Sunspot Restaurant, Knoxville

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.