Monday, July 28, 2008

kay's ice cream


Chapman Highway may be one of the funkiest pikes in Knoxville. Among the normal suburban fare lie small pockets of strange old skool suburbia. One such pocket has several gems, including Colonial Hardware (another post in itself) and Kay's Ice Cream.


This little shop has been recommended to me a few times by So Kno enthusiasts. "Kay's is THE BEST! You've got to try it for and authentic Knoxville experience." Saturday, former Wigshopper Reginold and I stopped by for a quick bite while on a errand run for a box of staples (for insulation we were putting up at my house). I got a good slaw dog that really hit the spot, but Reggie said his cheeseburger "tasted like a sausage patty." The fries were OK, but seemed a lot like like the Ore Ida bake-at-home variety. All in all, the food was decent, but nothing to get excited about. Every now and then around Knoxville I hit a greasy spoon that has fantastic food for amazing prices. After all the hype, I found that Kay's has the latter (it was well priced) but fell a bit flat on the former.


However, the place isn't called Kay's Food. I didn't try the ice cream, which looked to be homemade. Most of the people in the place were chowing down on cold cones and not eating. I'm definitely gonna go back and see if Kay's serves up some icy cold deliciousness.

As a final note, The above sign for "Real Fruit Punch" caught my interest, especially the fact that there's a green version. Not only is it "The Original" it may be "The Only" in Knoxville. It must sell well at Christmas.

4 comments:

benjamin said...

apparently, you gotta try the chicken salad: http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2008/05/05/off-the-record-the-everybodyfields-tennessee/

The Pol said...

gosh ck, not only did you steal my next review but you totally missed the entire point of Kay's.

I will be rewriting this post soon as it should have been written, addressing the deeper nature of this historic icon.

prepare yourselves.

ck said...

be my guest. i guessing the point of kay's is ice cream? i eluded that that might be the case in the post. but go ahead, mine was just a rushed impression. it'll be nice to see a non-political diatribe come from you.

Holls of Grigs said...

the point of kays ice cream is so-kno heritage!! like the time i got dumped by my boyfriend as we sat on the curb in the kays parking lot, eating rocky road. i would not tell a lie.