Amalfi, an Italian restaurant, coming to Kingston Pike in Knoxville
The Martin family are pouring their rich history into every inch of the cozy, romantic restaurant.
Italian-American fusion restaurant Penne For Your Thoughts, which started as a food truck before expanding with a fast-casual concept in 2022, is closing after eight years of business in Knoxville.
The Feb. 6 announcement marks the latest in a string of 2026 Knoxville restaurant closings announced early in the new year. Penne For Your Thoughts, located at 9430 S. Northshore Drive, shared on social media that Feb. 11 will be its last day open.
“Like most small businesses, we’ve always known what it meant to fight uphill, but the challenges over the past year became more than we could carry,” co-owner Geoffrey Bernstein told Knox News in a text message. “The decline of the food industry in the second half of last year, combined with the growing economic pressures and rapidly rising costs, left us being squeezed in every direction.”
Bernstein has been in the food business more than two decades. Opening his own food truck −which also will shut down as part of the restaurant closing − was a dream come true, he told Knox News in 2018.
“Small, independent businesses are facing a landscape that is increasingly difficult to survive in,” Bernstein said Feb. 6.
Penne For Your Thoughts got creative with names for its pasta dishes, including the Pastalivista Baby and the Pesto Both Worlds. The restaurant also serves a small selection of flatbreads, and entrees include the Chicky Chicky Parm Parm sandwich and the Ulterior Mootives 2.0 pizza burger. Its olive oil and garlic, waffle-style Oh How Time Fries topped with parmesan are popular as a side or a starter.
“This decision has been incredibly difficult and painful, but it is one we are forced to make,” Penne For Your Thoughts said on social media. “What remains is overwhelming gratitude.”
Penne For Your Thoughts was one of the original stalls at Knoxville’s first food hall, Marble City Market, from the time the venue opened in November 2021 until it left the food hall in 2023 amid an exodus of vendors.
Other Knoxville restaurants to announce 2026 closings include Status Dough, New Haven Pizza and Saint Lucille’s Kitchen.
Penne For Your Thoughts info: pennetruck.com | @pennetruck | 965-766-5817 | 9430 S. Northshore Drive
Joanna Hayes covers restaurants and retail for the Knox News business growth and development team. Email joanna.hayes@knoxnews.com; Instagram @knoxeat65. Get the latest food and beverage news, as well as restaurant recommendations, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday by signing up for Joanna’s free Eat65 newsletter at knoxnews.com/newsletters.
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Dining and Cooking