Moving to Knoxville... a few questions (Maryville, Alcoa: for sale, apartments, rentals)

[narual]

Hi there! I just started a job in Maryville, and I don't really like living in a small hotel room.

I've been searching on Craigslist for rental houses and not had a great deal of luck so far. (I have a 65 pound white shepherd, so it has to be pet-friendly and have a large enough yard that I can play fetch with him. Something furnished or partially furnished would be ideal, since I don't want to move all my furniture from northern Indiana. Fireplace would be good too. I'd prefer not to pay more than $1000 per month since that's about what I'll be renting my house in Indiana for. I'd like it to be close to the south end of the pelissippi parkway, but at this point I'll settle for within 30 minutes which I think covers most of knoxville. A historic house would be a plus, even if the neighborhood is in a "recovering" state, since that's what I own up north. Oh, and it absolutely has to have some form of DSL/Fiber/Cable Internet available - I need it for work.

If anyone has any rentals they think might fit, or has better suggestions than craigslist, please let me know.

Now, some other questions:

Is there a good Greek restaurant in town? Someplace I can get dolmades and saganaki would be good.

How about Indian? Anyplace that has a good goat or lamb curry?

I already know about Brazeiros... any other churrascarias in town?

Any unique and interesting restaurants, places that change regularly, the kind of place that offers a new but interesting experience every time you go?

Are there any wineries or wine trails nearby?

How about dog parks?

Regarding broadband -- are any providers particularly well-regarded or reviled here?

I think that's it for the moment... thanks in advance for any and all information!

[calvinbama]

Check out Parkridge area east of downtown. It is an inexpensive area to live, it is close to the downtown dog park, and there is plenty to do in the area. I'd put you up in my house, but I recently found a roomate. There is also a lot of apartments and condos on the west side of town, but probably not too many deals on renting something with a back yard. If I see anything for rent in the neighborhood I'll try to post you some contact information about it.

[narual]

cool, thanks

How's the area around ijams nature park?

[mahavisnu]

Originally Posted by narual

cool, thanks

How's the area around ijams nature park?

South Knoxville typically has relatively inexpensive housing, and the Island Home area is probably a little safer than Park Ridge. The historic area on Island Home Blvd. may be out of your price range (though you might manage to snag a deal), but there are lots of houses near there that will most likely fit the bill pretty well for you. I'm a big fan of Ijams; it also connects to the Will Skelton Greenway which is great for running and biking and has some really beautiful spots. If you hit the trail in the right part of spring, you come down from a wooded hillside into a giant field covered in purple flowers. The area is also very convenient to downtown.

The only Indian restaurant that I personally have been to is Sitar in Bearden, which is a pretty good buffet, but if you're a connoisseur, it is a small place and they might not have some of the things you're looking for. There are probably more that I'm not familiar with. There's a great Middle Eastern restaurant in Vestal called King Tut's Grill if you're into that.

[narual]

Thanks everyone.

I looked at the house by ijams, but while the night view of the city is truly incredible (in winter; in summer it's mostly blocked by leaves), it was just not that nice on the inside, and it was really inconvenient to get to (vucrest ave is steeeep). I found it a bit odd that they advertised it as 1600+ square feet, when it was 800 square feet with a walk-out basement. In Indiana and Michigan, where I'm from, even if that was completely, nicely finished livable space it couldn't count as the square footage of the house... it would included in a separate entry like "finished space" or on its own as "below grade living space". But this place didn't really even qualify as finished. They'd painted the floors and the cinder block walls and hung curtains between the doorways. I don't think there was any drywall, except maybe one wall in the "bedroom" (no egress - no bedroom) where the owner had pushed out the wall to put in a closet, which was also the only place that had an actual ceilling (the closet, not the bedroom).

So, I caved and rented a townhouse in Alcoa. It's hard to find a place here that allows large dogs, and it feels like there's no good way to find a rental home. Craigslist is about 20% spammers/scammers and doesn't require location information or even have a good way to search by location, the realtors I talked to weren't much help, and Zillow and other sites like that were pretty decent for getting the general feel for a neighborhood, but had very little rental information. It was just a frustrating experience, all in all. I hate the idea of going back to a non-private home, after finally moving out of my old apartment and buying a house 18 months ago, but at least a townhouse doesn't have people walking around upstairs from me, or people getting mad downstairs from me if I "walk too loud"... but this was easy, in a nice area, well within my price range, has a dog park, and it's about 10 minutes from work so I can come home and play with the dog over lunch.

Sorry... that kinda reads like a rant, doesn't it?

I tried Sitar last night. I couldn't find lamb curry on their menu. Lamb everything else, even some goat stuff, but no curry. Odd. The biryani was great though, and so was my friends tikka masala, which I usually don't like at all. Haven't tried the greek/japanese place yet (though I read somewhere that it's just japanese now, no greek anymore?) or Brazieros, but I did visit Littons (it wasn't bad, but I didn't think it was really any better than 5 guys, and the much hyped cake was dry and crumbly). I haven't been to King Tut yet but I've heard good things about it from a couple of people who go (mostly that the food is ranges from excellent to really mediocre, but the owner totally makes up for it).

I heard there's a meadery north of town that is up for sale but still open, so that's better than nothing. Apparently TN liquor laws make running a successful winery very painful? I still can't believe you can't get wine in the grocery store, but you can get cold beer in a gas station, ready to chug while you drive.

Does anyone have any suggestions for unique and interesting places to go or things to do on a date in the knoxville area, and within a few hours drive for a weekend daytrip?

[creeksitter]

In Maryville, foothills milling co is a memorable high end restaurant.

For a date night take in a show at the Tennessee or Bijou theater. Great selection of restaaurants on market square plus a few on Gay and in the Old city. Just walking around downtown is a great date if the weather ever warms.

Outdoorsy stuff: Cades cove in the Smokies is a must-see. I like the UT trial gardens. You've seen Ijams, I think. Just beyond Ijams is Meads quarry. If you park there follow the signs to Ross Quarry which is the coolest place evah.

[fergonster]

From what I hear (and I don't pay THAT close attention) there was a big campaign in the area by the local liquor stores to keep the wine out of grocery stores. They don't want it to be more accessible (which, from their point of view, I can understand...) But i may not have all the facts!

[BirdieBelle]

Originally Posted by fergonster

From what I hear (and I don't pay THAT close attention) there was a big campaign in the area by the local liquor stores to keep the wine out of grocery stores. They don't want it to be more accessible (which, from their point of view, I can understand...) But i may not have all the facts!

Tennessee is one of 17 states that prohibit the sale of wine in grocery stores. The liquor lobby is very powerful in Tennessee. The biggest opponents are the liquor wholesalers, who claim that to sell liquor in grocery stores would put "mom and pop" liquor stores out of business.
What they really don't like is that they would have to compete for the distributorship business with the major grocery chains.

[kdweller]

There are two additional Knoxville Indian restaurants. I like Taj on Kingston Pike: TAJ - Fine Indian Dining.. Has goat and lamb, as well as more variety in its buffet.

There is also Taj on Cumberland in Knoxville. The owners of the Kingston Pike Taj told me earlier this month said the Cumberland Taj is not connected to their business.