Drivers passing Weigel's and Arby's on North Cedar Bluff Road have been asking the same question for weeks: what is that squat, boxy structure going up between the two familiar pit stops? The answer is a Smalls Sliders, a Louisiana-born cheeseburger chain backed by NFL Hall of Famer Drew Brees, and it is set to become the first of four locations planned across the Knoxville metro.
Neighbors Janice Ishee and Daniel Thomas were among those wondering what was being built at the 330 N. Cedar Bluff Road site, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. The outlet, which covers the project for its business growth and development team, reports the restaurant will occupy a 935-square-foot building with a drive-thru, a walk-up window and a patio, but no indoor dining room.
Construction at the site was photographed on August 4, and the chain has not announced an opening date, per the Knoxville News Sentinel's reporting. That timeline gap has fueled some of the local guessing game, though a franchise trade outlet has separately reported franchisee Blake McDavid is targeting a November opening, according to WhatNow.
A Modular Build Designed for Speed
Smalls Sliders locations are nicknamed “Cans” because they are built from prefabricated steel shipping containers finished in the brand's signature “Smorange” color, then dropped onto a site to speed up construction, according to the Houston Chronicle. The design intentionally skips a dining room in favor of drive-thru lanes, walk-up windows and outdoor patios, matching what is planned for the Cedar Bluff Road location. The Knoxville deal itself traces back to August 2025, when McDavid, a 30-year-old local entrepreneur and commercial real estate investor, signed the brand's first Tennessee development agreement, per the International Franchise Association.
Getting the Cedar Bluff site ready required clearing a few municipal hurdles first. The Knoxville-Knox County Planning Commission approved the site development plan in May for the 0.45-acre parcel, which required demolishing an existing office building to make room for the single-story restaurant, and staff conditioned the approval on building a pedestrian sidewalk connecting the entrance to Cedar Bluff Road, per planning commission records. The property also picked up a Board of Zoning Appeals variance in March, shrinking the required buffer along the parcel's southern boundary from 50 feet to 40 feet, according to the same commission filing.
From Baton Rouge Pop-Up to National Growth Story
Smalls Sliders was founded in 2019 in Baton Rouge by Walk-On's Sports Bistreaux founder Brandon Landry, with Brees joining as an early investor and co-owner, according to Tasting Table. The chain leans on a hyper-focused menu of just nine items built around cooked-to-order cheeseburger sliders, seasoned waffle fries, milkshakes and its signature “Smauce,” a lineup the Knoxville News Sentinel confirms will anchor the Cedar Bluff menu of sliders, fries and shakes. The brand currently counts more than 30 locations spread across Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina and Texas, per the Knoxville News Sentinel's reporting, and lists “bleed orange” among its stated company values.
That growth has not gone unnoticed nationally. The Datassential 500 industry report named Smalls Sliders the fastest-growing restaurant brand in the country in May, evaluating chain growth across more than 200,000 restaurant locations nationwide, according to PR Newswire. Since reopening franchise development in May 2023, the company has expanded to more than 375 locations open or under development across 30 states as of mid-2026, per Retail & Restaurant Facility Business.
Cedar Bluff's Broader Building Boom
The Cedar Bluff burger box is arriving amid a wider wave of construction along the corridor. Hoodline has reported on nearby townhomes rising at the Dutchtown and Bob Kirby roads corner, and on a separate 202-unit apartment plan from KCDC and Elmington in West Knoxville. Together, those projects point to a corridor absorbing new residential and commercial investment at the same time Smalls Sliders is staking its claim between two familiar fast-food fixtures.
Knoxville is just the latest metro to see the Smorange boxes multiply. Hoodline has tracked similar drops in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs, on McKinney's west side, in Denver's suburbs, across the Phoenix area and in Oklahoma City, part of a national rollout that has also included a temporary closure in Willis, Texas, after a fire at one of the container units. For now, Knox County's first Can is still going up between a gas station and a fast-food drive-thru, with three more Knoxville-area locations promised and no confirmed opening date yet.
