Exploring South of the River: Chapman Highway's Many Gems
As many of you know, we recently moved our shop from South Haven Road to Chapman Highway – and we now have more space, more parking, and extra sweet neighboring businesses! We’ve already met several neighbors in our shopping center, and we’re connected with others all along Chapman Highway. We love our South Knoxville neighborhood, so we’re highlighting some of our favorite local businesses along Chapman Highway – starting from the Henley Street Bridge and ending at our own shop!
Pro tip: Turn this list into a day trip! Hop along Chapman Highway to check out some of South Knoxville’s best local businesses and organizations.
Kern’s Food Hall
Kern’s Food Hall opened in spring of 2024 in the restored Kern’s Bakery building, just beyond Henley Street Bridge. The food hall hosts over a dozen restaurants and several shops, along with an outdoor lawn where you can eat, watch sporting events, and listen to live music.
South Press Cafe
South Press Cafe is a locally owned coffee and tea shop focused on providing space for Knoxville’s LGBTQ+ community. Unfortunately, June 29th is South Press Cafe’s last day in business, and we’re sad to see them go. They have several events coming up through Pride Month to finish off their last month in business – so be sure to stop by and check out their events calendar.
Knox Makers
Knox Makers is just off of Chapman Highway on Childress Street, and it’s a great resource for a variety of maker hobbies – like woodworking, welding, 3D printing, electronics, sewing, art, and more. They are a non-profit technology and art collective, and they require a membership ($50/month) to have regular access to the space. If you want to check it out, visit on any Tuesday evening for Open Hack Night from 6:30-9:30 pm!
Sustainable Fabric Workshop
The Sustainable Fabric Workshop is an amazing resource for sustainable crafting, less than a mile off Chapman Highway in the South Knoxville Community Center. They upcycle fabrics and materials and reuse them for new projects – you can donate to or use materials in their workshop, take a free class, or just go by when they’re open to meet some great folks!
Nostalgia South
Nostalgia is one of Knoxville’s best vintage stores, and they just opened their second location Nostalgia South on June 1, 2025. Stop in here to take a step back in time with vintage treasures from over 100 vendors.
Knox Pride and The Thriftique at Knox Pride
Knox Pride is Knoxville’s LQBTQ+ community and resource center that hosts local events, offers resources, feeds our community through their food pantry, and more – they even have their own thrift store called The Thriftique! You can support them by volunteering, donating, and contributing to their food pantry. Their biggest event is Knox Pride Festival, which will be held on Gay Street and at World’s Fair Park October 3rd and 4th this year.
The Sugar Queen Creamery
The Sugar Queen Creamery is our favorite place for delicious local ice cream, and it’s just 2 miles from KnoxFill! They always have vegan and gluten free options so most people can enjoy a sweet treat.
Allen Biermakens
Allen Biermakens is a brewing supply store for home brewing and wine making. It’s a great place to start your brewing journey with plenty of resources – all the supplies you need from a very helpful and knowledgeable owner!
Inner Perfect
Inner Perfect is a shop, apothecary, and community space focused on bringing the community together and helping people with their spiritual growth. They offer classes, apothecary resources, community space rental, and even in-store shopping on Fridays and Saturdays.
CommonPlace Coffee + Community
CommonPlace Coffee + Community is a sweet little coffee shop in a renovated bank building (they even have a drive-thru!), and they were one of our long-time community pick up partners. They’re happy to host your parties and events after hours and even have a more private meeting space available to reserve for free.
Sealy’s Automotive
Sealy’s Automotive is our go-to auto shop, and we’ve loved working with them! They’re locally owned, conveniently located for South Knox folks, and extremely helpful. If you don’t believe us, check out their amazing reviews.
Thai Time
Thai Time is one of the locally owned businesses in our shopping center, just a few doors down from KnoxFill. They make delicious Thai food, and we can vouch because they even brought us some food for our grand opening of our new location!
The Village Bakery
The Village Bakery is a locally owned bakery with so many delicious treats! We’re lucky enough to be just a couple doors down from them – and they were extra sweet to bring us some treats for our grand opening!
Susan’s Cuts & More
Susan’s Cuts & More is located right next door to KnoxFill, and although we haven’t gotten a haircut there yet, we can tell you the owner is very sweet, and they have amazing reviews! If you find yourself wanting a haircut after shopping at KnoxFill one day – they’ve got you covered. ;)
KnoxFill
And then of course, there’s us! KnoxFill is a zero waste refillery and community space with sustainable home goods, clean personal care, refillable spices and teas, locally made goods, and even specialty recycling. We are especially excited for our extra space in our new building because we’re finally going to be able to host more community events and workshops and even consider options like a tool library or a repair cafe. We’re reviewing lots of feedback from our community and brainstorming the best way to turn our extra space into resources our community needs.
We are loving being on Chapman Highway already, and we hope to see you soon at our new shop. Be sure to stop by other local businesses along the way and let us know your favorite Chapman Highway gems in the comments!