The doors are officially open at the new Savor Cookeville restaurant downtown, which will provide customers with a familiar menu and new outdoor dining.
Owner Jay Albrecht said Savor is an new take on the Seven Senses brand. The new restaurant is located in the former Blue Pig location.
“We’re excited to take advantage of the same Seven Senses concept but in a new facility, and with the benefits that that facility brings to the table right across the street from where everybody is already familiar,” Albrecht said. “It’s just a great opportunity to evolve what Seven Senses was to what it really can be.”
In addition to the new restaurant being larger than Seven Senses, it includes a patio for outdoor dining. Albrecht said there has been re-landscaping work done around the patio area.
Albrecht said the last few weeks were spent on changing electrical and plumbing systems to meet the new restaurant’s needs.
Albrecht said these changes will help keep things fresh. Albrecht said though evolution is important, there is a mix of keeping consistency of the old menu and creating new items.
That’s what makes it fun for us, to be able to come up with new concepts, to be able to put it out there,” Albrecht said. “And when people come up to me and say, ‘Hey, I tried that and didn’t know if I was going to like it,’ or ‘I came in and had something else in mind, but I tried this instead and it’s my new favorite meal,’ So that;s what I love to hear and that’s why we do it.”
Albrecht said Savor hosted a quiet opening last weekend for lunch and dinner. He said the restaurant was at 50 percent capacity, but the feedback was positive despite a couple of hiccups.
“They love the facility as a whole,” Albrecht said. “They love the ability to sit on the patio. the bar area over there is really cool, it just provides a different vibe from what we had at Seven Senses before we moved.”
Savor opened for its first Monday this week. Albrecht said he has not had a restaurant open on a Monday since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the Seven Senses brand essentially moving across the street and becoming Savor, Albrecht said a new Seven Senses is in the works. The next few months will be devoted to creating a new concept and menu for lunch and dinner. Albrecht said the new restaurant will have even more variety, and it is expected to open in the Fall.
Albrecht said long time Cookeville residents have seen a few different restaurants in that building, but he is excited for people to experience Savor.
