Kingston Pike Near Sequoyah Hills: Restaurant & Coffee Updates

"We want you to know that this decision was not ours." Nixon's Deli posted that line in its farewell to the Bearden restaurant at 5716 Kingston Pike. The deli had been on that block for nearly 35 years, between Buddy's Bar-b-q and Calloway's Lamp & Shade. It served its last meal there at 5:00 p.m. on September 10, 2026.

Read alone, that sounds like the end of something. Put next to the strip's other changes since July, it looks different. The businesses leaving this stretch of Kingston Pike are mostly still operating somewhere else. The buildings are what changed hands. And the empty spaces that have been filled went to local companies expanding or to a chain arriving.

The Bearden shop closed, but Nixon's continues elsewhere

The owner discussed Nixon's departure with WVLT in early August.

The Bearden shop, known as Nixon's Deli #11, was one of the company's three local locations. The steamed sandwiches haven't left Knoxville. In its notice, Nixon's says it is actively looking for a new home in the area so this location can reopen with "the same food, the same recipes." It also says it will share a new address and opening timeline once it has one. As of the end of September, that page doesn't list a new address yet.

WVLT called Nixon's the third business to close on Kingston Pike within a month. One of the others was Plum Tree Chinese Restaurant, farther west at 7052 Kingston Pike, which announced it would close July 31.

Coffee pulled back to one shop, and another arrived

Intrepid Nitro Coffee and Tea Bar followed a similar pattern on a smaller scale. Its last day at 5201 Kingston Pike, in the Village Square Shopping Center cluster, was August 16. That ended a three-year run in Bearden. The company kept running the Hardin Valley location it opened at the start of the year, so Intrepid narrowed to one shop and didn't disappear. No new tenant for that space had been reported by the end of September.

A month earlier, a different local coffee company had come the other way. Honeybee Coffee opened its third Knoxville shop at 4520 Old Kingston Pike, next door to Bearden Beer Market. Per Knox News, the brand had hinted at the new location for months and stayed quiet about the exact timing until it was ready to open. Honeybee started as a catering operation in 2014 and opened its first café in 2017. It describes itself as a locally owned roaster that buys from small farms.

Check the hours before you go. The Bearden Honeybee was listed at 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekends, with no Monday hours. On a Monday morning, the closest familiar stop is Gourmet's Market & Cafe at 5107 Kingston Pike. It serves breakfast all day, opens at 7 a.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. on weekends, and closes at 2 p.m. The menu covers breakfast sandwiches and plates, bowls, omelets and scramblers, and croissants. Of the businesses covered here, Gourmet's is the one this summer's local coverage didn't mention at all, and it is still open.

The strip, address by address

Heading west from the Old Kingston Pike end, here is where each building stood at the end of September 2026:

The Jimmy John's at the corner of Gore Road was first reported in June as "in the works." WVLT covered it again in August, the same week Nixon's announced its closing. The chain's store locator now lists 5722 Kingston Pike with hours and online ordering, but no public opening date has been posted.

The longest-empty building gets a local answer

Long's Drug Store is the clearest example of a building outlasting its original business. Long's opened at 4604 Kingston Pike in 1956, when Clarence Long went into business with fellow pharmacist John Benson. The Peck family later took over and kept the pharmacy on one side and the soda fountain on the other until the store closed in 2024. For more than two years, the building had no publicly announced next tenant.

On September 16, Knox News reported that Alexander Braden, who grew up eating at Long's, plans to take over the space. Five days later, Bradens Furniture named the concept RestWell, a store focused on sleep and rest. Brothers Nick and Alexander Braden are leading it, with an opening planned for this fall. Bradens also pointed out a coincidence: the company began in Knoxville in 1956, the same year Long's opened.

That brings the summer's local pattern full circle. A Knoxville company that has been around nearly as long as Long's is taking over the old corner, and Honeybee, a local roaster, has added a shop. The two independent businesses that moved off the strip, Nixon's and Intrepid, both still operate elsewhere in Knoxville.

Coffee first, then Cherokee Boulevard

The new map matters most on October Saturdays, when two charity events come to Sequoyah Park at 1400 Cherokee Blvd.

Saturday, October 10. The National Kidney Foundation's 2026 East Tennessee Kidney Walk starts with check-in at 8:00 a.m., and the walk begins at 9:30 a.m. Registration is through the NKF's Tennessee page. Since Honeybee opens at 8 a.m. on weekends, an early walker can't fit in a stop there before check-in. Someone planning to arrive closer to the 9:30 start can.

Saturday, October 31. The Sequoyah Hills 5K for Parkinson's, a run and walk raising money for PJ Parkinson's Support, takes place on Halloween. The organizer calls it "Costumes for a Cause." The listed times don't match. The City of Knoxville calendar shows 8:00 a.m. to noon, while PJ Parkinson's event page shows 7:00 p.m. Confirm the start time with PJ Parkinson's Support before you set an alarm or plan a costume.

Two items to check again later this fall are RestWell's opening date and the new address Nixon's has promised for its Bearden-area reopening.

When a corner you know well changes hands, the questions about what that building is worth are similar to the ones homeowners in Sequoyah Hills face about their own houses. Angie Queen follows these Kingston Pike changes closely and is happy to talk through what they mean for your street. Let's Connect.