Puckers Sports Grill, the Gatlinburg sports-bar chain known for its wall of televisions, is set to take over the South Knoxville building that currently houses Mimosas at 115 Mimosa Ave. A grand reopening for the new Knoxville location is listed for August 26, and Kennedy Concepts, the hospitality group behind Mimosas, will close the brunch-and-late-night spot to make room for the swap.
The change was first reported by the Knoxville News Sentinel, which detailed how Mimosas sits at the base of The Davy apartment building at 115 Mimosa Ave, just across the Tennessee River from downtown Knoxville. Since opening in November 2025, Mimosas has served early-morning breakfast alongside late-night bar bites and cocktails. Kennedy Concepts did not immediately respond to the paper's inquiries about the move, according to the same report.
Mimosas' Instagram account has already been rebranded as Puckers Sports Grill Knoxville, and the restaurant's website now carries a short message for regulars: "Something new is coming to our space." Separately, AlongWalker reported that Mimosas operated as an all-day brunch and late-night venue, with weekend hours stretching until 2 a.m.
A Corporate Split Sparked by Tragedy
The shake-up traces back to the sudden death of Kennedy Concepts founder and CEO Chad Kennedy, who died at age 48 on Dec. 28, 2025, according to WBIR. Kennedy's death forced the hospitality group to restructure, and Hannah Kennedy has since become president and CEO of Kennedy Concepts. Hoodline previously covered Chad Kennedy's sudden passing and the restaurant portfolio he built.
As part of that restructuring, Gary Douglas took over sole ownership of several Gatlinburg brands amid the Kennedy Concepts split, per Compass Knoxville. Douglas Management now owns Puckers in Gatlinburg, Loco Burro's locations in Gatlinburg and at West Town Mall, and Johnny Rockets in Gatlinburg, while Kennedy Concepts kept its downtown Knoxville holdings. Kennedy Concepts will continue to operate four brands, including Cafe 4 on Market Square, The Kennedy on Gay Street, and Myron Mixon BBQ in Gatlinburg, according to Knox News.
Puckers' Long Road Back From a Deadly Gatlinburg Fire
The Puckers brand itself has weathered tragedy before. The original Puckers Sports Grill opened at 745 Parkway in Gatlinburg in 1999, but the building was destroyed in an October 9, 2022 fire that killed a 54-year-old local resident and leveled an entire block of Parkway businesses, including Cafe 420 and China Bazaar, per a separate WBIR report.
Puckers spent two years rebuilding before reopening to the public in November 2024, according to Gatlinburg Now. The rebuilt restaurant introduced an open-concept sports bar layout centered on a 20-foot widescreen television, the same sports-bar format now heading to South Knoxville.
Gay Street Plans Stalled, Then Landed With Another Operator
The Gatlinburg-to-Knoxville swap is only part of the fallout from Kennedy's death. Kennedy Concepts had planned two new concepts on Gay Street, including one meant to replace Babalu and Frothy Monkey, but the company halted those Gay Street projects after Chad Kennedy died in December 2025, per Knox News' reporting.
That former Babalu space at 412 S. Gay St. had sat vacant for more than a year before regional group Gemini Hospitality took it over in June 2026, as Hoodline reported. Gemini, which also operates Earl's in South Knoxville and Bella in Maryville, absorbed the pipeline project after Kennedy Concepts halted its planned MōkuMōku concept for the site.
South Knoxville's Building Boom Behind the Turnover
The Mimosas-to-Puckers swap lands squarely inside Knoxville's South Waterfront Redevelopment Area, a 750-acre zone spanning three miles of the Tennessee River that has drawn more than $61 million in public investment and $400 million in private investment since the plan's adoption in 2006, according to the City of Knoxville.
Citywide, public-private partnerships generated more than $2 billion in private investment between 2020 and May 2026, creating or preserving over 8,000 housing units, WBIR reported, citing figures city officials presented during redevelopment discussions. That commercial churn extends to downtown dining as well: the Old City's Melting Pot closed in May 2026 after 31 years in business, part of a wider wave of Knoxville restaurant transitions that Hoodline documented.
A Downtown Portfolio With Its Own History
Cafe 4, one of the downtown brands Kennedy Concepts is keeping, has changed hands before. HD Patel and the Ephant Group acquired the Market Square restaurant from original owners Jim and Lori Klonaris in December 2021, according to Inside of Knoxville, before it later joined the Kennedy Concepts portfolio.
Chad Kennedy said Mimosas was opening in "the perfect spot" when he spoke with Knox News in July 2025, telling the paper that Knoxville had enough restaurants but not enough good ones, and not enough bars with TVs. Less than five months later, Kennedy died, and the brunch concept he championed lasted only nine months before Puckers' arrival.
Whether Puckers' sports-bar formula finds the same audience that filled Mimosas' brunch tables for less than a year remains to be seen, but the swap adds one more entry to a Knoxville hospitality scene reshaped by Chad Kennedy's death and the city's fast-moving redevelopment map.
