Preservation Pub

The roof top bar was sooo cool. Affordable and nice enough bartenders. The decoration is the selling point for me. Tons of big crystals and cool (somehow) not cheesy fake trees. I would definitely make this a frequent haunt if this was my home town.

After being a semi-regular at Pres Pub for over 8 years now, I’ve grown such an affection for this spot to socialize, drink, dance, climb a shit ton of stairs, and smoke my squares on the specified floors. I’ve grown to be welcomed as a regular and greatly look forward to seeing my loyal and dedicated “regular” bartenders. I especially love how safe I feel going there by myself, as a riding-solo woman, at times, as many of the bartenders will check on me & ensure my well-being, most especially Lindsey Mullins and Brad Bryant. Thank you all for crafting my favourite environment in town here at the Pub.

**Preservation Pub: A Missed Opportunity for Locals** Note to owner: Consider how your policies impact the local crowd. Knoxville’s vibrant community deserves an inviting space, not a deterrent. With some thoughtfulness towards timing and pricing, Preservation Pub could easily transform from a disappointing experience into a beloved local haunt. Here’s hoping for a change As a local to downtown Knoxville, I had high hopes for Preservation Pub, but my recent visit left me disappointed, resulting in a frustrating one-star experience. Let’s start with what should be a welcoming vibe for the neighborhood: a $10 cover charge that kicks in two hours before the band even starts playing. While I appreciate the value of live music, charging this fee at 6 PM seems baffling. Many locals, myself included, often stop by right after work for a bite and a drink, especially on a weeknight. It seems like a missed opportunity to draw in more customers and foster a vibrant atmosphere before the music starts. Imagine the potential of a lively crowd enjoying good food and drinks, perhaps even getting a bit buzzed in anticipation of the night's entertainment. Instead, the hefty cover fee pushes people away when they could be a lively, supportive audience right from the get-go. It feels counterintuitive to charge an upfront fee when you could encourage locals to linger a bit longer. A simple tweak, like promoting no cover until the band takes the stage, could make all the difference. It could even alleviate the frustrating lines that form before the show, as dedicated patrons attempt to save on the cover charge while still wanting to enjoy the pub atmosphere. !

Nice little pub the band and rooftop was so nice. Drinks reasonably priced. Whoever the giant bouncer was I thank him completely shut down a situation with a man who wouldn’t leave my wife alone not to mention I saw him take multiple people out. Then as I was leaving he put someone on his shoulder and walked them to a car.

I just had my 21st birthday and this is the first time I came to this establishment @ Bernadette’s. I was recommended by some past friends about the vibe and bri. She helped guide me into what I should get and made this birthday awesome. She made me and my friends have an awesome time we will for sure be coming back.

Has to be one of the coolest bars I’ve been in anywhere the rooftop is amazing. Second floor bar best bartender. I’ve talked to in a long time.

The atmosphere is the peak of this place. Live bands, a mini arcade and clubbing dance floor, and of course the rooftop. This isn't a good place if you want to be calm; this is a more rowdy bar, meant to have fun at. Not for sad saps. Nice bartenders.

Preservation Pub has a good selection of drinks, and I appreciated that they let me smoke a cigar—that's a rarity, even in smoking bars, so that definitely stood out as a plus. That said, the service was a bit of a mixed bag. Our server was new and didn’t know a couple of the drinks I asked for. I get that everyone has to start somewhere, so no hard feelings there, but it would’ve been nice to see someone step in to help him out. If you're okay with a smoky atmosphere and want a laid-back spot with a solid drink list (and cigar-friendly vibes), this place might be your kind of scene.

Fantastic place to see live music or check out the rooftops while ordering a mouth watering pizza. One of the best places to hang out in Knoxville!

Great Service Professional Live Entertainment High Rise Beverages on Menu Rooftop Treehouse Bar

1) Don't leave your credit card with bartenders 2) Smoker bar with rude bartenders Don't start a tap because they keep credit cards. I heard fraud stories at this place and bartenders are ferocious and rude. It is a smoker bar even if there are "No Smoking" signs inside, they sell cigarettes right by the entrance. Old and stinky place. Only thing I liked was their nice roof top. 3 tiny bit brie cupcakes for $9. "Their Bruschetta" is just mini toasted bread pieces, tomato and mozzarella slices, $13. It wasn't looking good, I didn't want to eat it and I asked them if they can replace it with something else or refund my money. They said they can't do anything and they kept the food. One of the bartenders started arguing over my food and lecturing me about how the bruschetta should be done. She was aggressive. And the other one was trying to tame her.

I met a wall of cigarette smoke when I walked in to enjoy the food and drinks that others have highly reviewed; left the building before the door closed behind me.

Just a few items, Bathroom cleanliness (lack there of) Hospitality (bartender should be paying attention all guests and not just their friends that are hanging out) Other than those items I pretty much would say it is a decent "bar" but there are better experiences.

Drinks are made to perfection like no other Bar before! I enjoy the perfectionism when the sun goes down you see the glow of the sun sphere lighting up the night-fall with all the mood setting music, sun sphere lounge gets us moving, stars of the nights get to glow here.

The rooftop decor looked so inviting, we decided to head up after dinner across the street. It was a nearly silent Monday night, but we had to pay a $3 cover charge each - cash only. The ATM nearby had a $4 fee, so that was $10 before we even got to the super steep staircase through the smoking bar. The bar on the roof was horrible. The servers were apologetic that they couldn't make normal drinks like an Old Fashioned or a daiquiri or a margarita because those things "would cause ants." Their credit card machine was not working, so we had to pay cash. Their one frozen drink was meh, and their recommendation for a replacement for the Old Fashioned was not good. The drinks were served in tiny to-go cups at the cost of $16 before gratuities. The views were lovely, but the drinks were not! I will not return.

I just went here last week! It's really cool. I love how it has three different floors and they all have different themes. They food and service is awesome!

Stopped here for drinks after dining on Market Square. Rooftop bar has great views of the Square and a nice place to listen to the live music from the Square's stage. Frozen Margaritas were very good. Interesting collection decorating the area.

Fun place with three different floors, each with a full bar. They share a rooftop bar with Bernadette's next door. I loved the old school arcade games on the second floor and the eclectic decor.

We LOVED the downstairs bar, but the bartender at the rooftop was by far the rudest bartender I've ever met. She was nasty and judgmental to numerous customers. Unfortunately did not get her name.

Stopped here for cocktails and an app. Ordered the Quesadilla. So damn delish!! Our server Erica was friendly and attentive! Best place to people watch!!

One of the few spots in Knoxville with three different levels. I enjoy the atmosphere and they have food here as well. Service is pretty good.

Ordinarily I go to the "Pub" for drinks and entertainment, and then go eat at a local restaurant, but decided to eat pub food tonight. I ordered the tater tots and they were good but the amount of sauce that came with them was ridiculously small. The painters palette the tots and sauces come on is amusing, but again, sauce amounts are too small. Later I ordered the chips and queso and was served a stack of stale chips and a small (about 2oz) cup of cheese that quickly hardened back to its original solid form. I like to actually dip chips into a cheese sauce and not just wet an edge. The bottom line is don't waste your time and money eating Presentation Pub food unless you desire a disappointing experience.

First time going! Definitely recommend food was amazing! The workers were very helpful if we had any questions! The atmosphere was great with different music playing!

I'm so glad we stopped into this pub off the street of Market Square. We visited Knoxville for a day during our week long trip to Norris Lake from MN. This place caught our eye with the funky decor on the rooftop- white Japanese tree and the large flamingo. Really cool atmosphere inside and even cooler rooftop area! The misters kept us cool but not wet, and it was really fun to check out all the decor. Drinks were good and cheap and service was great!

I've been coming here for years and honestly I always wanna be on the roof but this night I'm glad I chose to venture the other floors. I decided to sit on the first floor with maguire and AnnGrace and I couldn't have been happier. Maguire knew his way around his cocktails, and had all the questions I had about any drinks. When we decided to move from the bar to a booth when my friends showed up AnnGrace (AG) was the first to hit our table asking if we needed anything and to let her know if we had questions. 10/10 would be back. As a fellow bartender, they hit every point spot on.

It is a pretty openly woke bar that allows smoking indoors. The smoking definitely reminds you of classic bars, but this place does have some problems. It is horrifyingly loud indoors and hard to talk with people. They often have live music which is very hit and miss. I have personally seen 1 or 2 bands play who were excellent, but I've seen a lot more who are not so. Also, one has to admit that the new sound guy often sucks at his job-Good luck hearing the vocals. That being said, sometimes he nails it. They also have a habit of kicking people out who are not drunk or offending people (I suspect they neither like veterans or conservatives), granted there are times when they kick out someone who's behavior warrants such action. But be warned they may kick you out-though you've seemingly done nothing wrong-and refuse to tell you why. That being said I have been there many times and find it an ok-ish place to drink beer or straight liquor, although you are likely to find some rather awful mixed drinks if you buy more than one. The food isn't particularly good or bad which is about what you'd expect out of a dive bar. It is also a dark dingy joint and there are many other places in the same area that would be a far better use of your time. Plus, a lot of homeless people come in to drink, but if that's your vibe you'll enjoy it!

This is a happening place in the downtown Knoxville area. Very pretty scenery and decor. The services slow though, for food. We went on a game night, so it's understandable, just wish they would have told us that before we ordered food. We needed up getting a refund after waiting 40mins for food that never came.

This is a good dive bar. Cheap drinks. Good service. Smokers can smoke on the ground level. You can get food, although I did not. Win, win, win.

Really cool place for music and a drink in the heart of downtown Knoxville. What really caught my attention was that they had a rooftop bar! This place has 3 floors: the first is smoking, the second is non smoking, and the 3rd is the rooftop. They have a decent selection of drinks to choose from and good happy hour specials. We were hungry so we split a small pizza along with our drinks. The pizza was so good!! The toppings were a unique combination but they worked so well together! I didn't try any of the other food but I highly recommend their pizza! We were a little confused upon entering since no one greeted us but when we went up to the second floor, the bartender there was so friendly! She was really helpful even when she was busy. We had a great time here overall. Good food, music, and vibes.

Not a bad little stop if you are in the mood for some live music. Smoky and pretty uncomfortable booths had us leave a little earlier than we would have wanted. I can see this place being fun on the weekend.

Don't go unless you are a smoker or just love to smell and smell like smoke. Otherwise, ok dive bar with bad wine and good beer.

Fun and friendly on Steroids!!!!! Ha!!!!! After leaving Suttree's, stop 3 on advice from Black horse tavern, This was the most Amazing Bar I've ever been to! Yes, another Gay Friendly Bar. But Dammit Man, you would have thought we were all related. Upstairs, the bartenders tripped over themselves to give us the best of service and welcome us to Knoxville. Drinks were well poured and the ambiance was electrifyingly on fire!!!!!!! )Reminiscent of early south beach scene just after Scarface!) O. M. G.!!!!! We had so much fun. We closed the evening with a "Ring of Fire" pizza. With pineapple to cool the fire within. If you like hot and Spicey with unforgettable flavor, this is the stuff. If God made anything better, She kept it to herself. I would consider flying back to Knoxville just to party here till closing and savour the out-of-this-world pizza. I cannot say enough about this place and the Amazing Staff!

Oh, Pres Pub. Back in your hay day, you were pretty damn cool. But back in your hay day, there really weren't a whole lot of cool places to hang. Knoxville has stepped up its game, and you've stayed the same. You're like Matthew McConehey's character in Dazed and Confused. You have some decent bands play, but you always have a cover....decent band or not. The smoking vibe is pretty intense. I've resolved to wear clothes that I don't really care about. The rooftop bar is amazing. It's beautifully decorated and the offers an amazing view of market square. But then again, your sister bar next door offers the same without the smoking. You're dingy and a little grimy, but truthfully I think I'd be kind of sad if you weren't.

Good pub sometimes live bands playing. Hey it is Tennessee! Friendly people and nice service. Beer is not as inexpensive as other places but ok. Nice location strip mall kind of thing, but preservation seems to be the one open late.

Honestly if I was able to give it negative stars I would. Just walked in to grab a drink with some friends on a Sunday afternoon. No one was at the door checking IDs so after waiting we started to walk up the stairs to check out the rooftop bar. We were then incoherently yelled at by a woman (hopefully extremely intoxicated, for her sake..) who then continued to yell at us while we tried to get our IDs out. The man who's job was to check them was way more interested in his obnoxiously intoxicated friend than us so we decided to walk out. As we we turned away she then kept screaming at us and both of them just laughed. Will never go back and will steer as many people as I can away from this terribly run establishment from now on. Shame such a fun place can be ruined by such terrible employees. July 7th 9pm. I was so appalled that I actually downloaded yelp to leave this review..

This place we went twice and it was really nice. Three levels which was awesome because we spent time on all three levels and it was nice. the food also gets a .

Food and drinks are good but this is happened at least twice where they take your card and someone will manually enter your card number a few days later. Credit card company said someone manually entered the card number and charged it a couple days later. This place commits credit card fraud.

A wacky and fun 3 story joint with a great dive bar feel! Be prepared to walk up 3 intense flights of stairs to get to the rooftop garden. However, the views of Market Square and downtown Knoxville are sooo worth it! We really enjoyed our drinks, on-tap beer and cheap mixed drinks! Excellent bar staff, though there was only one server for the rooftop area and it understandably took her a while to get to everyone and bring drinks up the stairs.

Good drinks. Amazing 'El Camino' quesadilla! Nice staff. Pretty clean, slight smoke smell. Usually has a $3 cover charge

While the second floor is listed as non smoking it reeks up here. Smoke rises! The food is mediocre at best. I won't come back. IF MY HAIR AND CLOTHES SMELL LIKE AN ASHTRAY IT'S NOT NON-SMOKING

We started to leave because it was a smoking bar, but they stopped us and wow, 2nd floor is non-smoking! Pros: Bartender, Erin is great! She is friendly, attentive and swift. 3 floors, 3 bars, smoking, non-smoking, and rooftop. Prices are good especially during happy hour. Good selection of pub grub. Interesting decor. Cons: Parking. My wife and I drove separately and both go a parking ticket. Seems we stayed a little longer than 2 hours. Not their fault but a bummer none the less. We will be back. Erin, it was great meeting you.

We were passing through Knoxville and stopped for a drink. Bouncers thought our id was fake and didn't serve us. Would probably suggest that the owners train their employees on what out of state id's look like. Would bet that isn't the first time they've turned away service from being uneducated.

Hip 3-story bar in the heart of Market Square which is the heart of Knoxville. Note: every hotel concierge and shop owner will recommend this spot to traveling guests new to the city. Rooftop bar is open during the summer season with some nice local beer options. As far as bar food goes, they make a nice pizza pie 14inch for like $16. Overall 3.5/5 popular rooftop bar with good beer selection and a nice pizza. Sometimes you can hear live music from the center of Market square

Preservation Pub is a solid bar right in the middle of Market Square. There are multiple levels and usually live music here. You can smoke in this bar as well downstairs in case you're adverse to that, be prepared for it or be ready to hide upstairs. They have a killer view from the rooftop as well, which makes this place such a win. Decent service and moderately priced drinks as well. Be warned, you have to be pay cover to get in as well.

The crisp autumn weather is perfect for the rooftop bar. Didn't stay long since there were too many people for me to be comfortable during this Covid time, but we sipped our drinks and enjoyed the weather and decor from a corner spot. Will come back on a different day too, when it's hopefully less crowded.

My band, out on tour, was told that we would be kicked out and not payed if we played loudly. The "entertainment manager" who was unapologetically telling us this (after we loaded in and set up, less than half an hour before set start time) had no idea he had booked a punk rock band and was un willing to compromise. "We ain't no punk rock club". Apparently "any loud music would make his patrons leave" and he would apparently blame us for this. This is a textbook "cheat a band out of money/gig" play. This was not the promoters fault, it falls on the "entertainment manager" who is bad at his job. He is also like a thousand years old so I'm not surprised he booked a punk rock show and had no idea that he had done so until the bands were about to play. ( Thankfully the promoter handled the situation like a PRO and got us paid for an impromptu "acoustic" thing. ) I also saw the bar manager letting people in through the back door, which of course cheats the bands out of cover money. Not a huge deal but still very unprofessional. Last nail in the coffin- this bar allows smoking indoors so everything reeks of stale smoke and get worse throughout the night. What year is it again? People still smoke inside restaurants?? Gross!

Was here last night to see some stand-up comedy, think they call it Underground Comedy, but it's basically an open mic, so it's hit or miss. The show is Sunday from 8-10pm so I encourage fellow Yelpers to come out and enjoy local Comedy. There's no cover, no two drink minimum, so this is a cheap date. The show was definitely blue, but the crowd was great, very generous with their laughter. Sat at the bar, they had pints for 3 bucks which was great. They do have a limited menu of pub grub, ordered the Mediterranean Chicken and was a bit disappointed with the lack of flavor. I like that this place supports local comedy, I'll be back to listen to More soon.

Smoky and rude staff. Payed the $5 cover charge for only 1 minute. Realized they allowed smoking gun inside and the rooftop bar was closed so we couldn't escape it. Wouldn't refund our cover charge. Bad experience and rid staff. I'd go somewhere else with a better vibe.

I'm not a huge fan of anywhere that makes you pay a cover. My girlfriends wanted to go here, so I followed along. The place is nice, fun and very young (college town). Multiple levels and I did see people ordering food. They had a band playing that was LOUD and not that great. Small dance floor and you are constantly being bumped into just walking through or standing in the back. The drinks are standard bar drinks. I always get beer. The bartender didn't have much of a personality. The bathrooms are large and writing everywhere. Not the cleanest but serves it purpose. Parking can be tricky sometimes too.

The live music is great and it's slightly cooler than a regular dive bar. The rooftop is awesome and unlike anything I've seen. However, it's a smoking bar so if you have asthma or don't like smelling like an ash tray, this isn't the place for you. I'm not sure the ventilation system is working well or something because the smoke, especially on the first floor, is really bad. If you want a similar scene without the smoking, go next door to Scruffy City.

A hipster eclectic vibe. $5 cover. 1st Floor has live band and you can smoke inside. 2nd Floor was a little quieter and had booths and a beer pong table. Small bar and hard to get served a drink. Home to the largest VEGAS bomb I've ever been served.

This will be a one and done for me. I came in today and got my ID checked. 30 years old with Gray in my beard and somehow I was denied because my license just expired. Although I have a license, that was a irrelevant. Keep in mind I had just come from two other locations within the past couple days that checked my ID with no issue.

Good place to hangout with good selection of snacks and local beer! Get there before 8pm if you want to avoid the crowd

Great dive bar. Cold beer with a large selection. Wine in a box? No thank you! We stuck to beers. Smoking downstairs and nonsmoking up. Dave the bartender upstairs was super cool. Band at 10 pm.

If you miss the 1990's when smoking was allowed in every bar, this is the place for you! Also, if you expect a band to show up, make sure to check the band's social media to make sure they will show up. The staff seems to have no clue which band will be playing and will simply nod and say "yeah man, they will be on soon" when the truth is, they will not be on soon.

Horrible experience. Smells like smoke and they allow smoking. Rooftop bar was closed and they didn't tell us. Waste of money for the $20 worth of cover charge.

Great 3 story bar with live music every night and a great drink selection. Bartenders were also incredibly friendly!