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Eat, Drink, and Be Merry
By Michael Verdon — Spring
2004
The Bluff View Art District
(423-265-5033, www.bluffviewartdistrict.com)
is a renovated Victorian neighborhood including the Hunter
Art Museum (423-267-0968, www.huntermuseum.org)
and a collection of restaurants and guest houses. In addition to housing
the region’s best art, the Hunter’s river views are exceptional.
At Bluff View’s other end, the River Gallery Sculpture Garden offers
equally good vistas upriver, with walkways curling around contemporary
sculptures. This area also has good eateries, including The
Back Inn Cafe (423-265-5033, ext. 1), with an upscale menu and
good wine list; Tony’s Pasta Shop (423-265-5033,
ext. 6 ), which is less formal and offers homemade pastas and breads;
and Rembrandt’s Coffee House (423-265-5033,
ext. 3), the calm eye in the tourist storm. The three converted mansions
that serve as Victorian-style B&Bs have 16 rooms with good river views
if you don’t want to stay on the boat.
If you want to go more upscale for a night ashore,
try the Chattanoogan Hotel (877-756-1684,
www.chattanooganhotel.com).
We spent a relaxing evening there in The Foundry, a martini bar that welcomes
cigar smokers and lovers of live jazz.
A few blocks away are Chattanooga’s newest—and
some say best—culinary opportunities. Try St.
John’s Restaurant (423-266-4400) for nouveau American, Bellagio
(423-634-7731) for northern Italian, and Southside
Grill (423-266-9211, southsidegrill.com)
for steak and seafood. If you’d rather eat downtown, go to Big
River Grill and Brewing Works (423-267-2739), a rehabbed-warehouse-turned-brew
pub that is a fun place for dinner before moving up to Miller Plaza for
Nightfall (www.downtownchattanooga.org),
a concert series held Friday nights during the summer.
Don’t miss the Tennessee
Aquarium (800-262-0695, www.tnaqua.com).
It has many display floors (including the outstanding World of Seahorses)
and more than 9,000 fish. It also has an IMAX cinema. I’ve been
to many aquariums around the country, and this is one of the best.
The city’s older tourist area surrounds the Holiday
Inn Chattanooga Choo Choo (425-266-5000, www.choochoo.com).
Sure, it’s a Holiday Inn, but the ornate dome in the renovated train
station is impressive, and it’s worth stopping in to hear the singing
servers at the Station House Restaurant, even if the food’s really
not worth singing about. A shuttle runs from the Choo Choo complex down
to the Bijou Theater, two blocks from the river.
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