House of Strays Is Open on Jackson Avenue. The Theater Part Comes Next.

The vodka soaks in salt-and-vinegar potato chips for 24 hours. After that it goes into a partly pre-batched martini that waits in the freezer and gets finished to order. AJ Tierney told Inside of Knoxville that the drink "has the essence of a salt and vinegar chip without the crumbs or the gross stuff." That martini is on the menu at House of Strays, the cocktail bar and theater at 205 W. Jackson Ave. that opened on October 7.

Two weeks in, the bar is running and the stage isn't yet. That order was a choice, and it explains what House of Strays is trying to be. The cocktails are how it gets started. The goal is a room with something scheduled on every quiet night of the week, and the people who show up are expected to help fill that calendar.

A Bar That Opened Before Its Stage Did

When Tierney sat down with Inside of Knoxville in June, she was still looking for the right contractor. After that came architects, permits, inspections, and months of construction and paperwork. Through it all she kept going back to the Serenity Prayer. The doors opened on October 7, which is also her birthday. When friends asked what she wanted as a gift, she told them, "I want you to show up and spend money!"

The theater is still central to the plan, but the bar came first. In the same Inside of Knoxville profile, Tierney described the order of operations:

"I really want to get the bar program up and running, and then I really want to focus on expanding the theater part."

She was already talking with a director about a first show. Her stated goal is November, and January if November doesn't work out. No date has been set. The events page on the bar's own website still reads "Events Coming Soon!"

The room was designed with performance in mind from the start. A custom bar built by Medina Moises lets guests watch the bartenders work. Larger high-tops seat groups, two-tops are set up for dates, and booths with soft lighting line an open space that faces the middle of the room. The design leans on vintage style, theater, and the artists Tierney admires, and a photo booth sits behind a curtain. The bar's site calls the place "a craft cocktail bar and theatre in Knoxville's Old City," built around "good drinks, live performance, rotating pop-ups, and creative collaboration."

The Slow-Night Plan

The stage is one piece of a bigger weekly plan. "My goal is to have a standing event every single slower night of the week," she told Inside of Knoxville. She doesn't expect all of it to happen at once.

These are the ideas she has named so far:

• A regular late-night performance on Sundays, with burlesque mentioned as one possibility
• Trivia nights
• Improv
• Dance nights with lighting and music to match

Tierney is also leaving room for the calendar to come from the people who walk in. "Part of that, I think, is just getting open and seeing who comes to you and is like, I'd love to do this thing," she said. "I feel like people will come to me with ideas that I didn't even think of." She sees the bar as a possible home for downtown creatives and the service-industry crowd. She plans to add more art and vintage photographs over time and to change whatever doesn't work.

In the stadium blocks a few streets east, the owners of Berry Social told Inside of Knoxville they picked their space at 122 Stadium Way partly because it "sits right where crowds line up to enter the stadium." Stadium tenants such as Iron Forge Brewing Company and Jackie's Dream stay open whether or not there's a game. House of Strays is building its plans around the slower nights instead, and its hours back that up. It's open seven days a week: 5 p.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday, and 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

What's in the Glass While the Curtain Stays Down

Until there's a show, the menu is the main attraction. Tierney wrote every cocktail name and recipe herself, drawing on her years of experience in Knoxville, hands-on research in New York City, and a fascination with the 1920s. The list is split into four sections: Martinis, Sours, Stiff Ones and Citrus. These are the drinks Inside of Knoxville singled out:

The McGuffin connects the bar to the stage it doesn't have yet. It's named for the film term tied to Alfred Hitchcock, a nod to the late Zack Allen, co-founder of Knoxville Children's Theatre, who loved Hitchcock. Tierney has her own history with the theater. As the drink rotates through the seasons, it will honor other people connected to KCT.

The food menu sticks to the theater theme. It includes movie-style candy in glass heart-shaped boxes, popcorn with a house seasoning, rosemary and brown-sugar roasted nuts, and hummus with dippers. For something warm, there are "House Pockets," an adult take on a Hot Pocket made by sous chef Dallen Adams of Osteria Stella.

How the Calendar Is Likely to Fill In

Only a few dates are on record, and they're loose. This is the timeline as it stands for anyone planning a night out:

1. Now. The bar is open every day, the drink and snack menus are set, and the events page reads "Coming Soon."
2. No date yet. Standing events on the slower nights, which Tierney says won't all arrive at once. Sunday late-night performances, trivia, improv and dance nights are the ideas named so far.
3. November. This is Tierney's goal for a first stage show, with a director already in conversation and no date set.
4. January. This is her fallback if the first show doesn't come together in November.

The bar's Instagram and Facebook pages are the places most likely to post those dates first.

The Other Jackson Avenue Lounge Still on Paper

House of Strays isn't the only new cocktail lounge planned for Jackson Avenue. On the east side of the street, Jesse and Corey Vose own Fiori Bar & Lounge at 111 E. Jackson Ave., Suite 103. Fiori is locally owned, makes its food from scratch, and runs a cocktail, wine and beer program. It's open 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 4 p.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday.

In August, Knox News reported that the couple is planning a second high-end lounge, Sidecar, right across the street. The paper's headline called it a "sexy, romantic" escape. The address is 108 E. Jackson Ave., which used to be Bethie Lou's Fabulous Gift Store. Knox News reported in March that Bethie Lou's was closing after four years across two Old City storefronts, with April 19 set as its last day. No opening date for Sidecar has been announced.

That means a former gift shop on Jackson Avenue is slated to become a cocktail lounge. And when Sidecar opens, the street will have a lounge named for the classic cocktail that the Coco Chanel at House of Strays riffs on.

My family has been in Knoxville real estate for four generations, and openings like House of Strays shape what it's like to live within walking distance of them. If you own a loft or condo in the Old City and want to know where your home stands as the street fills in, Seth Jenkins can help. Get your free home valuation, and we'll go over it together.