Tellico Village This Summer: Why 2026 Feels Different

For close to four years, one part of Tellico Village's daily rhythm has been missing.

On August 27, 2022, a fire started in the Tanasi Clubhouse kitchen and spread fast enough to make the building a total loss. No injuries, golf operations back the next day — but the clubhouse itself was gone. The building that had anchored social life on the Tanasi side of the Village since 1996, that had hosted 40,000 rounds of golf per year in dining and post-round conversation, was gone. Residents kept playing. The community kept moving. But anyone who used that building regularly felt the gap.

This summer, the gap closes. The Tanasi Clubhouse is reopening, and when it does, Tellico Village will be running its complete social circuit for the first time since before the fire. That's the actual news of this summer — not one new amenity, but the restoration of a three-part system that's been operating with a missing piece since 2022.

The Tanasi Clubhouse: What's Coming Back, and What's New

The Tellico Village Property Owners Association's own website now carries the banner: Coming this summer 2026. Construction on the $11.5 million replacement has been underway since December 2024, led by RTC General Contractors — the same firm that built the Toqua Clubhouse — and the scope of what's opening goes well beyond a like-for-like rebuild.

The new facility at 450 Club House Point in Loudon includes:

• Indoor and outdoor dining with significantly more seating than the original
• Private dining rooms for smaller events and gatherings
• Two golf simulators — a feature the original building never had
• Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Tellico Lake
• An expanded pro shop and meeting rooms
• Golf flex space designed for everything from small outings to large tournaments

Casey Flenniken, the Director of Golf Operations at Tanasi Golf Course, described the project as a chance to "capitalize on some of our weaknesses in the old building but also get some state-of-the-art opportunities within the new clubhouse." POA CEO Chet Pillsbury, who joined just after the 2022 fire and spent two years steering the rebuild process, confirmed the funding structure: $4.28 million from Tanasi insurance funds and $7 million from reserves, with the balance addressed through the planned sale of the temporary pro shop.

The design preserved what residents valued about the original — open layout, connection to the course — while adding the kind of lakeside dining view that the 1996 building never offered. For golfers who have been making do without a proper 19th hole at Tanasi, that detail matters more than the square footage.

The Complete Dining Circuit

With Tanasi back online, each of Tellico Village's three championship golf courses will have its own dining anchor operating simultaneously for the first time since 2022. Here's what the full picture looks like heading into summer:

The Yacht Club adds a fourth option with a different register. The Blue Heron Restaurant, situated inside the Tellico Village Yacht Club, runs a more formal dining experience — think Prime Rib, Grouper, and Butternut Ravioli — with lake-facing seating and event space for larger gatherings. For a weeknight dinner that doesn't feel like a clubhouse meal, it's the go-to.

Thai Bistro at Tellico Village and Lorenzo's Mexican Grille round out the options within easy reach of the Village for residents who want something outside the POA's dining umbrella.

The point isn't that the Village suddenly has more restaurants. It's that the specific gap between the Tanasi fire and the Toqua rebuild — years when the Village's busiest golf course was running 40,000 annual rounds without a proper dining room — is finally closed.

Wednesday Mornings at the Farmers Market

While the Tanasi Clubhouse was under construction, the Tellico Village Farmers Market kept its schedule without interruption. It runs every Wednesday, 9 a.m. to noon, behind the Welcome Center at 202 Chota Rd — open year-round, with the 2026 season confirmed from January 7 through December 16.

Summer is when the market earns its reputation. Current vendors include:

• Village Gnome — microgreens
• Turner Farms — eggs and seasonal vegetables
• EcoRich — hydroponic produce
• Days Critter Barn — goat's milk soap, lip balm, sugar scrubs, and bath fizzies made from the owners' own herd
• Chambers Custom Engraving — custom work on stone slabs, natural rocks, and wood, turned around in about a week

The full seasonal produce list runs deep: aquaponic greens, blueberries, peaches, sweet corn, tomatoes, okra, and on through fall. Artisan foods include baked goods, honey, hot sauce, jam, and preserves. For residents who treat Wednesday morning at the market as a standing appointment, the summer weeks are the best run of the year.

The market also functions as the kind of casual community check-in that a clubhouse dining room handles in the evenings. New residents often get their first introduction to the Village's network of clubs and organizations through vendors who have been regulars for years. The New Villagers Club, which helps newcomers find their footing through dining outings, golf days, cooking classes, and art classes, runs its own calendar of social events that overlaps naturally with the market crowd.

What This Summer Actually Means

Tellico Village has always had the infrastructure for a full social calendar: three golf courses, a yacht club, walking trails, a wellness center, a weekly farmers market, and a community of around 10,000 residents built across 4,800 acres of Tellico Lake frontage. What it has been missing since August 2022 is one key node in that network.

When the Tanasi Clubhouse opens this summer, residents on that side of the Village get back the after-round gathering point that has been absent for nearly four years. Golfers who have been driving to Toqua or skipping the post-round meal entirely regain the habit that makes a round feel complete. The private dining rooms give community groups a venue they haven't had on that side of the Village since the fire.

None of this requires a move or a real estate decision. It's just the Village becoming whole again — and for people who have been here through the gap, that's a meaningful summer regardless of what else is on the calendar.

If you have questions about life in Tellico Village or the surrounding East Tennessee corridor, Kathy May-Martin and the team at Coldwell Banker Jim Henry & Associates are here to help. Schedule Your Consultation and get straightforward answers from a broker who has worked this market for more than three decades.