Much Ado in North Knox: Businesses Incoming Along Broadway & Central

Last week I was pleased to share some happy news from Happy Holler as the new flower shop/cocktail bar Stem To Stem officially opened in the former Raven Records space. A couple weeks before that, I reported on the sale of historic Greenlee’s Bike Shop properties. 

Today, like a hoardy little squirrel with her tiny pile of acorns, I’m back with another batch of incoming developments in the vaguely pizza-shaped slice of North Knoxville between Broadway and Central. 

There’s far more underway than I have bandwidth to cover here and even more untapped potential waiting in the wings, but here are a few in-motion business highlights I suspect will be of interest to IOK readers.

The Tire Shop (108 W. Oklahoma Ave.) 

The first three are properties owned by architect and developer Daniel Schuh. We spent nearly three hours wandering Happy Holler earlier this week as Schuh regaled me with history of the corridor and more than a few wild, completely unpublishable anecdotes.

Schuh owns the stretch of buildings on Happy Holler’s east side that includes Stem To Stem, Central Flats & Taps, The Chop Shop and event venue Relix. Across the street, he also owns the building formerly occupied by Club XYZ and home to event venue The Brookside, which will soon gain a smaller sibling called The Tire Shop.

The Tire Shop was once, spoiler alert, a used tire shop with an HVAC contractor in the adjoining space until 2017 when Schuh purchased it along with what would become The Brookside and Club XYZ. The Brookside in particular was in rough shape – you can see some construction photos in this IOK story from when it opened, just in time for a global pandemic, in 2020. 

With a capacity of about 75 and an aesthetic that complements its sister venue next door, Schuh envisions The Tire Shop hosting rehearsal dinners, smaller wedding receptions, private parties and other intimate events.

As for the opening timeline: “As soon as I can get all this crap moved out,” he said, gesturing toward a couple Holleroo soapbox derby cars and an unsettling quantity of Halloween decorations from the impromptu haunted house the space hosted last fall.

Nothing to see here. Onward to its high-profile neighbor …

Good Judy’s (1215 N. Central St.)

Beloved Club XYZ closed in June after a 22-year run following a gnarly and rather public dispute between the business owner and landlord over missed rent payments. Now, a new ownership group is preparing to open Good Judy’s, carrying on the tradition of an LGBTQ+ gathering place in the space. The name is a nod to gay icon Judy Garland.

The ownership group includes Emily Belanger and William Petro of neighboring Central Flats & Taps; Matthew Lewis and Jonathan Smith of Sevier Avenue Burger Company; and Brandon McDermott and Eleanor Tant of Cool Beans. 

The new operators purchased most of Club XYZ’s furniture and equipment, while the building itself is getting a facelift. The front entrance and block-glass windows will be replaced. The front half of the building dates to the 1880s (the rear addition came later), and historic brick lies behind the current faux-stone façade and throughout portions of the interior. Crews have already begun peeling it back.

“They’re going to go in there and more or less operate the same business model, except try to improve the facility and raise the standards in order to get it just nicer all the way around,” Schuh said, and the group confirmed. The target opening is September.

There is potential to reconfigure the layout to increase capacity, as the existing large bar, stage and dressing room occupy over half of the main floor. There’s also a serviceable lower level that could be a VIP lounge or private event venue. 

Name-TBD Barbeque Joint (937 N. Central St.)

The property at 937 N. Central St., formerly home to Hops n Holler, has laid fallow since the bar and beer garden closed in 2022. Now, owner Schuh says it’s finally getting a next act: an as-yet-unnamed barbecue restaurant by Archer Bagley.

If the name rings a bell, Bagley previously owned the Archer’s BBQ chain, which grew to five or six locations, including a short-lived downtown outpost at 408 S. Gay St. that operated for about 10 months in 2016. (Alan documented its opening here and its closing here.) He sunsetted all the restaurants in 2023 after a series of personal and business challenges left him stretched too thin.

According to Schuh, Bagley is now in a much better position and eager to get back to what he does best. “Archer knows exactly what he’s doing,” Schuh said.

Work is underway to update the property, which includes three buildings that will become the restaurant with built-out kitchen, restrooms and a bar. They are targeting a September opening. 

The restaurant’s name hasn’t been finalized; Schuh said “The Scruffy Pig” is in the running.

Wells Station BBQ (1617 N. Central St.)

How much barbecue is too much barbecue? IMO, the limit does not exist. Being married to a Memphis native, I’m acutely and sometimes painfully aware that barbecue preferences are deeply personal. 

Fortunately, Central Street, which has long been something of a barbecue desert, is about to gain not one, but two new places who’ll make their case.

Marcus Stokely, owner and pitmaster of the popular Wells Station BBQ food truck, in partnership with Brian Strutz of A Dopo, is opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant next to Mid Mod Collective and Wild Love Bakehouse, just north of Happy Holler. 

Wells Station has built a devoted following through pop-ups and regular appearances around town, including catering the Bijou Jubilee for the past two years, and now fans will finally have a permanent place to find Stokely’s smoked meats and Southern sides.

“We will also be open for dinner, expanding the menu to showcase my fine dining background a little more,” Stokely shared. “Showcasing barbecue more as an ingredient, not specifically a style of food.”

Au Bon Coin (724 N. Broadway)

Scooching over to Broadway… Potchke owners Laurence Faber and Emily Williams, along with partner Strutz (mentioned above – small culinary world, Knoxville!), recently rolled out a soft opening for their hotly anticipated French bistro, Au Bon Coin, ahead of its official Aug. 6 debut.

The restaurant occupies the petite, blue, wedge-shaped building at the corner of Broadway and Lamar Street, most recently home to The Donut Shop before it closed in 2024. Its maximum occupancy is just 40 – I counted nine or 10 two- or four-seat tables plus a few seats at the bar –  yet there’s nothing claustrophobic about the bright, cheerful, modern interior. 

With a prix fixe menu to die for and dinner service limited to 5:30-9 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays, Au Bon Coin promises to be one of Knoxville’s most intimate, and delicious, dining experiences. We look forward to sharing a full story with you soon.

K Brew Bakery (1138 N. Broadway)

K Brew has come a long way since opening its first shop at 1328 N. Broadway, now home to Mia Piccola Coffee. The local coffee company has since grown to four locations, with a fifth on the way in Belltown.

In June, K Brew opened a dedicated bakery production facility next door to its longtime Broadway café. Soon, you’ll start seeing its breads and pastries on local store shelves, and within the next few weeks they’ll open a retail counter at the front of the bakery, giving customers a chance to purchase fresh baked goods straight from the source.

 

Additional belated notes on the food front:

• Yee-Haw Brewing (745 N. Broadway) no longer serves Prince’s Hot Chicken, having changed its menu a couple months ago. Chicken wings and tenders are still available along with other pub-style fare like smash burgers, loaded fries, giant pretzels, chicken and club sandwiches, and weekly specials.
• Fans of Last Days of Autumn, which closed its 808 E. Magnolia Ave. location in January, have been able to get their fix with Last Days on Wheels food truck located at Next Level Brewing (700 N. Broadway). They’ve been serving up favorite items from previous ventures including its famous fish fry.
• The former home of Ebony & Ivory Brewing, which closed its 2300 N. Central Street taproom in March (though it’s still brewing and you can find it in drinking establishments around town), is now Sonny’s Pizza & Wings.

And a couple housing related updates:

The new North X Central townhomes rising in the heart of Happy Holler are being marketed for upward of $600,000. That seems a little wild, but the same developer completed the Happy Holler Townhome Community just up the street last fall, so presumably they have a pretty good read on what the market will bear.

Housing of ALL flavors and price points is a huge need. As a board member of the East Tennessee Community Design Center, I followed this year’s Community Collaborative closely. Public input showed overwhelming support for mixed-use development at the Knox Central site (1000 N. Central St.), and that feedback later informed a capstone event where architecture firms presented concepts for its hypothetical future.

While it falls just beyond the crust of the geographic pizza slice we’ve been touring, in Oakwood-Lincorn Park, it bears mentioning that last night City Council unanimously approved $2 million from the City’s Affordable Rental Development Fund to help move forward Riella at Oakwood, the long-awaited redevelopment of the former St. Mary’s Hospital campus.

The roughly $70 million project by DGA Residential (the affordable housing division of Knoxville-based Dominion Group), developed in partnership with KCDC, will preserve and renovate the historic hospital building into 40 accessible apartments for seniors, while adding 21 townhomes and 109 apartments in new construction. The apartments will include one-, two- and three-bedroom units, all designated as affordable housing.

Earlier this year I reported on Riella on 5th, a four-story, 121-unit affordable housing community rising just north of downtown at Fifth Avenue and Cooper Street.

 

It’s exciting to watch the push and pull of residential and business growth unfold in real time. There’s always as much happening in a flurry as there is sitting frustratingly still, stalled by owners who won’t get off the pot or ambitious price tags, but there’s also plenty of great opportunities up for grabs right now. Movement on any number of key properties could be game changers for these corridors. 

If the neighborhood continues evolving along the lines envisioned by the Old North Knoxville Neighborhood Association, it stands to gain the best of both worlds: new homes and businesses where they make sense, more neighbors to support local commerce, and the preservation of the historic fabric and walkability that make North Knoxville special.