SCRUFFY CITY EATERIES

from Wednesday, March 23, 2022 - Knoxville Cuisine Guide

PROGRESSIVE DINNER

ABBY ANN RAMSEY Staff Writer

In season five of the hit TV show “Seinfeld,” the title character Jerry Seinfeld and his friend Elaine Bennis stop at a bakery to get babka to bring to a dinner party. Upon the employee informing them that they are out of chocolate babka and will have to settle for cinnamon, Bennis titles it the “lesser babka.”

What might just be a quick joke in one of hundreds of Seinfeld episodes served as the inspiration for local Knoxvillian Emily Williams to name her small babka business “Lesser Babka.”

Williams began Lesser Babka in Oct. 2020, according to Knox News, and her partner Laurence Faber joined in on the baking and sales. Faber was previously a head pastry chef at Blackberry Farms. The small business run on Instagram with online orders and personal deliveries only grew.

What started out of Faber and Williams’ kitchen is now a completely reinvented idea of a Jewish deli. Potchke Deli opened in the historic Regas building on March 18, taking over the space that was previously Vienna Coffee.

Williams and Faber worked diligently over the past three months to fit their culinary ideas into the space but did so with the help of their business partners, Brian and Jessica Strutz, the owners of A Dopo Sourdough Pizza.

Since 2016, A Dopo has been one of Knoxville’s most popular pizza restaurants — and was even recently placed at No. 38 on Yelp’s list of the country’s top-100 pizza places.

Williams and Faber started off as loyal customers of A Dopo, going almost weekly. They forged a relationship with the Strutz’s, aided by the fact that both Brian Strutz and Faber had learned many of their culinary skills working at Blackberry Farms, even though they were not there at the same time.

“One day he Instagram DMed me, and I was cooking like Jewish Israeli, Eastern European food, and he was like, ‘why don’t you do this as a restaurant?’” Faber said. “And it was like right when I was putting in my notice at Blackberry that I was like, ‘why don’t I do this?’”

From then on, Faber turned to Strutz as a mentor and looked to him for advice on starting his own restaurant, since his expertise was with food, rather than business. They soon decided, however, to become partners, which was an obvious choice to all of them.

“We were like, ‘wait, he’s being my mentor and I’m working with other people, and I keep coming back to him for questions. It would be easier if we all just worked together,’” Faber said.

Before launching any big ideas for a restaurant or a deli, A Dopo hosted some pop-up opportunities in their space to test out Faber and Williams’ ideas. They called the pop-ups “Hi

Baby,” derived from the Arabic word “habibi,” which means “my friend” or “my love.”

“Those pop-ups led to all of us thinking we could do more together,” Strutz said.

Soon after their pop-ups and “local viral” Lesser Babka business, as Strutz called it, Faber and Williams took a two month trip visiting Ukraine, Georgia, Turkey, Paris and New York. They wanted to experience all these different food traditions, and Faber got the opportunity to understand his family’s Jewish history as they originated from Ukraine and Moldova. That trip inspired the majority of their menu at Potchke, which has a bit of culinary influence from just about every country bordering the Black Sea.

Although Potchke is a Jewish deli, their menu might not be exactly what you’re expecting. Faber explained that in kosher Judaism, you can have meat and dairy separately, but not together at the same time. While many Jewish delis take the meat route, offering options like pastrami and brisket, Potchke is taking a different approach.

“What we’re doing at Potchke is we’re taking the idea of the Jewish deli, and we’re taking inspiration from it, but we’re kind of cooking what we want to eat and how we like to eat, which is a little bit healthier and vegetablefocused than the traditional deli,” Faber said. “We decided to stick with the dairy side and kind of honor the traditions of kosher. We’re not exactly kosher, there’s no rabbi coming in and blessing everything for us, but we stick to the dairy and the fish.”

Although they’re not “exactly” following kosher laws, Faber sees a need for a space for Knoxville’s Jewish community to come together.

“Lots of people just don’t really wanna be religious, they want to hold on to their cultural Judaism but not necessarily the religious aspects of it, so a place like Potchke — which is open for everyone, like most people have no idea what Jewish food is and love it — but for Jewish people they get a place to come see other Jewish people they know,” Faber said. “So, I think every city needs a Jewish gathering place. Knoxville didn’t have that.”

Appropriately enough, a former café at the Regas building was called “The Gathering Place.” The building is home to countless Christian non-profits and is owned by Knoxville Leadership Foundation, another Christian non-profit, “with a mission to be a gathering place for the community.” Potchke adds a layer of inclusivity to the building, providing a space for the Jewish population in Knoxville.

On the surface, it might seem unusual for a sourdough pizza place to partner with a place like Potchke. The four owners, however, have a great deal in common, in terms of their experiences, culinary visions and personal relationships.

Years before opening A Dopo, Brian and Jessica Strutz got married and booked one-way tickets to Italy. They lived there for a year, working on farms and gaining inspiration for cooking their own Italian food.

Although he worked in personal finance before pursuing his restaurant dreams, Brian Strutz learned countless little things that are now integrated into A Dopo’s pizza style. Everything from their mozzarella-making methods to the name of the restaurant was at least partially inspired by their time abroad.

“(‘A dopo’) wasn’t used all the time and we started asking around and translating it, and to us, we heard that phrase when people were gonna meet you for dinner and I was like that’s sweet, it’s this phrase that is kind of colloquial, but it generally means I’m going to meet you later,” Strutz said.

Similarly, Faber and Williams’ time abroad had a great influence on their ideas for Potchke, as they utilize so much of what they learned in other countries in their current menu.

While you often see business collaborating and owners forging friendships, it seems less common that restaurants owned by couples get to work together.

Although Jessica Strutz was a teacher while A Dopo was in the process of getting off the ground, she joined Brian as an equal partner in 2018, which he is incredibly thankful for.

“Her joining the restaurant was just a huge, momentous thing for the restaurant, for me, for us, and so now, we’re really just partners in everything we’re doing together, and it’s a lot of fun,” Strutz said. “We get to live a fun life and we’re very happy. We’re happy to be able to contribute to the community and put ideas into execution and take risks.”

Faber said the time spent with his partner has only increased since going into business together, and she plays an integral role.

“It’s great, we spend every waking moment together, and we love each other,” Faber said. “It’s cool because we also really complete each other with her at the front of house and me at the back of house, like she’s amazing with design and marketing and all that stuff. We fill in each other’s gaps really well.”

Faber said they also admire the Strutz’s vision for food and agree with them wholeheartedly, which positively influences the partnership and their decision to do this together. If Williams completes Faber, A Dopo completes Potchke.

“I think we kind of complete each other’s things and how A Dopo treats their staff, how they pay their staff, how their restaurant is run and how they are as managers and owners is all what I look up to,” Faber said.

While both restaurants’ visions align, the Strutzes are also interested in opportunities like this as one of their goals is to help other businesses get going.

“Long-term, my wife and I want to find ways to support the local food community, and whether that be through mentorship, partnership, financing, passive investment or hosting pop-ups or whatever it is, that’s kind where we wanna focus the future of our career,” Strutz said. “A Dopo is a really solid foundation for us, and having that real estate just sort of gives us a lot of confidence to be able to pursue these types of things.”

In terms of capitalizing on the success of A Dopo, the Strutzes are less interested in franchising their business or talking to developers.

“We are very much more interested in, like, independent concepts that happen to create a better community for a lot of people: for the diners, for the farmers, for the employees, the cooks,” Strutz said. “It’s just really satisfying to be able to build a food and beverage concept that can A: be profitable, B: be a place people wanna work at and C: be a place that people wanna go, like at least where I want to go, and I think the nexus of those three things is the sweet spot.”

Like “A dopo,” “potchke” also has a meaning relevant to the restaurant. The Yiddish word “potchke,” meaning to make a mess, oftentimes in the kitchen, reveals quite a bit of meaning in the mission of Faber and Williams’ new project and future ideas.

“I could walk in that closet, and I could just be like moving around, touching stuff, not really sure what I’m doing, I’m ‘potchke-ing,’ that’s another way of saying it, when you’re just kind of like wasting time,” Faber said. “So this, to us, is wasting time while we build a restaurant. That’s where we got the name.”

I think every city needs a Jewish gathering place. Knoxville didn’t have that.

LAURENCE FABER Co-owner of Potchke Deli A Dopo, located in downtown Knoxville, provides fresh pizza for customers to enjoy. File / The Daily Beacon

DANIEL DASSOW Campus News Editor

A sign on the window of Gosh Ethiopian Restaurant on March 21, 2022. Edward Cruz / Contributor

In Ethiopia, the word “gosh” translates to something like “bravo!” — a congratulations for a job well done. Gosh Ethiopian Restaurant, tucked onto Sutherland Avenue, was named for a restaurant in Ethiopia owned by the parents of chef Terri Woldemichael, whose dream was to open a similar place in Knoxville.

The word “bravo” applies well to the eatery, which opened in 2011 and has since become an acclaimed fixture, serving up dishes that are difficult to find anywhere else in the city. The small menu consists mostly of vegetable and beef stews, simmered in flavorful sauces and served with injera, a fermented flatbread that is the staple of Ethiopian cuisine.

Terri and her husband Mike Woldemichael, both immigrants from Ethiopia, own and operate the restaurant as a family business. After graduating from UT in 2009 with a degree in nuclear engineering, Mike Woldemichael faced the tough job market created by the 2008 recession.

After working various jobs and saving up, the couple took the leap of opening the restaurant. Mike Woldemichael said it has been the fulfillment of many wishes for the family.

“It’s my wife’s dream. She wanted always to open her own business, especially a restaurant. This is like a family tradition. Her parents, they are business people, so she grew up in that environment,” M. Woldemichael said. “It’s an exciting thing to do whatever you love to do, and she enjoys it. If my wife enjoys it, I enjoy it.”

Gosh Ethiopian Restaurant is an intimate experience and also an inclusive one, as the menu has options for many diets, especially vegan and vegetarian dishes. In the decade since it began creating a community around Ethiopian food, Gosh has attracted a loyal customer base.

M. Woldemichael said these customers were the key to surviving the hardest months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though he has worked as an engineer since 2013 in addition to running the restaurant with his wife, he said rent and utility payments were still hard to make, even with the additional income.

“Our loyal customers, they were really being nice to us. Even though they didn’t need it, they ordered like twice a week just to support us,” M. Woldemichael said. “We are blessed to have good customers, very loyal customers.”

Content about Ethiopian food has expanded on social media in recent years. The hashtag “#ethiopianfood” yields 240,000 results on Instagram and nearly 140 million views on TikTok. Some customers have come into the restaurant after trying and failing to make recipes they saw online, especially the tricky injera, which must be fermented for three days and is hard to make without the specific climate, elevation and ingredients of Ethiopia.

In a show of community, the restaurant has given not only tips, but also fermentation starters to customers who need help making the bread at home.

In addition to loyal customers, the restaurant has also attracted committed staff, who feel like family to the Woldemichaels. Deizel Grubb, a third-year student at UT in the 3+1 program for pharmacy, has worked at Gosh for almost four years.

Grubb’s sister worked at the restaurant before him, and his mother is from the Ethiopian capital city Addis Ababa, just like Terri Woldemichael. For him, the job has always felt like a family affair.

Now, as he prepares to leave Knoxville for graduate studies at the UT Health Center in Memphis, Grubb is thankful for the support of his adopted family at Gosh.

“Every family, it’s about compromise. I like the idea that if I’m doing well, they’re doing well,” Grubb said. “It’s a very open relationship with them, where if I got a better opportunity, I’m not afraid to go to them and be like, ‘hey, I gotta go to grad school soon.’ … They want to see me thrive.”

Gosh is open Wednesday through Friday from 5-8 p.m. and on Saturdays from 4-8 p.m. Grubb said that the short hours and small menu contribute to the unique dining experience.

“We’re not open very long and we don’t have many things on the menu,” Grubb said. “What we do have, it’s all really good. Like what we do make is really good here. I feel like it’s really adventurous food, but it’s all good and there’s always something for someone in here. I’ve never had anyone leave here disappointed.” STORY CONTINUED ONLINE

Brain food: Some of Knoxville’s best study-friendly eateries

CALEIGH ROZMENOSKI Managing Editor

Eating is an important part of anyone’s day, a great pastime and something that is pretty much unavoidable. Much like eating, studying is also unavoidable and necessary for most college students. However, it’s fair to say that almost anyone would choose eating over studying. That’s why it can be a great idea to combine them and eat while you study.

It’s best to do this in a casual setting that welcomes long-term guests, like coffee shops and bakeries. Here are just a few local, Knoxville eateries — mostly for those with a sweet tooth — to hole up in, satisfy your cravings and get work done.

Remedy Coffee and Paysan Bread & Bagels

Located on 800 Tyson Street and 804, respectively — making it less than a 10-minute drive from campus — Remedy Coffee and _Paysan Bread & Bagels are neighbors. Remedy is open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and weekends from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Paysan is open everyday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Remedy is a cozy, aesthetic coffee shop with a darker vibe ready to fulfill all your study needs. Meanwhile, Paysan is just across the courtyard with a walk-up window and a full menu of bagels, breads and sandwiches.

There is free, accessible street parking, free wi-fi and all the coffee and bagels one could need for a successful study session away from home.

Hey Bear Cafe

Rather than coffee, Hey Bear Cafe offers an extensive menu of boba tea with dozens of flavors and topping to meet the needs of any bubble tea-lover. A little farther from campus, Hey Bear is located on 9036 Middlebrook Pike, making it about a 15-minute drive. However it is open late, so it works for those late nights after class. Hey Bear is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

There is plenty of available parking, free wifi and indoor/outdoor seating. There are food trucks located near their outdoor seating everyday of the week, and the food truck schedule is available on their website.

Hey Bear also hosts pop-ups shops by local artists, trivia nights every Thursday and even live music for your breaks from studying. but Knoxville is home to dozens. With two locations in Knoxville at 6535 Kingston Pike and 418 S. Gay Street, you can choose to walk or drive to _taus Dough to meet your artisanal doughnut needs.

Status Dough strives to become a third place for customers, outside of their home and work — an open invitation to set up shop and get whatever school work you have done. There is even free wi-fi there as well.

The Kingston Pike location is a bit more accessible, with available parking and weekday hours going from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. and weekend hours from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Parking will be harder to find for the Downtown location and the hours are much more limited — Friday 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and weekend hours from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The exterior of Remedy Coffee, adjacent to Paysan Bread & Bagels, at 800 Tyson St. on Sunday, March 20, 2022. Ericksen Gomez-Villeda / The Daily Beacon