Alice in Appalachia (Downtown Knoxville, TN, Art District)

Yesterday (9/24/22) my family and I took an adventure in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. We were romping around market square in the art district. We had bought tickets to a Clued Up Games event, featuring Alice in Wonderland.

Basically it was like an escape room/treasure hunt. The app on your phone leads you to a map where you follow the GPS locations on the map to find clues and solve riddles to help save Alice from being beheaded by the evil Queen of Hearts.

While the trailer we had seen for the event made us think there would be staff dressed up, and more in real-life interaction - it was easy to overcome our disappointment at the lack of meeting our expectations set out by the advertisement. The riddles and activities were a blast, and it was great exercise (the game took us in wide circles in the middle of downtown. There was a lot of walking, about 5 miles worth, and we got to know our city a lot better, taking the opportunity to look at the beautiful art in the Art District of the downtown area.

This event was also a very affordable day out with the family. One ticket covers 6 adults and children get to play free. This means my sis, mom, and brother-in-law, me, my husband, and all three of the kids all got to go and we could have had more too. Affordable is always a very good thing in my book.

There was one expectation that was met in abundance with this event and that was cosplay! We dressed up, but there were some people who came REALLY dressed up. Luckily for them, sis is a professional photographer, so she brought her camera and business cards and shared the picture love for those who dressed up on her facebook business page. For those of you start-up business owners, authors, artists, and anyone who is trying to work for yourself or promote yourself - never waste the opportunity to be shameless about self-promotion.

It was a good day out, and even if there was a lot less to the event than we were expecting (the trailer on the website had us so hyped up), it was a lot of fun. The experience as a whole will be a happy memory forever. Plus there were lots of vendors there, and it was a lot of fun to see different small businesses around Knoxville.

But what made this day really special was the cool little side adventure we had after we'd won the game and helped Alice keep her head. On the same main street of the event (which of course is aptly named S. Gay street) is a sparkling new gem of a business: Alice in Appalachia. What caught my eye was the cute little happy seating area, with a podium with an umbrella. There was a stand up menu sign in front of it that said: "Signature Fairy Tale Cocktails - The Jabberwocky, The Tweedledi's, Glitter Cat, DagNabbit, and Curiouser.

Then I saw the writing on the window: "Alice In Appalachia," and those giant red mushrooms in the window. I was still experiencing my AIW high, so naturally I begged my family to go in with me - and I was not disappointed with what I was met with.

You enter into a long hallway where you can sit at a table on some stools, go straight into an event area, or to the left into a nightclub/bar, or to the right into a beautiful and vibrant gift shop.

I went into the gift shop first because I'm a kid at heart, and I wanted to touch and look at all the pretty things. Inside there were giant AIW tea sets, mason jars with hand-blended herbal teas, artisan locally made wines, knickknacks, handmade abstract arts, and other things that you could possibly affiliate with the colorful story of poor mad Alice.

If I were particularly wealthy, I wouldn't have been after yesterday in that gift shop. I would have bought enough stuff to make my whole house Alice in Wonderland themed. I wanted everything. I went up and spoke to the woman running the business, Miss Paula West and her brother Ron. She was in the gift shop dressed as a very posh Hatter. I complimented them on the job well done in the beautiful building and they absolutely beamed with pride.

"It was serendipitous that we happen to open on the same weekend that Alice in Wonderland came to town. We took it as a good sign that this was the right time." Ron West told me when I asked if this was planned. I was shocked to find out that they didn't even know that the Alice in Wonderland event was supposed to happen.

"We were shocked when we started seeing Alice in Wonderland people. We couldn't imagine that they were doing it for us!" laughed the barmaid when I spoke to her next door to the gift shop. It tickled me pink that they opened on the same week, and had no idea an Alice in Wonderland event was going to happen.

I ventured next to the bar and lounge to the left. And it was absolutely everything an AIW-themed bar should be. It was vibrant and strange, yet dark and sexy like a nightclub. Neon chalkboard menus, blacklights, a nook in the corner with a red couch under a neon sign that said: "We're All Mad Here." Pretty dressed-up barmaids who were polite and engaged in conversations with the patrons. And modern music.

I, of course, had to try one of their cocktails that I had seen on the sign outside, and it was delicious. Just the right infusion of espresso, kalua, vodka vase, a shot of vanilla, and dark chocolate.

The fun doesn't stop at the bar. If you go straight from the entrance, you go into a fantastical private event area. Its ceiling is lined with paper lanterns and upside-down umbrellas. It's the perfect venue for any social event where food and drink (especially alcohol) are mandatory. There is a large kitchen that can be seen in a large room with windows behind that area, so the food is presumably cooked right there before being served.

The family that owns Alice in Appalachia have two other businesses in Market Square: Earth to Old City and Bernadette's Crystal Garden Bar. So if you're in the area, check out their other two stores too. Earth to Old City is a giftshop that boasts natural and eco-friendly items, shirts that have sassy phrases, and handmade soaps and candles. It would be another store that would break my budget quickly if I could afford to buy everything I wanted from there- because I basically want everything.

If you want to drop by Alice In Appalachia their hours are Thursday from 11 am to 10 pm. Friday and Saturday, 11 am to Midnight, Sunday 11 am through 10 pm, and they are closed Monday through Wednesday for private events.

So if you happen to be in Scruffy City (Knoxville, TN) and you're looking for some nightlife or someplace to throw a swinging party, check out Alice in Appalachia.

I am personally going to making stops there anytime I happen to be downtown.