Sweet P’s Barbeque and Soul House, Knoxville, TN

A couple weeks back I traveled to the Knoxville, TN, area with a friend to visit her family. Along the way I got some really nice shots. The weather was perfect. Though it was February, the sun shone, the temps were warm and the people and food I met were wonderful.

Our first stop was a ‘que place my friend knew about. It’s not near the airport nor is it on the way anywhere we were going. Her son-in-law is from the area and had taken her there previously. Fortunately, I got to go, too!

It carries the charming name of Sweet P’s Barbeque and Soul House. There is a second location in downtown Knoxville called Sweet P’s Downtown Dive. I can tell you the dive location is downtown and it looks quite like a dive because our GPS mistakenly took us there first (ok, may have been the programmer!).

We didn’t go inside the dive, but we managed to find the outlying location without too much more fuss.

 

And I didn’t mind the extra driving because my rental car was a model I’ve been wanting to try out anyway:

What a great car! Powerful as well as comfortable. And good thing, too, because I put many, many miles on that thing before the weekend was over.

But back to Sweet P’s. The road, Maryville Pike, next to it, was not busy so the place was quiet when we were there.

It’s kind of a no-frills place, just like a barbeque joint in the South should be. Here’s the menu:

Big, strapping, young Southern men came out to take our order. Then we paid and took a seat in the near-empty dining room. After all, it was almost 2:30 pm because of the mis-directed route we’d taken.

I got up, of course, to take a few shots. Here’s the PBR mobile:

And my artsy shot of the fill-your-own drink station (see the guys in the kitchen back there? Artsy.):

I also drew some quizzical looks from the few other patrons for my staging of the Sweet P’s tabletop still life. Worth it.

The restaurant is located on what looks like a small lake. The water is actually part of an inlet off the Little River which connects to the Tennessee River not far away.

Sweet P’s had plenty of deck seating outdoors, and I believe they have live music on the weekends in good weather, which takes care of the Soul House part of its name.

There was a small marina across the parking lot. I love that the sign saying not to block the boat ramp blocks the boat ramp:

It looked like the water was a bit low on the other side of the parking lot:

What a laid-back spot and, by the way, the food was really great! I had the chopped pork sandwich with coleslaw, deep-fried dill pickle and a Dr. Pepper. A true Southern meal.

So if you’re ever in the Knoxville area, do stop by!

Photo for No Apparent Reason:

2 thoughts on “Sweet P’s Barbeque and Soul House, Knoxville, TN”

  1. If you ever come back to Knoxville, try Archer’s BBQ as well. I think that Sweet Ps is the best, but Archer’s is also really good!

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