J.C. Holdway — Restaurant in Knoxville

(11/8/16) SECOND REVIEW: HOMECOMING DINNER I'd been away for two weeks so my wife had to figure out all her meals, a task I usually take on at least for dinner. So, she told me we were going out when I returned. Picked JCH and she was delighted. Started with pimento cheese with benne seed crackers for me. My wife had the scallion "puppies" and tartar sauce. Next came pumpkin soup, accented with a spoonful of Benton's bacon, pecans and preserved collard greens; red wine based beef, Geechie Boy grits and tomato gravy, all showered with a kicky shaved brussels sprouts, radish and mint; and roasted beets with pumpkin seeds and brown butter.

The menu changes as often as daily, as a dish or two will migrate off and be replaced by one or two migrating on. Believe I could eat here daily, at least for awhile . . .

FIRST REVIEW Well, it happened! J.C. Holdway, the eagerly awaited new restaurant with Joseph Lenn, the James Beard Award winning Best Chef of the Southeast in 2013 during his days Blackberry Farm, at the helm, opened, only to be closed, so sadly, on it's second day because of a fire elsewhere in the building JCH occupies only a portion of. But, there's good news . . . this special, affordable soon-to-be red hot homey hotspot will open --again!-- next week.

I was delighted and grateful to be one of the lucky diners who got to feast on numerous offerings on its intriguing menu full of seasonal, regional dishes cooked by wood fire. Offerings are organized by "Bites," "Tastes," "Eats," "Sides," "Treats." But even before those arrived, we were treated to tasty hush puppies.

To my mind, shrimp and grits is a perfect dish for restaurant serving Southeastern food to have on its menu. Well, here, the juicy shrimp were hearth roasted perfectly (and sourced perfectly); the Geechie Boy Mill grits were from Edisto Island, S.C., and cooked perfectly; the accompanying andouille sausage couldn't have been tastier (so, sourced perfectly); the preserved tomatoes added a perfectly delightful zing; and the shellfish emulsion that floated over all was perfectly delightful. Chef Lenn has had to have been thinking for decades about how to source, cook, and serve this dish. It's a $14 meal in itself . . . and an astonishing one at that.

True to a Southeastern menu were delicious and dainty pork belly biscuits with house bread and butter pickles with preserves. Two other "Bites" are grilled chicken wings with Alabama sauce and ember roasted "lunch box" peppers (I guess that might mean baby peppers since they were) with lime juice and sea salt. Those are for the next visit.

There are five "Tastes" including the shrimp and grits. Terrifically appealing is the wood grilled trout salad, ribbons of zucchini, crumbled cornbread, and creamy garlic vinaigrette. Next time.

There are also five "Eats," the most expensive being the wood grilled Denver steak with potatoes, carrots, watercress, and creme fraiche, The four of us at our table tried the other four. Grilled North Carolina catfish, mighty tasty, with awfully good Carolina gold rice. Wood oven roasted oh-so-juicy 1/2 chicken (it had to be a 4-pounder and, as I understand it, brined for 24 hours) came with sweet and creamy creamed corn and fried okra. The wood grilled pork loin (dry, unfortunately, but that will surely be remedied quickly) and fabulous crispy pork shoulder were joined by crunchy and very nice sea island peas. I ordered last. My curiosity led me to toasted buckwheat grilled broccoli (looked broccolini), roasted baby carrots, and romesco sauce . . . a real delight and a surprise.

We passed on the "Sides" and the "Tastes" for fear of ordering too much food. Next time!

Indeed, there will be a next and a next and a next time in the short order until I've tried every dish on the menu. Come fall or winter, my guess is that Chef Lenn will change much of the menu but will bring a different...

My wife and I were in Knoxville for work and decided to try J. C. Holdway. We foolishly showed up without a reservation, but were treated VERY kindly by the hostesses and were given a seat that the chef's table which is counter seating directly in front of small, busy kitchen. There were something like 6 or so people working on their various stations (grilling, desserts, making the pasta, etc..). The cook in front of us was friendly and answered any questions we had while he was preparing beautiful desserts and occasionally helping shuck the oysters.

Service was excellent. My wife had a glass of Spanish wine recommended by our server and I had a Sierra Nevada (it was on tap, and I only get it in bottles/cans in Cleveland). On to the FOOD:

We ordered the grilled shrimp appetizer and shared it. It was 6 shrimp on 2 wooden skewers and was PERFECTLY grilled with just the right amount of seasoning. Perhaps the best shrimp dish I've ever had. Whenever I eat GREAT food I purposely try to eat slowly and savor the moment. This was one of those instances. I could've kept ordering that dish until they ran out.

For our main dishes my wife ordered the osso buco and I ordered the strip steak. Hers came with some sort of buttermilk mashed potatoes (I personally don't care for buttermilk, but they were perfectly prepared and she loved them) and some shredded purple cabbage type slaw that I THINK was smoked at some point. This cabbage side blew my mind with its perfect texture and lightly smoky flavor. The osso buco was (like everything we had) perfectly prepared - large, tender, flavorful and juicy.

My strip steak came sliced and medium rare exactly as I ordered. It was accompanied by some grilled type of slaw that was a bit different than my wife's, but every bit as tasty. The steak itself was extremely flavorful with just the right amount of tenderness for a strip. I REALLY had to consciously put myself in SLOW MOTION to savor every bit of food that was on our plates. Fortunately the osso buco was too big for my wife so I was able to enjoy a few bites of hers when I finished with my beef.

For dessert my wife got the blue cheese cheesecake (a recommendation from a gentleman sitting next to us who is a REGULAR) and I got a cold toffee cream (sort of like ice cream) thing. I don't eat cheesecake, but my wife thoroughly enjoyed it and I was blissful with my dessert and a single pour of Woodford Reserve rye.

If you want a modern American gourmet treat, DEFINITELY visit J. C. Holdway when in Knoxville.

The service was VERY friendly and attentive (without overdoing it!). The kitchen staff was incredibly professional and quietly and diligently performed their tasks. I was amazed at the level of what appeared to be telepathic communication between all the moving human parts in the kitchen. A well-run 5 star restaurant. I recommend a...

If you have never been here, you are missing out. There is a joy to be found in wonderful food, and joy lives at J.C. Holdway. Wonderful food should not be exclusive, it should be shared with those that appreciate it, for the chef is an artist that the foodies of the world should embrace, regardless of wallet. There are no exorbitant overcharges simply because Chef Joseph Lenn is so talented, he readily shares this with the world at prices that are extremely reasonable for the experience and pleasure of dining here. This passion is shared by the employees, as everyone that we interacted with at our table was so happy to be working in this restaurant. Domingo was our server, and after talking to him for a few minutes, we put the fate of our dinner in his hands, and he recommended multiple homerun dishes. We began with their Bold Fashioned, made using JCH's New Riff Single Barrel bourbon, and a Cherry Blossom. Domingo had steered well on the drinks, this was looking promising! The first food followed shortly after, the pimento cheese with benne seed crackers. I've had some very good pimento cheese in my time, but this one was sublime. The smoothness, the slightly smoky flavor, the creaminess, it was all a tantalizing treat. From there, we had the Chicken Rillette. I'll confess, I had to google what a Rillette was, but all you need to know is that it is delicious. The chicken was rich and flavorful, so well complemented by the herbs and pickled turnip greens. We also had the Kale & Summer Squash salad. That was without a doubt some of the best smoked trout I've eaten. The way it mixed with the greens made every mouthful a delight. For the main course, we split the Benton Bacon Bolognese, because how can you go wrong with bacon? And everyone we told we were ordering that confirmed it was one of the best dishes. There was a slight sweetness to the dish, possibly from the carrots, I'm not sure, but this was such a delight to the tastebuds. This journey has been so amazing, we have to follow Chef Lenn all the way to dessert. Buttermilk Biscuit Bread Pudding? Yes please! And Domingo once again made a wonderful recommendation of the Amaretto Sour to go with dessert. This meal was amazing. The variety of foods, the experience, the atmosphere, the entire experience was such a pleasure. I have spent much more for vastly inferior meals, and I am so grateful that Chef Lenn has kept this gem at a price that should draw everyone in for the experience. Well done to the entire crew, I...