Eats & Treats in TN

While on a (mostly) southern states road trip traveling from New Hampshire to Florida, we're sampling foods along the way. It's part of the road trip fun for us. Here's some recent experiences in Knoxville and Chattanooga, TN.

Austin’s Steak and Homestyle Buffet in Knoxville, TN, is a family destination that serves Southern style foods and plenty of other choices too. It's also one-of-a-kind because you won't find another one anyplace in the state or other states as well.

This eatery is a help-yourself, all-you-can, and definitely a come-as-you-are place with a salad bar, desserts and plenty of hot entrees including local favorites of pulled pork, ribs, fried chicken, mac & cheese, collard greens, beans with bacon. Unlike other buffet eateries, this location is not a chain or franchise. According to our TN friends this is a  popular place, all the time. We dined with a lot of family groups. No, we didn't sample many of the plentiful menu items, but the mac & cheese, chicken, pulled pork, and greens definitely made it onto our plates. (Yes, they were very good.)

Calhoun’s in Oak Ridge, TN, is one of nine locations in the state and it's where friends we were visiting took us for dinner. The original Calhoun's opened in 1983 in a two-story barn, complete with a silo. This one  above opened in June 2016 as the newest in this TN chain. While it doesn't look anything like a barn, it has a great location along the banks of Melton Hill Lake and every seat inside has a water view. Diners can arrive by car or boat-in and "park" at the nearby dock. There's a covered outdoor dining patio and a fire pit for nice weather dining. We visited on a hot day, so everyone chose indoor dining. (It was busy when we dined there, and I failed to get an inside photo.)

Over 30 years ago in the mid-1980s, Calhoun’s left with the grand prize ribbon at the National Rib Cook-Off in Cleveland, OH. The restaurant advertises as serving the Best Ribs in America which made our dinner choices easy — Grenville had pulled pork and my choice was a half-rack of ribs, plentiful enough for leftovers. Calhoun's prides itself on its southern hospitality, comfort food and Tennessee barbeque. That's not a misspelling as this was the spelling on many eateries we saw in TN.

Barbecue is the "standard" spelling; barbeque is a recognized North American variant. Barbecue appears in edited writing, and is what dictionaries put first; some don’t even include variations. Barbeque is a secondary spelling that appears most often in the names of restaurants and products. It’s gained popularity in the last few decades, but is still less commonly used than barbecue.

The shortened versions of “BBQ” and “Bar-B-Q” were used in newspapers ads in the 1920s, mostly for barbecue restaurants, and those shorter variations may have saved a few cents each time the ad was published. Soon after, companies began selling outdoor electric “BBQ” and “Bar-B-Q” restaurant signs. This false acronym is one of the few terms in common usage that’s fully capitalized, like an acronym, but whose letters don’t stand for separate words.

Hennen’s in downtown Chattanooga, TN, is in a great location located near the Tennessee Aquarium, close to the River Front district. After we'd spent most of a very warm day exploring around the city, we were looking for somewhere to enjoy a late lunch/early dinner. We were actually looking for another restaurant, but the 2019 Riverbend Festival was being set up for a 3-day run at the riverfront location and our search became frustrating as many downtown streets were closed off. (Did I mention that we were tired and hungry?)

Internet source: Hennen's "wine cellar"

It was after 3 p.m. when we saw Hennen's. The outside view looked very upscale and we hoped (silently prayed) our casual summer attire would be OK, and happily it was (after all, it's summer in the South.) Hennen's, which opened in 2005, is named after the family that owns it and specializes in steaks and fresh seafood using fresh, local ingredients. One distinctive feature is the 2,400 bottle wine "cellar" located in the middle of the main dining room.

Weekday lunch is served continuously from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. We were there on a Wednesday (yeah). The relaxing atmosphere invites diners to linger and that's exactly what we did. Steak dishes are popular here, but we prefer seafood. 

Grenville & Beatrice's salmon entrees at Hennen's. 

Grenville had the stone-seared salmon with pesto served over creamy spinach risotto. My choice was stone-seared salmon, served with the restaurant's signature herbed fingerling potatoes and green beans. We were both so well satisfied with our meal choices that we deliberately did not look at the dessert menu choices. (Admittedly, that was a challenge as we heard the creme brûlée was great.) If you're in downtown Chattanooga, TN and walk or drive by the restaurant and think it's closed, that's only because of the dark tinted windows.

Logan's Roadhouse in Chattanooga, TN, is a restaurant chain founded in 1991 and based in Lexington, KY. There are 194 company-operated and 25 franchised Logan's Roadhouse locations throughout the U.S. The company went public in 1995 and was sold to the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain in 1999.

Logan's uses retro style decorations and gives free buckets of in-shell peanuts at each table, similar to the Texas Roadhouse chain restaurants. Diners are told to toss shells on the floor. The menu includes appetizers, steak, and burgers, side dishes, and homemade yeast rolls. Many folks know of my fondness for onion rings, which were not on the menu. We tried the onion petals appetizer, which couldn't compete with touch onion rings we had at Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen in OH (not even close). 

We can only be good for so long without some treats. Many readers of this blog know of our fondness for ice cream, when traveling (and even when at home).

The Ice Cream Show in Chattanooga, TN, features custom blended ice cream so you can create personal flavor treats from over 17,000 possible combinations. You choose from a list of over 40 fresh ingredients, fruits to chunks of Chocolate Chip cookie dough.

Here’s how it works, select vanilla or chocolate ice cream, or yogurt, select a cone, waffle bowl, cup, or shake, then select and add as many Ingredients as you want (separate cost for each). Everything is then blended together for the finished treat.

The Ice Cream Show was called a “must try” in Chattanooga. We suspect that was self-promoted advertising. It was a very hot day so we took them up on that claim. It was good and cooling.

Thanks, as always, for virtually traveling along with us. We've been reading and appreciating all your comments. Our days are spent on the road touring and eves are spent posting about our adventures. Blog reading may fall behind, but I'll catch up as time allows.