Historic restaurant opens with modern menu

For anyone who has been following the development of downtown Knoxville over the last four to five years, it has been an exciting time. For a while, the only reason to go east of campus was to drink in the Old City or see a concert at the Bijou Theatre or Tennessee Theatre. Now Market Square is quickly renting out to capacity, Regal Riviera Cinema has lit up Gay Street and good tapas, crepes and sushi can be found within a city block.

During all of the rapid improvement, an expanse of blank storefront remained on Gay Street — the location of the old S&W Cafeteria. Then, Brian and Stephanie Balest and Shane Robertson, owners and executive chef at the Northshore Brasserie, respectively, announced they would reopen the S&W Cafeteria as the S&W Grand, a modern restaurant that would still embrace the history of the property.

The restaurant is still in its honeymoon phase, having opened for a Sunday lunch on Oct. 18. A lot of people who remember the S&W Cafeteria (which closed in 1981) are visiting the S&W Grand to see the new interior. What they found was a new menu. Instead of a wide, cafeteria-style selection, the menu is narrow and lofty, offering such dishes as Pork Shank with cider-poached apple, gigante bean ragout and natural pan jus for $21.95.

For all the historical similarities — the tea-green marble floors, the Art Deco designs, even original fixtures such as a brass weighing scale — the restaurant no longer serves the same purpose, and it’s unfair to compare the two.

Accounts submitted by commentators of the Knoxville News Sentinel articles about the reopening suggest the cafeteria was the kind of place mothers and daughters would visit when they would come into the city for a day of shopping or doctor’s visits.

It is clear that the new restaurant is not for a quick bite. The menu is pricey, portions are smaller and classic cafeteria dishes like spaghetti and meatballs have been transformed to culinary endeavors like baked spaghetti pie — spaghetti folded into the shape of a pie and served with garnish.

The 21st-century S&W Grand will be for business lunches, dinners before the theater, cocktails and a novelty meal for visitors to Knoxville. Once crowds of former patrons have come and gone, it might take S&W a while to establish its demographic, but there’s reason to believe it will be successful.

The baby grand piano, the upstairs bar and the formal, polite service lends the Grand a cosmopolitan atmosphere, which is appealing to young people moving into the growing stretch of loft apartments and urban condos downtown. Yet, the restaurant’s owners have still gracefully recaptured the architecture and design of an historic landmark.