There are those gems in Knoxville, those beautiful little places that earn a place in our hearts. They are those little hole in the wall spots, not a franchise but one of a kind and unique. These places become a sort of second home, a sanctuary and a place where you bring friends and family because sometimes the truly great secrets need to be shared. These strange and sweet solaces offer us a place to be ‘safe’ to be ourselves, even if it is a little Chinese restaurant where they know you like lo mein instead of rice or the video game store where they call you up to make sure you want to pre-order the new Assassin’s Creed because they already put your name on the list they just wanted to double check or the bar where they have your drink ready when you get there because they called you at work to make sure you’d be there. Like a modern Cheers, it is the place where everybody knows your name. Places like that are hard to find and apparently they are even harder to keep.
Case in point: The Knoxville Pearl. If you have been to the Old City and walked down East Jackson you have probably walked right past it, maybe you have even looked inside and all you could see were the vibrant colors on the wall and kept on walking. It’s nestled right in between the Pilot Light and Barley’s and if you blink you miss it. The Knoxville Pearl is a cereal bar, yes a cereal bar. It does all you can eat cereal in nearly any assortment you can imagine and a great variety of milks. They also sell pudding and oatmeal and Pop-Tarts and pop (soda I guess most people around here call it) and their most interesting offering: bubble tea. For those of you who don’t know bubble tea is (which is likely anybody reading this) it is either a fruit or milk based iced tea with tapioca balls at the bottom. It is an acquired taste, sure, but let me let you in on something: The Knoxville Pearl is my great gem. It took me forever to find it, this mysterious cereal bar that nobody seemed to know where it was, but everybody knew about it. The first time I went I even created a Facebook event called “Search for the Pearl” (the Knoxville Pearl without consequence has a cardboard cutout of Captain Jack (Sparrow not Harkness, but if they did it would be doubly awesome and quickly stolen) alluding to perhaps the play on words in the name). The Knoxville Pearl with its cartoon characters and oddly painted walls, broken piano, coloring books and games with missing pieces is my true happy place. Bubble (or boba) tea is my Kryptonite, I will drink glasses of it until I am sick (which I inevitably do). I spent Halloween there and birthdays and my friends’ bachelorette parties. The Knoxville Pearl was my happy place, my safe place. I say ‘was’ because as of Saturday for reasons that I do not yet know, The Knoxville Pearl is closing.
To say that I am heartbroken is a bit of an understatement and let me tell you why. The Knoxville Pearl was one of the last ‘safe’ places to hang out at night. Any other place even open that late is either a bar, a club, or sells waffles. I am not a club kind of girl. I can dance but attractive boys intimidate me, but so do unfamiliar social settings. Oh sure I could put out the air of confidence, but this is another discussion for another time. Bars can be scary places at night and since the list of my friends who are night owls is short, drinking alone is not something I want to do. I’m not one of ‘those girls’ who can just go to a club or mingle with complete strangers, not easily. Clubs and bars and often 24 hour breakfast joints scare me…Waffle Houses scare me. The Knoxville Pearl is/ was different. You could hang out there for hours and eat a Pop-Tart and not be bothered save for the occasional curious onlooker. An onlooker would occasionally come in as we sat on couches watching adult swim or better yet, a drunk. Yes, Old City is simply full of them particularly on the weekend and sometimes one would wonder in drunk out of their mind murmuring about how their friends left them and all they wanted was to find a place to pee and odd comments about hamsters. I wish I was making this up. The owners (who are wicked cool anyways) will get them coffee (often for free because they’ve not the presence of mind to find their wallet) and let them sober up on one of the many couches. This place is a beautiful place full of weird things and as of Saturday it will be gone.
I am not sure why they are closing. It could have something to do with the fact that the rent is getting hiked up for downtown Knoxville businesses. Maybe they don’t want to raise their kids in an often scary neighborhood. I wish I could save this wonderful place single handedly, but it is unfortunately too late for that. I suppose Knoxville is not big enough for a little cereal bar joint that sells bubble tea. Could we, as Knoxville, have done more to save it? Probably. The reason that they’re closing doesn’t matter all I know is that I will be there on Saturday to send them off, you should come and if you do late that night you will see me, not only me but others (including my brother and new sister in law) who have come to adore this place as much as I do. If you see me, say hello. Aside from being a little creeped out, I will secretly love the fact you came.
The picture? Cherry-lime bubble tea and Kix; midnight snack of champions and possibly my favorite meal. Oh and just so you know, in the unlikely case they are selling them, I call dibs on the ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ tables.
