Today’s story is co-presented by Blank News and Inside of Knoxville.
Standing inside the cavernous warehouse at 1004 Sevier Avenue, Scott West gestures toward the massive garage doors lining the front wall and imagines them thrown open on a warm afternoon.
“Imagine this whole thing open,” he said. “Big screen over there, games everywhere, people coming in off the trail with their bikes.”
Scott and Bernadette West closed on the space Tuesday, marking their first business venture on the south side of the river. The concept: a casual, indoor-outdoor bar and recreation space anchored by duckpin bowling, shuffleboard and games, with drinks served out of retro aluminum trailer bars.
It’s their own spin on the family-friendly, active-drinking-culture brewery scene that’s catnip for the local crowd. And it’s personal to them: The Wests live in South Knox, too, just up the road. So the project feels like something of a homecoming.
The working title, “Buffleheads,” was Bernadette’s idea. In addition to being a funny word that’s fun to say, it’s a nice tie-in to duckpin bowling. Buffleheads are a species of small diving ducks with comically oversized, purplish-green iridescent heads.
The Wests, being the Wests, are already kicking around a few ways to lean into the theme: a rubber duck racing track for charity, an old VW Beetle painted like a duck and parked out front … or possibly on the roof.
You know. Business as usual.
End of the Everything Mushrooms Era
For close to 15 years, the 10,000-square-foot warehouse has been home to Everything Mushrooms, which is closing its retail storefront but will continue online sales while looking to expand its B2B operations. Bob Hess, who co-owns the company with Amy Ward, described the transition as “the stars aligning.”
“It’s a lateral move for us,” Bob said. “We’ll hunker down and economize and see where things go next. And we’re excited for what the Wests will add to Sevier Avenue’s evolving vibe.”
In that sense, there’s a bit of kinship between the outgoing and incoming occupants, both of whom took chances on overlooked buildings and parts of town long before they were fashionable.
Everything Mushrooms was one of the earliest tenants on Sevier back when its revitalization, as imagined in the 2006 South Waterfront Vision Plan, still lived mostly on paper.
The Wests, early players in downtown’s reinvention, are longtime Knoxville hospitality operators whose businesses include Preservation Pub, Scruffy City Hall, Tommy Trent’s Sports Saloon, Bernadette’s Crystal Gardens, Lunaverse, See Scruffy City and Alice in Appalachia (which is reopening in its new Gay Street location tomorrow).
The warehouse’s previous tenants won’t be forgotten. There are plans for several oversized mushroom-shaped tables out front, a playful nod to Everything Mushrooms’ long run in the space.
The Wests and Sevier Avenue: A Long Time Coming
City officials first tried to recruit the Wests to Sevier Avenue roughly 15 years ago. They considered planting a flag there, as they had on Market Square and in the Old City, but the area still needed a little more time in the oven.
“When they brought us over here back then, I told them, ‘This is a decade off,’” Scott said. “When you pioneer a new district, it takes about 10 years—if it works. I wasn’t ready to pioneer another district. I’d done that enough.”
Still, one structure stood out — the one we’re standing inside now.
“I remember looking at this building and thinking, that’s the best building on the whole street.”
Now, a decade and a half later, the timing hits different. With Sevier Avenue’s streetscape improvements underway, a newly pedestrian- and bike-friendly Gay Street Bridge ushering in a new era of connectivity, and the SoKno Rail Trail & Art Walk project running right past their back deck, the strip is arguably the buzziest in town.
“With the trail coming through here, the back side of this building may end up being the front side,” Scott said. “You’re going to have people rolling in off their bikes. And I’d rather people bike or walk here than drive. That fits South Knoxville.”
Scott demonstrates “active drinking culture” along the future SoKno Rail Trail & Art Walk that will run behind Buffleheads from Chapman Highway to Ijams Nature Center:
Inside the Plan for Buffleheads
Step one: get the big room open. “Open it up, get people in here, make it fun,” Scott said. “Then we’ll grow into the rest of it.”
They’ll roll the project out in phases, starting with the front warehouse section. Further down the build-out list is a labyrinth of at least 20 chopped-up offices on the east side of the building. Some will become bathrooms; others might host private events, live entertainment or other creative uses.
Food will start simple as well. Ideas include biscuits and gravy, nodding to the building’s past as a biscuit production facility. “Everything might just be a biscuit,” Scott joked. “If you want a sandwich, it’s on a biscuit.” They’ve also got a pizza vending machine that needs a job and a Brooklyn hot dog cart.
And they just bought a bunch of frozen drink equipment off Fat Tuesday, whose downtown location recently closed. While I never once set foot in the Gay Street location, I can suddenly see the appeal of a piña colada slushy after a summer bike ride.
The Wests believe Buffleheads will strengthen the growing cluster of hospitality businesses along Sevier Avenue, which already has the trimmings of a very respectable bar crawl. Neighboring watering holes include Hi-Wire Brewing, Fly By Night, SouthSide Garage, Alliance Brewing Co. and The Pink Cactus, with others scattered further down the way.
Another refreshing thing about SoKno nightlife is that, save the occasional show or event, it’s rare to encounter a cover charge. The Wests intend to follow suit.
Fitting Into the Neighborhood
As Bernadette bustles around taking phone calls, Scott zooms the conversation out to how they hope to fit into the broader fabric of Sevier Avenue.
A top priority is creating a concept distinct from neighboring venues. Buffleheads won’t have bocce ball like SouthSide Garage or soccer pool like Hi-Wire, because those are already available. “You want choices,” Scott said. “If I open the exact same business someone else already has, that doesn’t elevate the area.”
One thing Sevier Avenue still has in abundance compared to other parts of town is locally owned businesses. Maintaining that independent footprint matters to many in the area. The best way to keep corporate chains at bay, Scott suggests, is to create places so lively and distinctive that people choose them because they’re simply more fun than the alternative.
“You want to create a niche that’s strong enough to hold when a national chain comes looking,” Scott said. “The idea is that when they show up, they see someone already doing it well. And if they do decide to come anyway, you want to be able to go head-to-head with them.”
As South Knoxville residents and now business owners, the Wests get the vibe and understand the assignment. Even as Sevier Avenue continues to evolve, the community seems committed to keeping its eclectic, come-as-you-are energy, the kind of place where everyone gets to be themselves.
That’s been the Wests’ MO all along. Whatever shape Buffleheads takes, and however it chooses to stand out, it should fit right in.
A special thanks to realtor Dave Campbell for his assistance with this story!
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