Les Jones

Three Knoxville restaurants: Little Havana, Hong Kong House, and Louis’

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 | Misc |

Little Havana, Gay Street downtown
One on of our date nights we tried going to Nama’s, but there was a wait and we had Fandango tickets burning a hole in our pockets, so we dived into Little Havana next door. It was in their pre-opening days, but we liked it. Good sandwiches, if not up to the level of the late great Alex’s Taste of Havana, and we loved the appetizer platter.

FWIW, while Googling I found a Cuban place in Gatlinburg on Ski Mountain road, Mojitos in the Mountains.

Hong Kong House on Kingston Pike across from Downtown West
Steve K told me about this place. The chef is from China and used to cook for the Chinese embassy in D.C. The menu is not your usual Chinese fare, though there were a few familiar items.

I ate there with some friends and had the lunch buffet, which includes a noodle bar. You can have them anyway you want or order from the ten or so standard dishes. I had the #3 Schezuan noodles. The cook asked if I wanted it spicy and I did. The heat develops slowly and is wonderful.

Starke discovered that the little steam pots off to the side are filled with different kinds of dumplings. I’ll have to try those next time. The one thing I ordered from the menu was an appetizer of fish and cilantro eggrolls, which were delicious.

Louis’ on Old Broadway
We found ourselves in North Knoxville last weekend and decided to take the kids to Louis’, an old line Knoxville restaurant that’s been in business for more than 50 years. I hadn’t eaten there since I worked at U.S. Internet in the Nineties.

Among the family we had pizza, spaghetti, a hot beef sandwich, and beef liver cooked with onions and bacon. The hot beef was the only mild disappointment - it was closer to Salisbury steak than to Sam and Andy’s hot beef and gravy sandwich.

Louis’ is a fine lunch and family place. The food is delicious, there’s enough to split a meal or have leftovers, and if you stay away from the steak and seafood most of the entrees are under $10 with a side and salad. I love their house Italian dressing. Louis’ serves beer; wine is BYOB.

As the story was told to me, once upon a time there was a restaurant named Louis’ that was run by two brothers. They had a falling out, so one of the brothers decided to open his own Italian restaurant, because who says only his brother could have an Italian restaurant? He decided to name his restaurant Louis’, because who says his brother owned that name? And he decided to open his restaurant right next to his brother’s, because who says he was the only one who could have a restaurant on that street? So back in the Nineties the two Louis’ Italian restaurants were right next to each other with adjoining parking lots.

A while back the city reworked Old Broadway and both restaurants had to skedaddle. I’m not sure what happened to the other one (do you?), but this other other one where we ate moved down the street to the old Mustard Seed Cafe building, complete with a drive-in. One thing missing from Louis’ Web site is their red and white logo, which is a beautiful example of commercial artwork.

Bonus! Jigsha Desai has a video interview with Louis Chronoka. I didn’t realize the brothers were Greek.

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