Restaurant Review: Apple Cake Tea Room

Apple Cake Tea Room
Farragut Tennessee




Except for a bunch of newly built gigantic houses, Deputy Travis Junior (Robert Ben Garant) of Reno 911 having graduated High School there, and the Apple Cake Tea Room, Farragut Tennessee, a suburb of Knoxville, has few other talking points.



Housed in a log cabin just off I75, the Apple Cake Tea Room is the type of place that ladies go to lunch. The ambience is cozy with quilts on the wall and girly trinkets on the shelves. You could easily picture Mrs. Claus being right at home here. It's popular for showers and on any given visit you are likely to see a group of women surrounding someone who is unwrapping pastel colored gifts. Occasionally you will see a frightened looking man or two but I would estimate the clientele to be 85 to 90 percent testicle free.



The food at Apple Cake is relatively good with freshly prepared sandwiches and soups, served in lady-like small portions. My favorite was a chicken and dumplings soup that was served on one visit, but I have never seen again. When seated, you will be given a cute little muffin by a waitress that looks not unlike a Stepford Wife. (Discrimination lawsuit alert: If you are funny looking and live in the Knoxville area, please apply for a job there just to test out my suspicions. Let me know how that goes for ya.)



Being a tea lover, I mistakenly first went to the Apple Cake TEA Room several years ago, for a good pot of tea. At that time, they had only two different types of tea bags. I recently saw a box of Constant Comment on the shelf with at least two other different types of tea! Progress sure, but why not take a giant leap and invest in some little tea balls and loose leaf? Go crazy Apple Cake Tea Room. Hey, maybe you could also hire a few funny looking waitresses, just for variety.





Dineometer rating: 70%

Japanese Maid Cafe

The cafe that started due to Manga mania, has now spread to several other Asian countries, and Mexico (according to Wikipedia). Now, in addition to the Maid Cafe, there is the Mother Cafe, featuring slightly older, motherly waitresses; the "Younger Sister" cafe; and the Butler Cafe:

Hand Knitted Wire and Bead Napkin Rings

Just to prove to my knitting buddies that I do finish things once in a while, here is a completed project. These are actually knitted wire and bead napkin rings that I made from the Venezia pattern found on Knitty, displayed on napkins made by my friend. Mine look rather anemic compared to the ones in the beautiful Knitty photo, but this was my first time knitting with wire, knitting with beads, and knitting a "tangy" level project.

R.I.P. (way, way, off topic)

As if watching the Cubs lose last night wasn't bad enough, insult was added to injury when WGN TV Chicago broadcast images of the destruction of "The Spindle."

The Spindle was an art object in my hometown Berwyn Illinois, and probably the most recognizable feature of the city. It had a 2 second cameo in the movie "Wayne's World"and was considered an off-beat roadside attraction.

Despite a valiant effort by the Save the Spindle Foundation the statue, nicknamed "The Car Kabob" by some residents, was torn down last night without warning. Efforts to sell the statue on ebay for a starting bid of $50,000 plus moving costs, were not successful as no bids were received.

The site will now be the home of yet another Walgreens.

It's a sad day when a unique city feature is destroyed to be replaced by a chain.

As the Blog World Turns

A summary of some interesting goings on in the blogosphere recently:


Lofty Matters: This fruit from South Africa makes anything sour that you eat up to one hour afterwards, taste sweet.


A soap dish made from recycled record albums is among these earth friendly Mother's Day gifts.


Will Angelika ever get more than two hours sleep a night? Will she ever meet Hugh Laurie? Will the refrigerator bandit ever be caught? God I miss that fridge.


Boobs or apples? Join the violent debate at Ragtree's Funky Folky blog.


In Scotland, it's neither illegal or immoral to shufty at the church. Although I have no use for the hindi script translation button, a UK to US English button would really be helpful to me (scrummy bottle of rioja?)



Will Acne Control, the newest Entrecarder (as of this writing), betray us by not returning our dropped cards? Will they remain "Just here for the view" or will they become a "Drop Master"?


Will knitwithcats ever update her blog more frequently than once a month? Highly unlikely.


Will Target ever pay me for the for the extremely flattering article I wrote about their partnership with Andrew Zimmern?



Will my neighbor ever be evicted for playing their stereo at 1:30 am? (not a blog entry, just a question) Anyone know what the jail term is for breaking into a neighbors house and hacking up their stereo? Anybody? Anybody?


Tune in next time for more (dramatic pause).... As the Blog World Turns. Sponsored by Target (?)

Adventure Dining at Home: Chicken Piccata

Chicken piccata may sound like a fancy dish but it's rather easy to prepare and will impress your friends. It consists of chicken breasts in a lemony butter sauce, with capers. Capers are a pickled, salty, flower bud that are sold in a small jar in most supermarkets in the US, on the pickle aisle. I made this dish for a friend's birthday based on a recipe from the Food Network (click here for the recipe). I substituted four already thinly sliced chicken breasts, which saved a little work because I did not have to butterfly the chicken breasts as called for in the recipe. I paired it with a simple chopped salad with red wine vinagarette, and a very easy to make zucchini and pasta toss.

I tried a new desert, a ricotta cheese with honey, cocoa powder, and fresh raspberries, eaten with chocolate biscotti. Very easy to prepare but I didn't like the ricotta cheese as a desert. Perhaps it would be better with mascarpone.

All in all, it took maybe 45 minutes to prepare the meal and I think my friends appreciated that I made the effort to cook rather than just making dinner reservations.