From The Publisher

As 2026 comes to a close, there seems to be more on the table to deal with than at any other point in my career. That covers a fair amount of ground. I started my first small business at 14, tying trout flies for a local department store. Since then, I’ve worked in whitewater outfitting, construction, real estate and a variety of other ventures. But the business I’ve stayed with the longest is one that never crossed my mind as a boy: publishing.

When I came to Cityview in January 2001, we were still shooting photographs on film. Interviews were recorded on cassette tapes, then transcribed with a headset and a foot pedal, backing up whenever a word slipped past. Getting a photograph onto a page meant developing the film, scanning it and finally opening it in Photoshop. The software felt remarkable then. A teenager with a telephone can now accomplish things in minutes that would have kept us occupied for hours, if possible.

Remembering that process feels like describing another civilization. Yet it wasn’t so long ago, and the pace keeps accelerating. An interview can become a transcript almost immediately. Organizing notes, locating a quote or following a thread through a conversation takes a fraction of the time it once did. Artificial intelligence is pushing us to reconsider nearly every part of how we work.

Keeping up can feel like a second occupation. But the question that interests me most is what we will do with the time and capability these tools give us. How do we make Cityview a richer experience for you? How do we better serve the advertisers whose investment makes these pages possible?

The answer might be a more thoughtful interview, a better photograph or a story we finally have time to pursue. It might mean helping readers understand the care behind a business and why its customers keep returning. I want these advances to make us more attentive to the people we cover. Saving an hour means something when we put it toward work worth doing.

One of this year’s most meaningful projects grew from a friendship that began long before these possibilities entered our conversations. We are publishing our first book, a collection of the articles my dear friend Gary Wade has written for Cityview.

We came to know Gary in 2014, during his campaign for retention on the Tennessee Supreme Court. We believed in him and stood beside him. We also fought changes to Tennessee’s legal system that concerned us as advocates for citizens’ rights. Those battles gave us the opportunity to know the man beyond his title, and the friendship that emerged has endured.

Gary has since contributed to virtually every issue of Cityview. His work has become part of the magazine’s character and our relationship with readers. Gathering those articles into a book gave us a chance to appreciate the whole of that contribution. Pieces that arrived individually over the years now sit together in a lasting collection.

I only wish I could have been there when Gary handed the first copy to his dear bride, Sandy, to whom the book is dedicated. After all the writing, editing and production, that is the moment I would have liked to see: the author sharing his book with the woman who has lovingly shared so much of his life.

Gary plans to offer the book for sale and donate all net proceeds to Friends of the Smokies. Watch our website for ordering information and previews. It is a pleasure to see Gary’s contributions take this form while benefiting a organization so important to him and our community.

As we look toward another year, thank you for reading, supporting our advertisers and making Cityview part of your life. Whatever tools we use to create the next issue, the people in these pages remain the reason we do it. Sharing their stories with you is a privilege.

Concrete and Color

Eugenia Almeida relies on both to transform spaces

Story by Susan Alexander
Photography by Ethan Smith

When you ask an artist about her favorite medium to work in, you expect an answer like oils or acrylics. Not “concrete.” Yet that’s Eugenia Almeida’s top choice.

“I love the medium,” she says. “You can mold it and shape it. It’s going to be almost indestructible. I like the idea of longevity in what you do. It’s going to be there.”

A stroll through the showcase house she and her staff at A New Hue have created in Lonsdale gives a person an idea of just how creative concrete can be.

In the living area, a section of wall covered in hand-carved swirls of concrete gives dimension and artistic interest to the space. Down the hall, a shiny wall that looks like marble is actually high-polish Venetian plaster. She used pieces of wallpaper and stencils in combination with plaster to create a lively, colorful wall covering in the bathroom. The tiles in the kitchen are actually concrete.

Around town, she’s applied concrete and plaster to door frames, fireplace surrounds, range hoods, even the outside of a hot tub. She’s shaped them into leaves and petals and colored them in the hues of the mountains. Concrete and plaster are used to create faux finishes of endless variety — marble, wood, stone. The effects are stunningly realistic.

“Bringing color and texture into a house — this is my passion,”

Gauze and fabric. Pieces of stone and shiny mica. She has used them to cover walls and ceilings, planters and lamps, tables and light fixtures.

For Almeida, texture is the bottom line. “Bringing color and texture into a house — this is my passion,” she says.

A native of Argentina, Almeida and her children came to the U.S. while her husband studied in Ames, Iowa. “We left Argentina in the summer and landed in three feet of snow,” she recalls. Then he accepted a position at the University of Tennessee veterinary school. They’ve been in Knoxville for 30 years.

Though she had followed her mother’s example into law school in Argentina, it was her father’s art that ultimately influenced her life’s work. “He was never without a pencil and paper, or clay. He was always doing something that was artistic.”

After moving to Knoxville, Almeida says she worked many different kinds of jobs, but all along she loved art. She especially loved working with plaster and cement. When her husband was invited to attend conferences in Europe, she sometimes tagged along and took classes from master artisans there. She says she did that twice a year for about five or six years.

By 2014, she was skilled enough to open her own business, A New Hue, which specializes in the things Almeida loves: faux finishes, plasters and concrete overlays. Today she employs 14 artists to work with individuals and commercial clients to transform their spaces with color and texture. Their work can be seen around town at Ancient Lore Village, where they have transformed each of the accommodations into spaces that hobbits and elves might occupy; at Altar’d State in West Town Mall; at Lilou and Cleo on Gay Street; and the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce.

She is passionate about exploring new ideas and techniques. “I’m always thinking. I love to push the envelope.” About two years ago, she decided to learn how to work with clay, and now she’s molding it into busts of people. “I think it’s going to be one of my favorite mediums,” she says. “I like pieces that show personality.”

And she likes to create large-scale work. A pair of angel’s wings occupy most of one wall of her company’s workshop. On another, an almost-life-size elephant head emerges from the wall. “Big is gorgeous,” she says.

Almeida takes her talent into the community as well. She serves as a board member with Junior Achievement and as a mentor through the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center, where she shares her experience as an entrepreneur and business owner with others in the community. A New Hue has supported a number of local nonprofits and other organizations, including InterFaith Health Center, The Restoration House, and Lonsdale Elementary School, among others. She offers occasional classes at her studio as well.

“Knoxville has been so good to us,” Almeida says. “I am grateful for everything we do and happy to give back.”

Learn more about Almeida and A New Hue at anewhue.net

Dear Dolly

Gary Wade reflects on a friendship rooted in Sevier County and the music, wit, and generosity that shaped Dolly Parton’s extraordinary legacy.

Story by Gary Wade

Almost everyone in these parts knows your remarkable story. Born on January 19, 1946, in a two-room home on Locust Ridge in the Sevier County mountains to Robert Lee and Avie Lee Parton, you were the fourth of a family of 12 children. In those days, most people in our small community just hoped to get by. By the time you started school at tiny Caton's Chapel School, our state ranked 46th of the 48 states in the US by most economic measures. Moreover, studies indicated that our home county ranked 93rd of 95 in the state. Although there was some tourism in Gatlinburg related to our national park and a small business district in Sevierville, most of our people farmed. Post World War II, it seemed like the only time folks here had a few dollars in their pockets was when their tobacco allotment sold. In short, prospects for real success in those years were not good.

Somehow the poverty here had no limitation to your personal horizons. Your family had music and a faith in God. Your grandfather Jake Owens, a country preacher, inspired the kind of faith that carried you and your brothers and sisters through the hard times. By the time you were six, you were singing at home and in church. By seven, you were learning to play the guitar. At eight, you had your very own. Even then, you knew where you were going and, looking back, you found so many ways to get there. To paraphrase your familiar quote, you were willing to put up with the rain to gain your rainbow.

With the help of your uncle Bill Owen, you were singing on Knoxville's WIVK radio and on a grocery store owner's early morning television show on WBIR. Who could forget the jingle which began, "Pick up the morning paper when it hits the street, Cas Walker prices just can't be beat...." That's when I saw a beautiful girl only two years older already hitting the "bigtime" - at least in my world. I learned later that by then you were writing songs, writing and recording "Puppy Love" before you started at the Sevier County High School!

Dolly, despite your budding success, you never forgot where you came from.

By the time I began at our alma mater, you were a member of the band, playing the drums of all things. Come to think of it, I have never seen an acoustic guitar at halftime of a football game! When you were a senior in the fall of 1963, I was thrilled to get a smile when we passed in the hall between classes. You looked especially good when you wore that burgundy vest. That said, my super outgoing younger brother, Sid, one-upped me. Knowing you were a semi-celebrity, he found a seat next to you at band practice and bragged about being your pal. Incidentally, twenty-five years later, Sid helped lead private fundraising for your statue at the courthouse.

I was amazed to learn that you had traveled to Nashville to start your career on the very next day after your graduation in 1964. Surely, I thought, no one from our little town could be so bold. In the words of Mark Twain: "With ignorance and confidence, success is sure!" Obviously, you possessed self-assurance, were brave enough to chase your dream, and the work ethic and talent to back it up. At first, as I learned later, you made a living writing songs and by the time I graduated from high school in 1966, you had married a handsome young contractor who cherished his low profile as much as you delighted in the spotlight. In the next year, of course, you joined the popular "Porter Wagoner Show," which through 1974 included regular TV appearances and several duet and single albums in country music. By 1969, you were a card-carrying member of the Grand Ole Opry. It was when you left Porter's show, you penned a beautiful tribute to his mentorship, "I Will Always Love You."

In the spirit of “not coming back down the ladder of success,” your greatest gift of all may never end.

Dolly, despite your budding success, you never forgot where you came from. For years, you put on a show locally to benefit our high school band. Proceeds from your concerts paid for uniforms and much more. When you were still with Porter, I came home to practice law. In 1977, I was elected mayor, an office few sought in small town Sevierville. While I was mostly in charge of barking dogs and late garbage pickups, I learned that there was a perk. The mayor got to serve as emcee for the band benefit you put on each year at our high school. Nervous as a cat, I needed your help to get through my modest role without thoroughly embarrassing myself. I beamed when you recognized me and gave me a hug.

Humor aside, for your many achievements, you have my absolute admiration.

My ten years in office gave me the opportunity to cross your path regularly, each visit was always better than the time before. I marveled at your beauty, your charm, and your remarkable wit. As I look back, my understanding of your exceptional career is illustrated by the day, with the permission of the Tennessee General Assembly, our city dedicated Dolly Parton Parkway, a section of highway 411, ironically the "flattest stretch in the city." Those were your words, not mine. Office holders from all over East Tennessee wanted to be there. One of the more well-known state politicians asked to speak. I first noticed that he had some difficulty raising his eyes to your face as he admired certain other parts of your attractive anatomy, but he was able to offer some constructive advice: "Dolly," he concluded, "As you continue to go up the ladder of success, please remember all of those you pass along the way because they will still be there as you come back down." "Thank you, sir," you answered, "but I am not coming back down!" And for the next forty years you never did.

In the early 80s, you dreamed of a theme park. Your Dollywood is now over 40 years old and an attraction for guests that rivals your beloved Great Smoky Mountain National Park. That is an attraction which will endure for years to come. Of importance to the governors and other political leaders you have befriended in Nashville, the state relies on our tourism economy to meet its annual tax needs. To sum up our change from agriculture to tourism, the late Tom Ogle of Gatlinburg pointed out that the restaurant and hotel businesses here beat “trying to plow the Parkway.” Recently retired City Manager of Pigeon Forge, Earlene Teaster, a friend who followed her entire career, credits your presence as a main reason for the prosperity in her community: “What would our city be without Dolly?”

Turning back to your career in the entertainment business, you became a favorite guest of Johnny Carson, appearing some 25 times on his late night Tonight Show. "I'm here as much as you are," you quipped in reference to his penchant for frequently calling on guest hosts to substitute. On that same evening, you debuted a favorite of your original tunes, [despite all of your many successes] "I never really made it till the Johnny Carson show." You later hosted the popular Saturday Night Live, and in 1987, you had your own variety show on television (If I failed to thank you enough for allowing me to serve as your fictional high school boyfriend in the Thanksgiving Reunion Special, let me emphasize my appreciation for the five minutes of fame!) You also starred in movies with such notables as Jane Fonda, Sylvester Stallone, Lily Tomlin, Julia Roberts, and Burt Reynolds. Several duets like "Islands in the Stream" with Kenny Rogers were bigtime hits. Your "Trio" album with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt reached platinum status in the US. You won 11 Grammy and three Emmys. As a Hall of Famer in country (and in rock), your stature earned you the title of "Queen of Country Music." Heck, at 77, you were a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader -- and the best looking of the lot! Self-deprecatingly, you often point out that it "takes a lot of money to look this cheap!" Another of my favorites among your many famous quotes, always poking fun at yourself in an earthly way as you use the science of medicine to maintain your youthful looks: "If I see something sagging, bagging, or dragging, I'll get nipped, tucked, and sucked!" That kind of candor made you even more popular.

Humor aside, for your many achievements, you have my absolute admiration. Millions throughout this country and beyond would surely agree that you merited your stardom. Always "dreaming more," you adopted Children's Hospital in Knoxville and even opened a truck stop off I-65 in the last months of your life on earth. But for all that recognition, you never forgot your family, your friends, and, importantly, your people back home. You kicked off the Sevier County High School scholarship program after our Smoky Bears won its first state championship. Over the years you donated millions and encouraged others to give to our local hospital and cancer center and the victims of the 2016 wildfires in and around our national park. Two years ago, when Hurricane Helene devastated East Tennessee and North Carolina, you set the standard for generosity. In the spirit of "not coming back down the ladder of success," your greatest gift of all may never end. Imagination Library, the flagship program of the Dollywood Foundation, has donated 330 million books to children since its inception. From birth to age five, all children in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, and Australia receive a book each month. Foundation president, Jeff Conyers, reports some 3.3 million books per month will continue under your signature. For that and so much more, thank you, dear friend. You had a heart made of solid gold.

Fresh on the Table New Restaurants in Knoxville

Four new dining destinations bring hot chicken, Southern comfort, hearty breakfasts, and playful nights to the Knoxville area.

Story & Photography by Caroline Williams

Knoxville’s dining scene has been busy this fall. Since midsummer, a historic armory has traded drills for duckpin bowling and scratch-made bar food, a renovated home has begun serving Southern comfort food from scratch, and two beloved names, one fiery and one fluffy, have set up shop in town. Pull up a chair. Here’s where we’ve been eating.

Hattie B’s Hot Chicken

The chicken is big, juicy, and crackling, and the sweet-and-smoky dry rub is a gentle way in. The sides steal the show: pimento mac and cheese, bacon-flecked baked beans, and bacon cheddar grits so buttery they’re out of this world. The waffles arrive like thick funnel cakes, crisp outside, with syrup and honey butter. Finish with warm peach cobbler under vanilla ice cream. Two college guys at the next table swore by the chicken sandwich, with its creamy slaw and honey mustard.

The Possum

Begin with the skillet cornbread, its crunchy top glistening with hot butter and honey. The crispy Brussels sprouts, tossed in a ham jam of country ham cooked with Coca-Cola, are filling and flavorful. For the main event, try the sweet tea-brined fried chicken with mac and cheese dusted in crushed pork rinds. Or order the roast chicken and dumplings, thick and doughy beneath chicken gravy beside sweet glazed carrots. The shrimp and grits, with jumbo blackened shrimp and andouille over pimento cheese grits, has a kick you feel in your throat. Save room for buttermilk pie with homemade ice cream, where the vanilla is unmistakable.

The Flying Biscuit Cafe

The menu is enormous, but the fresh veggie scramble is a fine place to start: three eggs with spinach, mushrooms, red peppers, onions, and white cheddar, so light and fluffy it’s almost unfair. It comes with “moon dusted” potatoes, seasoned with Italian herbs, and the namesake biscuit, crisp outside and cloud-soft within, with cranberry apple butter. Then there’s the cappuccino, the largest we’ve ever seen. The owner’s favorite is the s’mores peppermint. At the bar, two women split a mimosa tower and told us they love having a downtown breakfast spot with great hours and no endless wait.

The Armory

The food holds its own against the entertainment, with about 90 percent made from scratch. Smoked wings, brined and smoked in house, fall apart at a touch, and you can choose from sauces like citrus sriracha and Carolina BBQ or dry rubs. Don’t miss the hand-battered fried pickles with jalapeño ranch, the fresh taco salad in a fried shell, the shrimp po’boy, and the Bacon Love smash burger. Pair them with a Cadillac margarita or an espresso martini.

Raging against the machine

As artificial intelligence grows, Tennessee communities and political leaders confront the costs and compromises of expanding data centers.

Story by George Korda

Rage against the AI data center machine is driving opposition to the technological facilities locally and nationally. Concerns about electric power and water consumption, noise, and size, are motivating people’s demands that the centers be kept far from their back yards. The centers are causing politicians to lead or follow the “no data center” sentiment. For now.

Data centers aren’t new. Tennessee as of this writing has 61 data centers, 11 of them in Knox County, according to the publication Tennessee Lookout. And not all of them are alike. A report by WATE-TV on data centers included an expert’s description of what they do: “’So, data centers are the backbone of the internet. If you watch something on Netflix, you stream something on Spotify: you are using a data center. But even if you’re just bouncing around, surfing the web as people used to say, or if you’re on Facebook or whatever, all of that information is housed in data centers, your Google Photos, Apple Photos, Google Drive, all of that. It’s literally the backbone of the digital world,’ said Marcus Blair of Omega Digital Solutions.”

Not all center opposition is home grown. AI is advancing data centers’ need and size, in part as America’s chief economic competitor ups the centers’ ante: China.

China is said to be promoting anti-data center opposition in the U.S. “China is secretly fueling America’s data center rage,” the webpage Axios reports. “The X Safety team probed suspected Chinese accounts involved in influence operations and identified 200,000 accounts, including 200 accounts ‘posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy,’ the team said in a tweet.”

China is planning to spend nearly $300 billion over the next five years to create a data center network across the country. If while building its own data centers China can engineer opposition to them within the U.S., the communist behemoth has the best of both worlds.

With lightning-speed advances in AI usage and development, the mega data centers, from 100,000 to 10 million square feet, have been growing to keep pace with digital demand, research, and development. This puts Tennesseans and their political leaders between competing interests: there are businesses and individuals who want more AI capabilities vs. those insisting on no new big data centers – or at least not near them. In the short term, local government delays are the safest course because it’s acting on today’s constituent concerns.

The Knoxville and Knox County Planning Commission over the summer approved a one-year moratorium on data centers, through June 30, 2027. This was after the Knoxville City Council and Knox County Commission each approved data center moratoriums – not that when the moratoriums were approved there were any pending data center requests. In the political world, a moratorium serves the same function as a legislative “study committee”: it allows for further research and it buys time (not necessarily in that order). The planning commission will develop zoning change recommendations.

Among the anti-data center protesters are no doubt people who oppose anything that even hints of touching on the environment. However, beyond knee-jerk protesting, alarm is either a matter of genuine anxiety about data centers’ impact or the fulfilment of an old Tennessee political saying: “If I ain’t up on it, I’m down on it.”

Less “down on it” will come from data centers duplicating computer development’s evolution. The first computers were enormous machines with miniscule computing power compared even to a 21st century child’s wristwatch. Correspondingly, brilliant minds are working to design data centers that are smaller, use less water and power, and more palatable environmentally. Such developments will smooth the path to approval.

Longer-range, businesses, the general population, and government itself, will need AI’s expanding capabilities. If not there, if commerce and personal use are curtailed or unavailable, taxpayers and voters will query political leaders why they didn’t see this coming, why they weren’t prepared, and why they didn’t work out an arrangement to ensure the data center need was met. In the end, compromises will be made. There’ll be some give, some take. Financial inducements from data center developers will be offered. Opposition won’t diminish, but the most intransigent will become outliers. There will still be some rage, but there’s need for the machines.

Southern Renaissance Man

Zac Brown on Dolly, Buffett, and the long road back to Knoxville

Story by Terry Glen Adams
Photography by Tyler Lord & En0kku

The air was cool in Kennebunkport for September. I had walked out along the Atlantic with the new Zac Brown record in my headphones, playing it the way it was meant to be heard, from the first track to the last. What came through over the next hour was pop, Americana, country, and, improbably, hip-hop. By the time I reached Walker’s Point, the Bush family compound, where the locals were still abuzz that the former President had been spotted exercising his dog in the ocean around six that morning, I had stopped thinking about individual songs and started thinking about the man who made them.

A few hours later I was on a Zoom call with Zac Brown, me in Maine, him in Nashville. The new album is a portrait. It is ambitious, and a departure from the Zac Brown of 2008. He has grown. In the music business, a wholly original artist is the holy grail: someone whose style, sound, and look are entirely his own and entirely compelling. That is what I had been listening to on the beach.

In 2008 my wife asked me one morning if I had heard the “fried chicken” song. I love fried chicken. I am a connoisseur of sorts. WIVK had started playing something that didn’t sound like anything else on country radio, and I loved it, and so did everyone I knew. But something bigger was happening. It had been years since anyone carved a new lane in country music, and here was an act doing it without compromise. Nearly two decades later, Zac Brown has reached near-legendary status, selling out arenas around the world, and the “fried chicken” song is a country standard, covered hundreds of times a night on Nashville’s Broadway and the world over.

Like a pair of his heroes, Dolly Parton and Jimmy Buffett, what makes Zac special is that he is nobody but himself. He met his heroes, became their friend, played beside them, and cut his own path the way they did: hard to define, impossible to deny. And he is coming back to Knoxville.

The Circuit

When I asked what he remembered about coming up through East Tennessee, he didn’t hesitate. Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville, Bowling Green, anything drivable from Georgia. “We’ve been meandering around the Southeast for a long time,” he told me, “before we were able to actually be on a bus and lay down and sleep at night instead of sleeping against the window of a truck.”

He puts the number of shows north of five thousand: ten years of earning a room’s respect one night at a time so that when the band came back to a bigger stage nearby, those same people would show up and bring friends. “There’s really no shortcuts,” he said. “You gotta eat good, you gotta work out, you gotta be well, you gotta not be climbing in a bottle.”

The last time Zac Brown Band played Knoxville was just before the pandemic. Six years. When they take the stage in October it will be the longest gap between visits in the band’s history, and he sounded like a man who has been counting. “It’s been a long time,” he said. “I’m excited to come back.”

The Knife

We talked ten days after Dolly Parton died. When “Butterfly” (a duet between Zac and Dolly on the new record) came on during my walk, her voice woven through his, I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. She could still sing as well as any human on the planet. And then she was gone.

I asked how he met her. The answer was so Zac Brown it almost sounded made up. He has been forging knives since he was eighteen, and the first time he found himself in a room with Dolly, early in his career, he handed her one he had made himself. It was such a strange, enigmatic, unique presentation, that Dolly would never forget it. “I just remember the energy that she had,” he said. They stayed in touch. Years later his band backed her at her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.

When he wrote “Butterfly,” he sent it to her and asked if she would sing on it. What came back stunned him. “It was some ninja, unbelievable, complex parts that she sang,” he said. “As a musician I can tell, this just doesn’t happen with normal people.” That was only a couple of years ago. “Her voice was every bit as good as it’s ever been. She’s kind of like in a time capsule.”

What he kept returning to, though, wasn’t the voice. It was the way she carried herself: The snarky interviewers she deflected with a smile and steel underneath it, the crew that would have taken a bullet for her. “You felt love from her when you were with her,” he said. “That happened with fans, with strangers, with her friends and her crew.” He paused. “She’s in a league of her own. Losing her was hard, but I’m so grateful that I got to know her.”

Batman and Superman

I told him what I had been thinking about since I got the assignment: that Dolly, Jimmy Buffett, and Zac Brown belong to a very small club of artists who didn’t pick a lane so much as pave one. Nashville has always told people it can’t be done. All three did it anyway.

“Holding on to who you are, and being brave enough to know who you are and fight for it, is really rare,” he said. For ten years, the business kept pitching him the same thing. “Okay man, you need to wear a hat and get some boots, and we need to do this, do that, and the other. And I was like, that’s not who I am.”

“Holding on to who you are, and being brave enough to know who you are and fight for it, is really rare”

Jimmy was the same, he said. So was Dolly. “If you let a machine decide what you are and who you are, it’s gonna chew you up and spit you out the other side of it. There’s really nothing about it that’s easy, but it’s worth it.”

He was, by his own account, a lousy student. “No school I ever went to taught me to be creative, taught me how to write songs, taught me how to use the gifts that I had,” he said. “The first thing that really made sense to me in my life was music.” The guitar has been company to him since he was very small, the eleventh of twelve kids, playing bluegrass with family and singing in church. He still talks about watching Billy Strings or Marcus King the way a fan would; both, he said, made him want to throw his own guitar in the ocean.

There was no roadmap for what Zac Brown Band became, but there were two people who had already made the trip. He could call Jimmy Buffett and ask questions almost nobody else on earth could answer. He asked Dolly what fueled her and found their values lined up: be good to everybody you meet, never act like you’re better than anyone, work your ass off, give yourself to your fans and your craft.

“They were superheroes to me,” he said. “Full on, like Batman, Superman. There was Dolly and Jimmy. And then I end up getting to be friends with them and kind of peers with them in a way.” His advice to young artists comes straight out of that: “If you don’t know who you are, you’re in for a tough damn road.”

Love and Fear

The new album is titled Love & Fear, and the title is a thesis. “You either make your decisions based on the love of something, or I’m afraid of doing this and I’m not going to do it,” he said. “You have to be courageous.”

Heard straight through, the way I heard it on the beach, it plays almost like a Broadway musical, which I told him. It swings from Dolly ripping your heart out on “Butterfly” to Snoop Dogg on “Let It Run.” How, exactly, did Snoop Dogg end up on a Zac Brown record?

“You’re talking about somebody that’s been himself,” Zac said. “He’s a legend and he’s always stayed relevant.” The song came out of a session with Chris Gelbuda, who now plays with the band and who Zac calls his favorite co-writer, ever. “If we’re going to have a song about herb, we got to have Snoop in it, man.” They sent it over with the second verse marked for him. Snoop sent it back, having sung the bridge instead. “Okay,” Zac laughed, “I guess that’s where he’s supposed to be.”

The album has its deep water: “Butterfly,” “The Sum,” “Passenger.” It also has “I Ain’t Worried About It” and “Let It Run,” and he is unapologetic about the mix. He grew up on Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, and Eddie Murphy. “I’m not trying to convince anybody of anything,” he said. “I’m trying to help you have a good time for three minutes.”

The Kitchen and the Camp

Here is the part of Zac Brown that doesn’t get talked about enough. For six years the band ran what they called Eat and Greets: a full kitchen in a tractor-trailer, chefs on the road, about a hundred and fifty fans fed before every show. “It was like feeding a wedding every single day,” he said. He and the band served the food themselves. “Just to show our fans that we’re one of the people.”

The food-and-wine festival he ran for years is on hold, but the impulse behind it hasn’t gone anywhere. “When you stop giving, it’s over,” he said. “It’s like that in a relationship, it’s like that being a musician.”

And then there is Camp Southern Ground. At fourteen, he was opening for Shawn Mullins at a coffee house and working summers as a camp counselor, and he knew two things: he wanted to play music, and he wanted to build a camp. In 2011 he bought four hundred acres in Fayetteville, Georgia, south of Atlanta, and started building.

“When I say camp, that is not it,” he told me. “You picture some log cabins in the woods. That is not what we did.” What they did was build a university-scale campus. In the summer it is a sleepaway camp for kids seven to seventeen, and the whole idea is the mix: kids from military families, kids from underserved neighborhoods, kids on the autism spectrum, and kids who have been given everything and might not know how to appreciate it. Put them in the same cabin for a week, he said, and it can change the trajectory of a life. It changed his.

The first thing that really made sense to me in my life was music.”
—Zac Brown

The rest of the year the campus belongs to veterans and their families, at no cost to them: Warrior Week, Warrior PATHH, and Warrior Family Camp, where spouses and kids learn the tools to bring someone all the way home. Brown says roughly eight hundred kids and more than nine hundred veterans came through last year.

“That’s kind of a God thing,” he said. “I was put here to do that, and I’ve just been following orders.” Zac doesn’t want credit for it and admits that reluctance sometimes keeps the camp from getting the attention it needs to grow. But the testimonies get to him every year. “That just tears me up.”

He drew the line to Dolly himself, and her Imagination Library. “When you align your living with giving, real joy comes from helping other people,” he said. “If you don’t have a way to give back, you need to find one, because you’re missing out on the best part of life.”

October

Before he signed off, he said the thing he had been circling the whole conversation, the reason a band that could play anywhere still drives back to East Tennessee after six years away.

“Getting people in a room and trying to help them make memories together, no matter what your background or what you believe. We are a live performing band. That’s what we take pride in.”

Then, the invitation: “Y’all come out. Let’s make some memories, man. That’s what it’s all about.”

“When you align your living with giving, real joy comes from helping other people”

I closed the laptop and walked back the way I came, the tide coming in, the record starting over. Eighteen years ago, a song about fried chicken came through a Knoxville radio, and we listened. In October Zac will undoubtedly play it again at Food City Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Thursday, October 8, 2026, along with the songs from Love & Fear and those that have made for an incredible career so far.

As I pondered my conversation, there was one simple phrase that kept coming back, as true as one of his melodies: There’s nobody like Zac Brown.

That Little Italian Place in Bearden

Amalfi Ristorante Italiano brings sophisticated atmosphere and elegant dining to the neighborhood, and it may soon be the place you call “ours.”

Story by N. Brooks Clark
Photography by Molly Herb

Since the demise of Naples Italian Restaurant, Bearden has yearned for a new go-to, the little Italian place you head to for a celebration or just because it’s Tuesday. In the former home of Big Fatty’s, Amalfi is more intimate, but a go-to nonetheless, and one you’ll soon be suggesting without a second thought.

Owner Paul Martin was among those who kept waiting for the opening of a new family-run Italian restaurant, until he decided to tap into his family history and create one himself.

His grandfather, Mario Izzo, was the longtime owner and manager of Café Amalfi near New Symphony Hall in Boston’s historic Back Bay. It was the place to be seen, attracting Nobel laureates, Julia Child, Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Fiedler of the Pops, and other celebrities. “My love of food was born at my grandfather’s restaurant,” says Martin, “where I have my fondest and earliest memories. As an Italian American raised in downtown Boston, I grew up with some of the world’s most famous and enjoyable Italian food, whether it was my grandmother’s unbeatable weekly ‘Sunday Sauce’ or walking the streets of the North End, munching on fried calamari and zeppole. Mario sold Amalfi in 1981, but the inspiration lives on.

In a previous life, Martin tried to re-create the magic of Café Amalfi in Glen Cove, Long Island, but he discovered that New York had plenty of great Italian restaurants, and then some.

In his current life in Knoxville, Martin kept waiting for the Naples replacement. “Everywhere I looked,” he says, “Boston, New York, New Orleans, there are family-owned Italian restaurants.” When the Big Fatty’s space opened up in Bearden, Martin and his wife, Meredith, decided to make their move.

The Frutti di Mare of sautéed jumbo shrimp, calamari, mussels, and spaghetti, can be Bianco, “Old World” Marinara or Fra Diavolo Style.

With its 10 tables and 12 seats at the bar, the setting is intimate. (Bar seats are in demand and require reservations.) Aubergine-colored walls set an intimate and elegant tone, and each element of the décor has a story. In the restroom foyer, “Shores of Sorrento” depicts cliffside villas of the Amalfi Coast, while another painting shows a canal in Venice. The two large dining-room paintings of Twenties-era flappers are by Martin himself, inspired by his mother’s favorite artist, Itzchak Tarkay. “It’s his casual atmosphere and use of color,” says Martin. “It’s my own version of that style.”

On the wall in a corner of the bar hangs a 1936 menu from the Café Amalfi next to a hand-drawn sketch of jazz drummer Giorgio Capuzzo by Tony Bennett, signed “to my favorite musician.”

Executive Chef Tiffany Hicks has a remarkable resume, starting with her childhood in Cincinnati. “When other kids watched cartoons on Saturday mornings,” says Hicks, a five-foot-two animated vision of enthusiasm, “I watched Julia Child, Yan Can Cook, and the Frugal Gourmet.” She started peeling potatoes at the Maisonette in Cincinnati at 14, went to the Penn Institute of Culinary Arts in Pittsburgh, and earned a degree in nutrition from Pitt. She headed to Florida, cooking at the Boca Raton Resort and Club (where the July 4 party in Caddyshack was filmed), becoming a personal chef for the Miami Dolphins and owner Wayne Huizenga, and touring with rappers and other musicians. She later worked at restaurants including Grand Lux, Cheesecake Factory, Seminole Casino, and P.F. Chang’s before landing at the Biltmore’s Stable Café, Southern Comfort in Gatlinburg, and DreamMore Resort in Pigeon Forge. “On my first day I was filling out my forms,” says Hicks. “Dolly was coming down the hall. She said, ‘Hello there, is it your first day?’ I couldn’t speak. She said, ‘Have a great day!’ I was crying like a little girl. The next time I saw her she said, ‘Hi, Tiffany.’ I said, ‘Hi, Miss Dolly.’ She said, ‘Call me Dolly.’”

In 2022, Hicks was featured in Food & Wine for the elaborate dinners she provided guests who booked the Dolly Tour Bus Experience, with proceeds going to Dolly’s Foundation. She was working at Bravo! when Paul and Meredith offered her the job at Amalfi. “They said I would love cooking again,” says Hicks, “and I do.”

This is a standout dish we found ourselves thinking about on the way home.

Our evening began with a Gnocco Fritto charcuterie board of Genoa salami, mortadella, prosciutto, mascarpone herbed cream, and marinated roasted red peppers with gnocco fritto, crispy fried bread.

An Insalata Lombardi salad combined mixed greens, radicchio, dried cherries, gorgonzola, onions, and an absolutely fantastic guanciale vinaigrette that, says Hicks, “makes all the flavors shine through.”

The Spicy Vodka Amalfi (tell Chef Tiffany if you’d like a little extra kick) presented fresh rigatoni in old-world-style pomodoro sauce with heat from Calabrian chilis. Tossed with roasted guanciale crumbles, then flamed with vodka and a touch of cream and fresh basil, this is a real treat. It’s a standout dish we found ourselves thinking about on the way home. “It’s one of our No. 1 sellers,” noted Hicks.

Martin suggested Amalfi Pinot Nero La Diva made by Cordoni Mason, a small vineyard in Umbria, Italy.

“They said I would love cooking again, and I do.” — Executive Chef Tiffany Hicks

Our thinly sliced Veal Piccata di Vitello featured pounded veal medallions prepared in the classic style, sautéed in white wine with lemon and capers, and served with roasted garlic mascarpone mashed potatoes and wilted spinach. Chicken and shrimp variations are also available.

The varied entrées will keep diners coming back. Several seafood selections jump out. The Frutti di Mare of sautéed jumbo shrimp, calamari, mussels, and spaghetti can be Bianco “Old World” Marinara or Fra Diavolo Style. Branzino al Amalfi is a Mediterranean sea bass in lemon-caper butter sauce with grilled ciabatta, whipped roasted garlic potatoes, and grilled broccolini. A favorite fall special is Sea Scallops and Lemon Pesto Risotto, featuring pan-seared jumbo wild scallops over creamy Arborio rice and finished with vibrant lemon confit pesto.

Dessert was the Drunken Nonna, which Paul says is named for his mother. It’s a classic Italian olive oil cake made with buttermilk, amaretto, and citrus, served atop Prosecco-macerated berries. It is refreshing and citrus-sweet.

Come once for the Spicy Vodka Amalfi, and don’t be surprised if you’re a regular by the time the Drunken Nonna arrives.

The Best

As Bob Pryor closes his final column, his son celebrates a lifetime of stories, laughter, and a legacy that reaches far beyond the courtroom.

Story by Robbie Pryor
Photography by Nathan Sparks

He held my hand and pulled me across Church Street toward the law offices of Gilreath, Pryor & Rowland. I’d been to my father’s law office on a weekday visit with my mother, but I was so excited to go on the weekend. It was just us, the guys. A life-sized plastic skeleton and other trial exhibits sat in the library/conference room where I was supposed to sit. Even at eight years old I loved being surrounded by the cabinets of files and the smell of old books. There were drawers of pens, pencils, tabs, clips and clamps. The legal pads were free for the taking, and I was encouraged to fill them up with stories and drawings to occupy myself so that my father could meet with a witness and prepare for a trial. He was the Wizard of Oz, shuffling files and rehearsing a closing argument behind the curtain. I listened intently as he practiced his closing argument – the story. “May it please the Court…” Given his focus on his work, and with perhaps more freedom than my mother would have liked, I eventually found a drawer of candy and a fridge full of Coca-Colas in small glass bottles. It just tasted better coming from a cold glass, and I was happier than Forrest Gump drinking Dr. Peppers at the White House. I walked the halls pretending to be a lawyer. I was probably the only kid in my class to ask for a briefcase that Christmas. I’ve now been practicing law for over thirty years, and when asked why I chose this profession, I point to the never-ending supply of bottled Coca-Cola. The truth of the matter is that no other profession seemed a possibility when considering my inherited love of storytelling and the prevailing belief that my father is The Best.

I’ve heard a lot of stories. Growing up, I witnessed what it took to tell a story to twelve citizens. I watched closely as he worked to command a jury’s attention. I observed him in seminars and in the classroom as a professor of law where he taught lawyers and law students to try cases. I’ve felt the bounce and satisfaction that comes with victory and the brutal heartbreak that comes with loss. I know what an honor and responsibility it is to speak with and on behalf of families touched by tragedy and how to guide them through what is a confusing and, at times, lengthy legal process. He has received the highest awards for professional storytelling. As a young lawyer I stood next to him as he accepted the Governor’s Award from the Knoxville Bar Association and, more recently, was delighted to present him with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association at an annual convention in Destin, Florida.

The Best trial lawyer? Perhaps. That is a big statement. He certainly has accumulated a great many votes from his peers in this publication over the years, especially in the categories of personal injury and medical malpractice. However, when it comes to the man who has penned his last Pryorities feature, The Best in storytelling doesn’t only apply to the courtroom.

“Bob” (that’s what his friends and grandkids call him), has regaled you with stories of his youth and the Knoxville in which he grew up. Storytelling and performance came hand-in-hand in the home he provided for us (I am the oldest of three). He and his friends formed a group called Tennessee Troupe & Travel (TTT). Founded in the backroom of the old Frontier House on Kingston Pike, the group of friends roamed the southeast in buses chartered to Tennessee football games. They staged annual parties, family picnics, and rented out ballrooms to perform skits and lip-sync performances for each other’s enjoyment. His love of “the show” carried over to the Knoxville Bar Association where he took the lead in directing the same type of shows for and with his fellow lawyers. Our house had a revolving door as my parents’ friends, local lawyers, members of the judiciary and mayors would come to our basement to practice musical/comedic performances, tell stories, and laugh. It is where I first heard a great many of the stories he has told in these pages. He had the vision for the creation of memories and everyone just followed. In the days before digitized internet access and even CDs, my father’s record collection was immense. More than the music itself, he loves the stories behind the music - the songwriting, how the band got together, and how the producer found the musician. The music and the stories must still echo inside the walls of my childhood home in the Village Green subdivision.

On Saturday evenings my siblings and I were placed in the station wagon without seatbelts or car seats (NOTE: There were no seatbelts or carseats at that time) and driven to the original Buddy’s BBQ on Kingston Pike to hear bluegrass bands. The Pryors and the other kids would crawl under tables and chase one another through cigarette clouds and clanking bottles as Fox on the Run came from the stage. I can still smell the smoke and spilled beer whenever I hear a banjo, one of many Pavlovian responses associated with music from my youth. For the Pryor children, family vacations became the traveling version of our basement. Whether it was a beach vacation in Florida or a New Year’s celebration in Gatlinburg, we traveled with upwards of 10-15 families. Whether to friends, family, or a random stranger on the street, Bob’s gifts have always been delivered in the form of stories, music, or humor. You know that if you find yourself in the company of the man, you are about to hear a story or become a part of one.

The music and the stories must still echo inside the walls of my childhood home in the Village Green subdivision.

Lest you mistake this for an obituary, I tell you there is much to do for Bob Pryor at age 83. He loves the law. He is still very active in assessing cases, advising clients and mentoring our firm’s young lawyers. He persists in telling people that he works for me. He has two new hips and a skip in his get-along. I truly believe he got the hips replaced just so he can more efficiently roam the hallways of Pryor, Priest & Harber or the aisles of Publix looking to find his audience. He will shortly be able to hold my Mom’s hand and walk, free of cane, through the farmers market, inspecting tomatoes and making people smile. Then there is Henry Gillin - Bob’s first great-grandchild, born in Richland, Washington on September 21. There is a new audience.

The bank teller the other day asked me how Bob was doing. She hadn’t seen him in a while, and asked with the caution associated with such questions about the well-being of an 83-year-old man. When I told her he’d only had hip replacement, she lit up with relief and spoke of the last time he’d been into the bank. She could barely contain her excitement and laughter as she retold to me both a story from CityView and one I’ve heard the entirety of my life. I smiled and laughed with her, as this is a regular and welcome occurrence when your father is The Best.

You know that if you find yourself in the company of the man, you are about to hear a story or become a part of one.

The Truth Doesn't Care Whether You Like It

On fly-fishing, faith, personal responsibility, and the physician's obligation to see the whole patient.

Story & Photography by Nathan Sparks

I have spent a fair amount of time trying to fool trout. Stand beside me in a stream and you will see how much preparation can go into a very small deception. I have studied the insect, chosen the materials, and tied a fly that I believe deserves a closer look. As it settles onto the water it begins to drift. For a moment, it moves naturally with the current. Then the line tightens, the fly unnaturally sways, and whatever interest I might have attracted disappears. I may be pleased with what I made, but the fish is responding to what I presented.

That distinction has occupied me well beyond the river. A fly can look perfect in my hand and fail in the water. The hours I spent tying it matter to me; they have no bearing on whether it or I behave convincingly. I can change the fly, adjust the line, or reconsider where I am standing. What I cannot do is persuade the trout to accept my intentions in place of the evidence. I enjoy a pursuit that keeps me honest, although I sometimes wish the honesty were a little less thorough.

We are much better at making allowances for ourselves. We explain why we haven’t exercised, why we are too busy to slow down, why the people we love will understand another evening surrendered to work. Often, the explanations are reasonable. Life is demanding, and responsibilities compete. But repeated often enough, a reasonable explanation can keep us from asking a necessary question: Is the way I am living taking me toward the life I say I want? That question interests me as a physician. It also asks something of me as a husband, a person of faith, and a human being with imperfections of my own.

Most of us don’t need someone to introduce us to every truth we have been avoiding. We already know something about the habit that is wearing us down, the relationship receiving too little` attention, or the promise we keep postponing. The difficulty is allowing that knowledge to interfere with a comfortable arrangement. Once we acknowledge a problem without immediately explaining it away, we have to decide what to do. Until then, we can remain cognitively dissonant busy discussing a better life while continuing to live the familiar one.

In medicine, that space between understanding and action has consequences. A patient may want less pain, greater mobility, or more energy while struggling to change habits that work against those goals. My responsibility includes saying so. If weight is contributing to joint pain, or poor sleep and inactivity or nutrition are concerns, they belong in the conversation. It would be easier to address only what someone wants to discuss. But a patient has come to me for help, and I owe that person more than an agreeable account of what is happening.

My job is not to make the truth comfortable. It is to make the truth useful.

I also owe them the effort of understanding why change is difficult. A person brings an entire life into the examination room: work, family, fears, finances, other illnesses, and experiences I may know nothing about. Genetics and circumstances matter. Illness is not an indictment of character, and difficulty following advice does not imply cognitive indifference. Before I offer perfunctory advice, I need to listen closely enough to understand what that advice will require of them.

My own thinking has needed adjustment here. I once regarded medication for weight loss too readily as a substitute for discipline. I stridently believed people should improve their nutrition and exercise habits, and I still believe that rubric forms the base. But I came to appreciate how overwhelming the beginning of that journey can feel to someone with a long way to go. It seems unattainable and the results in the mirror do not seem to reflect the work that has been put in. Appropriate medical help with a GLP may make progress feel possible. Those medically assisted wins gain buy in and confidence and gently cajole the patient to salutary healthy habits. GLPs are not the sole answer but a bridge to better health.

That is part of the physician’s obligation to truth: being willing to examine our own judgments as seriously as we examine a patient’s choices. Experience gives us knowledge, but it can also make a familiar conclusion feel more secure than it deserves. As it turns out our beliefs are not an unmitigated reflection of reality. When I don’t know, I have to acknowledge that. Patients should be able to trust that my interest in helping them is greater than my interest in defending an opinion I have already espoused.

The way we convey information matters just as much. There is a difference between helping someone face a difficult fact and making them feel diminished by it. My job is to make the truth useful: explain what I see, why it matters, and what can be done. A patient needs enough confidence in the relationship to admit, “I’m not managing this,” or “I haven’t done what we discussed.” If the truth earns only disapproval, I have made the next honest conversation harder. If it gives us a more accurate starting point, we can begin doing something worthwhile together.

No technology can replace understanding the person sitting across from you.

I want that conversation to reach beyond what is wrong. What does this person hope better health will make possible? More time with grandchildren? A return to work they enjoy? The ability to walk without planning every outing around discomfort? Those hopes give our recommendations meaning. We are caring for someone who wants to participate more fully in a life, and the treatment has to belong to that larger purpose. It is hard to understand what matters to a patient if I never get beyond the complaint that brought them through the door.

My interest in that broader picture grew from wanting to understand health more fully, for my patients and for myself. Orthopedic surgery gave me the opportunity to help people regain function, but the operation was never the whole of their experience. Recovery continued amid the habits and demands of ordinary life. I became increasingly interested in nutrition, exercise, and the things that influence how we feel and function every day. The more I learned, the more I wanted room to bring that understanding into the way I practiced.

Writing about those subjects for Cityview became part of that education. Nathan and I were getting to know each other on a fishing trip years ago when the possibility of a magazine story came up. I was doubtful about what difference it would make. The story led to writing about health and wellness, which required me to step outside the technical language of medicine and put more of myself into the work. Eventually, patients and others began talking about those articles and their subtle impact. A conversation beside a river had opened a door I hadn’t expected.

That experience reminded me that my own view of what was possible could be incomplete. It also helped carry an interest into something more practical. Concierge care offers an opportunity for the time, attention, and continuity I value in the relationship with a patient. The deeper question for me is whether my work reflects what I believe about caring for people. If I say the whole person matters, I have to make room for the whole person. Agreement with an ideal means very little until it begins influencing the decisions I am willing to make.

Information is not knowledge, and knowledge is not automatically wisdom.

I cannot reasonably confine that standard to my professional life. It is easy to encourage patients to exercise, protect their sleep, and take their health seriously. My advice carries a different weight when I make an effort to live by it. That doesn’t require perfection, but it does require honesty about the distance between my recommendations and my habits. I have to be careful about treating a demanding career as a standing exemption from responsibilities I would readily recognize in someone else’s life.

I try to begin each day with quiet time, prayer, and Bible study, and I try to do something physical every day. I like establishing that discipline before the day begins making other plans for me. These practices give time to things I believe matter; they also give me a chance to consider whether everything receiving my attention deserves so much of it. Work can expand almost without limit, particularly when you enjoy it and believe it serves a purpose. Family, health, and spiritual life still need more than whatever is left over.

My faith asks me to look honestly at that balance. It reminds me that my abilities carry responsibility, that achievement is only part of a life, and that the people around me deserve care that is visible in how I treat them. Prayer makes room for gratitude and for an examination of my own motives. Am I serving someone, or satisfying my need to accomplish more? Am I listening, or preparing to explain why I am right? Those questions are less comfortable than considering what everyone else ought to change, which is probably a reason to give them attention.

I find hope in that examination. Acknowledging where I fall short gives me something more useful than the obligation to appear as though I have everything settled. I can be grateful for help, correct a mistake, and begin again. Faith matters to me in those ordinary decisions as well as in life’s larger uncertainties. What I believe should be recognizable in the way I keep a commitment, respond to a difficulty, or make time for another person when it would be easier to remain occupied with myself.

Truth is not a trophy we put on a shelf. It is an ongoing practice of paying attention, testing assumptions, and correcting our course.

Of course, recognizing a truth doesn’t remove the difficulty of living by it. Familiar habits offer something: comfort, convenience, relief, the reassurance of knowing what comes next. Changing them may involve discomfort now for a benefit that feels distant. We have to be honest about that, too. Otherwise, we make promises without understanding what will challenge them. A useful beginning may be smaller than the sweeping resolution we would like to announce, but it has the advantage of being something we are prepared to practice. Consistency in those small wins has a far greater impact. Every action you take, not matter how small, is a vote for the person you wish to become.

Our actions become evidence for the people around us. They see whether we follow through, whether we acknowledge mistakes, and whether our concern for them survives inconvenience. Over time, those experiences give them reasons to trust us. We cannot simply ask to be regarded as dependable while treating our commitments as negotiable. The same is true in medicine, marriage, and friendship: the words matter, but the life accompanying them determines how much weight another person can safely place upon them.

We don't have to be perfect. We do have to be willing to learn.

Honesty also allows us to receive the help we need. There is a vulnerability in letting someone see where we are struggling, especially when we are accustomed to being capable or being the one others turn to. But a carefully maintained appearance can leave us alone with a problem someone else might help us face. We don’t have to tell everyone everything. We do need relationships in which we can stop managing the impression and speak plainly about what is happening.

That is where living truthfully begins to offer something beyond self-correction. We become more available to one another, more able to offer sound guidance and more willing to receive it. The truth may reveal a responsibility we have avoided, but it can also reveal that we do not have to carry it alone. I think that is a hopeful place to arrive, whether we are talking about health, faith, or the direction of a life.

Back in the stream, I gather the line and study the water before I make another cast. I still want the fly to land well and the trout to rise. But wanting the result has never relieved me of paying attention to what is actually happening. Away from the river, the work is more personal: to let what I know become visible in how I live, and to be honest enough to let someone stand beside me.

Where Did It Go?

A friend’s death and his teenage philosophy of life raise a lasting question: What does it mean to run out of time?

Story by Rev. George Doebler
Photography by Nathan Sparks

I have a framed saying on my office wall that reads: “Happiness is not a matter of events. It depends on the tides of the mind.” The quote, by writer Alice Meynell, was given to me by a social worker who came to see me while questioning an engagement. After several visits, she broke it off and moved to Atlanta. Before leaving, she gave me these words.

Happiness is an elusive treasure in our lives. I was taught by a mentor years ago that “happiness is the art of knowing how to suffer well.” This kind of thinking probably does not sit well with most. “Suffering” and happiness appear at first glance to be opposites and connecting them seems strange at best.

The affliction of our modern civilization, myself included, is not knowing how to handle the suffering inside us. Instead we cover it up with consumption: clothes, trinkets, alcohol, medication.

We can go nowhere without being bombarded by devices meant to cover up the suffering inside us. Count the pharmaceutical ads on TV alone, promising to make us happy, to make us “feel” better — which never happens.

So I turn back to my mentor’s words: “suffer well.” The question for me, then, becomes: how does suffering bring me to happiness? I somehow know that the answer is not “out there.” It is within me. Scientist Louis Agassiz put it this way: “Study life, not books.” Our tendency is to look outside ourselves for answers about the world, our family, even ourselves — always “out there.”

I had a telephone call from a woman I had last seen over ten years ago. She had read one of the Insights articles, and it stirred up thoughts and feelings of “back then.” I think of her as a seeker for meaning and happiness. She has had more than her share of “suffering,” but the longer we talked, the more excited she became about her life. Her happiness now has been found in a church congregation, after leaving a church she had been active in for a number of years, among people who appear to think and believe “like her.” I wondered as I listened how much she had looked into herself to know how mindful she was that her happiness has to do with being with others who are like-minded. What happens when we meet folk who are not like-minded?

We seem to live in a time when we congregate with those who believe and think like us, and find it difficult to listen to those who don’t. They make us unhappy, even mad; we “suffer” in their presence. It’s not just people, either — we find “suffering” in differences of opinion, in watching the news. So we avoid them. We avoid the “suffering,” instead of seeking to “suffer well.”

So how do I learn to “suffer” better — to look within myself and learn more about who I am? Not an easy task. Each of us has been taught how to see and believe, by parents, teachers, clergy, and others in our lives. It is difficult to rethink what we have learned from people we have loved, and still love and respect.

Becoming mindful of myself, and learning who I am, is a lifelong process. Getting unstuck from what we’ve learned, and learning not to dislike those who don’t think like me, is learning to “suffer well” — and thus to find happiness.

The world we seem to live in now focuses on increments – minutes, hours, days, etc.,

Everest The Price of Entrance

The summit is only part of the story.

Story by John Quillen
Photography by Neal Kushwaha

I clipped my carabiner onto a thin piece of static rope. A crampon, carefully positioned, straddled the second rung of a horizontal ladder. That ladder was tied to another ladder, which was tied to another. Together, they formed a precarious bridge across the yawning crevasse beneath me. I took a breath and stepped forward. My breathing was labored—not just because we were at 19,000 feet, but because of what would happen if I made a mistake.

Thirty feet away, on the other side of the icy expanse, stood my personal Sherpa, Ang Dawa. His arms were wrapped around the ropes, keeping tension on them and, in a very real sense, keeping me from a perilous destiny. I stared into his eyes. He was staring directly back at me. I tried not to look down.

One step. Three breaths. Lean forward into Dawa. Don't get your crampon between the ladder rungs. Don't lean backward. Don't lose your balance. Don't fall over the side. Focus. Focus.

These were typical days in the Khumbu. And more than a few of these obstacles had to be negotiated. Such is the price of entrance to Earth's highest peak. The Icefall Sherpa had expertly laid this route, but the mountain changed it every day. Ice melted. Snow shifted. Crevasses opened. I had to trust my team. I had to trust my gear. And I had to trust Ang Dawa.

When the Mountain Gives Way

Many weeks later, after several rotations up and down the mountain, we were finally in position to make our summit attempt. Our four-man team consisted of Dawa, Neil Kushwaha, Neil's Sherpa, Sangay, and me. From the relative comfort of Camp Two, above the Icefall and outside the expansive valley of the Western Cwm, we waited for the crowds to thin before approaching the infamous Lhotse Face.

The afternoon sun was loosening the snow. The mountain began to grumble. Resting about thirty yards from the beginning of the fixed lines that climbed the 45-degree ice face, Neil and I looked down through the Valley of Silence toward Camp One. It was a glorious day in Nepal. May 2018. The sun reflected upward from the snow, burning the bottoms of my nose and ears. It seemed there wasn't enough sunscreen on the planet to cover all the exposed skin on my face. Every break was an opportunity to apply more.

And that's when we heard the noise. Rocks had dislodged in the warmth. Snow is the glue that holds mountains together. When that glue begins to disappear, the mountain starts shedding its skin. Little by little. Piece by piece. A low moan moved through the valley. Then we saw them. Two climbers lay crumpled at the bottom of the lines. Neil and I rushed to their side and quickly assessed the situation. They were Sherpa from other teams. There was a lot of blood.

He was my friend, and soon he would feel like my brother.

My mind immediately went back to another mountain, another time, another rescue. Broad Peak. 2013. On that mountain, I rounded a corner to begin a rappel down toward Camp One. About a hundred feet below me was a small dot lying crumpled at the bottom of the rope. It was my climbing partner, Brian Moran.

I lowered him down those slopes by myself, trying to beat the weather. As I worked, I prayed to God for some kind of assistance. Then, through the billowing mist, a tiny dot appeared at the top of the mountain. It was descending in our direction. It was Moktabi Jarahi, one of our fellow teammates. He was the only member of the Iranian portion of our team who held mountain rescue certification. I don't believe in coincidences like that.

It took us hours to get Brian down to Camp One and more than a week to fly him back to safety. When the weather finally broke, my Iranian friends made their summit push. Mojitabi Jarahi, Pooya Keivan and Aidin Bozorgi climbed up through the clouds. They never returned from Broad Peak. That was the end of my climb on that mountain that year. And, I thought, likely the conclusion of my mountaineering career. The hell and trauma of those events brought great pause to this Tennessee boy.

But here I was, a few years later, standing on another mountain, facing another emergency. There were injured people. And there was no one to help. So we did what any other human being would do. We helped.

Neil Kushwaha, my Canadian teammate, essentially carried the injured Sherpa nearly a thousand feet down the mountain. There, we got on the radio and convinced a helicopter to come to his aid. It would become one of the highest-altitude helicopter rescues ever attempted. Twenty thousand feet wasn't simply the upper limit for the machines. It was the upper limit of what was possible. Soon, we would be donning oxygen masks and hauling tanks of precious gas that allowed us to survive in an atmosphere that wanted us dead.

The two Sherpa were whisked away down toward the valley and, eventually, the hospital in Kathmandu. We had to trust that they would survive. There was nothing more we could do. Neil and I turned our attention back toward the mountain. The big task remained: Get up the Lhotse Face. Get to Camp Three.

Everest had just remodeled our bedroom.

Stars were appearing on the horizon when our headlights came bobbing into the upper reaches of the high camp. Exhausted—mentally and physically—I lay my head down on a pillow of ice and placed a mask over my face. The warmth of the oxygen lulled me into a brief slumber.

When my eyes opened early the next morning, I stared at the nylon of our tent as it slowly brightened with the rising sun stretching over from Tibet. I inhaled deeply from the oxygen I had slept with all night. Then a small slit appeared in the dome of our temporary refuge. It was as if someone had opened a skylight. My oxygen-deprived brain couldn't immediately process what had happened. Then I realized it. A small rock had fallen from the top of the mountain and surgically created our new ventilation. Everest had just remodeled our bedroom.

We continued upward. As we moved along the fixed lines over the Yellow Band and Geneva Spur, a strange calm overtook me. We caught up with the remainder of our team and reverently sidestepped onto a small flat spot. They were lowering the body of another climber. He looked like a department-store mannequin, clothed from head to toe in high-quality gear. Except he wasn't moving. He was one of the early casualties of the mountain that year.

I was the last person to arrive at the South Col that evening. Once again, the sun was setting. Our original plan had been to leave for the summit around that time. But it wasn't to be. Neil had been there for perhaps an hour, but neither of us had the energy to make the attempt that night. So we lay in Earth's highest campsite, listening to the rattling of our tents. We were thankful the mountain had made us wait another day. Wind is the enemy of every summit attempt.

Here in the Death Zone, you don't do very much. You lie down. You drink water. You try to force food into your belly.

Neil and I walked around, knowing it was important to get a little exercise. We looked like refugees from a nursing home, shuffling around with oxygen bottles. But of that gas, there was no shortage. So many climbers were descending that they began offloading their oxygen bottles into our willing hands. Every bottle meant another breath. Another hour. Another chance.

I felt as though I were dragging an anvil uphill.

Into the Night

7:30 p.m. May 22. Ang Dawa crouched in the vestibule of my tent. “We leave in 30 minutes.” Neil rolled over, groaned, and laughed a little. Looks like my Sherpa and I were going to be the first team to hit the Triangular Face out of the South Col that night.

The sun had barely disappeared when I took my first crunching steps onto the mixed rock-and-ice platform that was Camp Four, our home for the past two days. The terrain quickly turned steep as we clipped our jumars onto the fixed line. Biting cold snapped through the small portions of exposed skin protruding from my down suit. I began coordinating the labored breaths behind my oxygen mask with legs that felt as though someone had attached lead weights to them. One foot in front of the other. That's all there was. One foot. Then the other.

It was fully dark now. I could see headlamps approaching from below. Within a couple of hours, it seemed as though the entire population of the South Col was on my tail. Random lightning streaked across the sky toward Cho Oyu, the mountain from which I had first viewed Everest a couple of years before. I felt as though I were dragging an anvil uphill. I was Sisyphus on the mountain.

My friend Heiko had climbed Everest a couple of years earlier. His words hung heavily in what little bit of brain I had working. “On summit day, you're going to have to dig deeper than you've ever dug.” My lungs were digging. My legs were digging. Everything I had was digging.

The Final Climb

12:30 a.m. May 23. We reached a spot known as the Balcony, where we stopped to exchange our oxygen bottles. It was twenty degrees below zero. There was very little room to perform the task, and I was competing with thirty other people for the same precious space. I wasn't sure anymore whether the streaks I could see across Tibet were actually lightning—or simply hallucinations brought on by oxygen deprivation.

Then my body delivered another message. I needed to find a place to relieve myself. I found a little spot and began negotiating the rainbow zipper on the back of my down suit. This involved negotiating my harness, layers of clothing, and everything else between me and the freezing Himalayan air. There is nothing left in my body after this. And very little left in my spirit.

My only thought was that I had summited Earth's highest peak and may not live to tell anyone about it.

I prayed to God and asked what his plans were for me this day. The response I received was a small tug on the rope that I shared with Ang Dawa. My formerly frostbitten feet were losing sensation. The sun would have to cross our horizon at some point. Dawa and I were alone again on what natives called Chomolumgma. He told me to take a break while he looked for the proper route. Dawn was finally piercing the horizon.

8.30 am. The South summit. hordes are descending and high fives are exchanged. Neil and his Sherpa shuffle their bedraggled frames. Sange looked at his watch. We knew what he was implying. Dawa told me we had one hour. I clipped into ropes that straddled the cornice between Nepal and Tibet. A fall on either side meant tumbling thousands of feet. I thought we had the rest of the journey to ourselves until I saw a strange sight. Dangling from the fixed line was a woman who was wriggling about 10 ft below us. Her Sherpa just stood there confused about what to do. But not Dawa. He reached down and grabbed her pack straps and lifted her back up onto the little slice of icy trail. They would have to turn around.

It was just us and Mount Everest now. Nothing stood between me and the velvet rope of mountaineering but this small little section known as the Hillary step. This formerly formidable obstacle in route to the summit didn't register very much with me. I just clipped my ascending device into ropes and pulled myself up. Across a small rise that infamous smoke plume heralded our arrival. I was beginning to see God's plan unfold. For the first time in a month and a half the concept of summiting Earth's highest peak was beginning to be realized.

10 am, May 23. I knelt down before a small bell. Prayer flags snapped crisply all around me. In every direction were the highest peaks on the planet. I saw Cho Oyu, Makalu, Lhotse. I sat for the first time in 12 hours and sipped from a frozen bottle. Dawa and I were the highest people on the planet for 45 minutes. We had the place to ourselves. I had a lot of tasks to perform up there that would take more time than this article allows. In our exuberance we lost track of the fleeting minutes. Our weather was splendid. But we had to descend.

Tumbling back down into our camp at the South col, Neil greeted me like I was a ghost. I was the first person to leave for the summit and the last person to return. We were some of the last people to reach Earth's highest peak that year.

After a brief rest it was time relinquish all that hard fought ground. My toes were frostbitten but I fared better than some of my other team members. Tom had broken an ankle coming down somewhere off of Lhotse. Ciera was snow blind. And we had to negotiate that wicked ice fall again.

How can I ever one up that experience?

In camp two I resemble a homeless person, 20 lbs lighter than when we left Kathmandu almost 2 months earlier. Only then was I able to think about the two Sherpa and their fate. As we negotiated those ladders again towards the last days of the season, Everest grumbled some more and creaked in this movable river of ice.

Reverently , our teams stood behind Tom as the Sherpas lifted him up and over these appropriately named ice blocks called penitentes. The day was warming and chunks were falling. My only thought was that I had summited Earth's highest peak and may not live to tell anyone about it.

When we finally got out of danger, a man was there to greet us with a Coca-Cola. It was the brother of Chrring Dorje, the sherpa we had assisted a week prior at the base of the Lhotse face. He was recovering in a hospital in Kathmandu and expected to live. As I turned around to take one final look at this beautiful mountain, clouds enveloped her; our experience concluded. My thoughts about stopping to help these men intertwined with the celestial experience we had on the summit.

People ask me if I would like to go climb Everest again. My retort is a question for them. How can I ever one up that experience? I need to leave some of that for other people.

Everybody’s Talkin’ Bout The New Kids In Town

UT hoops, both men and women, feature rosters filled with fresh new faces.

Story by Brooks Clark
Photography by Bruce McCamish & Carlos Reveiz

Last season Rick Barnes’ Vols made it to the NCAA tournament Elite Eight for the third straight time, ending up 25-12 and ranked No. 12. But in the brave new world of the transfer portal and NIL, Barnes has new names in the starting lineup.

In this chaotic swirl, Barnes usually comes out a winner, because of his reputation for teaching the kind of hard-nosed defense and team play that prepares players for the NBA. So this time around Barnes opened up the portal and came up with a guard-oriented lineup led by junior point guard Terrence Hill Jr., a Virginia Commonwealth transfer originally from Portland, Oregon. T-Hill will be spelled at PG by senior Dai Dai (pronounced Day Day) Ames, a Chicago native who played a year each at Kansas State, Virginia, and Cal. Dai Dai started every game last year for Cal, averaging 16.9 points per game, 37.6% on threes, and 85% on free throws.

At shooting guard, sixth-year senior Tyler Lundblade, a Dallas native, played at SMU, TCU, and Belmont, where he started every game, led the country with a 93.4% on his free throws, 43% from the field, and 40.6% on threes. Lundblade is getting master’s in communication, specializing in strategic and digital communication. He had back surgery in August but is expected to return in time for the season, when Barnes will encourage him to strategically shoot.

Junior Jalen “Juke” Harris, started and played most of every game for Wake Forest last year and averaged 22.9 points. His mother gave him his nickname at birth, when she said he “juked his way out,” arriving two weeks early in an easy delivery.

Sophomore guard Jalen Haralson, a McDonald’s All-American, averaged 16.2 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists at Notre Dame last year, shooting 51.5% from the field.

Miles Rubin, a 6’10” senior Loyola Chicago transfer who went to middle school in Chicago with Dai Dai Ames, will post up at center in the guard-oriented lineup. In his Loyola career, Rubin averaged 2.3 blocks per game and shot 64.7% from the field, topped by 71.4% his sophomore year. He’ll share time with 6’8” sophomore DeWayne Cortez “Tez” Brown II, a team leader who last year he led or co-led the Vols in blocks six times and in rebounding three times, and shot 58.6% from the floor. His mom, April Dickerson, is director of family life at a Ronald McDonald House near Children’s Hospital of Alabama in Birmingham, where Tez has volunteered. They’ll get help from 6’9” junior Braedan Lue, a tough, Rick Barnes-type defender who led Kennesaw (Ga.) State in rebounding and blocks last year.

The fact is that this is what Barnes has shown himself to be uniquely capable of doing—recasting a team and giving them a real chance to make it to the Elite Eight for a fourth straight time.

The names have change but the expecations haven’t!

A Team that Wants to Play Caldwell’s Way

After the Lady Vols’ worst season in program history—going 16-14, losing their last eight games in a row, including a 76-61 drubbing to NC State in the NCAA Tournament first round—the entire roster departed. When Athletics Director David White elected to give Head Coach Kim Caldwell another year, she opened up the transfer portal and assembled a new roster of 14 transfers, plus incoming freshman Gabby Minus, a 6’1” wing from Dacula, Georgia. So, all 15 players are new additions who have surely come to Rocky Top wanting and expecting to play Caldwell’s aggressive, fast-paced brand of basketball.

Caldwell, 38, was hired three years ago from Division II Marshall, where she won by relentlessly pressing and trapping opposing teams, fast-breaking, and shooting threes then switching entire lineups like hockey units when her players got winded from the exertion. This worked at times in her first year with the Lady Vols, coming close to knocking off top team like Texas and beating UConn in a game that shook up the Huskies enough to compel them to re-focus enough to win the national title. But some of Caldwell’s the better trappers, pressers, and shooters were five senior players left over from previous coach Kellie Harper, now at Missouri. When those veterans’ eligibility was up, things seemed to fall apart. At moments last year a frustrated Caldwell castigated the team publicly for giving up and not playing hard, which did not go over well.

But this year’s lineup has been selected for their feisty aggressiveness, and they in turn have chosen the Lady Vols for the opportunity to play that way. The only way to play Caldwell’s game is to play Caldwell’s game. You press and press and press some more, wear yourself out in a short span then get subbed and catch your breath on the bench.

It takes a certain type of player to make it work, as we will see in the coming months as we get to know players like 5’9” junior guard Naomi White, from Omaha, Nebraska, a Northern Arizona transfer who was the 2026 Big Sky Freshman of the Year, averaging 20.8 points a game with a 36.5 percentage on three-pointers. From an Air Force family, she was born in Cambridge, England, and has dual citizenship.

Senior forward Fatmata Janneh, a 6’2” transfer from Texas A&M, was born in London, England, and attended Barking Abbey School before playing two years at St. Peters and her junior year at A&M, where her 9.7 rebounds a game ranked her fifth in the SEC.

Fifth-year senior Kaylene “K.K.” Smikle, a 6-foot guard from Bay Shore, New York, played two years at Rutgers and two at Maryland, averaging 17.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.7 steals. Another fifth-year senior, 5’7” guard Kennedy Fauntleroy, from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, played a year each at Georgetown, Oklahoma State, Arizona State, and East Carolina, where she made 86 steals and 153 assists.

Sixth-year senior forward Aaliyah Moore was a McDonald’s All-American from Moore, Oklahoma. She played four years at Texas then sat out last year recovering from surgery.

Caldwell will count on long-distance scoring from junior Avery Mills, a 5’9” guard from Lynchburg, Virginia, who shot 43.8% on her three-pointers at Liberty, as well as senior forward Riley Makalusky, from Fishers, Indiana, who hit 43.2% of her threes for West Virginia. For sparking those fast breaks, look for sophomore Zhen Craft, from Waldorf, Maryland, who had 26 assists, 17 blocks, and 12 steals for Georgia.

They will lead the Lady Vols in buying in to the philosophy and coming up with surprising upsets throughout the season.

Reshaping Lives

When options are few, KARM steps in to help

Story by Susan Alexander

Andrea Tate has had her troubles. Raised by a single mom who struggled with mental illness, she learned early on to rely on alcohol and relationships to cope with her problems. She married, owned a business, served in her church, and stayed sober for seven years before falling off the wagon. She and her husband divorced and she later married again — the wrong guy. “I had lost my way,” she says. During COVID, she was isolated. She coped with alcohol. After a lot of trauma, the marriage ended. “He left me with nothing,” she says. She had no way to get housing for herself and her two girls. Her church pointed her toward Serenity, the shelter for women in crisis run by Knox Area Rescue Ministries. “It was my only option. I didn’t have a choice.”

They spent 23 months at Serenity. “It was very humbling,” she says, “but the fog started to lift. It was the ah-ha moment I needed in my life to start dealing with the trauma and the coping behaviors I’d had my whole life. I had a great experience.”

The people at Serenity were able to help Tate make decisions, she says. She got an attorney and divorced with full custody of her kids. While she was there, she was hired by KARM as an administrative assistant, a job she’s held for almost two years. She’s a full-time online student at Moody Bible Institute. Her daughters are thriving.

“I believe our circumstances can make us or break us,” she says. “I was able to be remolded.”

Changing needs

KARM has been reshaping lives — while also reshaping itself — since 1960. Started by five local pastors as a shelter for alcoholic men in the downtown area, KARM has expanded again and again as needs change and grow. It’s still a nondenominational faith-based ministry, though the people who come there for a hot meal or a bed do not have to profess a faith. It’s still located near town and on a bus line. It still serves a vulnerable population who need help.

“It all starts with a meal,” says Celia Lively, vice president of engagement. “You can’t think about your future if your stomach is growling today. We want to take care of the tangible physical needs first, then we move on to what do you need long term.”

The people they serve face a wide range of problems and situations. Some can’t keep up with the rising costs of housing. Some have been discharged from the hospital and have nowhere to go. Some are young people who’ve aged out of foster care. Some face mental health issues. Some are escaping abusive relationships with nothing to help them start over.

And the numbers they serve have skyrocketed in the last five years. The number of men being housed at KARM has risen by 73 percent in that time; the number of women by 133 percent.

“Just when you think you’ve seen every type of situation, you get a call that someone dropped their grandmother off at McDonalds and we should go get her,” says Danita McCartney, KARM president and CEO. “I’ve never seen so many wheelchairs and walkers, and elderly coming through the doors. We’ve really seen an increase in numbers post-COVID, with rents increasing. Some people have no safety net — family or financial. It’s single moms and kids and the elderly. People are coming to us so sick and worn out. It’s not just one reason.”

Opening doors to a fresh start: KARM helps people move beyond shelter and into housing.

“The landscape changes constantly,” McCartney says. “One of the things I love about KARM is our willingness to evolve and meet those changing needs. We do a great job at pivoting.”

Pivot with a purpose

KARM introduced a big pivot this past April. After months of studying other homeless ministries around the country and researching best practices, KARM changed its program to allow people to stay 28 days before requiring them to start working with a case manager on solving the problems that prevent them from getting housing.

“Prior to April, people could stay as long as they needed to, and we were seeing that it was prohibiting them from moving on to the next step,” Lively says. Now, they have 28 days to get stabilized and then, in order to stay, they have to take life skills classes that focus on personal growth and mental health; learn how to maintain health and wellness; learn skills that help prevent relapses into bad behaviors. They can also enroll in job training programs: the Abundant Life Kitchen prepares them to work in restaurants, and CleanStart teaches janitorial skills.

The program seems to be working. Though it’s not been available for even a year, KARM is seeing an increase in the number of people who graduate from the program and move into housing.

Todd Gilbert, chief impact officer, shared numbers in a post online in September: “Since April, 73 percent of the adults who complete their initial 28 days choose to enter case management and begin building a life beyond the shelter,” he wrote. “… We are approaching 200 people housed this fiscal year, alongside a record number of employment placements. Our highest single month reached 39 individuals housed, more than some entire years used to bring.

“Knoxville’s broader rate of return to homelessness runs around 15 percent. Among KARM graduates, it is just under five percent.”

KARM Thrift Stores

In order to offer all the services they offer — which also include a faith-based recovery program for men, medical care with help from Summit Medical, post-hospital care for people who would otherwise be on the street, and after-care services for the clients who move on from KARM — the ministry relies on two big sources of income: private donations amount to 44 percent of its income, and KARM thrift stores provide 43 percent, according to the 2025 annual report. At this time of year, a lot of that income flows from its two Christmas stores — one on Clinton Highway and the other on Peters Road. The stores opened in early September, but they see most of their traffic in November, says Josh Lively, director of marketing and communications for KARM Stores.

KARM Store workers snag Christmas-related donations year-round at each of its thrift stores and send them to be warehoused until Christmas store workers, like all good elves, start decorating the two outlets in early summer, he says. They have proven to be very popular since the first one opened in 2010; Lively says they’ve seen a rise in visitors from other states.

“You can’t think about your future if your stomach is growling today.”

In all, the Christmas stores offer 65,000 square feet of everything holiday: wreaths and trees, ornaments, centerpieces, garlands, candles and more — all donated goods from East Tennessee’s attics and cupboards. Lively says lots of young families come looking for the vintage items they remember from their childhood Christmases.

Last year on Peters Road, a woman found an angel topper made from corn husks, and she said her grandmother used to make them. When she looked at it more closely, she realized that her grandmother had indeed made that very topper. “That is part of the magic of our Christmas stores — finding treasures you wouldn’t find buying new,” he says.

Looking ahead — and how to help

Looking ahead, KARM staffers are excited about a new campus for women and children, which is scheduled to open in 2028. It will still be located in the vicinity of downtown and on a bus line, and it will offer 20 rooms for single mothers and their children.

They’re also anxious to educate the community about the challenges they face in addressing homelessness. “There is so much misinformation on social media,” McCartney says. “Some people believe we bus homeless people into Knoxville. That isn’t true. We encourage people to come down and take a tour and see what our programs are designed to do. Come see what we’re all about.”

There are other ways to help, too. The shelter is open and providing meals 365 days a year and always welcomes volunteers to serve them. “Whatever you’re good at — teaching or organizing or gardening — we’ll find a way to get you involved,” Celia Lively says.

And people who are homeless — and those who are ready to move into housing — need all kinds of basic supplies, from socks and toothbrushes to cleaning supplies and toilet paper. A list of items the shelter is always in need of is listed at https://karm.org/needs/.

Donating to and shopping at the 26 permanent and two Christmas KARM thrift stores also benefits the ministry. One hundred percent of profits go to KARM to provide services. Those funds keep KARM moving forward.

“We never sit still for long,” Lively says. “We’re always asking how can we serve our neighbors? What’s the gap?”

The Fourth Bond

On carbon, character, and what holds a life together.

Story by Nathan Sparks

Each of us is here for our own reason. How we conduct ourselves over the course of our lives becomes the living record of what we have learned to value and how willing we are to apply it.

Nature keeps a record like that, too. Take a simple piece of carbon, lying deep in the earth, waiting. Then comes a season of immense heat and pressure, forces so vast they rearrange its very structure. The carbon in your pencil and the carbon in the finest diamond are exactly the same material. Nothing is added and nothing is taken away. The difference is in how the atoms hold together. In the pencil, each atom bonds to only three neighbors, so it lies in soft, gray layers that smudge and flake apart. In the diamond, each atom locks onto four neighbors, all at equal strength, and that structure gives it its clarity, its brilliance, and a hardness unmatched by anything else in nature. When a person finds the resolve to endure their own heat and pressure, the result can be just as remarkable. That is the goal, and this is where the journey begins.

I learned early that the systems meant to protect us don’t always do it. From third grade through seventh, I received corporal punishment at school, again and again, from the adults whose job was to teach and nurture me. I was a boy with a big imagination, and the lesson I took from it was simple: take what you’re offered, and stop dreaming. Something in me refused. When someone told me I couldn’t do something, I set out to prove I could, and from the time I was fourteen, I was building businesses. But proving yourself has no finish line. I didn’t just work hard; I worked until I dropped and expected the people around me to keep pace, until some of them had to walk away from the work. I overpromised and overgave, and I often wanted more than the people I loved could give. Whatever I did, I did too much of it. Go big or go home was my motto, and I lived it in every corner of my life.

Looking back, I can see the same pattern running through every important relationship of my adult life, and the common thread was never anyone else. It was me. Eventually it brought me to the darkest stretch I have ever known, a season when I came face to face with losing what matters most to me. I could have run from it, into work or into any other distraction, the way I always had. This time I didn’t. I sat with myself and let the quiet do its work, and slowly I started to see the pattern for what it was: a man who overdid everything and wore out the people he loved most. Nobody wants that. I’m not sure I ever wanted it either, because in all those years I never really rested.

I have come to call that moment the summit of excuses. It is not a place of victory, and it is certainly not a perch from which to judge anyone else. It is the point where the explanations you have been using simply stop persuading you. In the moment, I had what seemed like good reasons for nearly everything I did. Life was demanding, the business needed me, and the people around me would understand. My friend Edwin, who writes in these pages, puts it plainly: the truth doesn’t care whether you like it. Once you have seen it, you cannot unsee it. You can only decide what you are going to do with it.

So what changes us? For most of my life, I would have told you it was the hard seasons themselves, the pressure. But pressure alone has never made a diamond. There is plenty of carbon in the earth that has been squeezed for ages and never became anything more than it was. What makes the difference is what happens inside the material while the pressure is on. For me, that was a choice, and it has become a promise I intend to keep.

It took me decades to see that I had never stopped building walls. As a boy, I built forts out of pine needles to keep danger out. As a man, I built them out of achievement, pride, busyness, and silence. They worked, in a way. They kept a lot of pain outside. But they also kept out the very things I needed most. That is the trouble with walls: they can’t tell the difference between what would hurt you and what would heal you.

Like carbon becoming a diamond, transformation is not about what we gain, 
but how we rearrange what already exists within us.

A diamond doesn’t work that way. It isn’t strong because it has walls around it. It’s strong because of what holds it together on the inside. Every atom reaches out and locks onto four neighbors, each bond pulling with equal strength, so no single bond carries the whole load. Take one away and you don’t get a weaker diamond. You get graphite, soft and gray and easy to break.

When I finally stopped defending myself long enough to look honestly, I could see that my life had plenty of strength but lacked balance. I was pouring everything into one or two bonds and starving the others. So I started asking a different question. Not “How do I protect myself?” but “What has to hold me together?” The answer I keep coming back to is four things: faith, love, integrity, and stewardship.

The first bond is faith, and it formed in the heat. For much of my life, I treated God a little like a business partner I called when a deal went sideways. I believed, but I believed the way a busy man believes, in between other things. In the darkest season, I had nothing left to negotiate with. I didn’t pray for a particular outcome so much as for the strength to see what was true and the courage to stay in the room with it. Sitting with that challenged me in a way nothing ever had. Faith reminded me that I am not the center of everything, and that the outcome of my life was never entirely mine to engineer. That was humbling, but it was also a relief. Trust, I have learned, is what you do in the heat. You hold on when you cannot see how things will turn out, and you keep showing up anyway.

The second bond is integrity, which is really a bond with yourself. I used to think of integrity mainly as how I treated the people in my life, my customers, and my partners, and I took that seriously. What I neglected were the promises I made to myself. I would tell myself I’d slow down, take care of my body, and be present at home, and then I would quietly renegotiate the deal the moment it became inconvenient. Marcus Aurelius wrote that the soul becomes dyed the color of its thoughts. I have come to believe it takes on the color of our choices, too. Every time I said one thing and did another, something in me grew a little dimmer. Integrity, for me now, means stopping the negotiation with what I already know. It means letting my inner truth and my outer life become the same thing, so the man people see is the man who actually lives in my house.

Those first two bonds turn inward. The next two reach out. The third bond is love, and it is the one I thought I was best at. I loved hard, and I loved generously. But I have had to admit that loving hard is not the same as loving well. I gave too much where it didn’t help and too little where it mattered most. I poured myself into the people I loved and then often wanted more than they could give back. Love doesn’t overwhelm. It holds steady. It leaves room for the other person to breathe, to be who they are, and to choose freely. Some of the people I love most have seen the worst of my excess. I understand that they may not be ready to trust a promise, but I can become someone whose life keeps it, day after day, for as long as it takes. I still believe in the love that’s worth becoming that man for.

My friend John Quillen taught me something about this, though he would never put it that way. John is one of the finest mountaineers this state has produced, and he is closing in on the Seven Summits. On his way up Everest, falling rock struck a Sherpa guide in the head. Other climbers passed by. John and his partner stopped, called for a helicopter, and got the man to safety, knowing it could cost John the summit he had spent years working toward. He made it to the top anyway. But that’s not the part of the story I remember. The summit was the goal. Stopping was the man. Love is the bond that makes you stop.

I felt as though I were dragging an anvil uphill.

The fourth bond is stewardship, which means caring for what you have been given. That includes a body, a mind, a business, the people who live and work beside you, and the hours in a day. I once built homes for a living, and every builder knows a house isn’t strong because you threw more lumber at it. It’s strong because the load is carried evenly, with every member doing its share. For most of my life, I lived the opposite way.

I thought more was always better: more work, more effort, more giving, more wanting. I treated my body as equipment, my energy as unlimited, and rest as something I could earn later. Stewardship asked me to see that excess is not dedication. It is simply another way of being out of balance. The hardest discipline for me has not been working harder. It has been learning to stop, to rest, and to let some things be enough. When I say I have to be unreasonable with myself now, I don’t mean I punish myself for being human. I mean I keep the promises I’ve made, even when the old habits are calling.

Years ago, I heard Skip Ross give a talk called “You Can Be a Winner.” He said a life has to be balanced across business, home, social, physical, mental, and spiritual. I never forgot it, but I didn’t live it as well as I could have. Today I see those six areas held inside these four bonds. Faith carries the

My only thought was that I had summited Earth's highest peak and may not live to tell anyone about it.

spiritual. Love carries home and friendship. Integrity keeps the mind honest. Stewardship takes care of the body and the work. Balance doesn’t mean every area gets the same hours every week. Some seasons will ask more of one than another. It means no single bond is left carrying the whole load, and when one has pulled too hard, you come back to the others before the imbalance becomes your normal.

That brings me to time, the part of the process nobody can rush. A diamond does not form in a moment. It forms over a span of time long enough that the change is invisible while it happens. I used to think transformation would arrive as a single event, a decision, a turning point, or a dramatic before and after. What I’ve found is quieter and more demanding than that. Transformation happens in the small choices, made every day and, if I am honest, every minute of every day. It’s the extra effort when “good enough” would pass. It’s the negative story about yourself you notice and refuse to keep telling. It’s the moment you catch yourself reaching for more than you need and choose to stop. Most of life is noise. The signal is in those choices.

One more thing about diamonds surprised me. They are the hardest material in nature, but hard is not the same as unbreakable. Strike one at the wrong angle, and it can still crack. That gives me hope rather than fear, because it means strength was never about being invincible. I will not get every day right. What matters is that when I miss a step, I go back to it instead of using the miss as an excuse to quit. I am not writing this from the finish line. I am still on the road, still learning, still being shaped.

How can I ever one up that experience?

Edwin reminds us that a trout responds to what is presented, not what was intended. People are the same way. The people I love cannot see my intentions. They can only see my days. Trust is not something I can ask for or announce. It is built the way a diamond is built, through steady pressure held over time until the structure proves itself. My job is not to tell anyone I have changed. My job is to keep living in a way that eventually makes the telling unnecessary, and makes me worthy of the trust and love of the people who matter most.

There is one last thing I love about diamonds. For all their brilliance, they don’t make their own light. A diamond takes in the light around it and gives it back, scattered into colors, brighter than it arrived. I think that is the real purpose of the bonds: not to make us impressive, but to make us clear enough to reflect something greater than ourselves.

I don’t know what your pressure looks like. It may be a doctor’s visit, a quiet hour of honesty, or a season you would never choose. Whatever it is, you are not just a lump of carbon waiting to see what happens to you. You get a say in how you hold together. And if any of this sounds familiar, you don’t have to wait for your own jolt to begin.

GOLD WINNER in CPA; SILVER WINNER in Woman-Owned Business

Accounting Made Easy

Amelse & Edmonds helps business owners spend less time worrying about the books and more time building their businesses.

Story & Photography by Nathan Sparks

Running a business means making decisions all day long. Hiring another employee. Investing in equipment. Taking on a bigger project. Each choice has financial consequences, and making it confidently takes more than a stack of receipts and a tax return. It takes an accounting team that knows your business, keeps your numbers current, and helps you see what comes next. At Amelse & Edmonds, owner Michelle Amelse and her team bring those pieces together through full-service accounting designed to make business ownership easier.

The relationship works best for owners who want ongoing support: someone to keep the books in order, prepare financial statements, answer questions, and plan for taxes throughout the year. Instead of letting accounting become another job squeezed into evenings and weekends, clients have a dedicated accountant who understands their business. When that person is away, another team member steps in, keeping questions moving and clients supported.

That personal attention extends to the everyday details. Clients typically handle their own customer invoicing, while the firm imports transactions, matches them to invoices, and makes sure the accounts reconcile. Monthly financial statements help owners understand how the business is performing. Behind those numbers are people paying attention. As Amelse explains, “it's not just an automated process; it's an actual accounting professional looking at every transaction.” For an owner juggling employees, customers, and daily operations, that oversight means one less responsibility competing for attention.

Keeping the books current also makes tax planning more useful. The team reviews tax planning at least quarterly, giving clients opportunities to discuss decisions while there is still time to act. Equipment purchases, changing profits, and anticipated tax obligations become part of an ongoing conversation. “We're very big on being proactive versus reactive,” Amelse says. By tax-filing season, the previous year is over. Working together during the year gives the firm a chance to help clients prepare and identify opportunities to reduce their tax burden.

The payoff continues when it is time to file. Amelse says the firm completes company tax returns for most full-service clients by mid-February, with missing documentation sometimes affecting that timing. That early progress gives owners more time to address their personal returns, too. The work has been happening all along, making tax season the next step in an established process instead of a scramble to reconstruct an entire year.

The firm is growing alongside its clients. A new office roughly doubles its previous space, and additions to its accounting, bookkeeping, and administrative teams create room to serve more businesses. Amelse is also exploring technology that can improve efficiency and speed research, while keeping personal service and the security of client information central to the practice.

For businesses whose books need attention, Amelse recommends getting started in November or December, when catching up and reviewing the year can still support meaningful planning. For owners ready for a lasting change, full-service accounting offers something even more valuable: a team that knows the numbers, understands the business, and helps make the next decision easier.

Amelse & Edmonds CPAs

Gold Winner in CPA;

Silver Winner in Woman-Owned Business

10142 Parkside Dr, Suite 110
Knoxville, TN 37922
865-288-2200
amelsecpa.com

Promotional content

GOLD WINNER in Playground or Park | SILVER WINNER in Event Venue

DESTINATIONS Your Corporate Retreat at Aspire

On the shores of Melton Hill Lake, Aspire makes the easiest yes you’ll give all year — bring your team here.

Story by Nathan Sparks

Imagine, for a moment, the perfect place to hold a corporate meeting or a company retreat. What comes to mind? And just as important — where? Maybe you picture somewhere far away: the airport, the rental car, the hotel ballroom that looks like every other hotel ballroom. But what if the answer was right here in our own backyard?

On the beautiful shores of Melton Hill embayment of the Clinch River, nestled at the base of the mountains, lies Aspire. It calls itself a park, and on paper it is one. But spend a single day there, as I have many times, and the word feels too small. Aspire is a cornucopia — trails and shoreline, a restaurant, meadows and ridgelines, gathering spaces with the lake right outside the glass. It is, quietly, one of the best places in East Tennessee to bring the people you work with.

So picture the day instead of the brochure. Your team arrives in the morning, twenty-five minutes from Knoxville — no flights, no logistics headaches, no one getting lost. You settle into The Jade, a light-filled room with floor-to-ceiling windows and walls that fold all the way open to the outdoors. The session that usually drags somehow doesn’t, because the lake is shimmering just past the glass and the air actually moves.

When lunch comes, you don’t sit through it in the same chairs. You take a walk. There’s a wildflower meadow and miles of trail right outside the door, and a short stroll with a colleague you normally only see on a screen does what no icebreaker ever has. You come back loose, talking, ready. That’s the thing about Aspire — it gives you those moments without making you schedule them too hard.

Everything, in One Place

The afternoon is yours to shape. Maybe it’s a hike up Aspiration Mountain, or kayaks out from The Launch onto Melton Hill, or a friendly, faintly ridiculous race around the bike pump track. Maybe it’s nothing more strenuous than coffee on the terrace. The point is that the team-building isn’t something you drive somewhere to find. It’s the ground beneath your feet — eighteen-plus miles of trail, the water, the meadow, all inside one secured property.

And here’s the detail that makes a planner exhale: you don’t have to wrangle any of it. Aspire’s Onward & Upward Center keeps your meeting room, your meals, and your evening reception under one roof. The Pearl, the restaurant on-site, handles the food — indoor dining, outdoor dining, a rooftop bar and lounge for when the laptops finally close. No catering company to hire, no coolers to haul, no vendor to chase. It’s all here. For a bigger crowd, The Exchange — a 200-foot open-air pavilion — opens the day up wider still.

Built to Be Loved

It helps to know Aspire wasn’t built for business at all. It’s the decades-long labor of the Hollingsworth family, Clinton residents who wanted to give their community something lasting — a place where recreation and inspiration intertwine. That origin shows. Aspire doesn’t feel corporate, even when you’re using it for corporate ends, and that’s precisely why it works. The fastest way to get people out of their meeting-room armor is to put them somewhere that doesn’t feel like a meeting. Aspire does that without trying.

I keep coming back, in every season — the meadow in bloom, the trailheads quiet at dawn, the lake throwing back the last of the evening light. CityView put this place on its cover not long ago, and reporting that story only deepened the sense that we have something genuinely special hiding in plain sight.

The Easiest Yes

We spend so much energy looking elsewhere for the thing that will impress our teams — flying them out, booking the resort, chasing a skyline. Aspire is a quiet argument that the better answer was close the whole time, on a stretch of Tennessee shoreline at the foot of the mountains. Convenient. Beautiful. All of it in one place. The kind of day people are glad they said yes to.

Walk it yourself and it clicks. Call the events team at (865) 463-7777 or visit alwaysaspire.com, and ask for a site visit. It’s more than a park. For the right gathering, it might be exactly the place you’ve been imagining.

Aspire

Gold Winner in Playground or Park |

Silver Winner in Event Venue

777 Aspire Drive
Clinton, TN 37716
(865) 463-7777
alwaysaspire.com

Promotional content

GOLD WINNER in Carpet Contractor, Flooring Installation, Flooring Sales, Hardwood Flooring Contractor, Tile Contractor SILVER WINNER in Rug Store

Four decades of success.

One customer at a time.

Story by Matt McGarry
Photography by Ethan Smith

In Knoxville, a good name is earned one job at a time. For 46 years, Broadway Carpets has been earning it. Since opening its doors in 1980, the company has watched businesses come and go, design trends rise and fall, and customer expectations shift again and again. Through it all, one thing has held steady: a reputation for treating every customer like a neighbor.

Now, as Broadway Carpets steps into its next chapter, with Bo Perkins helping lead the way, that reputation is exactly what the company intends to protect. “We’re Knoxville born and bred,” Perkins says. “And the growth that comes with success has not changed who we are. We’re still a small-town, local shop and do business one customer at a time.”

For longtime customers, that continuity matters. Perkins is no newcomer; he grew up in Broadway Carpets alongside the Founders who built it. He is not here to reinvent the company but to carry forward what decades of hard work built.

That foundation is considerable. What began as a carpet store has grown into a full-service flooring business serving residential and commercial customers alike, with tile, hardwood, and other floor-covering solutions, as well as custom shower projects. Yet even as the showroom has expanded, the way Broadway Carpets does business has remained remarkably consistent.

The company takes what Perkins describes as a “tailored” approach, recognizing that no two customers, homes, or commercial spaces are exactly alike. Rather than simply selling a product, the team considers how it will work within the space, evaluates the application, and matches each project with the right installation expertise. “It’s never one size fits all,” Perkins says. “This is what you like. This is your space. Let’s make it work. How can we do that in the right way?”

That promise carries weight because of the people behind it. The average tenure at Broadway Carpets sits in the mid-20-year range, and many team members bring 30 or more years of industry knowledge to their roles. That depth is increasingly rare in today’s market, and the company still invests in ongoing training so its team stays current on evolving products and installation techniques. Customers are not just buying flooring; they are getting guidance from people who have seen it all.

The truest measure of a reputation, though, is who keeps coming back. Much of Broadway Carpets’ business comes through referrals and word of mouth, including multiple generations of the same families. “Being in business for over four decades, you’re getting different generations of the families,” Perkins says. “We have customers who have parents that are customers.”

That kind of trust cannot simply be assumed; it is renewed with every single project. Perkins understands that the next chapter will be judged by the same standard as every chapter before it. The years may bring change, but the commitment to customers will not.

“At the end of the day, it’s still relationships,” Perkins says. “And that means always doing business one customer at a time.”

Broadway Carpets

Gold Winner in Carpet Contractor, Flooring Installation, Flooring Sales, Hardwood Flooring Contractor, Tile Contractor

Silver Winner in Rug Store

930 N. Broadway St.
Knoxville, TN 37917
865-525-5511
9818 Kingston Pike
Knoxville, TN 37922
865-531-7021
broadwaycarpets.com

Promotional content

GOLD WINNER in Caterer - Business / Caterer - Party. SILVER WINNER in Event Planner / Wedding Caterer

Classy Caterer

Exceptional food. Every detail considered.

Story by Nathan Sparks
Photography by Classy Caterer

A memorable event begins with an invitation and ends with guests glad they came. In between, someone has to get everything right. The food must be delicious, the service attentive, and the details handled well enough that the host can enjoy the occasion, too. That is where Classy Cater shines.

A Gold winner in both Party Catering and Business Catering in Cityview’s Best of the Best, Classy Cater brings the same commitment to a small business lunch that it brings to an annual gathering of more than 500 people. Excellent food earns guests’ attention. The level of service surrounding it is what gives hosts the confidence to call again.

For Trisha Kelly, that confidence begins with understanding the person planning the event. Before discussing how an occasion will come together, she wants to know what the client hopes it will become.

“I want to personalize every event that we sit down and plan,” Kelly says. “I want to meet with you one on one.”

That conversation gives clients room to share ideas, ask questions, and describe the experience they want their guests to have. Kelly draws on previous events to suggest possibilities, but she is equally interested in a fresh idea. Her approach leaves room for imagination while giving it the practical support necessary to become a successful occasion.

Corporate gatherings hold a particular appeal. Kelly spent more than 30 years in the corporate world, gaining firsthand experience with symposiums and events of varying sizes. She understands the work behind bringing people together and the importance of making an organization look its best.

“Corporate events is where I want to start because that’s where my heart is,” she says.

That background informs a business equipped to serve everything from office lunches to large celebrations. Whether the occasion is professional or personal, the goal is to make guests feel well cared for and give the host a capable partner throughout the process.

Classy Cater is also expanding its wedding and event-planning services. After catering several successful weddings this year, the business is helping couples shape more of the celebration itself. Bringing catering and planning together allows Kelly to connect the menu with the larger vision and coordinate the details that give an event its character.

“It’s all in the details,” she says.

Those details can extend beyond the table to finding event space, arranging entertainment, and connecting clients with the people needed to complete their plans.

Nonprofit organizations are especially close to Kelly’s heart. She recognizes how much volunteers carry, often balancing fundraising responsibilities with numerous other demands. Helping them organize an event, make contacts, and put the pieces in order can ease that burden while supporting the cause they serve.

As Classy Cater welcomes new clients and grows, its appeal remains personal: good food, thoughtful planning, and service that reflects the importance of the occasion. From a business lunch to a wedding reception or a major annual event, Kelly wants clients to feel that someone understands their vision and is working carefully to fulfill it.

For hosts, that means more time with their guests. For guests, it means an occasion worth remembering.

Classy Caterer

Gold Winner in Caterer - Business / Caterer - Party.

Silver Winner in Event Planner / Wedding Caterer

10621 Kingston Pike
Knoxville, TN 37922
865-406-5477
classycaterer.com

Promotional content

GOLD WINNER in Daycare BRONZE WINNER in Preschool

The three-legged stool: church, school and family

Church, school and family unite to prepare students for lives of faith, leadership and service.

Story by Matt McGarry
Photography by Leslie Claire

For more than five decades, First Baptist Concord has invested in the lives of children and families through Christian education. What began with Concord Christian Preschool in 1969 has grown into Knoxville-based Concord Christian School, a thriving educational community dedicated to academic excellence, spiritual growth and preparing students to make a difference in the world.

Founded in 1996, CCS has spent 30 years building an educational experience that nurtures both the mind and the spirit. The school expanded through the grades, eventually establishing a comprehensive K-12 program. Its first seniors graduated in 2013, marking an important milestone in the school’s evolution.

For Donald E. Snider, Jr., Superintendent of Schools, Christian education is more than a profession. With 41 years in the field, he sees it as a calling. That calling—that sense of purpose—continues to guide the school’s growth. For the 2026-27 school year, CCS serves 1,027 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, with another 436 participating in its homeschool program. The school also offers preschool and after-school care through its KidzConnect program.

Recent investments reflect that momentum. In May 2024, a new Upper School floor added 31 classrooms. Just recently, the school purchased 25 acres for future varsity athletic fields and facilities. Yet CCS’s growth is about more than enrollment and facilities. At the heart of the school is its mission: To inspire students to follow Jesus by equipping them to serve, lead, and transform their world. To that end, teachers and staff strive to know each student individually, providing not just academic instruction, but personal guidance and discipleship as well.

That approach reflects the school’s commitment to Kingdom Education, a philosophy Snider describes as “a three-legged stool of church, school, and family working together in a lifelong process that is centered on leading a child to Christ, building them up in Christ, and equipping a child to serve Christ.”

As a ministry of First Baptist Concord, CCS works closely with the church to reinforce that shared purpose. The commitment also extends into the community, where students participate in service initiatives throughout the year. Activities include Operation Christmas Child, supporting Second Harvest Food Bank, the Dolly Parton Children’s Hospital, and senior class mission trips. “We constantly look for ways our students can serve our community,” Snider says.

The school’s Christ-centered culture, and its commitment to advancing Kingdom education with excellence, says Snider, “helps students to not simply prepare for college or careers, but to develop character, recognize their God-given abilities and approach the world through a biblical worldview.”

As Concord Christian School looks to the future, its expanding campus and growing range of educational options reflect a vision that remains firmly rooted in its founding purpose. As Dr. John Mark Harrison, senior pastor of First Baptist Concord observes: “Thirty years ago,” he says, “a group of visionary church leaders at First Baptist Concord set out to establish a school to educate and equip students with a biblical world view. We are so thankful to continue this vision into the future by inspiring students to follow Jesus believing that Christ will continue to direct our steps.”

Concord Christian School

Gold Winner in Daycare

Bronze Winner in Preschool

11704 Kingston Pike
Knoxville, TN 37934
865-966-8858
www.concordchristianschool.org

Promotional content

BRONZE WINNER in Dentist - Orthodontist - Allen Langford

Your Smile. Our Passion.

Personalized orthodontic care helps patients of every age find confidence in a healthy, lasting smile.

Story by Matt McGarry
Photography by Nathan Sparks

There is no age limit on a beautiful smile. At Langford & Ringer Orthodontics, personalized care, modern technology, and a welcoming, caring team of professionals help patients of all ages enjoy a smile they love. And while a great smile makes a lasting impression, its value goes far beyond appearances. It can inspire confidence, improve comfort, and help an individual feel more like himself or herself.

Serving Knoxville and the surrounding East Tennessee communities for over two decades, Langford & Ringer Orthodontics welcomes children, teenagers, and adults who want to improve their smiles. No matter the age, the goal is the same: to develop a healthy, attractive smile through individualized care.

Led by Dr. Allen Langford and Dr. Jordan Ringer, the practice combines specialized training with a patient-first philosophy. Dr. Langford, a University of Tennessee graduate, completed his dental education in 1998 and his orthodontic residency in 2001. Dr. Ringer joined the practice in 2023, bringing with him a growing family, as well as a commitment to excellent care and a fluency in both English and Spanish. 

Experience Meets a Personal Touch

For Drs. Ringer and Langford, every patient represents an opportunity to make a meaningful difference and a positive, life-long impact in someone’s life. “After all,” says Ringer, “the smile we create for a patient may be seen during an interview for college or a first job. On a first date or at a wedding ceremony. The impact of a great smile is immeasurable.” 

Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach, Drs. Langford and Ringer work closely with each patient, getting to know them, listening to their individual concerns, and understanding what a successful outcome looks like to that person. “Our goal is to make our patients feel at home,” Ringer says. “Our team is trained to help them feel like a member of the family.”

The Art, and Science, of a Beautiful Smile

Continuing education plays an important role in Langford and Ringer’s approach to their work, and both are committed to keeping up to date on the latest technology and techniques in orthodontics. Ringer describes their recent focus on advanced aesthetics and finishing techniques. “It's not just contouring the teeth to get them to their proper proportions, shape, and size, but also the gum line,” he explains. “When patients finish, we're looking not just at the alignment of the teeth, but at so many different elements of the smile and the proportions of the teeth and gums as it relates to the face.” The goal is a balanced, natural-looking result, not simply straight teeth, but a smile “where everything works together for a great result.”

Giving Back to the Community

The practice's commitment to making a difference extends beyond its office. Through the Gifted Smiles program, Ringer treats patients who might otherwise be denied access to care, with a commitment to access that has deep roots. Growing up with a father who was an oral surgeon, Ringer participated in humanitarian dental trips to underserved communities in South and Central America. Those experiences helped shape his decision to pursue healthcare… and his ability to serve Spanish-speaking patients and families.

Ultimately, for Drs. Langford and Ringer, there’s more to their work than creating a beautiful smile. They’re helping someone approach new opportunities with greater assurance, and carry that confidence into every aspect of their life. As Dr. Ringer puts it: “I’m always amazed at how life-changing a great smile can be.”

Langford & Ringer Orthodontics

Bronze Winner in Dentist - Orthodontist - Allen Langford

111 Fox Road, Suite 202
Knoxville, TN 37922
865-343-0174
langfordringerortho.com

Promotional content

GOLD WINNER in Dentist - Orthodontist

A Smile Worth Coming Home To

At Pickering & Allen Orthodontics, a familiar face returns to carry forward a tradition of personal care.

Story by Nathan Sparks

When my youngest son, Morgan, needed braces, I did what many Cityview readers do: I opened our Best of the Best issue to see whom our readers recommended. That decision introduced our family to Dr. Jim Pickering and Dr. Tyler Allen, and it led to an experience I can personally recommend without hesitation.

At Morgan’s assessment, they showed us the deficiencies in his bite and explained how traditional braces could correct them in a fairly short period of time. The office was impressive, and the people were welcoming, but what stayed with me was Dr. Pickering’s knowledge and his ability to explain the treatment. I understood what needed to happen and felt comfortable putting my son’s care in his hands.

Anyone who has been through braces knows that the first appointment is only the beginning. There are adjustments, follow-up visits, and schedules to juggle. Appointments were easy to make, we were quickly in and out, and Morgan seemed pleased throughout the process. The results were stunning. As a father, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

That history makes the practice’s newest addition especially interesting to me. Dr. Will Harris understands the patient experience here because he lived it himself. Long before returning as an orthodontist, the Knoxville native sat in the patient’s chair at Pickering & Allen.

His interest grew into a summer job as an instrument technician, helping in the lab and learning the work behind the scenes. Eventually, he became a full-time treatment coordinator, welcoming new patients and helping families understand the treatment ahead. Working alongside Pickering and Allen gave him both mentors and a clear picture of the kind of orthodontist he wanted to become.

In 2019, Harris left to pursue that goal. A summa cum laude graduate of the University of Tennessee, he earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree at UT’s College of Dentistry before completing a one-year orthodontic fellowship and a two-year residency at Jacksonville University. Now he and his wife, Brooke, have returned to Knoxville, bringing him back to the practice that helped inspire his career.

He joins doctors whose own experiences shaped their calling. A baseball injury severely damaged Pickering’s smile as a teenager; the care that restored it ultimately inspired him to help others. Since opening his practice in 1995, he has treated generations of East Tennessee families. Allen, a diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics, also remembers how braces changed his confidence as a child.

Faith and service run through their stories. Pickering strives to see the face of God in every patient. Allen’s service has included overseas mission trips, while Harris and Brooke have served together in Honduras. Closer to home, the practice’s history includes supporting cleft lip and palate care, local schools, and orthodontic treatment for children whose families need assistance.

For Harris, returning means putting years of training to work among people who helped shape him. For families like mine, it offers another reason to appreciate a practice where relationships endure. I first walked through those doors because our readers recommended them. After watching Morgan’s treatment unfold, I understood why. Now, with a former patient returning as a doctor, that tradition of care has a particularly fitting next chapter.

Pickering & Allen Orthodontics

Gold Winner in Dentist - Orthodontist

4741 North Broadway, Suite C
Knoxville, TN 37918
865-687-9412
120 Capital Dr, Suite 104
Knoxville, TN 37922
865-687-9412
pickortho.com

Promotional content

GOLD WINNER in Printer / Place to work (Under 50 Employees) SILVER WINNER in Sign Printer / Vehicle Wraps

Tools for Marketing

At Printedge, family, experience, knowledge and craftsmanship help Knoxville businesses grow by getting their message out.

Story & Photography by Nathan Sparks

A business card changes hands. A work truck pulls into traffic. Your entrance and lobby make a first impression. Each carries a message about the business/organization behind it, and each offers an opportunity to make an impression. At PrintEdge, helping you get your message out, that first impression, is what we do. We are your Tools for Marketing, making sure that your organization’s first impression becomes a lasting relationship with your customers, members, and clients.

For owner Terry Smith, the idea is straightforward. “Every business and organization has a message that they want to get out,” he says. His Knoxville company gives those messages a physical presence, whether that means a beautifully printed brochure, a sign outside a storefront, or graphics that transform an ordinary space into a place with a personality, a message.

Cityview knows that work firsthand. Printedge is our printer of choice, producing the awards that recognize our Best of the Best winners, Top Doctors, and Top Attorneys, while also handling printing needs for many of our clients. When we entrust a company with work bearing our name, we want the finished product to reflect the care we put into the magazine. Printedge has earned that confidence.

Behind the equipment is a family business built on experience. Terry’s father John Smith started the printing company in 1976 and now Terry and his son, Ben Smith, have worked together for the last three decades making Printedge a three-generation family business celebrating 50 years. That continuity gives the company something valuable: people who understand both the craft, the relationships and the quality that keep customers coming back. In Cityview’s earlier profile, Terry emphasized taking time to help customers, even when the shop is busy. It is a practical philosophy for a business where the right advice can matter as much as the right machine.

And there are plenty of machines and experience to put that advice into motion. Printedge’s capabilities span digital and offset printing to produce all business printing, from business cards to any printing that has your organization’s name on it. In the sign department, large-format equipment prints directly onto materials including plastic, metal and all types of rigid media, opening endless possibilities well beyond a sheet of paper. Terry points to high quality and quick turnaround as essential parts of helping to get your message out, to help promote your organization’s services and products to all your customers, clients and members.

The process can begin before anything reaches a press. In the design studio, ideas become the marketing materials a business needs to introduce itself, explain its services, or bring people through the door. Vehicle wraps put that identity on the road. Environmental Graphics bring it indoors, using wallcoverings, etch and imagery to change how a space feels. A workplace or lobby can become more welcoming, more memorable, and more distinctly its own all while getting your message out.

Direct mail remains part of that mix, too. From a small postcard to a larger brochure, Terry sees lasting value in putting a message directly into someone’s hands. For a business owner, having those options available through one experienced team makes it easier to consider what will best serve the project, the message.

That breadth matters, but so does the welcome. Printedge pairs substantial production capabilities with the approachable people and personal attention that make a complicated assignment feel manageable. For Cityview, the relationship is grounded in the finished work: awards we are proud to present and printing we are comfortable recommending to the businesses that trust us with their stories. For the next customer walking through the door, it begins with an idea, a conversation, and a team ready to help make that message tangible. Printedge is “Tools for Marketing,” helping you get your message out.

PrintEdge

Gold Winner in Printer / Place to work (Under 50 Employees)

Silver Winner in Sign Printer / Vehicle Wraps

9147 Cross Park Drive
Knoxville, TN 37923
865-691-6716
printedge.com

Promotional content

GOLD WINNER in Custom Home Builder - One Million +

Providence Builders: Leading the Way

Exceptional homes begin with people who care about every detail—and each other.

Story by Nathan Sparks
Photography by Nathan Sparks & Bruce McCamish

“At Providence you get a team,” says Ron Bills, president and co-owner of Providence Builders. “A team that is motivated, a team that is focused and passionate on delivering the best homes ever designed and built.”

Spend time with the people behind Providence, and you begin to understand what Ron means. There is enthusiasm here, certainly, and considerable talent. But there is also a shared sense of responsibility that reaches across every part of the company. Each person understands that the homeowner’s experience depends on all of them. The beautiful home at the end of the process is the expression of that commitment.

Once again recognized by Cityview readers as Best of the Best for Custom Home Builder—Over $1 Million, Providence continues to distinguish itself in a market where expectations are understandably high. With homes ranging from $1 million and up plus an expanding body of work that includes a strong emphasis on Tennessee National, the company’s message, “Leading the Way,” carries an obligation: to demonstrate what leadership looks like in practice.

For Ron, that begins with bringing the right people together around a client’s vision. Describing Providence’s Turnberry design, he credits the homeowners’ inspiration and the professionals who developed it into an extraordinary lakefront estate. “This was not one person’s work of art,” he says. “It was a team.” That willingness to share the credit reveals something essential about the company he and his wife, Diane, have built.

Diane’s response to the company’s success begins with gratitude. “I want to be thankful and grateful for how God has blessed our company,” she says. It is a simple statement, but anyone who knows her understands how fully it informs her approach to the business. Her appreciation extends to the homeowners who place their trust in Providence, the tradespeople who deliver the work, and the colleagues who make each day possible.

Diane is the person who helps hold those relationships together. Effervescent and approachable, she brings a warmth to the process that can make even a complicated decision feel manageable. She listens carefully, takes concerns personally, and follows through. Building a custom home involves hundreds of choices, often made while clients are balancing careers, families, and a move. Having someone they can count on matters enormously.

That caring personality is matched by a disciplined financial mind. Diane’s attention to accounting, construction draws, and expenditures gives homeowners a clear understanding of where their money is going. Providence’s detailed budgeting includes a 450-line-item accounting of the project, supported by quotes and continuing draw reports. Transparency is built into the working relationship, giving clients information they can examine and decisions they can make with confidence.

There is something reassuring about that combination: a person who cares deeply about how you feel and just as deeply about whether the numbers are right. Diane understands that trust grows through the everyday experience of being heard, receiving an answer, and knowing a commitment will be honored. Her contribution is evident throughout the company, in both the welcome a client receives and the accountability that follows.

For Brian, Providence’s Vice President of operations, the finished home offers another measure of whether the team has succeeded: how naturally it belongs to its surroundings. Reflecting on the McCarter residence, he describes the relationship between the architecture and its waterfront setting. “It feels less like a house was placed here and more like this home was always meant to be here, waiting for Providence to come along and bring it to life.”

He sees that harmony in the slate-look roofing, the limestone façade elements, the paver driveway, and the paths that lead toward the dock. Boulder walls help settle the composition into the landscape. Each element contributes to the impression that the home belongs exactly where it stands. Achieving that feeling requires choices that respect the land as carefully as they serve the people who will live there.

Brian also finds a deeper meaning in the company’s name. To him, providence suggests divine care and guidance, the possibility that the right people and circumstances have come together with purpose. The land existed long before TVA flooded the valley and long before Rarity Bay took shape. Looking at the completed residence, he wonders whether this particular meeting of place and home carries something beyond the work itself.

“Sometimes things come together so perfectly,” he says, “you have to wonder if there wasn’t a little more at work than just us.”

That sense of purpose has a practical counterpart on the job site. Kory, who heads Providence’s project management team, describes a standard that is easy to understand and demanding to maintain. “What sets Providence apart is that our team pays very close attention to every small detail and treats every house as if it was their own and they were going to live in that home.”

Consider what that means across the life of a project. A detail on a drawing becomes a question to resolve, a material to select, an installation to coordinate, and a finished result to inspect. The homeowner may never see every conversation behind a well-executed room. They will, however, live with the outcome. Kory’s philosophy keeps that future experience present in the decisions being made today.

It also gives craftsmanship a personal dimension. When the standard is the home you would want for yourself, details deserve attention regardless of how prominently they will be displayed. The responsibility extends from the spaces everyone admires to the everyday features a homeowner will use for years. Consistency across those decisions is what gives a beautiful house lasting value.

Anne, who leads interior design and selections, traces that consistency to the relationships inside Providence. “The team relationship within Providence is amazing and one of the best work atmospheres that I’ve ever been a part of,” she says. Her perspective matters because selections bring so many parts of a home together. Materials, lighting, cabinetry, and finishes must work with the architecture while reflecting the homeowners’ individual tastes.

“Everybody has a role with every house that we build,” Anne explains. “We have great vendor and homeowner relationships, but within the Providence organization—it’s that team relationship that is at the core of all that we do.” Good communication gives those individual contributions direction. A shared understanding of the home allows each professional to strengthen the work of the others.

The Turnberry design makes that collaboration tangible. Ten-foot-tall power multi-slide doors connect the interior with the lakefront setting. A spiral staircase introduces a sculptural element, while a carved limestone fireplace brings substance and character to the living spaces. The gourmet kitchen and butler’s pantry support entertaining, and a temperature-controlled wine wall makes the dining room part of the experience.

The home is equally attentive to quieter pursuits. A steam room and sauna offer places to unwind, while a main-floor yoga and exercise room makes wellness part of daily life. Downstairs, a golf simulator and bar area create opportunities to gather. At the water, a 1,800-square-foot dock includes two personal watercraft lifts, a concealed boat lift, and a tongue-and-groove ceiling.

Together, those features describe how the clients intend to live: welcoming friends, spending time on the water, enjoying their interests, and finding room to recharge. Ron calls the home a “piece of art,” but its purpose is thoroughly personal. Its success depends on how comfortably all that craftsmanship supports the people who commissioned it.

That same attention to living is central to Providence’s work at Tennessee National. The company’s previously featured Mountain Modern Ranch demonstrated how generous gathering spaces, natural materials, and an easy connection outdoors could create a home that felt both sophisticated and welcoming. As Providence continues building in the community, the opportunity is to bring that level of consideration to each new homeowner’s priorities.

The architectural expression will vary. So will the scale, the finishes, and the way each family uses its rooms. What homeowners should be able to recognize from one Providence project to the next is the quality of the thinking behind it: a plan that responds to their lives, careful execution, and people who remain invested in the outcome.

Another Best of the Best honor celebrates that work, but the team’s responsibility begins again with every client. Ron brings the vision. Diane brings care and accountability. Brian considers the whole. Kory protects the details. Anne helps make the home personal. Together, with their colleagues and trade partners, they give “Leading the Way” its meaning—one relationship, one decision, and one remarkable home at a time.

Providence Builders

Gold Winner in Custom Home Builder - One Million +

600 E Broadway St
Lenoir City, TN 37771
865-816-6688
providence-tennessee.com

Promotional content

GOLD WINNER in Dermatologist - Meredith Overholt & Kimberly Grande / Dermatology Center; SILVER WINNER in Aesthetician -Alexis Pacetti / Hair Replacement / Place to work (50-99 Employees); BRONZE WINNER in Facial / Hair Removal - Wax

Experience You Can Trust

At The Skin Wellness Center, decades of medical expertise shape the art of looking your best.

Story & Photography by Nathan Sparks

A patient walks in hoping to erase a sunspot. An experienced eye recognizes something that needs medical attention. At The Skin Wellness Center, that distinction captures the value of putting physicians at the heart of aesthetic care.

Dr. Meredith Overholt and Dr. Kimberly Grande have spent decades understanding skin, treating disease and helping patients feel confident in their appearance. Their Knoxville practice brings those pursuits together, with medical judgment guiding everything from a suspicious mole to a carefully chosen laser treatment.

Cityview readers have recognized that commitment through Best of the Best honors, while both physicians appear among the magazine’s 2026 Top Doctors in dermatology. Those accolades reflect a reputation built over years of caring for East Tennessee families.

Now, the practice welcomes Dr. Jeremy Greer, a board-certified dermatologist and Johnson City native. After medical school at East Tennessee State University and dermatology residency at the Medical College of Georgia, Greer returned to East Tennessee. Joining Skin Wellness offered something especially important to him: the opportunity to work in a physician-owned practice.

“You get to make the decision that’s best for them in the room with them,” Greer says.

That direct relationship matters. Patients can discuss their concerns with a team whose physicians remain actively involved in the practice and its direction. For Greer, dermatology also offers the satisfaction of seeing a problem, treating it and witnessing the difference that care makes.

Grande describes a specialty that brings medicine, surgery and creativity into the same room.

“We can combine just art and science together,” she says.

The practice’s long experience with lasers illustrates that combination. Grande recalls introducing their first laser in the late 1990s. Since then, their collection has grown into what she calls “a stable full of lasers,” allowing the team to select technologies for particular concerns.

That range gives them flexibility. Depending on a patient’s needs, treatments can address different layers of skin, targeting concerns such as laxity, fine lines, uneven pigment and texture. Overholt recently underwent three laser treatments in one sitting herself, an example of how the team can thoughtfully combine technologies while limiting repeated recovery periods.

The equipment, however, is only part of the story. Grande emphasizes that the practice evaluates aesthetic procedures from an academic and scientific perspective. New treatments must earn their place. Medical training and experience also shape the selection and preparation of the people providing care.

That foundation can make a consequential difference during an aesthetic appointment. Grande recalls patients seeking removal of what they believed were sunspots, only for the team to recognize a potentially serious lesion that ultimately proved to be melanoma. Looking better begins with understanding what is actually happening in the skin.

For patients seeking medical dermatology, aesthetic improvement or guidance about where to begin, Skin Wellness offers the reassurance of experienced physicians, a broad range of treatments and a team that considers skin health with every cosmetic concern.

And the doctors who helped build that trust are looking ahead.

“We’ve been doing this for 30 years and have no intention of going anywhere,” Overholt says.

Experience has brought them this far. Their commitment to patients keeps them moving forward.

The Skin Wellness Center

Gold Winner in Dermatologist - Meredith Overholt & Kimberly Grande / Dermatology Center;

Silver Winner in Aesthetician -Alexis Pacetti / Hair Replacement / Place to work (50-99 Employees);

Bronze Winner in Facial / Hair Removal - Wax

10215 Kingston Pike STE 200
Knoxville, TN 37922
Medical: 865-584-8580 | Cosmetic: 865-251-9965
theskinwellnesscenter.net

Promotional content

Cityview’s 2026 Best of the Best

There is something satisfying about seeing a business you love get the recognition it deserves. Maybe it’s the restaurant where they remember your order, the contractor who kept every promise, or the person who made a difficult day easier. When that name appears among our Best of the Best winners, there’s a moment of celebration: Yes. Them. They’ve earned it. Multiply that feeling across East Tennessee, and you begin to understand why we love putting this issue together.

This year, you cast more than 275,000 votes, approaching the 300,000 mark, to recognize the businesses, professionals, and personalities that make our community a wonderful place to live. Behind those votes are experiences worth remembering, relationships built over years, and recommendations you’re willing to share. That willingness to speak up for someone remains the heart of Best of the Best.

And this year, speaking up got easier. We introduced new voting software designed by our creative director whose work brought a welcome improvement to the experience. Readers told us they enjoyed the voting process more, and that feedback meant a great deal to our team. When people take time to recognize others, the experience should feel inviting. We’re grateful for the creativity and care that made it possible.

Change has become familiar territory. From the adjustments brought on by COVID to the arrival of artificial intelligence in everyday business, the ways we work, communicate, and shop continue to evolve. Our local businesses navigate those shifts while fulfilling the responsibilities their customers depend on. They still have to answer the phone, solve the problem, and stand behind their work. Whatever technology comes next, those moments remain the foundation of a good reputation.

You’ll find plenty of those reputations represented here, along with exciting new names. This year brought new winners in many categories, giving longtime readers fresh reasons to explore. An established favorite may continue to earn your confidence while another business makes an impression strong enough to claim its own place. That is part of what keeps this poll interesting: every year brings discoveries we look forward to sharing.

We suspect you’ll approach these pages much as we do: looking for familiar names, checking a favorite category, then getting drawn into the rest. Did your favorite make the list? Who is that winner you haven’t tried yet? Before long, you’re making a note about dinner, a project at home, or somewhere to visit. The results are fun because they connect naturally to our lives here.

Our biggest issue of the year also celebrates the effort behind those names: early mornings, difficult decisions, employees to train, and countless details to get right. To returning winners, congratulations on continuing to earn that loyalty. To those celebrating a first appearance, we hope this recognition makes your dedication feel a little more visible. Your customers noticed, and they took the time to say so.

Enjoy Cityview’s 2026 Best of the Best. Celebrate the names you know, get curious about those you don’t, and let these results inspire your next discovery. Thank you to everyone who voted, the businesses that encouraged participation, and our team for making this year’s experience better. Congratulations to our winners. You gave this community a reason to remember you, recommend you, and vote for you.

Search winners or categories

Art & Music

Americana Band

1. Dirty Guv Nahs
2. Chillbillies
3. Black Lillies

Art Classes

1. Appalachian Arts Craft Center, Inc
2. Amy Broady—Pen & Path Studio
3. Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts

Art Gallery

1. Knoxville Museum of Art
2. 214 Magnolia
3. Appalachian Arts Craft Center, Inc

Bluegrass Band

1. Blue Moon Rising
2. Alex Leach Band
3. Cutthroat Shamrock

Blues Band

1. CrawdaddyJones
2. 110 in the Shade
3. Frog & Toads Dixie Quartet

Folk Band

1. Fountain City Ramblers
2. Blind House
3. Kelsi Walker

Glass Artist

1. Richard Jolley
2. Johnny Glass
3. Grace Satterfield

Music Lessons

1. Alexandra Engle
2. Angela Floyd School
3. Joy of Music School

Music Store

1. Bill Jones Music
2. Rush's Music
3. Ciderville Music Store

Painter - Abstract

1. A.E. Rochelle
2. Annalee Bohon
3. Chris McAdoo

Painter - Landscape

1. Robert Tino
2. Alex Smith—Emporium Center
3. Aleksandr Cherepov

Painter - Portrait

1. Abigail Jenkins
2. Anna Calhoun
3. Bethany Stahl

Recording Studio

1. Arbor Studio
2. Chilhowee Sound
3. Auralation

Rock Band

1. 10 Years
2. Dirty Guv Nahs
3. Chilbillies

Sculptor

1. Alan Finch
2. Emily Key
3. Bill Cook, Jr.

Singer/Songwriter

1. Dolly Parton
2. Emily Ann Roberts
3. Andy Wood

Visual Artist

1. A.E. Rochelle
2. Amanda Smith Paper Heron
3. Andrew Saftel

Woodworker

1. Kevin Pitts—Stillwater Customs
2. Alex Jaynes
3. Brian Marsh

Automotive & Marine

Auto & Marine Detailer

1. 2CLEAN Auto Detailing
2. Harper Auto Wash
3. 865 Tint & Detail
3. NG Detailing

Auto Mechanic

1. Aaron Broyles—Mercedes-Benz of Knoxville
2. Halls Service Center Tire Pros
3. PRO TOY

Auto Repair Shop

1. Matlock Tire and Service
2. Fisher Tire
3. 865 Motorsports

Boat Dealership

1. American Boat Center
2. Travis Marine
3. Aquaknox Marine

Boat Repair

1. American Boat Center
2. Travis Marine
3. Ultra Marine Service

Body Shop

1. Joe Nuebert
2. Beaty Chevrolet
3. 865 Motorsports

Car Dealership

1. Airport Honda
2. Harper Auto
3. Beaty Chevrolet

Car Wash

1. Harper Auto Wash
2. Pure Magic Car Wash
3. Zips Car Wash

Marina

1. Beach Island Resort & Marina
2. Concord Marina
3. Choto Marina

Marine Mechanic

1. Aquaknox Marine
2. Travis Marine
3. Ultra Marine Service

Motorcycle Dealership

1. Alcoa Good Times
2. Bootlegger Harley-Davidson
3. Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson

Powersports/ATV Dealership

1. Alcoa Good Times
2. Tommy's Motorsports
3. Knoxville Powersports

Tire Store

1. Fisher Tire
2. Matlock Tire and Service
3. All American Tire And Wheel

Beauty & Aesthetics

Aesthetician

1. Laura Price—Culture Aesthetics & Wellness
2. Alexis Pacetti—The Skin Wellness Center
3. Bailey Branaum—Grow Wellness - a Shane Archer Concept

Anti-Aging Clinic

1. Culture Aesthetics & Wellness
2. Anti-Aging Medical Spa, Inc
3. Be Well of Knoxville Weight Loss & Anti-Aging

Barber

1. Alejandro Origuen—Stubble
2. Brent Wilkins—Stubble
3. Zach Norton—Stubble

Barbershop

1. Stubble - A Shane Archer Concept
2. Gambuzza's Barbershop (formerly Frank's Barbershop)
3. 33 Barbershop

Body Art Studio—Artist

1. Jon Overton— Born This Way Body Arts
2. Amberlyn Moses—The Mountain Mule Tattoo Company
3. Alec Zank—Tennessee Rose Tattoo

Body Art Studio—Piercing

1. Born This Way Body Arts
2. Alter Ego Tattoo & Piercing
3. Ambition Tattoo

Body Art Studio—Tattoo

1. Born This Way Body Arts
2. Addictive Artistry
3. Alter Ego Tattoo & Piercing

Cosmetic Injector

1. Heather Whittemore, FNP-BC — Be Well of Knoxville Weight Loss & Anti-Aging
2. Erica Oakes—Culture Aesthetics & Wellness
3. Caity Savage—Lumiere Plastic Surgery and Med Spa
3. Brooke Nix—Brooke Nix Medical Aesthetics

Dermatologist

1. Meredith Overholt—The Skin Wellness Center
1. Kimberly Grande—The Skin Wellness Center
2. Robert C. Griffith, MD—Griffith Dermatology
3. Carley Fowler — Knoxville Center for Dermatology and Plastic Surgery

Dermatology Center

1. The Skin Wellness Center
2. Be Well of Knoxville Weight Loss & Anti-Aging
3. Dermatology Associates

Facial

1. Culture Aesthetics & Wellness
2. Grow Knoxville - a Shane Archer Concept Salon
3. The Skin Wellness Center

Hair Colorist

1. Jill Evans—Grow Knoxville - a Shane Archer Concept Salon
2. Aaron White—Culture Hair Studio
3. Shane Archer—Grow Knoxville - a Shane Archer Concept Salon
3. Alex Whitt—Grow Knoxville -a Shane Archer Concept Salon

Hair Removal - Laser

1. Culture Aesthetics & Wellness
2. Grow Wellness - a Shane Archer Concept
3. Arabella Medical Aesthetics

Hair Removal - Wax

1. European Wax Center
2. Grow Wellness - a Shane Archer Concept
3. The Skin Wellness Center

Hair Salon

1. Grow Knoxville - a Shane Archer Concept Salon
2. A Wild Hare
3. A Salon Affair

Hair Stylist

1. Shane Archer—Grow Knoxville - a Shane Archer Concept
2. Aaron White—Culture Hair Studio
3. Domi Gager—Grow Knoxville - a Shane Archer Concept Salon
3. Alex Whitt—Grow Knoxville - a Shane Archer Concept Salon

Makeup Artist

1. Alex Whitt—Grow Knoxville - a Shane Archer Concept Salon
2. Rachel Archer—Grow Knoxville - a Shane Archer Concept Salon
3. Abbey Hudson

Manicure/Pedicure

1. 54th Nail Lounge
2. Bliss Nail Bar
3. Bellini Nail Lounge

Spa

1. Culture Aesthetics & Wellness
2. Pure Luxe Salon, Spa & Medspa
3. A Better You Med Spa

Tanning Salon

1. You Glow Girl
2. Sprays by Hay
3. Sun Tan City

Contractors & Home Improvement

Appliance Store

1. Pattersons Home Appliances
2. Friedman's Appliances
3. Ferguson Enterprises

Architect - Residential

1. Jonathan Miller
2. BarberMcMurry Architects
3. Design Innovations Arch

Architectural Firm -Commercial

1. BarberMcMurry Architects
2. McCarty Holsaple McCarty Architects, Inc.
3. Johnson Architecture, Inc

Cabinets - Custom Builder

1. Dixie Kitchen
2. Standard Kitchen & Bath
3. Big River Cabinetry

Cabinets - Refacing & Refinishing

1. The Painted Room
2. K and P Remodeling
3. Kitchen Tune-Up Knoxville, TN

Cabinets - Sales and Installation

1. Dixie Kitchen
2. Standard Kitchen & Bath
3. A New Creation

Carpet Contractor

1. Broadway Carpets
2. David's Abbey Carpet & Floors
3. Cella Flooring & Design

Closet Design and Installation

1. A Place for Everything Closets
2. Closet Factory
3. Closets By McKenry

Commercial - New Construction

1. Blaine Construction Corporation
2. Denark Construction
3. Bittle & Sons

Commercial - Remodeling

1. Creative Structures Inc
2. Johnson & Galyon
3. Denark Construction

Custom Home Builder

1. Mike Stevens Homes
2. Seigler Building and Development
3. F.E. Trainer

Custom Home Builder -One Million +

1. Providence Builders of Tennessee
2. Biles Homes, LLC
3. Charles Atkins, Inc.

Electrician

1. Mc Gaha Electric Company
2. Lloyd's Electric
3. Advent Electric Inc

Faux Finisher

1. A New Hue
2. Christian Freeman
3. Annalee B Studios

Fencing Company

1. Tim's Fencing
2. Champion Fence
3. 865 Fencing

Flooring Sales

1. Broadway Carpets
2. David's Abbey Carpet & Floors
3. Cella Flooring & Design

Furniture Refinishing

1. C & S Refinishing & Upholstery
2. Crown Upholstery
3. Furniture Pros of Knoxville

Handyman Services

1. Ace Handyman Services
2. The Honey Do Service, Inc Knoxville
3. Mr. Handyman of West Knoxville

Hardwood Flooring Contractor

1. Broadway Carpets
2. David's Abbey Carpet & Floors
3. Cella Flooring & Design

Heating and Air Conditioning

1. A-1 Finchum Heating & Cooling
2. Chancey and Reynolds
3. AA-Air Company

Home Designer

1. Shawn Fisher Design, LLC
2. Stephen Davis Home Designs
3. Falconnier Design Co.

Hot Tubs and Spas

1. Campbells Pool & Spa
2. Aurora Spas
3. The Great Backyard Place
3. Dynasty Spas

Interior Designer

1. Anne White—Boyd Harvey Designs
2. Amanda Furlow—Design AF
3. Alfie Rowan

Kitchen and Bath Design

1. Standard Kitchen & Bath
2. Dixie Kitchen
3. Ferguson Home

Landscape Architecture Firm

1. NATURE by Design LLC
2. Stephen Hackney - Stephen Hackney Landscape Architecture
3. Sarah Hedstrom Pinnell—Hedstrom Design LLC

Landscape Designer/Horticulturist

1. Earthadelic
2. Lawn Butler
3. Andrew Silver—Silver Landscaping

Landscape Installation

1. Earthadelic
2. Lawn Butler
3. A Touch of Class Steve Makres

Log Home Company

1. Appalachian Log Homes
2. Bivens Log Homes
3. Stonemill Log and Timber Homes

Masonry Services

1. Tennessee Stone
2. Brunton Masonry
3. Avant Gardens and Hardscapes

Outdoor Living Space

1. Earthadelic
2. Acadia Landscape Co
3. F E Trainer Construction

Painter - Commercial

1. Earlybird Painters
2. Certapro Painters
3. That 1 Painter Knoxville

Painter - Residential

1. Earlybird Painters
2. Certapro Painters
3. That 1 Painter Knoxville

Plumber

1. Pipe Wrench Plumbing
2. Tennessee Standard Plumbing
3. Cedar Bluff Plumbing

Pressure Washing & Window Cleaning

1. Brothers window cleaning
2. Accent Pressure Wash
3. Hilltop Pressure Washing

Remodeling - Residential

1. F E Trainer Construction
2. Earthadelic
3. Preferred Construction

Rental Equipment Companies

1. United Rentals
2. Knox-Tenn Rentals
3. Stowers Rents (The Cat Rental Store)

Roofing - Commercial

1. KH Commercial Roofing
2. Barnett Roofing
3. FLOW Roofing, LLC

Roofing - Residential

1. Barnett Roofing
2. FLOW Roofing, LLC
3. Smith Roofing & Exteriors

Swimming Pools

1. Able Gunite Pools & Spas
2. Aurora Pool, Spa & Billiard Gallery
3. Campbells Pool & Spa

Tile Contractor

1. Broadway Carpets
2. Exact Tile
3. Cella Flooring & Design

Waterproofing/Crawl Space Encapsulation

1. Master Foundation and Crawl Space Repair
2. 58 Foundations
3. American Foundation & Waterproofing
3. Insta-Dri

Window Treatments

1. Budget Blinds
2. Wolfgang Interiors
3. Blinds & More

Windows and Doors

1. Home Choice
2. Pella Window
3. Champion Replacement Windows of Knoxville

Dining

Americana Restaurant

1. Aubrey's
2. Abridged Beer Company
3. Cazzy's Corner Grill

Appetizer

1. Abridged Beer Company
2. Aubrey's
3. Cazzy's Corner Grill

Asian Restaurant

1. Sticky Rice Cafe
1. Angry Dumplings Tea
2. Asia Cafe - Callahan Drive
3. Anaba

Bagels

1. Potchke Deli
2. Einstein Bros. Bagels
3. Best Bagels & Deli

Bakery

1. Magpies Bakery
2. Wild Love Bakehouse
3. V G's Bakery

Banquet Hall

1. Bearden Banquet Hall
2. Mill and Mine
3. Bridgewater Place

Bar/Pub

1. Abridged Beer Company
2. Xul Beer Company
3. Ale' Rae’s GastroPub

Barbeque Restaurant

1. Dead End BBQ
2. Buddy's Bar-B-Q
3. Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q

Barista

1. Abby Arsenault—Starbucks
2. Claudia Moore—K Brew
3. Anna Wells—Starbucks

Bartender

1. Kim Long—Nauti K's Riverside Bar & Grill
2. Vinny Elliott—Xul Beer Company
3. Megan Buzzeo—Soccer Taco

Bearden Restaurant (Lyons View to Morrell)

1. Abridged Beer Company
2. Farmacy
3. Bistro By The Tracks

Beer Selection

1. Xul Beer Company
2. Abridged Beer Company
3. Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria

Breakfast

1. First Watch
2. Holly's Gourmet Market
3. Scrambled Jake's Breakfast Company

Brewery

1. Xul Beer Company
2. Abridged Beer Company
3. Balter Beerworks

Brunch Restaurant

1. Aretha Frankensteins
2. Balter Beerworks
3. Ale' Rae’s GastroPub

Burger

1. Abridged Beer Company
2. Stock & Barrel
3. Litton's

Business Lunch

1. Aubrey's
2. Cazzy's Corner Grill
3. Abridged Beer Company

Cake

1. Nothing Bundt Cakes
2. Magpies Bakery
3. Litton's

Carry Out / Delivery

1. A Dopo Sourdough Pizza
2. Brown Bag
3. Aubrey's

Caterer - Business

1. Classy Caterer
2. Rosa's Catering
3. By the Tracks Catering

Caterer - Party

1. Classy Caterer
2. By the Tracks Catering
3. Rosa's Catering

Cedar Bluff/West Hills Restaurant (Morrell to Mabry Hood)

1. Abridged Beer Company
2. Altruda's Italian Restaurant
3. Aubrey's

Charcuterie Board

1. Amazing Graze
2. Point B
3. Euphoric Cheese Shop

Coffee Shop

1. K Brew
2. 7Brew
3. Honeybee Coffee Co.

Cookies

1. Ham'N Goodys
2. Moonshine Mountain Cookies & Ice Cream
3. Crumbl

Cupcake

1. Magpies Bakery
2. Nothing Bundt Cakes
3. V G's Bakery

Deli

1. Potchke Deli
2. Nixon's Deli
3. Holy Land Market

Dessert

1. Litton's
2. A Dopo Sourdough Pizza
3. Cruze Farm Ice Cream

Dog-Friendly Restaurant

1. Abridged Beer Company
2. Aubrey's
3. Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria

Donuts

1. R ichy Creme donuts
2. Krispy Kreme
3. Admiral's Dough-Joe

Downtown Restaurant

1. A Dopo Sourdough Pizza
2. J.C. Holdway
3. Cafe 4

East Restaurant

1. Aubrey's
2. Litton's
3. Cruze Farm Pizza Barn

Farmstand

1. Pratt's Country Store
2. Happy Harvest Farmstand
3. FarmSouth

Fine Dining

1. J.C. Holdway
2. Bella
3. Dancing Bear Lodge

First Date Restaurant

1. A Dopo Sourdough Pizza
2. Altruda's Italian Restaurant
3. Bella

Food Truck

1. Abridged Burger
2. Disco Chicken & Donuts
3. Smoked Pickle Barbecue

Happy Hour

1. Aubrey's
2. Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria
3. Cazzy's Corner Grill

Hot Dogs

1. D & B's Hot Dogs and Ice Cream
2. Double Dogs
3. Curious Dog Hotdogs & Sandwiches

Ice Cream

1. Cruze Farm Ice Cream
2. Bruster's Real Ice Cream
3. Andy's Frozen Custard

Italian Restaurant

1. Altruda's Italian Restaurant
2. Bella
3. Emilia

Juice Bar

1. Tropical Smoothie Cafe
2. Nekter Juice Bar
3. Smoothie King - Callahan

Margarita

1. Chivo Taqueria
2. Soccer Taco
3. Chez Guevara Restaurant

Meat and Three

1. Dean's Restaurant & Bakery Oak Ridge
2. Jackie's Dream
3. Emma's Southern Kitchen

Mexican Restaurant

1. Soccer Taco
2. Chez Guevara Restaurant
3. Country Burrito Express

North Restaurant

1. Ale' Rae’s GastroPub
2. Litton's
3. Aubrey's

Patio - Urban

1. Abridged Beer Company
2. Aubrey's
3. Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria

Patio - Waterfront

1. Lakeside Tavern
2. Calhoun's
3. Nauti K's Riverside Bar & Grill

Pie

1. Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop
2. Litton's
3. Magpies Bakery

Pizza

1. A Dopo Sourdough Pizza
2. Big Ed's Pizza
3. Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria

Seafood

1. Chesapeake's Seafood Restaurant
2. Connors Steak & Seafood
3. Bonefish Grill

Smoothies

1. Tropical Smoothie Cafe
2. Smoothie King - Callahan
3. Blossom Bowls Northshore

South Restaurant

1. Angry Dumplings Tea
2. Ye Olde Steak House
3. 71 South

Specialty Drink

1. Brother Wolf
2. Bocados Latino Fusion & Cocktails
3. Fiori Bar & Kitchen

Steak

1. Connors Steak & Seafood
2. Ye Olde Steak House
3. Ruth's Chris Steak House

Sushi

1. Nama Sushi Bar
2. Anaba Japanese Cuisine Northshore
3. Kabuki Restaurant (Farragut)

Vegetarian Menu

1. The Tomato Head
2. Sunspot
3. Sticky Rice Cafe

West/Farragut Restaurant

1. Connors Steak & Seafood
2. Aubrey's
3. Cazzy's Corner Grill

Wine Bar

1. Water into Wine, Bistro & Lounge
2. Sparrow Wine Bar
3. Zero/Zero Wine Bar

Wine List

1. Water into Wine, Bistro & Lounge
2. Bella
3. Bistro By The Tracks

Wings

1. Big Kahuna Wings - Farragut
2. wild wings cafe
3. Aubrey's

Entertainment

Actor

1. Johnny Knoxville
2. Dale Dickey
3. Bill Landry

Actress

1. Dolly Parton
2. Leanne Morgan
3. Megan Fox

Comedian

1. Leanne Morgan
2. Nate Bargetze
3. Henry Cho

Dance Club (Nightlife)

1. Cotton Eyed Joe
2. CORE Knoxville
3. Hanna's

Festival/Fair

1. Dogwood Arts Festival
2. Tennessee Valley Fair
3. Greek Fest Knoxville

Game Night/Trivia

1. Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria
2. Aubrey's
3. Abridged Beer Company

Influencer

1. new2knox
2. Knox Foodie
3. Peyton Baxter

Podcasts

1. Knoxville Ice Bears Podcast
2. Appalachian Unsolved
3. Yee-Haw Brewing (Knoxville)

Radio DJ

1. Marc And Kim
2. Hallerin Hilton Hill
3. Joel Silverberg

Radio Station

1. 100.3 The Wolf
2. WIVK - 107.7 FM
3. K-Love 88.3

Radio Talk-Show Host

1. Hallerin Hilton Hill
2. Marc And Kim—WWST - 102.1 FM
3. T. Scott Jones Law Roundup
3. Joel Silverberg -Sports Animal

Small Music Venue

1. Bijou Theatre
2. Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria
3. Mill and Mine

Television Station

1. WBIR
2. WATE-TV
3. WVLT

TV News Anchor

1. Robin Wilhoit— WBIR
2. Rebecca Sweet—WBIR
3. Todd Howell— WBIR

Family & Pets

Children's Attraction

1. Zoo Knoxville
2. Muse Knoxville
3. Ijams Nature Center

Children's Camp

1. Zoo Knoxville
2. Tate's Day Camp
3. Camp Webb Knoxville

Children's Party Destination

1. Zoo Knoxville
2. Main Event Knoxville
3. Ijams Nature Center

Dance Lessons

1. Angela Floyd School For Dance And Music
2. The Little Gym
3. Revolution Dance

Dog Daycare

1. PAWZ Dog Services
2. Brewster’s Bark and Bed
3. Royal Bark Social Club

Dog Trainer

1. North Star K9 Training
2. Appalachian K9 Training Center
3. Pet Resorts
3. Foothills Kanine Training

Gymnastics

1. Premier Athletics
2. The Little Gym
3. GymTek Academy

In-Home Pet Services

1. KT Walking Paws
2. PAWZ Dog Services
3. North Star K9 Training

Martial Arts

1. Stephen Strouss Taekwondo
2. Knoxville Academy of Martial Arts
3. Wheeler Academy

Pet Boarding

1. All Kreatures Pet Care
2. Royal Bark Social Club
3. PAWZ Dog Services

Pet Groomer

1. Royal Bark Social Club
2. All Kreatures Pet Care
3. Foxy Locks

Pet Store

1. Petsmart
2. Agri Feed Pet Supply
3. Pet Supplies Plus

Swim Lessons

1. SafeSplash Swim School
2. All Knox Swim
3. Pilot Family YMCA

Veterinarian

1. Central Veterinary Hospital
2. Butler Animal Clinic (Karns)
3. Admiral Veterinary Hospital

Health & Wellness

Alzheimer's and Memory Care

1. American House West Knoxville
2. Asbury Place Maryville
3. Arbor Terrace Knoxville

Assisted Living

1. NHC Farragut
2. Arbor Terrace Knoxville
3. Morning Pointe of Knoxville

Chiropractic Services

1. Sulack Health and Wellness
2. Apple Healthcare
3. Advanced Chiropractic Associates

Chiropractor

1. Dr. Michael Sulack—Sulack Health and Wellness
2. Dr. Kurtus Esser—865 Chiropractic
3. Dr. David Holt—A Healthy Life Chiropractic

Community Pharmacy

1. Belew Drug Broadway
2. Mac's Pharmacy
3. Vaughn Pharmacy

Compounding Pharmacy

1. Belew Drug Broadway
2. Mac's Pharmacy
3. Hillstone Compounding Pharmacy

Dental Hygienist

1. Kendra Thatcher—Turkey Creek Dental
2. Forrest York—Coulter Family Dentistry
3. Melody Frank—Dental Images

Dentist—Cosmetic

1. Dr. Chase Nieri—Dental Images
2. Dr. John Coulter—Coulter Family Dentistry
3. Dr. Abby Roach—Hardin Valley Family Dentistry

Dentist—Family

1. Dr. Nicholas Cakmes—Cakmes Dental Studio (Retired)
2. Dr. Andrea' Farrior—Edenfield Dental Group
3. Dr. Chase Nieri—Dental Images

Dentist—Orthodontist

1. Pickering and Allen
2. Dr. Andy Turner—Andy Turner Orthodontics
3. Dr. Alan Langford—Langford and Ringer

Family Health Care—Independent Practitioner

1. Family Health Center
2. Burkhart Direct Family Care
3. Dr. J. Leland Hughes—Farragut Medical Center

Family Health Care—Large Practitioner

1. University Family Physicians
2. Trinity Medical Associates
3. Family Care Specialist

Fitness—Athletic Training

1. Fitness Together
2. CrossFit Knoxville
3. YMCA

Fitness—CrossFit Training

1. CrossFit Knoxville
2. CrossFit 865
3. Be Somebody Gym

Fitness—Small Gym

1. Fitness Together
2. CrossFit Knoxville
3. Absolute Health Knoxville

Fitness Center

1. YMCA
2. Fitness Together
3. Armor Gym

Hair Replacement

1. Culture Aesthetics & Wellness
2. The Skin Wellness Center
3. Knoxville Center for Dermatology

Health Food Store

1. Eddie's Health Shoppe
2. Clean Eatz
3. Three Rivers Market

Home Health Care

1. Amedisys Home Health Care
2. Always Best Care
3. Dolly Parton Children's Hospital Home Health

Hormone Therapy

1. Culture Aesthetics & Wellness
2. RevitalyzeMD
3. Wellness from Within

Hospice

1. Amedisys Hospice Care
2. Covenant HomeCare and Hospice
3. Sacred Ground Hospice House

Hospital

1. Dolly Parton Children's Hospital
2. UT Medical Center
3. Parkwest Medical Center

Independent Living

1. Deane Hill
2. Villages of Farragut
3. Parkview Senior Living—West Knoxville

Life Coach

1. Angelique Medow—Will You
2. Booth Andrews
3. Emily Hildreth

Massage Therapist

1. Longevity Massage Specialists
2. A Touch of Aloha
3. Aaron Searcy

Men's Health & Longevity

1. Be Well of Knoxville Weight Loss & Anti-Aging
2. Culture Aesthetics & Wellness
3. Ageless Medical Spa

Non-Medical Health Care

1. Culture Aesthetics & Wellness
2. Be Well of Knoxville Weight Loss & Anti-Aging
3. Nature's Crossing Health and Beauty

Nursing Home

1. Ben Atchley Tennessee State Veterans' Homes
2. NHC HealthCare
3. Brakebill Nursing Home

Nutrition Store

1. Eddie's Health Shoppe
2. Clean Eatz
3. Nature's Crossing Health and Beauty

Optometrist

1. Dr. Blake Rust—Winston Eye & Vision Center
2. Dr. Barry Winston—Winston Eye & Vision Center
3. Dr. Charles Y. Shields—Charles Y. Shields, OD

Personal Trainer—Athletics

1. Devin Driscoll—D1 Training
2. Amanda Hollenkamp—Fitness Together
3. Dunstan Kendrick—D-Block

Personal Trainer—CrossFit

1. Devin Driscoll—D1 Training
2. Chase Hill—CrossFit One Valley
3. Zach Cobb

Personal Trainer—Female

1. Amanda Hollenkamp—Fitness Together
2. Adrienne West—Absolute Health Farragut
3. Sonya Smith—YMCA

Personal Trainer—Male

1. Andrew Henderson—Fitness Together
2. Austin Gilbert—Fitness Together
3. Chris O'Hearn—Fort Sanders Health & Fitness Center

Pharmacist

1. Dwight Disney—Vaughn Pharmacy
2. Matthew Crawford—Mac's Pharmacy
3. Alexandra Saad—Walgreens

Physical Therapist

1. Blake Bohanan—Shift Performance Physical Therapy
2. Adam Levko—Physio Lab
3. Kinsey Anderson—East Tennessee Spine & Sport
3. Dalton Cousin—Cousin Physical Therapy

Physical Therapy

1. East Tennessee Spine & Sport
2. BenchMark Physical Therapy
3. Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance
3. Knoxville Orthopaedic Clinic

Pickleball Facility

1. The Pickleball Playground
2. Lakeshore Park
3. Ace Pickleball Club

Plastic Surgeon

1. Dr. Jason Hall—Trillium Plastic Surgery
2. Dr. David Lo—Lumière Plastic Surgery + MedSpa
3. Dr. E. Edward Breazeale Jr.—The Breazeale Clinic

Regenerative Medicine

1. Culture Aesthetics & Wellness
2. Be Well of Knoxville Weight Loss & Anti-Aging
3. Apple Healthcare

Weight Loss

1. Be Well of Knoxville Weight Loss & Anti-Aging
2. Culture Aesthetics & Wellness
3. Bragg Weight Loss

Women's Health & Longevity

1. Culture Aesthetics & Wellness
2. Be Well of Knoxville Weight Loss & Anti-Aging
3. A Better You Med Spa

Yoga Instructor

1. Heather Hutcheson—Stardust Yoga Retreats
2. Amy Yunger—YMCA
3. Peyton Brooks—Real Hot Yoga

Yoga Studio

1. Real Hot Yoga
2. Blue Ridge Yoga
3. Renegade Yoga Institute

Hunting, Fishing, & Sporting

Fishing Guide

1. John Burrell - High Adventure
2. Chadwick Ferrell—Fish On!
3. Gavin Greely - Fish Knoxville
3. Rocky Top Outfitters

Fishing Tackle Store

1. Big Fish Outfitters
2. Little River Outfitters
3. Edgemoor Outdoors

Gun Range

1. Bud's
2. Oak Ridge Sportsmen's Association
3. Gunny's Firearms and Indoor Range

Gun Smith

1. Knoxville Tactical
2. East Tennessee Gunsmith Services
3. Jay Firearms

Gun Store

1. Academy Sports and Outdoors
2. Bud's
3. Smoky Mountain Guns & Ammo

Hunting Guide

1. John Burrell - High Adventure
2. Drew Burrell—High Adventure Company
3. Gavin Greely—Fish Knoxville

Outdoor Experience

1. Ijams Nature Center
2. Smoky Mountains National Park
3. Zoo Knoxville

Outdoor Tour Companies

1. Smoky Mountain Outdoor Center
2. Knoxville Adventure Collective
3. Hike The Smokies

Rafting

1. Smoky Mountain River Rat
2. Hiwassee Adventures
3. Five Rivers Adventures

Skeet and Trap Range

1. Iron Mountain Sporting Clays
2. Oak Ridge Sportsman's Association
3. Volunteer Rifle and Pistol Club

People & Places

Apartment Community - Downtown

1. Marble Alley Lofts
2. Church + Henley Apartments
3. One River Walk

Apartment Community - Suburban

1. Avery at Turkey Creek
2. Aventine
3. Fox Lake Apartment Homes

Auctioneer

1. Bear Stephenson—Stephenson Realty & Auction
2. Angela Taylor—Floyds Antiques and Estate Sales
3. Laura Slyman—Slyman Real Estate

Bed & Breakfast

1. Whitestone Inn
2. Magnolia House
3. Boyd-Harvey House

Best Dressed Man

1. T. Scott Jones—Banks & Jones
2. Dino Cartwright
3. Marcos M. Garza—Marcos Garza, Garza Law Firm

Best Dressed Woman

1. Abby Ham
2. Peyton Baxter
3. Kyri Tombras

Bodybuilder - Men - Physique

1. Jason Akers
2. Brent Fry
3. Zach Cobb

Bodybuilder - Men - Traditional

1. Jason Akers
2. Zach Cobb
3. Scott Williams

Bodybuilder - Women - Bikini/Physique

1. Nina Ditommaso
2. Alexis Proffitt
3. Stephanie Chunn

Bodybuilder - Women - Traditional

1. Nina Ditommaso
2. Kelsey Mclean
3. Alexis Proffitt

Financial Advisor

1. Mark Pancratz—Axiom Wealth Management
2. The Trust Company of Tennessee
3. TVAMP (Knoxville)

Golf Instructor

1. Braxton Hunter—Fairways and Greens
2. Jake Reeves—Fox Den Country Club
3. Bo Harris

Hotel

1. The Oliver
2. RT Lodge
3. Embassy Suites by Hilton Knoxville Downtown

Meteorologist

1. Todd Howell
2. Mike Witcher
3. Rebecca Sweet

Minority-Owned Business

1. Yassin's Falafel House
2. Sticky Rice Cafe
3. A New Hue

Most Influential Person

1. Dolly Parton
2. Tim Burchett
3. T. Scott Jones—Banks & Jones

Movie Theater

1. Cinemark Tinseltown Oak Ridge
2. Regal Cinemas Cinebarre
3. Regal Pinnacle Stadium 18

Museum

1. Knoxville Museum of Art
2. Muse Knoxville
3. Museum of Appalachia

Nonprofit

1. Young-Williams Animal Center
2. Isaiah 117 House
3. Dolly Parton's Children's Hospital

Nonprofit - Children

1. Isaiah 117 House
2. Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tennessee Valley
3. Dolly Parton's Children's Hospital

Photographer - Commercial

1. Bruce McCamish
2. Brittany Sidwell
3. Haleigh Crabtree

Photographer - Portrait

1. Haleigh Crabtree
2. Brittany Sidwell
3. Emily Key

Place to work (100-499 Employees)

1. Zoo Knoxville
2. Knoxville Wholesale Furniture
3. Marcos Garza, Garza Law Firm

Place to work (50-99 Employees)

1. Admiral Title
2. The Skin Wellness Center
3. Abridged Beer Company

Place to work (500+ Employees)

1. University of Tennessee
2. ORNL Federal Credit Union
3. Clayton Homes

Place to work (Under 50 Employees)

1. Printedge
2. Culture Aesthetics & Wellness
3. Banks and Jones

Playground or Park

1. Aspire
2. Lakeshore Park
3. McFee Park

Politician

1. Tim Burchett
2. Glenn Jacobs
3. Betsy Henderson

Public Golf Course

1. Willow Creek Golf
2. Egwani Farms Golf Course
3. Dead Horse Lake Golf Course

Real Estate Agent - Commercial

1. John Haney—NAI Koella RM Moore
2. Alex Webber, NAI Koella
3. Phillip Hopper - Powell Auction

Real Estate Agent - Residential

1. Lucas Haun
2. Sara Price
3. Michelle Corley

RV Center

1. Camping World
2. Lazydays RV of Knoxville
3. Blue Compass RV Knoxville

Veteran-Owned Business

1. Marcos Garza, Garza Law Firm
2. Born This Way Body Arts
3. Honeybee Coffee

Wealth Planner

1. Axiom Wealth Management
2. The Trust Company of Tennessee
3. Denton Financial Group

Woman-Owned Business

1. Culture Aesthetics & Wellness
2. Amelse & Edmonds CPAs
3. Be Well Weight Loss and Anti-Aging

Schools & Education

Christian School

1. Christian Academy of Knoxville
2. Rivers Edge Christian Academy
3. Grace Christian Academy

College Test Preparation

1. Huntington Learning Center
2. Sylvan Learning Center
3. TestPrep Experts

Daycare

1. Concord Christian School
2. Child Creations
3. Primrose School of West Knoxville

High School Coach

1. Eddie Courtney—Farragut High School
2. Matt Lowe—Powell High School
3. Hannah Seaver Logan—Knoxville Catholic High School

Middle School Coach

1. Chris Cavalaris
2. Courtland Styles—South Doyle Middle
3. Chris Galacia—Rivers Edge Christian Academy

Montessori School

1. Knoxville Montessori School
2. Garden Montessori School
3. Giving Tree Montessori

Preschool

1. Rivers Edge Christian Academy
2. Christian Academy of Knoxville
3. Concord Christian School

Private Elementary School

1. Christian Academy of Knoxville
2. Rivers Edge Christian Academy
3. Grace Christian Academy

Private High School

1. Christian Academy of Knoxville
2. Rivers Edge Christian Academy
3. Webb School of Knoxville

Private Middle School

1. Christian Academy of Knoxville
2. Rivers Edge Christian Academy
3. Grace Christian Academy

Swim School

1. All Knox Swim
2. YMCA
3. SafeSplash Swim School

Teacher - Elementary

1. Mindy Blankenship—Christian Academy of Knoxville
2. Brooke Swaggerty—Hardin Valley Elementary School
3. Grace Buckner—Rivers Edge Christian Academy

Teacher - High School

1. Veronne Carter, HS Bible—Christian Academy
2. Aaron Jerviss—Rivers Edge Christian Academy
3. Jessica Barrett—Rivers Edge Christian Academy

Teacher - Kindergarten

1. Kimberly Evers—Christian Academy of Knoxville
2. Abbey Fariss—Gibbs Elementary
3. Jeanie Harper—Rivers Edge Christian Academy

Teacher - Middle School

1. Nate Sherrod—Rivers Edge Christian Academy
2. Jere Margene—Christian Academy of Knoxville
3. Krista Allison - Rivers Edge Christian Academy

Tutor

1. Beth Carter
2. Christy Clapp
3. Cary Busby

Tutoring Service

1. Huntington Learning Center
2. A Tutors Touch
3. Slyvan Learning Center

Stores & Services

Advertising - Agency

1. New Frame Creative
2. Tombras
3. Citizen Advertising

Advertising - Social Media

1. New Frame Creative
2. Citizen Advertising
3. Pursuit Digital

Antique Store - Furniture

1. Bearden Antique Mall
2. Nostalgia
3. Bargain Hunters Antique & Flea Market Mall

Antique Store - Memorabilia

1. Nostalgia
2. Bargain Hunters Antique & Flea Market Mall
3. Architectural Antics

Arts & Crafts Store

1. Hobby Lobby
2. Jerry's Artarama
3. Appalachian Arts Craft Center, Inc

Attorney - Auto Accident

1. T. Scott Jones—Banks & Jones
2. Marcos Garza—Marcos Garza, Garza Law Firm
3. Adam M. Priest—Pryor, Priest, Harber, Floyd & Coffey

Attorney - DUI Defense

1. Marcos Garza—Marcos Garza, Garza Law Firm
2. T. Scott Jones—Banks & Jones
3. Brandon D. Fersten—Barnes & Fersten

Attorney - Estate Planning/Trusts

1. Carolyn Levy Gilliam—McDonald, Levy & Taylor
2. Terry Adams—The Adams Law Firm
3. Susie Haas—Banks & Jones

Attorney - Family Law/Divorce

1. Mandy M. Hancock—Mandy Hancock Law
2. Adam Priest—Pryor, Priest, Harber, Floyd & Coffey
3. K. Abigail Jones—Banks & Jones

Banking - Business

1. First Horizon - Formerly First Tennessee
2. Regions
3. Home Federal Bank

Banking - Personal

1. First Horizon - Formerly First Tennessee
2. Regions
3. Home Federal Bank

Bartending Services

1. The Pour Guys
2. Brother Wolf
3. Amazing Grace / Tipsy Daisy Mobile Bar

Bicycle Shop

1. Cedar Bluff Cycles
2. Harper's Bike Shop
3. River Sports Outfitters

Boutique Store

1. Josie's Boutique
2. Bradley's
3. bliss

Boutique Store - Children

1. Little Josie's
2. Once Upon a Child
3. Little Happy

Business Brokerage

1. Knox Wealth Partners
2. Transworld Business Advisors
3. Sunbelt Business Brokers of Knoxville

Cell Phone Repair

1. uBreakiFix
2. Batteries Plus
3. CPR Cellphone

Christmas Tree Decorator

1. Sam Franklin Florist
2. Always in Bloom
3. Christmas Decor Plus

Cleaning Service - Home

1. Maid To Conquer LLC
2. Integrity Cleaning Services
3. Knockout Cleaning Services

Cleaning Service - Office

1. Maid To Conquer LLC
2. Coverall of Eastern Tennessee
3. gearheads facility services and supplies

Clothing Store - Men

1. Wm. Henry Fine Gentlemen's Clothing
2. Jos A. Bank
3. John H. Daniel Custom Tailors

Clothing Store - Women

1. Josie's Boutique
2. bliss
3. Est8te

Co-working Space

1. Knox Base Coworking
2. CoKno
3. Aught

Computer Repair

1. Allevia Technology
2. NerdsToGo
3. Cloud Innoventions

Computer Security

1. Cloud Innoventions
2. Allevia Technology
3. NerdsToGo

Consignment Shop

1. Adorable Child
2. Planet Xchange
3. Once Upon a Child

Copier Company

1. Image Matters, Inc.
2. Cartridge World
3. Goin' Postal

CPA

1. Amelse & Edmonds CPAs
2. The Legacy CPA Firm (Boring & Goins, CPA)
3. Culpepper CPA, PLLC

Credit Union - Business

1. ORNL Federal Credit Union
2. Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union
3. Y-12 Federal Credit Union

Credit Union - Personal

1. Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union
2. ORNL Federal Credit Union
3. Y-12 Federal Credit Union

Document Shredding Service

1. Paper Bee Gone
2. KelShred
3. Shredpro Secure

Dry Cleaner

1. Prestige Cleaners
2. Farragut Cleaners
3. Crown Cleaners

Eyeglasses Shop

1. Winston Eye & Vision Center
2. Campbell, Cunningham, Taylor & Haun
3. Karns Vision Center

Financial Planning

1. ORNL Federal Credit Union
2. Axiom Wealth Management
3. TVAMP

Fitness Equipment Store

1. Fitness Solutions
2. Play It Again Sports
3. Legend Fitness

Flooring Installation

1. Broadway Carpets
2. David's Abbey Carpet & Flooring
3. Cella Flooring & Design

Florist

1. Always in Bloom
2. Flourish
3. CACHEPOT Floral and Garden

Funeral Home

1. Click Funeral Home
2. Mynatt Funeral Home
3. Rose Mortuary Mann Heritage Chapel

Furniture - Patio

1. Knoxville Wholesale Furniture
2. Hearth & Patio
3. Braden's Furniture

Furniture Store - Boutique

1. Bliss Home
2. Amish Elegance
3. Nostalgia

Furniture Store - Home

1. Knoxville Wholesale Furniture
2. Brown Squirrel Furniture
3. O.P. Jenkins

Furniture Store - Office

1. Knoxville Wholesale Furniture
2. Braden's Furniture
3. Amish Elegance

Greenhouse

1. Stanley's Greenhouse
2. Pope's Garden Center
3. Elders Ace & Garden

Head Hunter/Recruiter

1. BGT Recruiting & Consulting
2. StaffSource
3. NURSEFirst

Hearing Center

1. ENT Consultants of East Tennessee
2. Bridgewater Balance & Hearing
3. Children's ENT Specialists

Home Inspection Company

1. Bentley Home Inspection
2. Inspector Cluseau
3. Integrity Inspection Service

HR Company

1. BMHRS
2. Marvel HR
3. Integrity HR Services

Insurance - Commercial

1. State Farm
2. TIS Insurance Services
3. Knoxville Insurance Group

Insurance - Health

1. Tate Insurance Group
2. TIS Insurance Services
3. Bailey Insurance Service

Insurance - Life

1. Mike Masaglia - State Farm
2. Bailey Insurance Service
3. TIS Insurance Services

Insurance Agent

1. Amy Moore—Tate Insurance Group
2. Josh Hemphill—State Farm
3. Stanton Oster—Shafer Insurance Agency

IT Services Provider

1. Allevia Technology
2. NerdsToGo
3. Cloud Innoventions

Jewelry - Custom Designers

1. Rick Terry Jewelry Designs
2. Fountain City Jewelers
3. Lamon Jewelers

Jewelry Store

1. Markman's
2. Rick Terry Jewelry Designs
3. Fountain City Jewelers

Junk Removal

1. Junk Bee Gone
2. Junk Galaxy
3. East Tennessee Junk Away

Liquor Store

1. Total Wine
2. Bob's Liquor & Wine
3. McScrooge's Wines and Spirits

Mattress Store

1. Knoxville Wholesale Furniture
2. The Bed Store
3. Bed’r Mattress.

Mortgage Broker

1. First Choice Lending Services, LLC
2. Sandra Parsons—Element Home Loans
3. Lorie Jaynes—Mortgage Investors Group

Mortgage company

1. Mortgage Investors Group
2. First Choice Lending Services, LLC
3. ORNL Federal Credit Union

Moving Company

1. Gouffon Moving and Storage
2. Fox Moving
3. Junk Galaxy

Pest Control/Exterminator

1. Cook's Pest Control
2. ClearDefense Pest Control
3. Kenny's Pest Control, Inc.

Printer

1. Printedge
2. Graphic Creations
3. Printfx

Professional Organizer

1. Help You Dwell
2. Klosets by Kelsey
3. Closet Factory

Real Estate Company

1. Realty Executives
2. Keller Williams Realty - Knoxville
3. Wallace Real Estate

Real Estate Title Company

1. Admiral Title
2. 7 Title
3. Atlas Title Group

Rug Store

1. Knoxville Wholesale Furniture
2. Broadway Carpets
3. David's Abbey Carpet & Flooring

Security System

1. His Security & Technology
2. SafeT Systems, Inc.
3. ADT Home Security

Sign Printer

1. Graphic Creations
2. Printedge
3. Printfx

Sporting Goods Store

1. Dick's House of Sports
2. Academy Sports and Outdoors
3. River Sports Outfitters

Staffing and Employment

1. StaffSource
2. AtWork
3. BGT Recruiting & Consulting

Tailor/Alterations

1. Prestige Cleaners
2. Sandra G's Alterations
3. Quality Alterations

Title Insurance

1. Admiral Title
2. 7 Title
3. Premier Title Group

Touring Service

1. Dream Vacations
2. ACE Tours Knox
3. Kats Purrfect Getaways

Travel Agency

1. AAA - West Knoxville
2. Dream Vacations
3. Shannon Allred at Adoro Travel

Vehicle Wraps

1. Graphic Creations
2. Printedge
3. AZRAG Installation & Print Services

Video Production

1. New Frame Creative
2. Big Slate Media
3. Always Abounding

Web Site Designer

1. New Frame Creative
2. Graphic Creations
3. Pursuit Digital

Wedding & Events

Bridal Shop

1. White Lace and Promises
2. David's Bridal Knoxville TN
3. Lillian Ruth Bride

Event DJ

1. Sterl The Pearl Hinton
2. Jim Ogle—Ogle Entertainment
3. Adam Miller Adamt

Event Planner

1. A Touch of Whimsi Weddings & Events
2. Classy Caterer
3. A to Z Entertainment, Inc.

Event Rental Company

1. All Occasions Party Rentals
2. A Festive Affair
3. Anderson Party Rental

Event Venue

1. Ancient Lore Village
2. Aspire
3. Nichols Heir

Tuxedo Rental

1. Prestige Tuxedo
2. Bellario’s Tuxedo & Suit Co.
3. Jos A. Bank

Wedding Cake

1. Magpies Bakery
2. All Mixed Up Cakes
3. Art of Cakes Bakery

Wedding Caterer

1. Dancing Bear Appalachian Bistro
2. Classy Caterer
3. Rosa’s Catering

Wedding Florist

1. Always in Bloom
2. Lisa Foster Floral Design
3. SWANK FLORAL

Wedding Performer/Band

1. Aaron Tracy
2. Erick Baker
3. Stephen Golf

Wedding Photographer

1. Amanda May Photos
2. Brittany Sidwell
3. Austin Angel

Wedding Planner

1. RT Lodge
2. Castleton Farms
3. AJ Koekenberg

Wedding Venue

1. RT Lodge
2. Nichols Heir
3. MarbleGate Farm

Wedding Videographer

1. TW Productions
2. Moxie Media
3. Rellek Films

A Life of Service The Acs Have Seen the World —and Made It a Better Place

From Camp David to embassies around the world, Frank and Lesley Acs built a life together through decades of service, danger, and a shared sense of duty.

Story by Matt McGarry
Photography by Ethan Smith

For Frank and Lesley Acs, service has never been just a job. It has been a way of life, taking them around the globe through political upheaval, dangerous assignments, and extraordinary encounters with people from different cultures. Much of their work happened behind the scenes, ensuring embassies could function, personnel could do their jobs, and essential operations continued under difficult circumstances.

Their journeys began on opposite sides of the Atlantic and under very different circumstances. Frank, born in Lorain, Ohio, in 1948, endured a difficult childhood marked by family instability and time in foster care before being raised largely by his Mexican grandmother. Lesley, born in Blairgowrie, Scotland, in December 1947, remembers a more idyllic upbringing. Despite very different upbringings, both found the same calling: government service.

Two paths, one destination: service

He wanted to be an engineer

Frank’s career began to take shape as a teenager, when he spent summers working alongside carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and other tradespeople on construction projects with his stepfather, a civil engineer. He initially envisioned becoming an engineer himself, but as the Vietnam War escalated, he chose another path.

After graduating from high school in 1966, Frank enlisted in the U.S. Navy’s Construction Battalions, known as the Seabees. He trained for deployment to Vietnam, but his orders changed. From 1967 to 1970, he served at Camp David, the presidential retreat, during the Johnson and Nixon administrations.

Vietnam eventually followed, where Frank supervised construction operations, including road projects and the building of reinforced aircraft hangars. He remembers stopping at Wake Island during the flight and visiting the beach where Marines had fought Japanese forces during World War II. Knowing that combat was his next destination made the experience particularly unsettling. “Flying to Vietnam,” he recounts, “we had to stop at Wake Island to refuel. I went down to the beach where the Marines stood against the Japanese when they overran the island, and it was one of the most eerie feelings I've ever had, knowing that my next stop was combat.”

She wanted to see the world

Lesley’s interest in overseas life began with her father, who served in the merchant navy. His letters from distant places introduced her to a world she wanted to explore. “I wanted to see as much of the world as I could,” she recalls. That desire to experience different places and cultures led her to the British Foreign Service. Her first overseas assignment was Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where she arrived after a six-week ship voyage because the Suez Canal was closed.

Almost immediately, she experienced the challenges of international service. Ethnic violence erupted in the city, and embassy staff helped organize emergency assistance. Lesley prepared food for ambulance drivers and helped pack supplies for refugees in the midday heat. It was a dramatic introduction to diplomatic work and a reminder that serving overseas could mean much more than experiencing new places.

Her subsequent assignments included Santiago, Chile; Canberra, Australia; Moscow during the Cold War; and Belfast, Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Each brought a different culture, political climate, and set of responsibilities that often put her directly in harm’s way.

Keeping the embassies running

After his Navy service, Frank’s construction experience led to a position with the U.S. Department of State. He had served as a Navy construction specialist in Budapest, Hungary, and officials recognized that his skills could help maintain, or even reconstruct, American diplomatic facilities overseas. Before his Budapest assignment, his master chief asked him if he knew where Budapest was. “My jaw dropped,” Frank recalls. “And the chief asks, ‘Is there a problem?’ I said, ‘No, but you realize what my last name is? It’s Hungarian. My grandparents were born in Budapest.’ He says, ‘Is this going to be a problem for you?’ I said, ‘Absolutely not.’”

Frank joined a new program focused on embassy buildings and grounds maintenance—the Naval Support Unit—becoming one of its early participants. It was work that took him back to Budapest, later to Burma, and then to Lagos, Nigeria.

This was the nature of Frank’s work throughout his career. While diplomats conducted negotiations and represented American interests, someone had to ensure the buildings, utilities and facilities supporting those activities remained operational; that electricity was reliable and clean water was available. Frank was often the person responsible for making that happen, even when resources were limited or conditions were unpredictable…or dangerous; oftentimes reopening embassies that had been destroyed.

“It was a dangerous time.”

When Frank talks of the couple’s experiences he’ll often say, “it was a dangerous time.” And it often was. Frank and Lesley’s assignments extended well beyond the routine. Both experienced postings where political instability, violence, and security threats were part of daily life.

For instance, Frank served in Pakistan during the Afghan-Soviet War. He went to Moscow after a fire severely damaged the American embassy and worked in Belgrade following NATO’s bombing campaign, when embassy facilities and housing arrangements had been disrupted. He also traveled to Kabul, Afghanistan, to help reopen and rebuild the American embassy. Years later, even after retirement, the State Department called him back because it struggled to find personnel willing to return to the dangerous environment. After going back to Kabul, he received another request to serve in Khartoum, Sudan. By then, he had decided he had taken enough risks. “Vietnam, Afghanistan twice, Pakistan during the Afghan-Russian war, Moscow and Belgrade after the bombings… I was done pushing my luck,” he says.

Despite the danger, Frank’s memories are also filled with gratitude for the people who protected him. In Kabul, after a rocket attack, he was preparing to go out and help repair the damage when a young Marine asked where his protective vest was. Frank had none. He was wearing a T-shirt, shorts and tennis shoes, carrying only a flashlight and a multitool. The Marine put an arm around his shoulder and reassured him: “Don’t worry, we got your back.” The moment brought Frank to tears. “I owe them my life,” he said of the Marines who protected him during his years of service.

Lesley also experienced how quickly an ordinary workday could turn dangerous. During their time in Moscow, a rocket-propelled grenade struck the American embassy’s communications center. Her office was nearby, and the blast shattered glass in surrounding offices. Overhead electrical cables deflected the rocket’s trajectory, narrowly sparing her office. Such experiences reinforced the importance of teamwork and the trust they placed in the people working beside them.

A partnership built on a shared commitment

Frank and Lesley met in Lagos in the early 1980s, when he was serving with the State Department and she had arrived for an assignment with the British Foreign Service. Their careers took them to Bangkok, Beijing, Pakistan, Budapest, Burma (now Myanmar), Moscow, and Berlin.

In Berlin, Frank faced the considerable task of helping close American embassy operations in Bonn and establish them in the newly designated German capital. His responsibilities included facilities, housing and embassy operations across Germany. Lesley worked in the political section and helped transfer classified materials from Bonn to Berlin.

The work could be exhausting and unpredictable, but the couple shared an understanding of what their careers demanded. Neither had to explain why professional responsibilities sometimes took priority or why an assignment could bring sudden changes to their lives. Frank credits that understanding with helping their relationship endure. Frank credits Lesley’s experience in the same world with her understanding of why he had to go when duty called.

Frank and Lesley have lived in Maryville since 2017. Their life today, with 40 years of marriage behind them, is a long way from the uncertainty that defined their working years. But the experiences they carry with them remain central to how they see the world. Service, for them, was never simply about going where they were sent. It was about showing up, doing the work, caring for the people around them, and finding a way forward… together.

Beyond Amazing

At The Reserve at Marblegate Farm, six extraordinary lakefront homesites offer a rare combination of sweeping views, protected surroundings and room to dream.

Story by Nathan Sparks

When Joe Petre first told me about the lakefront property he was bringing to market in Blount County, he already had my attention. Having lived in Louisville, I knew this stretch of the Tennessee River well. My boys and I have spent countless days on the water around Prater Flats, and I was familiar with Marblegate Farm and its spectacular setting. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Then I stepped out of my vehicle on lot one.

Nothing could have prepared me for that view. Across the broad sweep of water, with the land opening around me, “amazing” suddenly felt inadequate. Almost immediately, I began imagining a home here: where the windows would face, where the porch would sit, where the day would begin with coffee and end with the last light on the lake. Every one of these six homesites offers its own extraordinary perspective. This is where seclusion meets opulence, with the landscape providing the luxury before the first foundation is poured.

The Reserve at Marblegate Farm occupies a remarkable setting in the Prater Flats area of Fort Loudoun Lake. Each homesite encompasses five acres and more than 500 feet of lake frontage. But acreage alone doesn’t explain what makes this property special. More than 100 acres of common land, protected by a conservation easement, provide generous buffers around the lots. The homesites sit apart, surrounded by a landscape deliberately preserved to give each owner room to breathe.

“Huge buffers in between,” Joe explains. “In some cases, the buffers feel larger than the lots themselves.” That separation creates an intimacy with the landscape that is difficult to achieve in a conventional lakefront neighborhood. Here, the setting allows your attention to settle on the water, the wooded shoreline and the possibilities of your own property.

The vision began with Bill and Donna Cobble, who established Marblegate as their home more than 25 years ago. When they placed a conservation easement on the farm, they reserved the ability to create six five-acre homesites. Joe and the Lawler-Wood team helped bring that plan to life, developing the road, extending electric utilities and shaping a community around the character of the land. The result preserves the very qualities that made the property worth protecting.

Each lot includes a designated 200-by-200-foot building area, nearly an acre within the larger property. There is room to imagine an understated lake lodge or a magnificent estate, with the design guided by the community’s requirements and each homesite’s individual setting. These are dockable waterfront properties off the main channel, offering the prospect of a home where boating becomes part of everyday life.

For Joe, that connection to the water is personal. He grew up skiing here; today, his children enjoy the lake behind a wake surfing boat. He understands that the appeal extends beyond the view to the experiences a family can share. His son Ben works alongside him in marketing the property and introducing prospective buyers to the land.

“Opportunities to own five acres with this degree of privacy and extraordinary lake frontage are exceptionally rare in East Tennessee. You really have to stand here to appreciate what these homesites offer.” Says Ben.

The Reserve is planned with its own private gate, separate from the entrance serving Marblegate’s established event venue. The contours of the property screen the venue from the homesites, giving the residential setting its own identity. Despite the sense of retreat, Maryville and Lenoir City remain conveniently accessible. Joe estimates roughly 15 to 20 minutes to McGhee Tyson Airport and about 30 minutes to downtown Knoxville—a compelling balance of privacy and convenience.

“Everybody that we’ve taken out there,” Joe says, “they get it immediately. It’s breathtaking.” Having stood there myself, I understand exactly what he means. Study the photographs, look at the plat and imagine the home you have always wanted. Then make an appointment with Joe and Ben and step onto the property. The pictures will give you an introduction, but the moment you stand on the land and gaze out at the water, you will understand why I had such a hard time finding a word big enough.

The Confidence Behind the Keys

European auto expertise with honest advice and a personal commitment.

Story & Photography by Nathan Sparks

A Porsche in the driveway should be a pleasure. An Audi, a BMW, a Mercedes should make you look forward to the drive. But when a warning light appears, the question becomes less about what you drive and more about whom you trust. At Kadunza, Robert Kadunce has built a European auto repair business around giving that question a reassuring answer.

The clean, organized, technologically sophisticated shop reflects the precision these vehicles demand. Yet its most valuable offering may be something considerably simpler: a straight answer. What needs attention now? What can wait? And when does spending more money on a car stop making sense?

Kadunce expects his team to answer as though the person across the counter were a parent, sibling, or neighbor. That means explaining the repair, anticipating future expenses, and sometimes advising a customer to move on from a vehicle altogether.

“We’re not based solely on just making a sale,” he says.

That philosophy takes practical form in the details. Before recommending maintenance, technicians review available service history through Carfax. A dashboard reminder doesn’t automatically become another oil change on the invoice. If records show the work was recently completed and the light simply wasn’t reset, the customer gets an explanation and a reset. The goal is to understand what the car actually needs and help its owner plan accordingly.

Delivering that kind of guidance requires more than good intentions. Kadunce has deliberately assembled enthusiasts with deep knowledge of particular European brands. An Audi and Volkswagen specialist brings one perspective; a Porsche specialist brings another. Together, they give the shop a depth of experience that grows as technicians share what they know.

Across the business, Kadunce counts six master technicians. He pays for continuing education and rewards additional knowledge and certifications with incremental raises. Newer employees begin with basic services under supervision, building their skills through training and experience.

The investment makes sense coming from a man who once put his own retirement savings behind the belief that he could build something better.

In 2012, after roughly a decade in information technology, including mobile device security management at Y-12, Kadunce traded desk work for the work he had always wanted to get back to. His days off had been spent taking cars apart, putting them together, and helping friends, relatives, and neighbors. A love of BMW’s E30 helped fuel the enthusiasm. His driveway supplied the starting point.

He cashed out his 401(k), accepted the penalty, and took the risk. What began with BMW and Mini grew into a broader European specialty, expanding as he found the right people to support it. Today, the business includes two Kadunza locations and Vandegriff Auto Service, which applies the same philosophy to domestic and Asian vehicles.

Growth has brought greater capability, but Kadunce still measures the business by the relationship that follows a repair. Accountability matters as much as diagnosis.

“We never claim to be absolutely 100% perfect, but we do make things right, no matter what,” he says.

For the driver handing over the keys, that is the real luxury: skilled people, clear expectations, and a shop willing to put the lasting customer relationship first.