A big weekend for downtown Clinton
This will be a big weekend for downtown Clinton, as the new Clinton FARM Market opens, along with a new weekly pop-up restaurant, on Friday (May 7), and the downtown merchants hold their Spring Fever Sale on Saturday.
The Anderson County Chamber of Commerce will cut the ribbon 3 p.m. Friday to open the farmers market in the city parking lot on Commerce Street, and the market will remain open until 6 p.m.
Meanwhile, at 3:30 p.m. Friday, chamber officials will move to Market Street to cut the ribbon to open The Garden, a new pop-up restaurant-bar in the Spindle Tree photo studio, which will be open while the farmers’ market is in operation.
And beginning at 4 p.m. Friday, Market Street will be closed off to vehicles for the Market Night event, conducted by the Historic Downtown Clinton Merchants Association.
There will be street vendors set up in every other parking space along Market, and food trucks will be serving food at the Maude Brown Park, across Market from Hoskins in the Flat in the area that used to serve as the downtown cab stand.
That event runs until 8:00 p.m.
From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, the merchants’ group will hold its Spring Fever Sale downtown, with most shops displaying merchandise for sale on tables outside on the sidewalks.
Several vendors will be set up on private property at Clinch River Mercantile, across the railroad tracks at the east end of Market Street and in the parking lot of the Dandelion Market, next door to the Apple Blossom café, at 409 Cullom St.
Food trucks will be set up Saturday at Maude Brown Park and outside Clinch River Mercantile.
Local professional photographer Taylor Martin will operate The Garden restaurant and bar inside the Spindle Tree, a photo studio and event space at 303 Market St. Plans now are for it to operate from 4-10 p.m. only on the days of the Clinton FARM Market, which will be open Fridays May 7 through Oct. 29.
The Spindle Tree is in the former site of a short-lived Cajun restaurant that went out of business about three years ago.
The Garden’s menu will feature “local small plates” from restaurants and caterers in Clinton and Anderson County, Martin said. The menu is going to rotate through the next six months.
“This Friday, Apple Blossom will be serving custom-made grazing boxes — meat and cheese trays in a box,” he said. “The bar will serve from Clinch River Brewing and Orange Hat Brewery, and we are going to have many other beer favorites in cans. We also will have hard seltzers and ciders, and soft drinks.”
Live music also will be featured, with Clinton’s Jonathan Maness performing this week, Martin said. His music includes country, Americana and bluegrass.
“We will have different performers throughout the summer,” Martin said.
The Garden can seat up to 40 people inside, but also will have outdoor seating in the alley next to Spindle Tree.
The farmers market will be a first for downtown Clinton. It will be operated by the East Tennessee Farm Association for Retail Marketing, also known as FARM. “We have about 18 vendors signed up for the opening,” said Kathy Chippendale, secretary of the FARM group.
“For now, it’s more spring greens and cool-season vegetables, such as peas, broccoli, lettuce and kale,” she said.