The Powell location is closed, with a note sending you to the Crick.

How about a place where you can get a cheap, decent sandwich and a cup of coffee, that's also open later than 3 p.m.?

Michael Haynes' Metro Pulse column from a couple weeks ago:

(link...)

Hong Kong house is our personal favorite of all the restaurants in Knoxville. Shoot, it is our favorite Chinese restaurant in all of the danged USofA. What Maryville has and Knoxville is missing is the MP Hibachi Grill/Chinese

Is there a good bakery, with good bread downtown?

-Sugarfatpie (AKA Alex Pulsipher)

"X-Rays are a hoax."-Lord Kelvin

Is there a restaurant downtown with an extensive vegetable selection?

I would like to see a restaurant that printed on your ticket the nutritional info for what you ordered. Like x grams sugar, x grams carbohydrates, omega 3, calories, etc.

They know their portion sizes for cost margins. Some extra database fields, and there you have it.

A place like Vic and Bill's that's open all night with decent prices.

On the topic of new restaurants downtown, has anyone tried cafe4 on Market Square yet?

Or the pizza place (Dazzo's) in the 700 Block of Gay St (up from Mirage)?

The Bistro is very reasonable IMO. It's about my favorite, next to the way-too-noisy Tomato Head which is otherwise fav. However, there is a new, more limited menu at the Bistro I've not fully digested (heh) yet. Looks like the prices are up and some of my favorite lower cost sandwiches may be gone (Turkey Rueben). And they swapped cracker vendors so they no longer have Captain's Wafers. What's that all about? Wish they'd left well enough alone, but I understand the need to spruce things up.

As for Dazzo's, I found it "tasty," but pretty much opposite T Head. Cheesy and "fat" traditional American pizza, more like what you expect in a strip mall in Powell or Seymour. Beer selection: Bud, Bud lite, etc. Why bother? Not what I expect downtown. If you really like Big Ed's, and not just the image, you might like Dazzo's, though.

Back on topic, a Tapas place might be good. I'm just waitin' for the S&W and the Gelato place.

King Tut's is close enough to downtown and it's South Knoxville flavor. Leave Moe alone, he's just fine where he is.

Tapas failed in Bearden. I am not sure Knoxville gets tapas. Look what happened to Cha Cha. I don't want tapas to get the same weird Knoxville reinvention that happened to sushi. I will commit harakiri on Market Square when someone introduces The Big Orange Empanada to downtown.

But I love most of the restaurants now downtown (especially Nama, La Costa, and Tomato Head - really need to check out Le Parigo) and look forward to a continuation of the diversity that makes downtown dining interesting (not more burgers and steaks, thank you very much).

but a really, really good Creole restaurant using the freshest ingredients and sparing absolutely nothing. Something like a Commander's Palace or even a TuJaques located right on Market Square. Something so good, so authentic, I'd hallucinate Old Hickory on a Horse when I stepped outside of it. And since I'm dreaming, an all night coffee house specializing in Cafe Au Lait and Beignets. Ah Hell, I just need to book a flight to Nola. I'm in withdrawals.

I think the subject line of the original post is begging the question. Downtown Knoxville could use plenty of types of restaurants—I'd particularly like to see fewer sit-down places and more cheap delis and places for quick junk food—but "need" seems awfully desperate. The area's doing fine with what it has. As sick as I get sometimes of choosing among the same eight or nine places for lunch (three or four of which are some of my favorite places), that has a lot more to do with being here every day for the past three years than about the quality of lunch.