I was walking past Preservation Pub on Friday around happy hour when I heard a voice proclaim from the patio: “When I’m mayor of this town, ain’t gonna be no drinkin’ nowheres!”
I stopped in my tracks and laughed out loud. The faux prohibitionist looked deeply pleased with himself as his friends rolled their eyes.
I knew no one at the table but, in a classic bit of Knoxville hospitality, they invited me to join them for a beer. All downtown residents and business owners, they were in the middle of a raucous debate about the city’s evolving rules around where one may legally smoke a cigarette or wander with a cocktail, and I am helpless to resist a raucous debate…