Grill 73

From WBIR Channel 10 News (NBC) interview. Watch their video Newport is in the heart of East Tennessee where southern cooking is a staple. A restaurant there has an unusual menu and is owned by people with an unusual past. Every time I come in here I get somethingdifferent, Newport Resident Jim Shelton said. One recent afternoon Martha and Jim Shelton devoured dishes at Grill 73. I started off with borsch and then a pastry dessert. I have trouble pronouncing it but I can eat it much better than I can pronounce it, he said. Valentina Ryzhkov said, We do not want to sell what we want. We just want to sell what the people like. Valentina and Alex Ryzhkov offer American food and their native Russian dishes at their restaurant on Highway 73, called Grill 73. People are always going to eat whatever happens. So we decided to open a restaurant, Alex said. Valentina said, We do not buy anything, any frozen food except of course french fries because we have no time to make ourselves. Their time goes to preparing burgers, sandwiches, pork loin, and more. Pirozhki. But actually if you want to pronounce it correct its pirozhki. And of course the traditional borsch, And the potato pie and plouff and cabbage roll we call this in Russian galapse, Valentina said. Before coming to Cocke County, Valentina and Alex Ryzhkov traveled the world for 30 years as circus performers. I did acrobatics. I did trapeze. I did plates spinning and what else. Magic, Alex said. Yes, they were trapeze artists and then show managers. As you get older and older its not fun anymore to travel back and forth back and forth, she said. Enough is enough. We were so tired so we decided to build something for our life. So we finally found this place. The place was a grocery store and filling station. For three years they fixed the exterior, landscaped, and added custom woodwork and stone. Its just amazing what he can do with a piece of wood and I found out now with stone