![]() ![]() "We will be one of the largest restaurants in East Tennessee," he said. Once completed, the restaurant will have more than 26,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor dining space. Inside the restaurant will be seating for 650 diners, a bar, a wine room, a sushi bar, dance floor and a stage for live entertainment.Įvans said the owners plan to have live bands perform three nights a week playing country or classic rock tunes. They should have the option."Ĭontractors are busy removing the Asian-themed façade which will be replaced by a seafood theme complete with a nine-foot wooden crab. Whether or not people drink is not the issue. "But it helped me convince investors to build here. "It wasn't the most important factor in deciding to open here," said Evans. The tables are custom made by Billy Wickey, who meticulously cuts thick planks and joins them together to create a table top that sits atop wooden logs.Įvans said the controversial liquor-by-the-drink referendum, approved in 2013, was a factor in the opening of the new restaurant. Professional carver Randy Boni is hard at work on more than 60 wood carvings that will adorn the bar, the entrance and the load-bearing columns.īoni, originally from Pennsylvania, was brought in specifically to create the wooden carvings, and has completed sculptures of dolphins, an eagle and bear, mermaids, crabs and many others. Inside the restaurant, a pleasant scent of cedar hangs in the air and on the walls carpenters are installing rough-cut wooden planks. The wood is then cured in a temporary kiln that was transported to the property on Community Center Road specifically for the purpose of drying the wood out before it is used inside the building. The logs are brought to the restaurant construction site where they are cut into planks using a portable saw mill temporarily located on the property. The wood is cut from Evans' property on Walden's Creek Road in Pigeon Forge. "By the time we remodel the restaurant and build on the addition we will invest more than $3 million," said Ron Evans, a partner in the new enterprise. Transforming the old Chinese eatery into a seafood restaurant was no easy undertaking, though. The new restaurant's interior will be entirely custom built using rough-cut red cedar, black walnut and cherry wood grown on a property in Pigeon Forge. ![]() The food may come from the ocean, but a planned restaurant in Pigeon Forge will have homegrown furnishings.Ī new Harpoon Harry's is slated to open in April at the former Mandarin House, which closed four years ago. ![]()
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