The Plaid Apron

You're walking into a cozy Sequoyah Hills cafe expecting safe Chardonnay and a Cabernet from somewhere forgettable — and then the wine list hits you like a geography quiz you actually want to take. Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Spain: this list is doing serious passport miles for a neighborhood spot in Knoxville. It's not long, but whoever built it clearly has opinions.

The list leans heavily Southern Hemisphere and old-world fringe, which is unusual in a city where most restaurants are playing it safe with California and France. You've got Chalmers Greco from Heathcote, Ochota Barrels 'Texture Like Sun' from South Australia, and a Castro Ventosa Valtuille from Bierzo — none of these are wines your average restaurant buyer stumbles into by accident. The red side covers solid ground with the 2021 Noon Winery Reserve Shiraz from Langhorne Creek, 2020 Finca Villacreces Pruno Tempranillo, and the 2021 Mother Rock Holocene, which is a natural wine from South Africa that most Knoxville diners have never heard of. The gaps are real — no depth on Burgundy, Barolo, or domestic heavy hitters — but that's clearly by design, not neglect.

We don't have a confirmed by-the-glass count or specific glass pour pricing, which is a gap we want to fill on a return visit. What we do know is that the list includes wines with enough range in weight and style that a well-curated glass program would be completely viable — the 2022 Tim Smith Viognier and 2023 Ochota Barrels 'Texture Like Sun' are exactly the kind of pours that work well by the glass. If they're not rotating these through a glass program, they're leaving easy wins on the table.