Southern and soul food at Tupelo Honey Cafe in Knoxville, Tennessee

When in Tennessee, you just gotta eat some southern cookin’. It’s good for the soul.We ventured here the evening we got in to Knoxville because I’d heard Market Square was a pretty cool town center worth checking out. Indeed, there were a lot of people milling around, drinking and chatting at patio bars and sidewalk cafes, street artists, even a Shakespeare play being performed.We walked in to Tupelo Honey Cafe, where the host said it would be almost a two-hour wait.“What about the bar?” the hubs asks.“Oh sure, there should be open seats there, and it’s full service at the bar,” the host said.Jackpot!When there’s a long wait and you’re dining in a party of two, bar seating is paramount. You often get to order anything from the full menu, your drinks get to you that much quicker, and who the heck needs to wait around for a table when it’s just as cozy and interesting at the bar? If your party is larger, though, bar seating might make conversation challenging (but maybe that’s a bonus if there’s someone in the group you would rather not talk to).The hubs and I made a beeline for the bar and were immediately greeted by the friendly bartender. Their famous biscuits with honey and blueberry jam were complimentary; this was the first time I’d had blueberry jam, and it was delicious—a refreshing alternative to the typical strawberry or grape.As an appetizer, we had the fried green tomatoes with goat cheese grits , red pepper coulis, and fresh basil. As you might tell with the goat cheese, coulis, and basil, this was elegance meets comfort.The hubs and I shared the fried chicken and biscuits for our main. The fried chicken was solid (though I still prefer Nashville’s hot chicken—more on that another time), but that milk gravy was bomb.To round out our dinner, we had a side of corn soufflé. Corn was in season, and although not the most nutritious of vegetables, I figured why not fall off the deep end since I just had a bunch of carbs and fried foods anyway. Corn soufflé was a fairly unfamiliar concept to me. Sometimes referred to as corn casserole or even corn pudding, it’s essentially corn kernels baked in a casserole with egg, flour, or even Jiffy muffin mix. After I had my first bite of Tupelo’s corn soufflé, I realized it was the corn my late aunt used to serve up every Thanksgiving. I’d asked her once, “What’s this interesting corn dish you bring that’s got like bits of scrambled egg in it?” She didn’t give me the name of the dish (she probably didn’t know it), but simply said her friend had taught her to make it. And while I prefer my sweet and spicy Creole corn for Thanksgiving, there’s still something comforting about corn soufflé.We were stuffed by the end of our shared meal, but luckily, Knoxville’s got some great trails to hike, like the one at Ijams Nature Center (protip: the “J” is silent, so it’s pronounced like “Ai-ams”), so you can walk some of your fatty dinner off.I appreciate how Tupelo brings modern sophistication to classic southern dishes while keeping seasonality in mind. Southern food has come a long way from Cracker Barrel.Tupelo Honey Cafe1 Market Sq.Knoxville, TN 37902Phone: +1 865 522-0004