of Conversation. She covers “community relationships, getting your mind right in order to elevate. Just stuff to make people have self-love and self-care and knowing we are one.” She added “I want people to know, if you have a dream, never give up on it and to try to give it everything that you have. Because in the end, not even the end, in the middle, it begins to just transform into something amazing.”

Ola’s is open Wednesday through Saturday 1 to 7 p.m. and Sundays 1 to 5 p.m. Every dish I’ve had has been amazing. Sell-outs happen often. Check their social media to get updates on availability.

Ola’s Southern Cuisine: Instagram || Facebook || TikTok

Have an “urban outpost” suggestion? Leave it in the comments or email the editor at [email protected]. Read previous editions here.