enjoy-coffee

Update: Based on a com­ment from Becky Han­cock, I updated the list to include the awe­somely eclec­tic Time Warp Tea Room.

For not being a cof­fee city (aka. Port­land or Seat­tle), Knoxville has a lot of cof­fee shops. And more seem to be open­ing every few months.

Most folks seem to be con­tent to stick to the shop near­est their home or work. Oth­ers will ven­ture across town — my wife and I did this on a reg­u­lar basis when we lived in West Knoxville — for that glo­ri­ous java.

In an effort to help those new to Knoxville or its grow­ing cof­fee scene, here are the city’s best cof­fee shops:

  1. Old City Java: This is the cof­fee shop I men­tioned pre­vi­ously that drew my wife and I from West Knoxville to down­town. It’s located in the heart of Old City, and has a hip, worn-in feel­ing. And OCJ is also the win­ner of Metro Pulse’s Best of Knoxville award for best cof­fee shop (many years over). But the real story here is the cof­fee and baked goods — owner Meg Hunter-Parrish knows her cof­fee and how to pre­pare it. She also cre­ates the won­der­ful treats, includ­ing home­made marsh­mal­lows! (Full dis­clo­sure: My wife’s awe­some cook­ies are sold at Old City Java.)
  2. The Golden Roast: I’d reckon the major­ity of UT stu­dents have vis­ited this cof­fee shop located off the Strip at one point in their aca­d­e­mic lives. It’s also home to Knoxville’s pri­mary cof­fee roaster — many shops on this list are cus­tomers, in fact. This shop has a book­ish feel, and plenty of tables for philo­soph­i­cal dis­cus­sions. Park­ing is atro­cious through, being near campus.
  3. Black­bird Cof­fee­house: The vaunted Sequoyah Hills area got their own cof­fee shop in July of last year with the open­ing of Black­bird Cof­fee­house. This small but well sit­u­ated shop serves very tasty cof­fee from a roaster out of Vir­ginia, and bagels from Hot Bagel in Oak Ridge. There isn’t much room to lounge, but if you hap­pen to live in this part of town, I can think of no bet­ter place to grab a cup.
  4. Cafe 4: One of Knoxville’s newest busi­nesses, Cafe 4 is located on prime real estate in Mar­ket Square down­town. Though they’re tech­ni­cally a restaurant/bar/event space, Cafe 4 man­ages to impress with friendly and knowl­edge­able baris­tas and a rich, com­fort­able sit­ting area upstairs. Their house blend, roasted by The Golden Roast, wasn’t ter­ri­bly impres­sive — it tasted a lit­tle too roasted — but it was a nice cup nonetheless.
  5. Cof­fee and Choco­late: Not only does this shop have one of the all-time most pop­u­lar entries on Knox­ify, but it also is a great all-around cof­fee shop. The loca­tion is a cozy spot across from Krutch Park, and feels great on a rainy day. The cof­fee is not quite on par with other shops in the area, but the choco­lates are a delight (though maybe not for your wallet).
  6. Time Warp Tea Room: This is just about the most unique cof­fee shop you’ll find in Knoxville. That’s because it’s not only a cof­fee shop, it’s also damn near a motor­cy­cle museum, chock full of mem­o­ra­bilia for two-wheeled gear­heads. TWTR is located on bloom­ing North Cen­tral Ave. and serves as the reg­u­lar meet­ing place for the Vin­tage Motor­cy­cle Club (Tues­days at 6 p.m.). Bonus: TWTR has also been spot-lighted by the Ran­dom This girls.

Obvi­ously, these are not all of Knoxville’s cof­fee shops, but the ones I feel stand out for one rea­son or another. Sure, we have a mil­lion Star­bucks and shops within other busi­nesses, such as Bor­ders or Barnes and Noble, but I think these are a dime-a-dozen, though I do have a cer­tain incli­na­tion towards the Star­bucks on Cedar Bluff.

Note that I have yet to visit Knoxville’s newest cof­fee shop Rem­edy Cof­fee located just around the cor­ner from Old City Java in Old City. Rem­edy sets itself apart from other ven­tures in that it’s run by a church, and donates all prof­its to charity.

If any­one has vis­ited Rem­edy, and can com­ment on their offer­ings please post a com­ment on this entry. And if you have your own favorite cof­fee shop in Knoxville, I’d like to hear from you as well!

Creative Commons License Pho­tog­ra­phy by Umair Mohsin