The Media Tourist

Come for the mountains, stay for the munchies, the music…and the mermaids! (And respect the bears!)

Blake Shelton performs at Ole Red Gatlinburg.

Some 14 million visitors trek each year to the Great Smoky Mountains—and most of them funnel through Gatlinburg, the bustling tourism hamlet in Tennessee’s southeast corner that’s become the primary gateway to the most-visited national park in America.

And many of those visitors spend time or even drop anchor in Gatlinburg, surrounded on three sides by the natural wonders of the park and filled to the brim with things to see, hear, do…and eat.

Some people just enjoy the scenery—or the distilleries offering moonshine tastings. Others shop for souvenirs and memorabilia, play minigolf, hike, bike or camp, or drive into the Smokies. But everybody eats something, sometime—or a lot of times, which is most of the time in Gatlinburg. In a place with so much to do and see, wouldn’t it be perfect to do and see and eat all in one place? Here are the top “eat-ertainment” experiences you should have on your to-do menu if you’re headed to this unique resort town just under 10 miles away from where superstar Dolly Parton was born and raised.  

Ole Red

As country fans know, this restaurant and live-music venue is themed around the song “Ol’ Red,” the 2001 hit for Blake Shelton. Owned and operated by Ryman Hospitality Properties, it’s part of a growing Ole Red venture branded with Shelton, with other locations in Nashville, Orlando and Tishomingo, Okla., near the entertainer’s home. Gatlinburg’s Ole Red, a double-tiered honky-tonk, offers a “taste” of its superstar namesake with nearly continuous live entertainment, signature drinks, and a full menu of hearty (though perhaps not quite heart-healthy!) appetizers and main courses for lunch or dinner.

There’s a gift shop with all sorts of Blake Shelton merch and other Gatlinburg swag.

And Ole Red is the only place in town with an upside-down tractor hanging from the ceiling. What color? Red, of course.

It’s the top choice in Gatlinburg for hearing live music day or night on a full-scale stage tricked out with a truckload of high-tech AV, while diving into barnyard-sized food and hydrating with Mason Jars full of creative beverages, and perhaps even doing a little boot scootin’ on the dance floor. Sometimes Shelton himself even drops by or calls in to Facetime on the giant screen above the stage, much to the delight everyone who just happen to be there.

On my most recent visit, I noshed on Redneck Nachos (tortilla chips, taco meat, red onions, jalapenos and avocado cream) and a massive platter of Junk Yard Fries (garnished with onion straws, fried jalapenos, pulled pork and garlic parmesan topping), and washed it all down with a Hillbilly Breeze (coconut rum, orange liqueur, tequila and orange juice). There was no room after that for any of the signature main course items, like the Hell Right Burger (with a beef patty, a hot dog and an egg), the Grilled Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf or the Kiss My Grilled Chicken Sammich (with peach jam and barbecue sauce on a potato bun).

I’m a sucker for fruity desserts, so I was sorely tempted by—but resisted—the Mountain Berry Crisp, which incorporates strawberries, blueberries and blackberries into a honey cornbread crumble, topped with ice cream. But that would have hit the bullseye in my sweet spot.

On stage, Louisiana-born singer-songwriter Sara Collins sat with her guitar and performed a sweet selection of ‘70s mellow rock and country-classic covers, interwoven with originals from her new album Roots (to be released June 30). A regular at Ole Red’s, she’s a former contestant on The Voice (season 18) who relocated with her family to the Gatlinburg area four years ago, when she was still in high school. After her midday set, she told me she loves playing Ole Red, but it takes a bit of stage-banter recalibration from all the local gigs at bars and festivals she played back home in Baton Rouge.

“You never know where people are from,” she says, referencing how Gatlinburg draws visitors from across America, and even internationally. “You can’t make jokes about the ‘local’ sports teams.” (Earlier in the day, I’d met a family from Israel, saw a group of women wearing burkas crossing a busy street and shared some morning doughnuts with a vlogger, Sean Hussey, who relocated to Gatlinburg from Rhode Island more than a decade ago and now makes videos as “The Gatlinburg Hussey.”) At Ole Red, Collins avoided sports chitchat but instead cautioned diners to keep their vehicles locked during their visit, because bears that wander into town—with some frequency—have learned how to open unlocked car doors in search of food.

When it launched its Gatlinburg location in 2019, Ole Red was in a league of its own as the only entertainment spot in town with a bona fide superstar connection; the hitmaking, 10-million-selling Shelton was a double-digit CMA Awards winner, and he’d been a coach on TV’s The Voice since the show launched in 2011. (He recently announced he’ll be leaving after 23 seasons to spend more time with Stefani, whom he married in 2021, and her three young sons.)

But now there’s another country-star venue on the Gatlinburg horizon. Jason Aldean—also a country hitmaker, and also Shelton’s good buddy—is readying a new venue that will bear his name just up the street. With six bars on two levels, it will be the second in his expanding entertainment franchise, after the original operation in downtown Nashville. But Ole Red’s Chrisy Lambert, the food and hospitality manager, isn’t fazed by the competition. “It’s going to be a totally different kind of place, with a rooftop bar,” instead of a single larger enclosed showroom like Ole Red, where the music and the munching can go on year-round, rain or shine.

With a red tractor overhead.

Ripley’s Aquarium

It’s already a world-class aqua experience, with sea critters of every shape and size, a glass-bottom boat ride and the world’s longest underwater viewing tunnel. And Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies is the only place in Gatlinburg where you can get something to eat…and then consume it just feet (or even inches!) away from creatures that would probably love to sink their teeth into whatever you’re chewing. You can watch sharks and stingrays swim overhead after you pick up your items from the Feeding Frenzy snack and concession area, with a refreshingly diverse menu that includes burgers (including a veggie option), hotdogs, grilled cheese, chicken fingers, a hummus snack cup, veggie sticks and salad, and more. And it’s the only place in Gatlinburg where—if you get there early enough in the day—you can have breakfast with a mermaid!

Anakeesta

One of Gatlinburg’s newest attractions, this sprawling mountaintop theme park (which opened in 2017) takes its name from a Cherokee Indian word meaning “high ground,” which is also the term given to a geological layer of rock that permeates the Smoky Mountains. It offers activities for all ages, including a zipline, mountain coaster, a catwalk through the hillside canopy of trees, an elaborate play area for kids (or grownups), a 60-foot-tall viewing tower, and a dazzling nighttime display called Astra Lumina. While you’re gaping at the breathtaking eagle’s-eye views of the surrounding scenery, you can snack on ice cream, pies, brownies and other treats, shop for souvenirs or sit down at the Cliff Top restaurant for a full-course meal of barbecue, catfish or burgers. And watch out for bears—they like visiting Anakeesta, too, especially overnight when the area is otherwise closed. (It was, after all, built into what was formerly their exclusive habitat.) When I was there, the Astra Lumina experience was temporarily inoperable; a mama bear and her cubs were blocking one of the walking paths, and park workers were respectfully giving them the right of way. On another visit, the chairlift (which transports visitors up and down the mountain) and the mountain coaster were paused because a black bear was spotted foraging in the area. It’s no surprise one of the areas of Anakeesta is called Black Bear Village.

Fannie Farkle’s

One of Gatlinburg’s oldest attractions on its main-drag “parkway” has been around for more than 40 years. It’s a bustling little amusement center, with loads of arcade games and a small-town “carnival” theme. But its main event is always what’s cookin’ through the front windows as you stroll past. It’s the home of the famous Ogle Dog (named for one of Gatlinburg’s first settler families), foot-long cornmeal weenie feasts that are cooked up street-level, right in front of your eyes. And it’s not an official walk through Gatlinburg unless you’re in range to smell the storefront grill sizzling with onions and peppers, the aromatic garnish for the cheesesteaks and sausage subs. Named for its founder, a former burlesque dancer, Fannie Farkle’s even has small mini-tables lining its outside wall, for standing and snacking on some of the town’s most distinctive dishes.

Ober Mountain

Until just recently, this longstanding alpine hub of activities (it opened in 1972, as transport up to winter skiing) was called Ober Gatlinburg. It’s been renamed in a wave of recent updates, but it’s still the only “tram ride” in town, lifting up to 120 passengers at a time high onto Mount Harrison, where there’s a mountain coaster, an alpine slide, downhill mountain biking, water tubing and snow tubing (in season), a year-round ice-skating rink, souvenir mall and a wildlife-habitat encounter offering up-close visits with bears, otters, foxes, falcons, wildcats and other rescued mountain critters. Then you can take a chairlift even further up the mountain, where the views are spectacular, the air is clean and crystal-clear, and the sounds of a live bluegrass band set the scene May through November. Ober’s restaurant and lounge were closed for renovation when I was there, but snacks elsewhere were plentiful—sandwiches from the Sidewalk Café (overlooking the ice-skating rink), sweets at the Fudge Shop and a selection of coffee and other beverages brewing at the Ski Mountain Grind House. And it’s the only place in town where you can eat, then watch North American river otters gulp down buckets of cut-up fish parts…otherwise unavailable at Ober, um, unless you’re an otter.