A Love Letter to Knoxville

February 01, 2019 3 min read

Dear Knoxville,

We love you. You’ve really got it all - the beautiful mountains, busy downtown streets, picturesque countryside - you’re a wonderful home to us. You’re special in so many ways, and especially to us at Nothing Too Fancy because you’re our home and the inspiration for our little business. In honor of February and Valentine’s Day, we’ve been thinking about our most favorite local Knoxville businesses - places we love to eat, explore, make memories, and live life. There are so many reasons to love this city, and these are just a few.


photos provided by Always Abounding Media

Knoxville, we love your delicious food. We love our Union Avenue neighbors at Pete’s Coffee Shop for food we can always count on (they keep the NTF crew fed on the regular!), and Pearl on Union for starting our mornings off with coffee and smiles. We love Kaizen’s amazing steamed buns and menu unlike any other in Knoxville, Tomato Head for thoughtfully made food for every appetite, and Frussie’s Deli for mouth-watering, made-from-scratch sandwiches delivered right to our store counter on a busy afternoon. We love Sweet P’s for BBQ that knocks our socks off, A Dopo for their game-changing wood-fired pizzas, Steamboat for fresh-as-it-gets sandwiches and the best lemonade around, and we love Yassin’s for their national-news-worthy friendliness and unbelievable falafel.


photos provided by Always Abounding Media

Knoxville, we love how you have fun! The breweries, the hang-out spots, the festivals and markets, there’s always something fun going on right around the corner. We love Pretentious Glass and Beer Company for their incredibly original pairing of on-site glass blowing and beer brewing, Trailhead for bringing beer to Knoxville’s great outdoors, and Knox Brew Tours for bringing the people of Knoxville to where the beer (and the party) already is!


photos provided by Always Abounding Media

Knoxville, we love your creativity. Everywhere we look there’s art, music, talent, and a community that allows creativity to thrive. We love the Mill & Mine for bringing creatives together in a beautiful space whether they be fans or makers of all kinds, we love both the Tennessee Theatre and The Bijou Theatre for bringing history, theatre, and music downtown and for completing the iconic look of Gay St. We love Rush’s music in South Knoxville for bringing music to students of all ages and skills, and we love our neighbors at Union Ave. Books, who always have the perfect book to feed any imagination. 


photos provided by Always Abounding Media

Knoxville, we love your sense of adventure - no matter where one finds themselves in the city, the mountains are never very far. We love Ijam’s Nature Center for giving all of Knoxville the most exquisite backyard, and an escape back to the calm of the water, woods, and wildlife. We love our neighbors at Citifid-o for knowing we’d be lost without our beloved furry friends to tag along on all our adventures downtown, to the mountains, and everywhere in between.


photos provided by Always Abounding Media

Knoxville, we love how you dream. We love watching our city grow and build as people of all ages and backgrounds follow their dreams - we love places like Kindred Bridal for showing us that young entrepreneurs can build beautiful and successful businesses here, and Stanley’s Greenhouse for showing us that what was once just an idea can become a thriving community staple over many years.


photos provided by Always Abounding Media

Knoxville, we love you. We love that you’re built on dreams and community and possibility, and this list just barely scratches the surface of what there is to love about you. We love working and growing and living here, and we want to say thank you to you for being our home, and being like no other city in the world - we love you for a million reasons, but mostly because you’re ours.

Yours Truly,
The Nothing Too Fancy Team

Throughout the month of February, we’ll be partnering with some of the businesses mentioned here for a series of Instagram giveaways. Be sure to follow us on Instagram (@nothingtoofancyknoxville) and stay tuned for a chance to enter to win cool prizes from us and some of our favorite local places! We’d like to encourage all of you to follow these small and local businesses on social media (you can find a list below). Special thanks to our friends at Always Abounding Media (@always.abounding on Instagram)for providing the photography for this blog post. As always, thanks for keeping it local, y'all!

You can find these businesses on Instagram and at their own websites listed here:

@petesknox https://petescoffeeshop.com/
@knoxkaizen https://www.knoxkaizen.com/
@thetomatohead http://thetomatohead.com/
@frussiesdeli https://frussies.com/
@sweetpbbq https://www.sweetpbbq.com/
 @adopopizza   http://www.adopopizza.com/
@teamboatoncentral https://www.facebook.com/steamboatoncentral/
@yassinfalafelhouse http://www.yassinsfalafelhouse.com/
@pretentiousbeerco https://www.pretentiousbeerco.com/
@trailheadbeermarket https://www.facebook.com/trailheadbeermarket/
@knoxbrewtours https://www.knoxbrewtours.com/
@themillandmine http://themillandmine.com/
@tntheatre https://www.tennesseetheatre.com/
@bijoutheatre https://knoxbijou.org/
@ijamsnaturecenter http://ijams.org/
@kindredbridal https://www.kindredbridal.com/
@stanleysgreenhouse http://www.stanleysgreenhouse.com/
@citifido http://citifid-o.com/
@unionavebooks https://unionavebooks.indielite.org/