At 10:06 PM -0400 7/22/09, Moss, Meg wrote:

There are a couple of "underutilized" shops there selling, pretty much, junk. I think we're supposed to believe their stuff is antiques. They're on both ends of the Veg-o-Rama building, but it's the same enterprise, both owned by Schuh. Alledgedly, it had never occurred to Danny to put in a restaurant till he saw how appealing Veg-o-Rama was turning out; then he decided he could turn a bigger profit with his own restaurant than with renting out space (not likely; it's a daunting business). According to Laura, he mocked her notion of a silly vegetarian restaurant. You'll notice HIS restaurant is just going to be "healthy;" he never says it's going to be vegetarian. I guess that means "free-range" meats and "humanely" slaughtered poultry.

Whether it will be in the Veg-o-Rama site remains to be seen. She is fighting him vigorously, and says his uncle (the real power, it seems, in these redevelopment efforts) has already expressed interest in getting out of that mess. But he could open it in one of the other spaces in that building, or in one of any number of buildings the Schuhs own. Sure is a lot easier to get rich if you're rich to start with. It takes money to make money, nothing succeeds like success, and all that. Last I heard, he was going to put in a big, loud bar in the corner space, either to drive Laura's patrons away, just because he's got a sudden bug to go into the hospitality racket now that he's seen Laura's progress, or just because he doesn't have a brain cell in his head.

But if she doesn't get a lot more patronage, she won't have to worry about Schuh driving her out of business; the place will just fold. I've been eating there every chance I get, but there's never been more than one other patron there except at the "soft opening," whereas there always seems to be a rather large staff. Seems like bad scheduling to me.

It's very disappointing that the vegetarian community, which lamented so long about the absence of a vegetarian restaurant in Knoxville - some people even going so far as to vow they would work for free in one just to get it off the ground - won't go to the trouble of actually patronizing one when it appears. Maybe we just don't deserve a restaurant of our own (Glowing Body barely counts; for one thing, their prices are getting out of hand: $8.25 for a SMOOTHIE?). Sure, Veg-o-Rama can stand improvement in some areas; they're brand new and, I gather, this is Laura's first restaurant venture (though she's had help from Yahwah).

But, as Meg has said, the food is good, and I've tried most of it now. Apparently it has been variable - a friend spoke of getting a Ruben with cole slaw instead of kraut one night?! - and the menu needs to be quite a bit broader, with daily specials. But I think they're planning on addressing those issues. When you're there, don't hesitate to give them a little tough love, letting them know exactly where they need to focus their attention.

And don't drink the water. I usually get water with my lunch, and the water there is TERRIBLE. I think it comes straight out of the ancient Happy Hollow aqueducts. The first time I complained and was brought a fresh glass of water that was a LITTLE better. But there was NO excuse for being given equally bad water on my next sit-down visit (I've gotten to-go food when I was pressed for time). The server asked if she could bring me something more to my liking, maybe tea. "Do you make it with the same water?" "Oh, no; we make it with DISTILLED water." "Then bring me some distilled water." "Oh, we can't do that; we don't have enough." Then she acknowledged that she believed distilled water and boiled water were the same thing, so who knows if they even HAVE distilled water. If their water is that bad they should offer bottled water - FREE - or bring in loads of Love's Creek water, or something. So I got Orangina, which Tomato Head no longer offers. But I don't like being forced to buy a beverage by being given foul-tasting water.

Anyhow, they're going to have to do something pretty egregious to make me stop eating there. I'm not doing it for Laura or the staff; I'm doing it for the sake of Knoxville vegetarians.

Yours truly,

John Mayer