Downtown Knoxville, your grits are ready.
The Flying Biscuit Café opens at 327 W Summit Hill Dr SW on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, at 7 a.m. It’s 3,428 square feet with seating for 140, a patio, and a full bar. If you work these blocks, you finally have somewhere to sit down before 8.
Chris Compton’s second Knoxville café
Chris Compton opened the brand’s first Tennessee café at 11683 Parkside Dr in Turkey Creek in May of 2025. Downtown is number two, and it happened 16 months later because guests kept asking for it.
“Turkey Creek has been good to us, and the question we kept hearing was when we were coming downtown,” Compton said. “There are a lot of people on these blocks by 8 a.m. and not many places to sit down and eat. Creamy dreamy grits, freshly baked biscuits, a rich pistachio latte and somebody glad to see you walk in — that’s what opens on Summit Hill on Sept. 12.”
Before hospitality, Compton spent more than 20 years founding and running companies in credit card finance, real estate development and technology consulting.
Why Summit Hill Drive
It sits in the middle of the city, a few minutes from the University of Tennessee — where Compton swam as an 11-time All-American and SEC champion, and where he was ranked among the top 10 swimmers in the world in 1992.
The blocks around the café fill up early with downtown office workers, state and city employees, and UT students. Not many of them have a sit-down breakfast within walking distance. Now they do.
What’s coming out of the kitchen
Biscuits baked all morning, with too much butter — which is the right amount. Creamy dreamy grits. Stuffed French toast, the famous shrimp and grits, big omelets, a vegan scramble, burgers and wraps. A full bar with mimosa flights and the Stage 5 Clinger Bloody Mary. And that pistachio latte, in case the morning needs help.
Breakfast and lunch daily, dinner on the weekend, and full-service catering for events of any size.
Hours, address and how to reach the café
- Address: 327 W Summit Hill Dr SW, Knoxville, TN 37902
- Opening day: Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026
- Monday–Thursday: 7 a.m. – 2 p.m.
- Friday–Sunday: 7 a.m. – 3 p.m.
- Dinner, Friday and Saturday: 5 – 9 p.m.
- Phone: (865) 427-6748
- Guest questions: knoxvilledowntown@flyingbiscuit.com
- Catering: knoxvilledowntowncatering@flyingbiscuit.com
Turkey Creek is still open too, at 11683 Parkside Dr, Knoxville, TN 37934, (865) 288-0513.
About 30 jobs on Summit Hill
Compton expects to employ around 30 people downtown. Early starts, a breakfast crowd, real tips, home by mid-afternoon most days. Hiring details are at flyingbiscuit.com/locations-2/knoxville-downtown/careers.
Still a Knoxville operation
Compton plans to keep working with Knoxville-area nonprofits through the downtown café, continuing the partnerships he built around Turkey Creek. He also plans to keep developing Flying Biscuit cafés across the greater Knoxville area over the next five years.
Come as you are — even that version.
Want to do this in your town?
Chris is a local operator who saw a gap on his own blocks and went after it. That’s the pattern we’re looking for.
Founded in Candler Park, Atlanta in 1993, The Flying Biscuit Café has 43 cafés open and 13 in development across Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Missouri and Texas. Territories are still open across the Southeast and Texas, including Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, Virginia, Arkansas and Ohio.
We’re not filling a map — we’re picking partners who want to feed their own neighborhood. If that sounds like you, fill out the contact form at flyingbiscuitfranchising.com and our development team will get back to you with open markets and what ownership takes.
