Sweet P’s opens new location in Fountain City

By Ken Lay

Fountain City’s newest restaurant is opening today (July 6).

Knoxville’s Sweet P’s chain is expanding and will have a new home on the north end of town.

Sweet P’s Uptown Corner, located at 3029 Tazewell Pike, will officially open for lunch today.

“We’re excited to be here. We’re excited to be in Fountain City,” said owner Jonathan Ford, who is in business with his cousin, Chris. “I live up the street here by Central High and I think this is a great location.

“We’re going to open on Tuesday. We’ll have a soft opening and we look forward to having a grand opening in about a month.”

It will be the second location for the Sweet P’s chain in Knoxville. The chain’s Barbecue and Downtown Dive is located in the Old City at 410 W. Jackson Ave.

The Fountain City location will be in the former home of Fountain City Diner and Ford said that he hopes to satisfy a demand not currently being catered to in the community.

“You have a lot of people in Fountain City and you have a lot of people coming in,” he said. “If you look at Fountain City, you have a lot of restaurants, you have a lot of fast food restaurants, but you don’t really have any full-service family-owned restaurants.

“We want this to be a place where you can bring your family and we also want it to be a place where you can come in, have an adult beverage and watch a game.

“We don’t want to be a late-night bar and we want to keep it family friendly.”

Jonathan and Chris Ford own Sweet P’s and the general manager of the Fountain City location is Gary Conrad.

Jonathan Ford said the new location will be closed on Mondays. Business hours for the new location are Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m-11 p.m. and Sunday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

The Fountain City location serves a variety of wines and microbrews and the Sweet P’s chain is a southern establishment known for its barbecue. There’s also a dessert menu and salads.

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