New downtown spot Monkey’s Bar hopes to provide welcoming space

each other can meet up in a welcoming space reassures Nelson. She also invites more people to take advantage of the space.

This story begins in October. At 103 W. Depot Avenue, the cocktail bar Central Depot closed its doors. One of its employees became an ultimate opportunist – Ellie Nelson purchased the space and turned it into a bar of her own. This bar, aptly named for Nelson’s golden retriever Monkey, opened its doors on Dec. 23, 2022. Monkey’s Bar, with its industrial yet homey feel, has become a classic meeting place for people of all kinds. After all, that is one of Nelson’s missions for the bar. “Bars are such a place of connection for people, and I really want to see what I can do to help foster that. I want to provide a space for people to come and, whoever it is, to walk in that door and feel like they are welcome here. It’s a place where they can meet their friends, hang out with people they know, or meet new people. You can meet a lot of people in the bar scene, and I love that, so I asked myself what I could do to make that happen,” Nelson said.

The bar has become a place to host events, such as the New to Knox group that met at Monkey’s on Wednesday night. Nelson welcomes the groups, especially the partnership with New to Knox. The fact that a group of people who have moved to a new city and don’t know the area or

After graduating from UT in 2016 with a degree in history and two minors in geography and secondary education – not a business degree like one might think – Nelson has worked in the service industry and the construction industry. That has been one of the most difficult things Nelson has faced when opening Monkey’s Bar.

“While I was in the process of opening a business, which is a full-time job, I’m working at my full-time job,” Nelson said. “I’m so thankful for the people that have been around me in this experience to help, like my best friends, my family, all of the above … I would have loved to do more of the manual labor myself, but I went through the bureaucratic stuff, and the people around me did the interior design bits.”

Monkey’s Bar can seat about 50 people and though they love to host other people’s events, they also host events like trivia on Tuesdays and local artists performing on Wednesdays. Currently, Monkey’s Bar is not open on Sundays or Mondays, but Nelson says that they could open on those days sometime in the future. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays are the busiest days for the bar.

The bar features mostly cocktails, with a few snacks on the menu as well. The cocktails are made with an array of liquors, though Monkey’s

Bar has a plethora of bourbons on their menu – because Nelson feels as though she is wellversed in the bourbon world from her years of work in the service industry.

Almost all of the cocktails are references to the early 2000s, such as the Jack Sparrow (probably the most obvious connection), which is a rum cocktail with pomegranate, lime, ginger liqueur, a topping of ginger beer and a lime wheel. Another is the Old Miller, named for Nick Miller, a character in the sitcom “New Girl”

“Ellie basically is Nick Miller,” said Brooke Martin, the two-time guest bartender at Monkey’s Bar.

Martin bartends mostly at Stock & Barrel in Market Square, another bourbon-focused restaurant. Because Nelson has worked in the service industry for long enough to make connections, she has a number of guest bartenders who pick up shifts as the business continues to navigate its opening.

Working at Monkey’s is also a breath of fresh air, Martin felt.

“I’ve been working at Stock for four years now, and the burnout is real, but I love bartending so coming to Monkey’s just hits different. It’s a great place to start out or even just find a new lease on the job,” Martin said.

Monkey’s Bar can be found on Instagram at @monkeysbarknox, as well as online at www. monkeysbarknox.com. They are open from 4 p.m. to 12 a.m. Tuesday to Thursday and from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Meet some people, like Nelson intended, and have a good time. The drinks are inexpensive, and the people are welcoming – Monkey’s Bar is one of the upand-coming places to be.