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Dining Out

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Elegant Steak and Seafood

N. Brooks Clark 0
Dining Out
Connor Concepts began as the brainchild of veteran Knoxville restaurateur Mike Connor in 1994. Since then the Chop House and Connors Steak & Seafood restaurants have grown into a multi-state success story, based on a commitment to fresh seafood, top-of-the-line aged steaks, and “guest-obsessed” service. Connors Steak & Seafood in Turkey Creek bustles with customers. The visible flames of the kitchen grill near the entry area hint at the hickory mesquite wood and charcoal that give the steaks their distinctive…

Old Location—New Ideas

N. Brooks Clark 0
Dining Out
More than a century of dining memories inhabit 37 Market Square, on the corner nearest the parking garage. Built in 1870, the “Victorian vernacular” storefront sold tobacco and liquor until 1905, when it became a restaurant and confectioners shop. In 1920, Greek immigrant John Cavalaris opened the Gold Sun Café, where World War II soldiers savored home-style meals of beef stew before shipping out. In 1971, Cavalaris’ son-in-law Gus Peroulas and his brother took over. Gus’s yielded to Perry’s in 1997 until the structure was…

Rustic Gentility

N. Brooks Clark 0
Dining Out
In 1932, a Presbyterian widow from Pittsburgh named Susan Wiley Cooper Walker, whose late husband had been Andrew Carnegie’s bookkeeper, moved south to be near her sister, the wife of the Maryville College chaplain. Inspired by the natural beauty of the area, Walker created Morningside, a 26-room home and gardens in the woods in a rear corner of the campus. After Walker died, Morningside served as the college president’s home, then an inn. In 1997, the Ruby Tuesday company bought it, added two buildings, and turned RT Lodge…