A soon-coming bistro to North Prairie Street is planning to offer creative, colorful food offerings while incorporating their building’s “colorful” past.Charred 51 is owned by Knoxville entrepreneur Keith Vaughn along with his wife Erin and Elyse Quarterman of Galesburg.
Quarterman says that the name plays off the history of the building which includes three fires that broke out when it was operated as The Cellar and Fig’s Italian Steakhouse.
“We had to do a lot of fire clean-up when we first took over the building. It was kind of just a shell of a building at that point,” Quarterman says. “We decided to keep some of those features and use them to our advantage to where they look a little over authentic and pull in the history.”
She says they’ll leave char marks on the brick wall to complement the theme.
Quarterman says they are in the process of hiring a staff of 25 to 30.
Her roster of servers is getting full but she’s still on the lookout for help in the back of the house.
A few years ago Quarterman began working with Keith Vaughn in the ongoing renovations of the St. Mary Chapel in Knoxville and will be the wedding destination’s manager once renovations are complete.
She’s taking on management duties at Charred 51 because of her experience managing other restaurants in town.
The bistro has a soft opening planned for early July and a grand opening later in that month.
