Monday, March 01, 2010

just like momma used to make


So there's a new bag in town that couldn't be a better fit for our fair city. It's called The Parlor and since my words probably couldn't do it justice, here's their mission statement:

"In an age when most of our food and music are mass-produced commodities, we at The Parlor aim to get back to basics. Using quality, locally-sourced ingredients (many of which we grow in our own backyard), our goal is to provide the community with a genuine "hand-crafted" alternative to the processed foods that increasingly dominate the marketplace."

As you might have guessed they work in food - catering, private chef as well as brown bag lunches, and with menu items such as The Dad (meatloaf sandwich) and the Ultimate PB&J (peanut butter, Nutella, banana and strawberry compote) I think this will fast become a staple for those comfort food-craving moments in all our lives.

One more thing to note: you have to order your lunch a day in advance, which I think is a nice touch--elevating the workaday lunch experience beyond running down the street for a quick bite. Lunches are delivered Monday, Wednesday and Friday to Downtown and North Knox. So give it a try, if not for the PB&J, do it to meet some really interesting Knoxvillians.

The Parlor
726 Chickamauga Ave.
865-456-3458

4 comments:

justkate said...

this looks awesome! and the food descriptions are definitely making me hungry! i heart the wigshop blog, btw!

Lo said...

never heard of such a fine pb&j! i like how they combine quality foods and fine instruments. is there a showroom for the instruments? if i remember correctly, there is a pretty cool commercial building right next to the train tracks on chickamauga, kinda backs right up to those old homestead at the foot of sharps ridge. feels like somebody transplanted a little of south knoxville in north knoxville!

B said...

I need to place an order asap. i wonder if they cater to 1300 N. Broadway???

I'm so curious about who started this and how it got started. Anyone know?

Anonymous said...

Thanks Robert for the post! Someone told us to check out the site and we were blown away by the good things you had to say about the brown bag lunches, and by this blog in general.

Lo-we do indeed have a show room for instruments, and you are correct about the location of our building. Our catering kitchen is in S. Knoxville so I love your description of the building.

We are a little way from having the downstairs of that building completed but when we do it will have a cafe/deli and a huge garden project out back which we are plotting out righ now.

This project started two years ago, with some of us having the revolutionary idea that people might like something a little different in Knoxville. I grew up in Virginia, and most of what we ate was grown on the farm so comfort food is important to me. A big part of this project from the food side is all about the experience of eating something that was picked an hour ago, simply prepared, the way it was meant to taste. This will essentially be a farm to table kind of place and we'll be sourcing as much locally as we can get our hands on.

My business partner Josh grew up in New York, and probably never grew any tomatoes, but he's a fine musician and knows a lot about quality vintage instruments. You can visit us soon over on Chickamauga. Right now you can take a look at some of the things we have going on if you go to our website. If all goes according to plan the music studios and instrument showroom should be open in a couple of weeks.

We've been lucky to add Jen Rock to our team, who is actually capable of both playing instruments and cooking but usually not at the same time.

Robert, thanks again, we appreciate your post tremendously. Pick a lunch, any lunch and we'll deliver it to you gratis. Send me an e-mail through The Parlor website and let me know your choice!

This blog is awesome.

Sincerely,
Rita

P.S.-We sure would like to deliver to N. Broadway. We're trying to get folks to put together orders of five people to deliver outside of downtown. However, right now if you're flexible on your delivery time we could probably make it work for you. Call us!