Restaurants in Morristown

For more than 70 years, jewels used to fill the African mahogany cases lining Sapphire's walls. The dark wooden cabinets remain, although they now brim with more than 40 kinds of vodka, Tennessee and Kentucky whiskeys, and rums from Central and South America. Sapphire may no longer drape its customers in precious gemstones, but it does aim to preserve the sense of elegant refinement that characterized the historic building for decades.

This commitment is readily apparent in the menu of upscale southern cuisine, which includes Tennessee cheeses from Sweetwater Farms, bacon and ham from nearby Benton's, and seasonal produce from local farms. These ingredients appear throughout the selection of regionally inspired dishes. Some dishes, such as the Louisiana-crawfish-stuffed hushpuppies with cajun remoulade, assertively announce their southern roots, whereas others show a bit more restraint, such as beef-tenderloin medallions, which arrive with a simple southern succotash.

On Thursday through Saturday evenings, the elegant environment in the long, narrow room becomes livelier as the night progresses and DJs begin their sets. Upbeat rhythms echo off the high ceilings and the vintage mahogany woodwork while patrons enjoy one of the martinis that earned Sapphire a spot on Metro Pulse's Best of Knoxville 2012 list.

In 1969, Baruch Schaked began making chocolate under the tutelage of his chocolatier father-in-law. Though his father-in-law had made a name for himself in Argentina, Baruch honed his confectionary craft across Europe, finally settling in the United States, where chocolate had been outlawed. Many years later, when he announced his intentions to retire from chocolate making, Baruch's son, Edgar, coaxed him into continuing the family legacy with a new shop, Schakolad Chocolate Factory.

In the years since, the business has flourished, bringing the Schaked clan one step closer to its ultimate goal: to replace the city’s manhole covers with chocolate discs. In the meantime, they craft handmade European-style confections that are made fresh each day.

Sunspot has been voted Best Vegetarian, Best Brunch, Best Wine List, and Best Lunch Spot by Metro Pulse readers for the menu’s gleeful collage of southwestern, Caribbean, and Latin American culinary traditions. Diners nosh on vegan, gluten-free, and omnivorous offerings including fried green tomatoes and sweet-potato tamales in low-key digs.

A large skylight casts warmth across walls the color of acorn squash, exposed brick, and a behemoth abstract mural of the sun. Servers pour from the kitchen, arms stacked with veggie burgers made in house and sandwiches stuffed with tofu and Jamaican-style jerk chicken. Behind the diner-style bar, bartenders sling 29 draft beers from brewers including SweetWater and Foothills and a substantial wine list of reds and whites by the glass or bottle. After polishing off a pan-seared tilapia in corn cream sauce, guests gaze at Sunspot's black-and-white wall photos. The restaurant is open until 2 a.m. on weekend evenings, serving food to night owls and people who trust the VCR clock.

The bakers at Kitts Café fill their glass display case with house-made cakes, pies, and cobblers as cooks sizzle up platefuls of Kitts Café's homestyle diner fare. The kitchen staff fires up the griddle at 7 a.m. each morning, sizzling up fresh-cooked eggs and breakfast sandwiches before forging classic burgers and frito chili pie for lunch. To protect taste buds from fits of ennui, the café team whips up a rotating lineup of daily specials that changes each week.

A Knoxville business since 1993, Kitts Café keeps strong ties to the community with Kitts Market, a monthly event that transforms the restaurant into a trendy boutique with the work of local artists and crafters. The market's lineup of handmade gifts includes seasonal decor and enough children's clothing to dress an entire village in Loompaland.

Garrett's Downtown Deli borrows both a name and a philosophy from owner and founder Garrett Scanlan, whose childhood job in his father's kitchen and formal apprenticeships at several kitchens across Europe have led to appearances in more than 50 cookbooks and his own television program, 90 Miles with Chef Garrett. Behind the counter, Chef Scanlan and his kitchen crew take time to construct his eatery's deli-style fare as if it were served in a gourmet bistro or about to be sacrificed to a vengeful volcano. Sandwiches are crafted from Garrett's own recipes and contain hand-carved meats that are roasted in-house, including turkey, ham, and corned beef sliced thin, piled high, and paired with a pickle and chips, coleslaw, or potato salad. A hot-entree-and-salad bar poses even more choices for eager eaters, with daily rotating spreads of pasta, barbecue, baked chicken, from-scratch soups, and diet-friendly salads and recipes.

At AJ's Diner & Catering, signature twists give an updated appeal to American favorites. To add zest to the Benton's bacon BLT, for example, the cooks smear it with housemade pimiento cheese as sharp as a block of cheese whittled into a knife. The simple quality of their ingredients also plays an important role: free-range chicken breasts go into a curried chicken salad with cashews, and for the tuna-salad sandwich, chefs smoke ahi tuna that's never from a can.