Brewing Community Connections with Zack Roskop

[00:00:00] Julia: Hey everybody, and welcome to another episode of Connect The Knox. I'm your hostess with the Mostest, Julia Hurley, and today's guest is someone very special and someone that when you visit Knoxville, you're gonna wanna get to know everybody. Welcome Zack, and I can't say his last name, so I'm gonna let him introduce himself with Knox Brew.

[00:00:26] Julia: Tours. Zack, thanks for being with us today. 

[00:00:28] Zack Roskop: Hey, thank you so much for having me. It's an honor to be here and I'm excited for this opportunity. 

[00:00:33] Julia: So we're excited. We're excited to get your name out there. Not that it isn't already you have thousands of followers. I know that all of the breweries in Knoxville make sure that your name gets out there to everyone he visits.

[00:00:44] Julia: Tell us a little bit about how you got started in Knoxville, kind of what you do and what makes it so 

[00:00:50] Zack Roskop: important. Yeah, so my family moved here when I was three, so I wasn't born here, but I've pretty much lived here. This is my home. It was the summer of [00:01:00] 2014. I, uh, was kind of at a crossroads in my life. I didn't know which.

[00:01:06] Zack Roskop: Way to go, what to do. The kind of the world was my oyster, if you will. I knew that I loved Knoxville. I knew that I loved beer, and I loved meeting and talking to new people. Uh, that summer I got a chance to visit Asheville, North Carolina, where we took a guided brewery tour. I. And I realized that a guided brewery tour was the way for me to explore all three of those passions simultaneously.

[00:01:31] Zack Roskop: So that summer, I decided that's what I was gonna do. I bought a bus off Craigslist. I took a four week course at Pellissippi to learn how to build a website, and I convinced three of the four breweries at the time, that's right. There was only four breweries in Knoxville in 2014. Three of them agreed to let me bring people into their space.

[00:01:52] Zack Roskop: Teach them about how beer is made and who makes it and why they make it, and what makes each of these businesses so unique. And that was the birth [00:02:00] of Knox Brew Tours. It's kind of hard to imagine. That was just over nine years ago. We were about to be celebrating our 10th, a ten-year anniversary. Yeah. So

[00:02:09] Julia: we're celebrating together.

[00:02:10] Julia: I started my real estate firm 10 years ago. And 10 years ago is when I met you with Lacey. 

[00:02:16] Zack Roskop: Yes, yes, yes. I love that. So 

[00:02:19] Julia: I remember that. And I remember, and I'm gonna tell a story and we're gonna get back to your thing, but I'm gonna tell a story so that people really understand how above and beyond you go, right?

[00:02:28] Julia: So I'm not a, I'm not aware of anybody else that does what you do in Knoxville, and don't mention 'em if you, if they do. I remember during Covid, I had a friend of mine visit me from Denver and there was no tours and there was really nothing to do. In Knoxville. We weren't necessarily shut down, but we weren't wide open.

[00:02:46] Julia: And I called you and I said, my friend's here from Denver, he really wants to go visit some breweries. I know you can't put people on a bus. I don't know what to do. And you said, I'm gonna call you back in an hour. I'm gonna come up with something cool for you. And you got [00:03:00]bicyclists together to, and you got the breweries to agree just for my friend to be able to take some tours with you all.

[00:03:07] Julia: He still talks about that all over the country. About how important it was for Knoxville Brew Tours to have done that for him and made him feel so special and welcome. So everything that you do, your passion really comes out in the experiences that people have. I want you 

[00:03:23] Zack Roskop: to know that. I really appreciate that.

[00:03:25] Zack Roskop: That means a lot. I mean, our, our mission statement from day one has been to connect people to our city, to our brewing community, and to each other. And we've been very lucky, and fortunate to, I feel like accomplish that mission. The more you understand a product, the more likely you are to make it a part of your life.

[00:03:44] Zack Roskop: And there's a lot of power in knowledge. And so when we teach people how beer's made, who's making it and kind of what makes those breweries unique, it really deepens. I. Your appreciation and your understanding of your community, of your neighborhood, and [00:04:00] of, I know of that product that, that they're, that they're creating.

[00:04:03] Julia: I remember Knoxville being no breweries. I remember there nothing here. Yeah. No opportunity for growth. And Knoxville is on par with beating Asheville per capita for breweries. So tell us who those first three tours were with. 

[00:04:17] Zack Roskop: So it's kind of crazy because they, they don't fully exist today the way that they did then.

[00:04:22] Zack Roskop: So our first three breweries were Black Horse, which at the time was at Bearden. They're now relocated to Alcoa. We went to the Smoky Mountain Brewery location inside of the Calhouns on Bearden Hill, which is where Smoky Mountain Brewery began. It's such a cool story. Uh, Smoky Mountain Brewery is like one of the top 10 largest brew pub concepts in the United States.

[00:04:46] Zack Roskop: And, and most people don't realize that. And then the third brewery that we worked with was Sawworks Brewing Company, who is, is no longer with us, is, is not in business anymore. And that was really what started it all was those three. After that we [00:05:00] added Blue Tick in Mariville, which is a lot of fun. Uh, also no longer with us.

[00:05:05] Zack Roskop: And then we added Crafty, Bastard, and then Alliance, and then Schultz Brow, and then Balter, and then Pretentious, and it just kept getting bit crazier and crazier. Then last days of Autumn and then, yeah, now today we work with uh, just over 19 breweries. 

[00:05:19] Julia: How many does Knoxville actually have? That's a great question to 

[00:05:22] Zack Roskop: ask.

[00:05:22] Zack Roskop: It depends, and I hate to be a technical nerd about this. It kind of depends on your definition of a brewery. Uh, for example, I love the folks in South Knoxville, Highwire, Tap, Room. They don't produce on site, so some people consider them a brewery, some people don't. With all that being said, we've got about 30.

[00:05:40] Zack Roskop: That's 

[00:05:41] Julia: amazing. Knoxville's growing. I 

[00:05:43] Zack Roskop: know. And we've got some more on the way too. Um, but it's been a, it's been a wild ride, no doubt. 

[00:05:49] Julia: That's been amazing. We had our last television show that airs next month. We filmed it with Pretentious 

[00:05:55] Zack Roskop: Beer. Oh yeah. Matthew and the crew over there. Unbelievable.

[00:05:57] Zack Roskop: Incredible. To my knowledge, it [00:06:00] is the only place in the world that you can drink beer brewed on site out of glassware blown On-site. It's really. Unique and special. And it's, we're so lucky to have them in the old 

[00:06:11] Julia: city. Well, they're lucky to have you. And they mentioned you several times during our conversation.

[00:06:16] Julia: You gotta get, I'm like, I know Zack. I know Zack. I didn't gimme time to Zack. So how did you, I mean you, the passions there, the conversations there, you basically bought a used bus. Tell us about like what does it take to get that name out there? Because I remember nine years ago in Knoxville, I mean, I lived in the old city.

[00:06:33] Julia: There was a hundred members of the Old City Association, 15 of us showed up to have conversations and actually lived there full time. Knoxville was so small, it was mostly just vacationers. No one, no one really lived downtown. How'd you get your name out 

[00:06:46] Zack Roskop: there? What'd you do? Yeah, that's a great question.

[00:06:49] Zack Roskop: Um, so I've got two, two quick examples. One of the things that I did, and I didn't realize at the moment how strategic this was, it just kind of felt natural, was I created an Instagram account for [00:07:00] Knox Brew Tours. Then what I did was I went and followed every brewery that I could in every craft beer bar that I could in Knoxville, and then what I would do is I would reshare their information.

[00:07:13] Zack Roskop: They would be like, we have this beer release on Thursday, so then I would reshare it and say, Hey, go check out BreweryX on this day for this thing. And I did this for about four to five months, and my thought process was surely the owners or the marketing person will see that there is this ally that's trying to help grow their business.

[00:07:34] Zack Roskop: And once I walked in the door and made my first initial introduction. My hope was that they would already have a positive impression of who I am and already see me as someone that's there to help grow their business, and that that worked really well. That helped me get my foot in the door with Black Horse and with Saw Works Brewing Company.

[00:07:52] Zack Roskop: Another thing early on was I. You know, I was living downtown. I was single, I had a bus. I had a lot of free [00:08:00] time. And any opportunity I could to physically help these breweries, I would. So for, for almost a full year, I would transport—in the early days of Crafty Bastard. They were driving the Brewer's Toyota Camry.

[00:08:14] Zack Roskop: Up the road to Fanatic to get their kegs washed, and the brewer would have to take six or seven trips because he could only fit so many kegs. This was before Crafty had a van and before they had really expanded. So every Sunday I would pull my bus up, we'd load up 30 empty kegs, I'd take 'em to Fanatic, they would clean the kegs and I'd bring 'em back.

[00:08:35] Zack Roskop: And little moments like that of dedicating my time and energy and resources to helping these breweries out. Really help develop those relationships. One more quick one, uh, the way I met Matthew at Pretentious, just like they hadn't even opened to the public yet, and they were gonna do a Christmas sale.

[00:08:53] Zack Roskop: So I showed up to the Christmas sale two hours early and Matthew was like, sorry, we're closed. We're not open yet. And I said, my name is Zack. [00:09:00] I run a brewery tour company and I'm just here to help you guys. And he is like, what do you mean help? I'm like, I know this is a big sale. I wanna welcome you to town.

[00:09:08] Zack Roskop: What can I do? And Matthew's like, oh, I need these boxes stamped, and I need to wrap those things over there. So I spent two hours helping them prepare for this winter sale. I. During that time period, got to know them, got to know their glassware, and developed a friendship and a relationship from that point forward.

[00:09:24] Julia: I really love that, by the way. It's what built downtown Knoxville before downtown Knoxville 

[00:09:30] Zack Roskop: was built. I get that. Yeah, that makes total 

[00:09:32] Julia: sense. Yeah. I mean, I know how many families in Knoxville tried to bring downtown Knoxville back. How many generations of people. Continued to pour money and effort and energy into downtown Knoxville, and somehow within just a few years it would crumble and would fall apart and we just could not get downtown Knoxville going.

[00:09:49] Julia: And then all of a sudden community people came in and built it together and this popularity and this conversation. And it wasn't necessarily money, it was [00:10:00] time and. 

[00:10:01] Zack Roskop: Yeah. Energy and effort. Yeah, I, I do have to admit it was 2015. I started the tours in 2014. In 2015, I made a conscious effort to find a way to move downtown.

[00:10:13] Zack Roskop: I felt like it was gonna be necessary to grow this business, to be like literally corners away from the breweries that I was working with. I think that was imperative if I had stayed in West Knoxville, just that, that twenty-minute drive, I know it's like nothing, but it is a barrier. Uh, that I think would've made me less accessible and moving downtown has been the one of the best decisions I've ever made.

[00:10:38] Zack Roskop: Yeah, I, I 

[00:10:38] Julia: talk about that a lot. Like when I, we lived downtown forever. I mean, we lived downtown when no one wanted to live downtown and we supported every business. And I had a, I had an entire week schedule, right? So Jig, &, Reel is closed on Monday, so we all go to re on Monday, and crew was only open on this many days.

[00:10:55] Julia: So these are the days we went to Crew. This is the day we had the entire system down to support every single [00:11:00] business in downtown Knoxville. On 

[00:11:02] Zack Roskop: their day. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Jig and Rail's still closed on Monday.

[00:11:12] Zack Roskop: But I mean, 

[00:11:13] Julia: every single Monday it was Crew Day because you knew that Jig and Reel was closed. There's only four restaurants. You had four choices. So, um, those were the good old days, 

[00:11:22] Zack Roskop: man. Yeah, just about every 

[00:11:24] Zack Roskop: year except for Covid year, the last five or six years, I drive the entire Jig and Reel crew to a Smokey's game and back on a Monday.

[00:11:32] Zack Roskop: It's kind of one of their like, uh, one of their, um, I guess holiday party things. It's, it's, it's one of my favorites. So 

[00:11:39] Julia: tell us, has your bus gotten bigger? Is it still the same one? What are, 

[00:11:42] Zack Roskop: what are we doing? It's a great question. Uh, so we started off with an original bus, uh, named Cathy. Cathy is named after my aunt.

[00:11:50] Zack Roskop: She passed away of breast cancer the summer, uh, before I started Knox Brew Tours. And she told me that anything I could put my mind to, I'd be successful at. So I named the [00:12:00] bus after her. We still have that vehicle. But it's not running. We took it off the fleet just after Covid. It's a thirty-four-year-old bus.

[00:12:08] Zack Roskop: And you know, we just wanted to make sure everyone's safe and uh, and it's an old diesel, so we don't have that vehicle anymore. We did get a second bus called named Bernie, uh, which is short for Bernadette, named after my grandmother on my dad's side. And we actually decided recently to donate Bernie to the Drop-in the Drop-in is a new business that hasn't opened yet.

[00:12:30] Zack Roskop: It's a campground in South Knoxville, just 10 minutes away from downtown. And they're converting that bus into, they're putting bunks in it, and you'll be able to rent it out and camp in it overnight, which is gonna be really, really cool. And we're currently now, uh, operating just one vehicle. Um, Harvey, it's a.

[00:12:49] Zack Roskop: High-top van, and that vehicle is named Harvey after, um, Harvey. Dent from Batman, also known as Two-Face, one of the best 

[00:12:59] Julia: [00:13:00] characters in 

[00:13:00] Zack Roskop: Batman ever. Yes. So one side of the van looks different than the other side of the van, so that's why we called it Harvey. There's also a dent on the front bumper. So Harvey didn't it just, it just kind of made sense and, uh, I, I will admit, like, you know, 2000.

[00:13:16] Zack Roskop: And, uh, 19 was our best year. I mean, we were just crushing it. We went into the beginning of 2020. All three vehicles were being used. We were running eight to 10 tours a weekend. I mean, it was, we were buzzing along. Uh, since COVID, you know, we went five, we went just over 500 days without running a brewery tour because of covid, even though the restrictions were starting to get lifted, much sooner than that.

[00:13:43] Zack Roskop: We took people into brew houses and a lot of the brewers weren't comfortable with, you know, Strangers being in their workspace and that, and that's very reasonable. We haven't quite fully recovered since then, but we're still operating with one bus Harvey and we're doing as many walking tours [00:14:00] as we can as well.

[00:14:00] Zack Roskop: Well, tell us about the walking tour. Oh, the walking tour is so much fun. So if you ever, if you ever just driven through a city, like take Chicago or New York City. You can drive through, you can look at the buildings, you can see the cool things, but you can't really feel a city unless you're walking through it.

[00:14:20] Zack Roskop: You know, the smells, the sounds, the, the, the culture, the, the, the, the pace, the beat of the, the heartbeat of it. So I love our walking tours because not only do do we really get to feel the city of Knoxville, but we stop along the way. We hired Jack Neely. When we first started, Jack Neely, the famous Knoxville historian, and so our walking tours have a lot of Knoxville history.

[00:14:44] Zack Roskop: We talk about the foundation of Emory Place and we talk about the Kern Bakery and the in influence that Peter Kern had on the city of Knoxville. And we, we talk about the LMU, which is now LMU, the historic. Hospital. That was one of the only [00:15:00] hospitals to service both Confederate and Union soldiers at L&N Station and, and it's just really cool to be able to dive into that rich history because we're on foot.

[00:15:09] Zack Roskop: We don't do that so much when we're on the bus. 'cause when we're on the bus, we're jamming out to Whitney Houston or Spice girls or, you know, whatever song that group is into at the moment. So, yeah, the walking tours are, are special. They feel very connective. We 

[00:15:23] Julia: all know that real estate is location, location, location.

[00:15:27] Julia: Our team at Just Home's Group Realty Executives have the true expertise pairing buyers and sellers with the right opportunities. Whether you're looking to buy or sell a home right here in Knoxville, Lenore City, Clinton, or Farragut, we have the expertise throughout every Knoxville surrounding area. Call just Home's Group.

[00:15:50] Julia: Realty Executives today. With the growth of, of more breweries in Knoxville. 'cause we're seeing them, they're coming and more distilleries are coming. I mean, they're, they're on their way. Uh, [00:16:00] Knoxville's, Knoxville, I, I truly feel as far as business goes, 2019 was one of our best years as well, right? It was pre-COVID and then pre-boom.

[00:16:09] Julia: And I wanna say it was a boom. So 2019 was true local, on local business. It was when you got a review, it meant something. Everybody knew you. You had less competition, less people in the market. Twenty-twenty rolls around six months into twenty-twenty. You literally don't, I mean, nobody was shut down all the way, but we were shut down, you know?

[00:16:28] Julia: And then six months after that, all of these people from California, New York, Chicago connected, they were calling and buying houses at such a rate that I could not keep up with writing contracts fast enough because they were fleeing their states to come to Tennessee because we were open. And then 3000 more competitors got into our market and they stayed.

[00:16:49] Julia: Right? So Knoxville has changed from local to local, more to national, to local. It's like, Hey, who gets there first? Who has the most amount of marketing dollars to spend [00:17:00] here? So the locals that really grasped and got a hold in what was going on have started, I've seen, started to turn that curve in 2024 of, Hey, we love the growth.

[00:17:10] Julia: We really need to band together and make sure our local community stays local. You know, it's, it's very relevant to make sure that we don't push out too many local breweries or too many 

[00:17:20] Zack Roskop: local businesses. Yeah, I mean, co commercially you saw very little outside money in twenty-thousand-nineteen. But the secret is out and you're starting to see developers from Nashville, developers from other places, building more residential spaces, building more business spaces, and, and that's, there's a challenge there.

[00:17:40] Zack Roskop: You know, part of me is like, let's go bring it on. Come, come, come be a part of this amazing city and this amazing part of the country. And the other part of me is like, you're welcome here. As long as you don't try to change what makes what, whatever the reason is you moved here, make sure you're not changing that thing.

[00:17:57] Zack Roskop: You know, make sure you're not, um, [00:18:00] you know. Yeah. Just keeping it us keeping it Knoxville. Yeah. 

[00:18:04] Julia: So my question to that is, an encouragement on top of that is what, what can the local community do to support you? However, I wanna say that to say this, this is a national podcast. We get 17,000 listens a month.

[00:18:16] Julia: Our television shows at about four or 5 million a month. So we wanna make sure that the national community, when they visit Knoxville, if they immediately think of, who can I take a tour from? We want them to think of you. So what can we do to encompass in your mind to best support your business? That locality, but welcoming the 

[00:18:33] Zack Roskop: outside.

[00:18:34] Zack Roskop: Oh yeah. I love that. That's a, that's a great question. I know it seems kind of simple, but like two things that I think someone can do immediately from their phone, from where they're sitting, that helps any small local business. It's so silly. It's so simple. Literally follow them on social media so that you can keep up with what they're doing.

[00:18:55] Zack Roskop: And if you've taken a tour or you've, you've, you have, uh, [00:19:00]patronized that business. Any small business will tell you how much, uh, how far and how much a review means to their business. It just a simple digital feedback of your experience. We also own a crap beer bar downtown called Knox. Brew Hub. And when we get visitors from out of town inside the bar, I always ask them, how did you find out about us?

[00:19:20] Zack Roskop: Nine times out of 10, they said, I searched beer near me on Google. And the more reviews that we have, the more likely we are to pop up when they, when they, when they do that search. So I can't stress enough like, like every small business you care about on social media, and if you have patronized them, leave them a review it, they're, they're massive.

[00:19:42] Julia: Where is your, where's the Knox? Brew. 

[00:19:44] Zack Roskop: Hub. Where's that? So Knox Brew Hub. It's right around the corner from Marcus Square on Union Avenue next to the historic Oliver Hotel. We called it Knox. Brew. Hub. 'cause it's where all of our public tours start and end. It's the hub for the tour company. We have a hundred percent local tap [00:20:00] beer wall.

[00:20:00] Zack Roskop: Uh, so every single beer we sell on draft is made in Knox County or counties touching Knox County. The largest selection of local package. We have a map on the wall where the headquarters for the Knoxville Ale Trail. And I don't want to be your only stop when you come to Knoxville for beer, but I want to be your first stop.

[00:20:19] Zack Roskop: Come to Knoxboro. Hub. Let us ask you questions. Are, are you on foot? Are you in a car? How much time do you have? Do you have a dog? Do you care about the football game? Are you hungry? Do you have a, You know, give me all those question answers and then we're gonna point you towards which brewery we feel like.

[00:20:35] Zack Roskop: Is gonna maximize your craft beer experience in Knoxville. 

[00:20:38] Julia: I know exactly where you are now that you said it because we sh we shopped for the dog at the little dog store. Store, 

[00:20:43] Zack Roskop: yeah. City Fido. Yeah. Yeah, 

[00:20:46] Julia: yeah. And that's so, so for people that aren't from here, as a, as a visitor, as someone who's from Knoxville, lifelong Knoxvillian, lived in downtown, watched it grow, moved out west, understand your separation anxiety.

[00:20:57] Julia: Yeah. [00:21:00] Downtown. Um. Just to stay involved. We miss our friends. We miss being invited to the restaurant business openings because people feel like we've moved so far away. We really miss being connected to Knoxville. Um, with the show and the podcast and the business. Obviously we need to be out that way. Um, but for people that don't know, you can just park in the Market Street garage.

[00:21:19] Julia: Literally walk up a lot of stairs around the building 

[00:21:22] Zack Roskop: and you're boom. Yeah. And there's also Locust Street Garage and Langley Garage and State Street Garage. I mean, there's tons of free parking. Uh, and we're surrounded by the highest density of hotels as where as well. So it's very walkable from people who are visiting.

[00:21:37] Zack Roskop: And, uh, yeah, it's great. I, my parents still live in West Knoxville and I ju, I jokingly call it East Nashville, and sometimes I'll tell my mom, I have to stop in Cedar Bluff to get a hotel room just to break up the trip when I go. Um, no, I, I love we, I love West Knoxville. I grew up in West Knoxville, but, but.

[00:21:57] Zack Roskop: West Knoxville and downtown Knoxville [00:22:00] feel like two different cities. They with different sort of like, kind of cultures and heartbeats and they both are unique in their different ways. But yeah, downtown's got my heart. 

[00:22:08] Julia: What is that brewery? That's, or maybe they're just a taproom. I don't know that, um, honestly, I've been there five times and don't know the answer to this question, so now I'm embarrassed.

[00:22:17] Julia: It's. Calhoun's out 

[00:22:19] Zack Roskop: west. Okay. So yes. That's Crafty Bastard West. Yeah, they're really good. Yes. And they've got hole-in-the-wall pizza out there. And then you've also got Honeybee Coffee and brewery. And then there's Orange Hat off Hardin 

[00:22:32] Julia: Valley. We've never, we have not yet made it there, but Honey Bee, it's easy for us to make our Costco trip and then just be like, woo.

[00:22:39] Julia: Costco wore me out time for beer and just go across the street. 

[00:22:42] Zack Roskop: And then Zool opened their second location out in Hardin Valley. And then you've also got a Bridged headquarters at Cedar Bluff. So West Knoxville's got a lot more beer now than it did just three years ago. 

[00:22:52] Julia: I think the effort's being made to make sure that the outside world understands that Knoxville is open for business.

[00:22:58] Julia: We're open for visitors. [00:23:00] And the number one thing about my podcast is we wanna connect Knoxville to the nation, not nation of Knoxville. We wanna make sure that people in Knoxville are out there for people to know, Hey, please frequent these local businesses. It's very important that we keep them here. I love that.

[00:23:14] Julia: Thank you. Well, we love you and again, you have huge fans in Denver that talk about you all the time. 

[00:23:19] Zack Roskop: I've been to Denver a few times. 

[00:23:21] Julia: I could talk to you all day long about your business. We're so proud to know you. We're so proud to know that you've grown. What can we do? To contribute back to you. So you're down to Down to Harvey.

[00:23:30] Julia: Okay. Or you do, and you're doing walking tours in Harvey. So you got walking towards Harvey. And I know that Knoxville's pitched, and I'll touch on it very briefly, the pedal cars. I know I hate them. I'm just gonna throw that out there. Nashville was ruined when Pedal cars got approved. People love 'em. I'm not a fan.

[00:23:47] Julia: I know that Knoxville's bat, you know, like batting that around. Is there a way for you to get in and take the market on that before it gets out of hand? 

[00:23:55] Zack Roskop: I did. Look, I have looked into the pedal taverns. Uh, they, they came across my [00:24:00] computer many years ago, not the city of Knoxville has a few laws in place that are, are gonna make it difficult for pedal taverns.

[00:24:08] Zack Roskop: One of them is that if it's motor assisted, it will require the participants to wear a helmet, which isn't as much fun for what people's expectations are for that. Secondly, you are not allowed to have an open container on a quadricycle. That's literally written into law as well. The thing about the Nashville ones is the no helmets.

[00:24:28] Zack Roskop: You know, you don't have to have a helmet and you can drink. We don't have that option here in Knoxville, so it sort of becomes just a means of transportation. What, what I think makes us unique is the relationships and the access. We are not just a transportation company. We're a fully guided brewery tour experience.

[00:24:47] Zack Roskop: We'll take you into the brew houses and get view access to areas that are closed off to the public that are only accessible to employees. And I think that's what keeps us in business and what keeps us [00:25:00] unique and keeps us special. Private tours are the best way. If you can get a group of eight to 12 people.

[00:25:05] Zack Roskop: We can completely customize the experience, the pick up, drop off the breweries, the where you wanna go, every aspect of it. And so I think it's all about our relationship with the breweries. We, it's very strong and we, and we're very lucky. Oh, 

[00:25:18] Julia: we are lucky to have you, honest to goodness. And every brewery goes to brags about you.

[00:25:23] Julia: As they should. As they should. Thank you. I'm gonna do a few random questions here. Okay. When people visit, you not necessarily visit your business, but when people from OUTTA state visit you and they've never been to Knoxville before, outside of breweries. Where's your first place you take them? Ooh. 

[00:25:40] Zack Roskop: I am obsessed with, I know this, it's not really, uh, it doesn't really embody the spirit of Knoxville, but I love Senior Taco is just my favorite restaurant.

[00:25:48] Zack Roskop: Uh, just love their salsa bar and I love their, their seafood influence and. Uh, I like taking people to Senior Taco. I also really enjoy, uh, taking people to Kefi. I [00:26:00] think Kefi's a great experience in the old city. If I, if there's a show at Barley's, I don't even care who's playing Barley's books. Great musicians that I think really embody the spirit of East Tennessee.

[00:26:11] Zack Roskop: So I love taking people there for a show. Jig and Reel, as we mentioned a minute ago, is so much, is a great spot. We're definitely gonna walk around Market Square. Definitely gonna check out the Sunsphere. And then I'm, I'm proud of the, I'm proud to be a part of the University of Tennessee, so whenever people visit, I always like to give 'em a little driving tour of the hill and the stadium.

[00:26:32] Zack Roskop: And 

[00:26:33] Julia: we do UT tours as well. And I put a, I literally put a Post-It note. Window. Please don't. Please don't tell me. Yeah. I couldn't find parking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm 

[00:26:42] Zack Roskop: here for 15 minutes. For 15 minutes. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I, yeah. I like, I like showing off our campus. I'm proud of. Yeah. Our campus is gorgeous. 

[00:26:50] Julia: Mm-Hmm.

[00:26:51] Julia: We're very, very lucky. Okay. All right. Favorite grocery store? 

[00:26:57] Zack Roskop: Ooh. Favorite grocery [00:27:00] store? When I lived across the street from three Rivers, I was, I was there five days a week. I mean, I ate off the, it was like I was back in college and they were my cafeteria. I. Um, anytime I needed anything I would just walk across the street and get it.

[00:27:13] Zack Roskop: I feel like such an old person when I say this. I'm Fellini Kroger through and through because I know where everything is. I get so mad when I go to a different Kroger and I'm like, I don't know where stuff is. I feel like such an old man. But do you know, do you know the history behind the name Fellini Kroger?

[00:27:29] Zack Roskop: Have you heard this before? No. So Fellini is an author that wrote books and. He, his books were known for having strange characters. So people always say that the folks that shop at that Kroger are strange characters. And that's where it got the name Fellini Kroger. Uh, it had its own Facebook with a, they had a bird stuck in there for like three years.

[00:27:51] Zack Roskop: It had its own Twitter account. I mean, it's just, it's bizarre. But that's where I do all my grocery shopping. So, love it. I love it. It's like a little [00:28:00] home, you know, a home from away from home. I guess

[00:28:06] Julia: Knoxville's best kept secret, according to you. Ooh, 

[00:28:10] Zack Roskop: I think it's I'm Nature Center. Same? Yes. Yeah. And meets Cory, Baker Creek. I mean, the whole urban wilderness is just this, it is an unbelievably, well-kept beautiful close to downtown adventure land. I, I don't know what else to call it. You wanna swim, hike, climb, ride your bike.

[00:28:33] Zack Roskop: You know, uh, be in the river, be in the quarry. Take your dog, take your family. I mean, it's just, now that you've mentioned it the last time my family visited, that's exactly the first thing we did was we, we hiked around, meets Cory, and I think you go to a lot of downtown areas. Other downtowns and there's nothing like it.

[00:28:53] Julia: Knoxville and Asheville, I would say are very similar in that regard, in that ability. Yeah. But Knoxville is still closer. I mean, even in [00:29:00] Asheville, you still must, you really need to drive a little, like 20, 30 minutes in downtown Knoxville. It's like five 

[00:29:04] Zack Roskop: seconds. It's, it's so cool to feel so far away from urban life.

[00:29:11] Zack Roskop: Yet you're, you're 10 minutes. It's, it's a tree and then house mountain, uh, which is a little bit of a drive house Mountain is gorgeous as well. 

[00:29:18] Julia: Yeah, yeah. We hiked that during Covid because it was one of the only trails that stayed 

[00:29:22] Zack Roskop: open. Yeah, no, that, that's a, that's a glute workout and a half right there house.

[00:29:26] Zack Roskop: It's straight up and straight down. It's like the chimneys. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:29:32] Julia: Alright, well, I've not gone over my time because I've love, I'm still speaking with you. It's one of my favorites. Give everybody here a rundown of how they can find you. Where they can find you, what days you're doing 

[00:29:41] Zack Roskop: tours, noxbrewtours.com or NoxBrewHub.com.

[00:29:46] Zack Roskop: Try to keep it super simple. We run most of our tours on Fridays and Saturdays, but we can ride walking and private tours seven days a week. 

[00:29:53] Julia: I love that. And, um, that's what you are on Instagram, Facebook, all the, 

[00:29:56] Zack Roskop: all the good stuff. Exactly the same. And, uh, throw a phone number out [00:30:00] there. (865) 951-6883. 

[00:30:03] Julia: Love it.

[00:30:04] Julia: Zack, thank you so much for being with us today. Hey, thank you viewers. Thank you so much. I'm Julia Hurley, your host, connect the Knox, connecting Knoxville to the nation. Until next time. Bye everybody. Bye. Thank you for tuning into the show. Make sure to like and subscribe, leave a five-star review on your podcast player of choice.

[00:30:25] Julia: And if you would like information on moving to Knoxville, send me a private message. As always, this is Julia Hurley connecting Knoxville to the nation.