All week we looked forward to a Saturday "dinner date" at the Tomato Head. Somehow we managed to ignore the fact that the Knoxville Dogwood Arts Festival parade would be underway about a block from the restaurant at just about the time we planned to be eating AND Saturday was prom night for several area high schools. When we finally put the events together (Saturday morning), we decided to risk the crowds and take the plunge by heading downtown in the mist of much activity.

After cruising a few parking lots, we found an open spot and dashed to Market Square, hoping to get to Tomato Head before the crowds. Hmmmm, lots of boutique craft tents were set up and lots of people were milling about. Can you tell we don't read the Knoxville News Sentinel? We were clueless! Luckily the line at Tomato Head was short and we waited only 20 minutes for a small table outside.

Ahhhh, outside. Although our favorite restaurant downtown, the acoustics inside the Tomato Head are terrible and it is hard to carry on a conversation. We were happy to be jammed against the wall behind a party of 8. We ordered the hummus and blue chips (out of chips, too bad, delicious homemade pita wedges were substituted) and a pizza, #13 on the menu...a 9" roasted rosemary chicken, no sauce, goat cheese, kalamata olives, carmelized onions and pesto. Yum, yum!

Just as we finished dinner, the parade crowd began to stream onto the mall. To our surprise, Duane and Angela Simmons materialized from the mass of people, jokingly questioning our choice of eating dinner instead of going to the parade :->. We chatted for a bit and and they were soon off to comb the expanse of craft tents. We too, spent some time looking at crafts before drifting toward the stage to enjoy a Cajun band from Louisiana. Too few people were gathered around to listen and we wondered about the publicity.

Once again Duane and Angela appeared from between the rows of tents and we spent an enjoyable evening chatting and swaying to the music.