After exercising at the downtown Y, a friend and I looked for a place to have a cup of coffee and late-afternoon sweet. We walked over to Tomato Head which, at 4 pm, was already mobbed. We then headed to the little cafe on Gay Street (next to the Brewery) which, strangely, was closed. Then down to the creperie, which was also closed. So we decided on Coolato Gelato at 524 S. Gay, open and doing brisk business. I had an excellent hot chocolate and a small Linzer tart, one of those double-layer cookies with a jam center and powdered sugar on top. They're really hard to find here - Gourmet's Market made them years ago for Valentine's Day - but they've pretty much disappeared from local eateries. The Linzer was very good, and when the owner came around to make sure everything was fine, I asked him whether they were home-baked (assuming, of course, that they weren't). He said, proudly, that his wife baked them, as she baked all the desserts they offered.

On the way back to the car, I stopped in at Dazzo's Italian to pick up a menu. I noticed something really unusual for Knoxville: half the customers in the dining room were single, occupying tiny little booths that could accommodate two. So this is clearly a place where singles can feel perfectly comfortable. The food, by the way, looked and smelled wonderful.