"We don't really want to go to Knoxville all the time," Alice Basler told WATE in early October, explaining why she opened Wells Tavern on East Broadway. She has lived in Maryville for more than 20 years. Her point was that downtown already had good restaurants but had nowhere to go once dinner was over. "We go out to dinner, and then let's go have a drink," she said.
That is the real change in downtown Maryville this year. Most of the 2026 openings are places to stay after dinner, not more places to eat it. Duckpin bowling, a rooftop pub, a raw bar with live music and a bar with no alcohol on the menu now sit within a short walk of each other. With those in place, dinner on Broadway can be the first stop of the evening. The holiday season, starting with the Holiday Market on Nov. 28, is the first good chance to try that out.
Where downtown already had dinner covered
Basler's point that downtown had "so many good high-end restaurants" is easy to check on West Broadway.
The Raven, at 211 W. Broadway, is an upscale steakhouse and lounge with USDA Prime steaks, 16 Peaks Wagyu and seafood towers. Gemini Hospitality runs it, and its founding partners are Jim Saunders and Jimmy Loup. Knox News reviewed it in November 2025, so it is no longer new. It is now one of the places a downtown evening starts.
A few blocks down, REO Cheesewagon at 429 W. Broadway covers the casual end with gourmet grilled cheese. One example is the Blackberry Smoke, with provolone, blackberry jam, jalapeños and bacon. The food truck's brick-and-mortar cafe was already open by July 2024, according to Knox News.
WATE listed both among downtown's recent arrivals. Both were already in place before 2026. The newer spots are what turned a downtown with good dinners into one with a whole evening.
Ellis Avenue: games and a different kind of bar
The biggest of this year's openings is The Armory at 496 Ellis Ave. It opened July 20 with 27,000 square feet of games, dining and gathering space, according to Blount Tourism. The list of activities is long:
- Duckpin bowling, digital darts and a nine-hole putting course
- Shuffleboard, bocce and skeet shooting
- Yard games
- ValoArena mixed reality, which tracks players' movements with no headsets or controllers
There is also a restaurant, two bars and a rooftop deck, and you can reserve space for birthdays and company parties. For a group that has just finished dinner on Broadway, The Armory is the clearest answer yet to the question of where to go next.
Up the street at 608 Ellis Ave., Daisy's Non-Alcoholic Bar & Bottle Shop works like a neighborhood bar without the alcohol. It serves handcrafted mocktails, nonalcoholic beer and wine, kombucha, mocktail flights and casual food, and keeps board and card games at the bar. Daisy's opened in fall 2025 and held its ribbon cutting in January. Its rotating calendar includes live music, trivia, comedy, brunches, wellness programs and creative classes. That makes it an after-dinner stop for anyone in the group who isn't drinking, which a downtown lineup built only around bars would leave out.
Broadway and High Street: the September openings
Two openings two days apart in September filled in the rest.
Pinchy's Lobster & Raw Bar opened Sept. 17 at 508 High St., Smokies Live reported. It is a New England-style seafood shack serving lobster, Alaska king crab, and haddock fish and chips. Its signature "Kraken" is available every day. The Maryville location also has outdoor space and live entertainment. The restaurant's own site lists sushi, raw oysters, craft cocktails and live music. So Pinchy's works for a full dinner or for oysters and a drink after eating somewhere else.
Wells Tavern opened Sept. 19 at 114 E. Broadway Ave. with Scottish-inspired food and drinks and live music. Blount Tourism's preview mentioned outdoor seating that includes a rooftop over Broadway. Basler built it as the next stop after dinner, and it is now the clearest example of what downtown added this year.
| Stop | Address | Opened | Where it fits in an evening |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Raven | 211 W. Broadway Ave. | By Nov. 2025 | Steak dinner |
| REO Cheesewagon | 429 W. Broadway Ave. | By July 2024 | Casual bite |
| Daisy's | 608 Ellis Ave. | Fall 2025 | Alcohol-free drinks, games, events |
| The Armory | 496 Ellis Ave. | July 20, 2026 | Group games, rooftop deck |
| Pinchy's | 508 High St. | Sept. 17, 2026 | Seafood, oysters, live music |
| Wells Tavern | 114 E. Broadway Ave. | Sept. 19, 2026 | After-dinner drinks, live music |
Why these openings are happening now
Amanda Gillooly, executive director of the Downtown Maryville Alliance, told WATE that downtown has changed a lot over the past three years. She said years of work restoring long-vacant buildings are now paying off: "All of that construction is finishing up. Everything is finally getting settled." A Downtown Improvement Grant has paid for facade improvements at 12 properties, she said.
Her stated goal is aimed at people who already live here. "I want the people who either grew up here or live here currently, have lived here for many years, I want them to come explore downtown," Gillooly said. The after-dinner spots fit that goal because they give someone who drives in for dinner a reason to stay.
The daytime version, along the greenway
Downtown's evening growth has a daytime counterpart a short distance away. Greenway Village is a town-square-style development along the Maryville-Alcoa Greenway near Maryville City Hall, and the trail runs right through it. The Daily Times describes the full plan as nine buildings between Gary Hensley Drive and Pistol Creek.
WBIR reported these tenants open there:
- DSB Provisions, known for handmade pasta
- Studio P Pilates
- Foxhole Golf Club
- Great American Cookies
A Saturday walk on the greenway and an evening on Broadway now take place in two growing parts of the same town.
The holiday calendar puts it all to use
From late November into mid-December, downtown Maryville and nearby Alcoa have a holiday event almost every weekend. Most of them happen within walking distance of the places above.
Downtown Maryville Holiday Market and City Tree Lighting, Saturday, Nov. 28. The market takes over Broadway Avenue on Small Business Saturday. The city tree lighting at the Maryville Parking Garage on Broadway closes it out at about 5:30 p.m. Both are free. The local family blog MaryvilleKids expects around 150 artisans, plus free children's activities and a visit from Santa. Maryville Parks & Rec says more details are coming, so check closer to the date. A 5:30 tree lighting ends right around dinnertime, and dinner plus the after-dinner spots above are a short walk away.
City of Alcoa Tree Lighting, Monday, Nov. 30. Craft vendors and food trucks set up at 4 p.m. at the pedestrian bridge at Springbrook Corporate Center, 223 Associates Blvd. The tree is lit at 6 p.m., followed by music, refreshments and Santa. It is free.
Blount County Festival of Trees, opening Thursday, Dec. 3. Live Christmas trees fill the Blount County Courthouse lawn at 345 Court St. for a month. The opening night tree lighting at 6:30 p.m. includes entertainment, refreshments and Santa. Anyone hoping to enter a tree has until Nov. 6 to submit it through Parks & Rec at 865-983-9244. Since this post goes up Nov. 5, that deadline is only a day away.
H.O.M.E. for the Holidays, Saturday, Dec. 5. Hall-Oldfield-Maryville Empowerment, known as H.O.M.E., and the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center hold this yearly celebration at the center, 209 E. Franklin St., Alcoa. The tree lighting is at 6 p.m.
Blount County Jaycees Christmas Parade, Saturday, Dec. 12. The parade starts at 11 a.m., with lineup at 9 a.m. The route runs through Alcoa and ends in downtown Maryville. The rain date is Sunday, Dec. 13. An 11 a.m. parade that ends downtown leads straight into lunch on Broadway.
This year, the market on Nov. 28 wraps up with a 5:30 p.m. tree lighting on Broadway, the same street as Wells Tavern's rooftop, with The Armory's duckpin lanes on Ellis Avenue and Pinchy's raw bar on High Street close by.
Whether you're working out where to take visiting family after the parade or thinking about how downtown's growth fits your own plans in Blount County, I'm glad to talk it through. This kind of local detail is part of how Brian Cox helps people think about where and how they want to live. Let's Connect.
