Press & Blog

Apple Valley Mountain Village has a great event coming up, and we hope you’ll all plan to join us! Loop the Link Anniversary Weekend, November 8th-10th, will serve as a celebration of three very exciting anniversaries– 1-year anniversary of the completion of the Foothills Parkway and Missing Link, the 1-year anniversary of the Apply Valley Mountain Village Grand Reopening, and the 40th anniversary of the Townsend Volunteer Fire Department!

Sponsored by the generous folks at Thunder Roads Magazine Tennessee/Kentucky, this event will be both motorcycle and family friendly. We’ll have something fun for everyone at this celebration, from burger and BBQ specials, to $0.99 coffee at the Dancing Bean, and multi-store sales. Bikers, join us Saturday morning for a group ride set to depart at 11am. We’ll also have a retro 70s and 80s dance party Saturday evening from 6-9pm, so bring your dancin’ shoes!

We will be collecting donations for the Townsend Volunteer Fire Department throughout the weekend, so if you feel so inclined, please donate to support this worthwhile cause. Apply Valley will match the donation amount raised throughout the weekend in support of the wonderful fire department.

We can’t wait to see you all there!

Join Us in the Beer Garden on July 4th!

This coming July 4th, John Fee will be playing a special concert for the guests of Apple Valley Mountain Village in the Beer Garden of the Apple Valley Cafe from 12:30pm – 3:30pm.

Raised in Harlan, Kentucky, John Fee is the son of a coal miner and a part-time preacher. Acquiring his first guitar at Pick ‘N Grin in Knoxville, Tennessee, John took his newly aquired instrument to church with him where he wated and learned from the pickers in the service. Eventually, Kohn started to play gigs around his home town and was a fixture for 12 years at the town’s annual Poke Sallet Festival. Inspired by the country artists that he grew up watching on Ralph Emery’s “Nashville Now” program on TNN, he gravitated toward the traditional country sound of Geroge Jones and Merle Haggard.

In 1998, John moved to east Tennessee, settling in Blount County, eventually bringing his talents to the band Wildcard. After performing with Wildcard, John went on to form John Fee and the Dirt Road Drifters, a three-piece country rock band that played throughout the greater Knoxville area. Today, his band John Fee and the Honky Tonk Playboys perform all around the Tennessee area, bringing their engaging performances to fans in a number of local venues.

So come on out this Fourth of July and John Fee at the Apple Valley Mountain Village. His performance is sure to be memorable!

Join us Every Saturday for Barbecue, Beer, and Live Music in Townsend!

Every Saturday from 5-7pm in June and July, the Apple Valley Cafe is going to feature live music by Billie LaFollette as well as a barbecue plate special and draft beer specials. The barbecue plate includes home made barbecue, coleslaw, baked beans, and fries for only $8.99 and, because no barbecue is complete without an ice cold beer, we are offering 16 oz drafts for only $5.00!

If you have any questions about the event, please give us a call at (865) 448-9878 or send us a message through our contact page.

Apple Valley Mountain Village Open House

A special Open House event with food samples, door prizes, discounts on merchandise, and live entertainment is planned for Friday and Saturday, November 9th & 10th at the Apple Valley Mountain Village (formerly “Apple Valley Stores & Café”). We rebranded earlier this year as part of a campaign to highlight our popular shopping center’s proximity to the Great Smoky Mountains.

The November 9 & 10 Open House is scheduled in conjunction with the long-awaited opening of the Foothills Parkway Extension, a 1.65-mile-long “missing link” that connects Walland to Wears Valley as part of the 72-mile long road traversing the western and northern perimeters of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is set to open Veteran’s Day weekend.

Planned Open House specials for shoppers include:

General Store: Receive 30% off various clearance items from the General Store on Friday and Saturday, November 9 & 10, along with free butter samples, meatball samples with Apple Valley BBQ Sauce, door prizes, and $1 raffle ticket sales for a Buck Shot Grill Giveaway at 3 pm on Saturday (benefitting repairs to the Special People’s Park accessing Little River across the Parkway from Apple Valley).

Mountain Store: Discounts of 20% off on the new merchandise from coveted “performance apparel” brands like Mountain HardWear®, and Southern Tide® at the Apple Valley Mountain Store on both days, plus door prizes.

Apple Valley Café: Two-for-one Fried Apple Pies and $5.99 Pulled Pork Sandwich plates with Fries at the Apple Valley Café on both days, and guests visiting the Apple Valley Beer Garden receive free balloons.

Dancing Bean Coffee House (located across the parking lot from the main Apple Valley General Store): Get 99-cent brewed coffee until 4 pm on both days, a free Cinnabon ™ Cinnamon Roll with the purchase of a specialty drink or lunch item until 4 pm on both days, samples of cookies and scones and free brewed coffee for anyone wanting to play chess, checkers, cards, or any of the various board games available for guests from 4-6 pm on Friday, November 9, and “Jammin’ at the Coffee House from 4-6 pm on Saturday, November 10, with free brewed coffee and food samples, along with live music.

Guests visiting the Apple Valley Beer Garden receive free balloons at the General Store and Mountain Store during the festivities. Ambassadors will hand out maps of the area and raffle tickets. Live music is also planned during the Open House event.

Mark and Sharon Oldham, owners of both the Apple Valley and Dancing Bear brands, said the name change better describes the stores’ location in the Smokies and the variety of new apparel and cabin décor offerings continuing to arrive ahead of the holiday shopping season.

For a good number of those visiting the Smokies, Apple Valley has become the Unofficial Welcome Center — a great place to stop and stretch their legs, walk the dog, enjoy a bite to eat, browse the fun shops, listen to live music, and launch the day’s adventures near Cade’s Cove since it first opened in 1993. The Oldhams bought the property in 2015 and have improved it with a number of enhancements.

Apple Valley Mountain Village consists of multiple businesses on one property, including the Apple Valley General Store, the Apple Valley Café, the Dancing Bean Coffee House and the Apple Valley Mountain Store, which has added new merchandise from coveted apparel brands like North Face®, Mountain HardWear®, and Southern Tide®, plus the usual assortment of beautiful quilts and cabin décor that shoppers have come to expect from the Smoky Mountain Lifestyle outlet.

The newest addition, The Dancing Bean Coffee House, opened in July and has become a popular destination for travelers and locals alike. The Dancing Bean Coffee House offers regionally-produced Kombucha, Nitro Coffee, fresh fruit smoothies, custom sodas, bottled juices, and Cruz Farm dairy products, along with imported beers and six Tennessee-sourced bottled beers. The Dancing Bean also sells locally-roasted fresh ground coffee by the pound or whole bean coffee by the pound for carry-out; a specially-crafted Dancing Bear Blend pairs Mexican, Guatemalan, and Sumatra beans for a rich, earthy flavor and pleasing aroma. Guests can also find Dancing Bear’s delicious benne seed bacon and house-made granola to take home as souvenirs of their trip to the Smokies. In the same building as the coffee house, the Dancing Bear Lodge has added a new guest check-in center. The 38-acre resort property is located just up the hill, also directly facing Lamar Alexander Parkway.

Those interested in following the new developments at Apple Valley Mountain Village can get updates on this website https://AppleValleyStores.com, along with our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/AppleValleyStores/.

Join us on June 10th, from 8 am – 8 pm, as we celebrate our 25th Anniversary & the Grand Reopening of Apple Valley Cafe Express!

You and the family are invited to join us for:

• Live music, featuring John Fee (1:00 – 4:00 pm)
• Cornhole, plus games for the kids provided by the Appalachian Bear Rescue
• 3 Bounce houses for the kids to enjoy
• Outdoor grilling on the deck
• Freshly smoked BBQ Platter special for $8.95, including 2 sides and corn doggers (5:00 – 8:00 pm)
• Great discounts and deals
• $3 Coors Light all day for the adults

During the festivities, make sure to check out our Stores, fully stocked with thousands of new items, as well as a brand new Fudge Kitchen with 32 flavors! We hope that to see you all there as we celebrate another year together!

Every Saturday through Labor Day, enjoy live music by John Fee at the Apple Valley Beer Garden. Relax on our Beer Garden Pavilion with a local Calfkiller draft beer, a vintage Coke, or one of our exclusive premium ice cream cones and sundaes.

John Fee, raised in Harlan, KY, is as authentic as it gets when it comes to his own musical upbringing. His father was a coal-miner and part-time preacher. Sunday morning church service was filled with guitar picking music that inspired him and his family to purchase his first guitar when he was 11 years old. He brought the guitar with him to church every week and learned how to play by watching the pickers during service. Eventually, he started playing around his hometown and started following country artists like George Jones and Merle Haggard.

Twenty years ago, in 1998, he moved to Eastern Tennessee where he hooked up with a local country band called “Wildcard”, and then eventually formed his own three-piece country-rock band, The Dirt Road Drifters, that played all over Knoxville. In 2004, John Fee had a few internet “hits” that he produced in Nashville, including “Gonna Take A Lot Of Liquor To Like Her” and “The More He Drinks” which were both released on Clear Diamond Records. He also was part of the Dixie Rose Band that played venues like The Dawg Patch and The Station.

“It was a good experience, and they’re all great players,” he said. “I left in March, and in April or June, I started what was supposed to be an acoustic gig, and the pieces kind of fell into place.”

Today, his band is The Honky Tonk Playboys, and they play a lot of local gigs.

At the Apple Valley, you might hear John Fee playing solo, and his band members often join in the fun. Hope you’ll come out an enjoy his music!

Apple Valley Cafe Express, along with the Townsend/Cades Cove Gateway Alliance present:

The Second Annual Charity Chili Challenge!

Ticket Pricing*:

• Adults (10 and up): $12.00
• Kids (9 and under): $6.00
• *Includes chili samples and all the fixins. Proceeds go to the winning participants’ charity of choice.

Tickets can be purchased on Brown Paper Tickets or by visiting Apple Valley Cafe Express beginning February 2nd.

We are thrilled to announce that all 2018 contestants & their charities have been chosen:

• Bike Elf
• Awakening Fires Ministries
• Blount County Veterans Affairs
• Townsend Artisan Guild
• Townsend Police Department – Supporting Child Safety Day

Rules and complete details for the contest:

Contestants must be present or have a representative or two from their organization to serve the chili.

Contestants may pick up metal pans a week prior to the cookoff, and provide 5 gallons of cooked chili in these pans to Apple Valley Café by Saturday February 24th at 10am. Apple Valley Kitchen will heat and prepare your product for serving.

Each organization will be provided an 8 ft table, 2 chairs, table linen, serving utensils, all tasting supplies, voting cards and pens, plus personalized flyers to distribute live and electronically.

Sample plates will be sold for 12.00, and the guest will receive a 2 oz portion of each chili, plus crackers, and toppings.

Guests will vote throughout the day using voting cards, to select 1st, 2nd and 3rd ‘best’ chilis. The chilis with the top three scores will receive the following prizes for their charity:

1. First place – 500.00 **
2. Second place – 350.00 **
3. Third Place – 250.00 **

**Prize awards guaranteed when ticket sales exceed 150 adult purchased meals. In the case of lower than 150 attendance, prize money will be divided as follows: First prize 50% of sales, Second and Third place 25% each.

Contestants are strongly encouraged to invite members and followers on social media prior to the event, and to bring signage, merchandise and literature to promote their charities as well as collection boxes.

Entries accepted through February 15, 2018. Spaces are limited to six participating organizations.

Questions? Call Tina Graves, General Manager of Apple Valley Café at 865-448-1232 or contact by email: [email protected]