High above a sweeping bend of the Tennessee River, a new restaurant is trying to match the drama of the view outside its windows. Riverdance, a 13,000-square-foot, 707-seat restaurant and private event center perched on a mountain bluff in Marion County, is opening as the glittering centerpiece of the 7,500-acre River Gorge Ranch development outside Chattanooga.
For developer John “Thunder” Thornton, who has built high-end projects from Hawaii to Wyoming, this one feels different.
“I bought the greatest piece of land I’ve ever owned in my life,” he said.
River Gorge Ranch sits roughly 2,000 feet above the Tennessee River and less than 20 minutes from downtown Chattanooga. Thornton talks about the setting less like a developer and more like a caretaker of something rare.
“God spent a long time building this mountain, right here,” said Thornton. “I love this land — 7,500 acres of mature trees, creeks, ponds and waterfalls — all overlooking what we call the Grand Canyon of Tennessee.”
Riverdance is designed to be the social and visual anchor for that landscape. Thornton said the $20 million project was driven more by vision than spreadsheets.
“We didn’t have a budget for Riverdance, but if we did, we broke it,” he said, describing his commitment to creating a one-of-a-kind experience for both property owners and diners who make the drive up the bluff.
The broader community is already taking shape. Of the 2,200 planned homesites at River Gorge Ranch, more than 700 have been sold.
Dane Bradshaw, president of Thunder Enterprises, said the response is “remarkable and reflects the enduring demand for quality rural developments with urban access.”
“We are finding our residents are looking for seclusion without isolation and they are attracted to this spectacular land, views and community,” he said.
Among those residents is CBS Sports announcer Jim Nantz, who owns a 1.44-acre lot overlooking the river. The private dining room at Riverdance reserved for River Gorge Ranch property owners carries a name borrowed from his famous on-air greeting: “Hello Friends.”
“I look back on my childhood. It was so rich in what were truly just such simple pleasures. And I long to have a bit of that normal back. Well, I found it. That is exactly why I am so proud to have a home here,” Nantz said during a recent visit to survey his lot.
The restaurant’s showpiece is a work of art that literally runs through the middle of the building. A glowing installation called The Dance traces a stylized Tennessee River along the floor of the central breezeway, turning the approach to the dining room into its own attraction.
The idea came from the Jackson Hole airport in Wyoming, where a similar work depicting the Snake River has caught Thornton’s eye during more than 40 years of family trips. He sought out the same artist, Bland Hoke, to create a Tennessee-focused counterpart.
Hoke, who apprenticed under his father of the same name, said he wanted the piece to do more than simply map a river.
He designed Dance hoping to “amplify the allure of coming to the restaurant and create a place-making piece that made the river dance.”
Bringing that vision to life required significant craftsmanship. Skilled masons cut the work from 15 tons of material, drilling roughly 4,000 holes to build out the design. The installation represents 43 miles of the Tennessee River, from Chickamauga Dam to Nickajack Dam, and marks 28 landmarks along the way.
Specialty LED technology from an Australian supplier brings the river to life under acrylic flooring, backed by a custom humidifier system to keep condensation from clouding the view.
“I wanted to integrate Dance’s visual effects to be in tune with the timing of nature, so it modulates in sync with the day as it moves from dawn to dusk to sunset,” said lighting designer Dan Samford, whom Hoke recruited to create and program the display.
Behind the scenes, a sophisticated control system allows staff to shift color palettes and even sync the “river” to the beat of a song so it appears to “dance” in time with the music.
Thornton has already staked a claim on how the artwork will look on fall Saturdays. The life-long University of Tennessee fan decreed that Dance’s water will be set to bright Tennessee orange for all future UT game days.
Riverdance is expected to open to the public by the end of December. Operations will be handled by SquareOne, a hospitality group known for restaurant and brewery concepts across the Southeast.
The menu is built around made-from-scratch dishes and premium ingredients, with a focus on locally sourced breads, custom-aged Midwestern hand-cut steaks and artisanal pizzas. An extensive wine list will be paired with house-brewed craft beers produced on-site in a six-tank brewery visible from the dining spaces.
With Riverdance, Thornton is betting that an ambitious restaurant with a glowing river underfoot and a bluff-top view will be a place not just for River Gorge Ranch residents to dine, but a place people will drive up the mountain to experience. You can see more information about the project at: www.rivergorge.com.
