The Crown and Goose Pub Makes Knoxville's Old City New Again
by Dean Hitt
(Knoxville, TN)
For the first time in 20 years Knoxville’s Old City has a legitimate chance at a mainstream “entertainment district” revitalization.
Since its 1980s Renaissance, best marked by the 1983 opening of “A Very Special Restaurant” by Annie DeLisle, a British dancer who followed her then- not-so-celebrated novelist husband Cormack McCarthy to Knoxville, the area has shown great promise as a base for the locally urbane as well as a destination for visitors to the city.
Old City re-birth in that decade can be credited to the evocative developer Kristopher Kendrick, to architect Peter Calandruccio, builder Bennie Kurl, and, in addition to Annie, restaurateurs Frank Garner, Charles Irvine, Harold McKinney, then club-operator Ashley Capps and others.
Unfortunately for Knoxville, a dampening of the first Old City Renaissance came in the mid-‘90s by the follies of a wave of unskilled developers, restaurateurs and night club operators, a series of criminal events in the area that frightened the mainstream clientele, including the urbane, away.
Even Old City anchor businesses like the West family’s “Earth To Old City” took flight and re-focused their considerable insight and energies on a safer, more “family friendly” location, Market Square. From the late-‘90s until now, downtown developers seemed to have followed the West’s lead and shifted their focus out of the Old City.
This new chance at Old City vitalization comes curiously enough from another Brit’ and his wife, Jeffery and Pat Nash. This week, they are premiering their new addition to the Old City’s restaurant and entertainment mix, The Crown & Goose, an authentic London “gastropub.”
If their Saturday-night test run is any indication of what the food and brew will be like when they open to the public, downtown Knoxville is in for a great new treat, a big, fat, authentic English pub. And the Old City has a solid new destination restaurant.
The Nash’s have spared no expense in bringing the best of Britain to their customers. The menu is an extensive mix of European Cheese Boards, Small Plates, Traditional English Sandwiches, “Proper Suppers” and “Housemade” Sweets. Sunday Brunch will start Easter Sunday with special themed events a regular fare.
Nash’s building renovation incorporates a horseshoe shaped space to make use of the two 100-year-old plus storefronts occupied by the pub. The interior features hardwood floors, a reproduction tin ceiling that truly looks great, custom-designed booths against vintage brick walls, pub tables in the middle and a bar that wraps around the center wall which allows it to face all sections. There is a small stage for live music in the right rear and a beer garden, which is truly a garden, in the back.
From custom glassware, including logo imprinted glass pint ware, to designer plates, wine glasses and serving dishes, accented with red-striped cotton bar towel as napkins, guests know from the start that they are in a one-of-a-kind big-city pub.
The opportunity presented by the Crown & Goose to the Old City is that they have raised the bar. Finally, a developer with insight, creativity and a dream has put the capital into a project in the Old City that can be the foundation for future development there that can attract people to downtown Knoxville again.
With the right mix, the Old City can become a regional destination for people who have money to spend but who are looking for something they can’t find in their own town. City officials and burgeoning developers would be well advised to follow the lead of Jeffery and Pat Nash.
-------------------------------------------------------
About the Author: Dean Hitt is an East Tennessee restaurant business analyst, former Old City restaurateur and former publisher of Entrée Magazine, a trade magazine for the Tennessee Restaurant Industry.
