Love That BBQ, Knoxville TN

The last time we were in the area, we ran out of time and missed out on visiting this restaurant. I made sure that didn’t happen this time and we enjoyed a pretty good lunch after our hike.

In the previous post, I explained how we had a long hike in the heat. The Forks of the River Wildlife Management Area is a good place, but it’s quite open to the blazing hot sun. When we finished, we were famished. I was ready for some barbecue, and we’ll let the pictures do most of the talking in this short story.

Walter and Bonny Love opened this restaurant in a former gas station in 2011 after about fifteen years of catering. They use hickory wood in some big black smokers. The pork and sauce are about what you’d expect for eastern Tennessee. Nice flavor, not too dry, and a good taste of smoke. I wouldn’t lose my mind over it, but this was not a bad lunch at all, and I’d happily recommend that any barbecue lovers give it a try.

But what really blew me away were the fries, of all things. Oh, man, these were delicious and crispy. If we come back sometime to try the brisket or sausage, I’m not wasting my time with slaw or beans, I’m having a double order of these.

Marie had a few of my fries but passed on any barbecue because she had other plans. After my son and I finished eating, we returned to GruJo’s in Powell for some schnitzel, and I’ve updated our original story about that restaurant with some new pictures and information.

From there, we stopped at McKay to do a little shopping and then spent nearly three hours at The Muse, the local children’s museum. It’s kind of small but our son still found lots to occupy his time. They had a section in the back with those big blue Imagination Playground blocks that he’s played with in other children’s museums. When you’re spending the day with a six year-old, you can’t spend every waking minute at barbecue places, you know.

Love That BBQ
1901 Maryville Pike
Knoxville, TN 37920

Are you planning a barbecue road trip? You can see all the barbecue restaurants that we have visited for our blog (more than 430 !) on this map, with links back to the original blog posts!