Episode 3809

- [Narrator] Tennessee Crossroads is made possible in part by

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- This week on Tennessee Crossroads, we'll dine on dreamy hotdogs, meet an artist who takes the gold in bronze, find a coffee shop with an Irish twist, and relive memories of American soul. Sounds like music to my ears. I'm Laura Faber, thanks for joining us. If you remember a popular TV series from the '60s starring a blonde genie, our first story will probably sound familiar. It has nothing to do with genies or lamps, but if you're looking for delicious hot dogs, you'll definitely get your wish, as Miranda Cohen explains.

- [Leslie] We are at I dream of Weenie in our brand new brick and mortar. We have been in existence for 17 years. We started back in 2007.

- [Miranda] The name is unforgettable.

- Order for Bret.

- [Miranda] A nod to a retro TV show about a genie in a bottle. And after nearly two decades, Leslie Allen has captured her own magic in a bottle in the form of a great hotdog stand.

- I think people find hot dogs to be a nostalgic thing. Everybody thinks about their childhood and picnics and fun times.

- [Miranda] What began as a quirky idea by the original owners turned into a longstanding roadside eatery in East Nashville.

- Hey guys, how's it going?

- [Miranda] And has recently transformed into this spacious and colorful brick and mortar on South 11th Street.

- Order for Jack.

- [Miranda] More space, more seating, and even air conditioning, but the whimsical menu and the hot dogs that made them famous are still the same.

- [Leslie] We grill all of our hot dogs over an open flame with wood smoke. To give them flavor, we use locally made artisan bun that's delivered fresh to us every day. We then make as many of our toppings in house as we can, and we really like to focus on a Southern inspired menus.

- It's just fun, it's just a lot of fun. It's good, it's very good. I mean, Leslie's kind of, she's a genius. She's sort of the Julia Childs of weenies, I guess.

- [Leslie] So we have pimento cheese, we have creamy Southern style slaw. We have Tennessee hot chow chow, which is something that usually is served on beans and greens and things like that, but it makes an excellent hot dog topping. We also steam our hot dog buns, which is a little bit different treatment. We find that steaming em makes 'em just soft and delicious. We think that the bun is just as important a part of the hot dog as anything, 'cause it's like the first thing that hits your mouth.

- [Miranda] And like all really good restaurants, the regulars know there is a secret menu.

- Now, there is a favorite, which is not on the menu, but secret menu item, and if you come, you should get it. It's called the Hot Southern Mess. It's a hot dog with, let's see, it has pimento cheese and coleslaw and chow chow on it, and it's highly recommended.

- I ended up getting the Flaming Frank. That's a hot dog with spicy salsa, chili, cheese, and jalapenos and mustard.

- [Miranda] How was it?

- [Customer] It was fantastic.

- For anyone who has visited I Dream of Weenie for the past 17 years, you know they have an iconic mustard yellow bus right outside. Well, when they moved to their own brick and mortar, the bus made the trip. The 1971 VW bus is still here.

- [Leslie] We wanted to make sure that we stayed true to our roots and make sure that we honored where we came from, and so we brought the Volkswagen with us. Had to get redesigned a little bit to fit on our patio, but it's out there for a fun picnic area and photo op that people love, have always enjoyed take taking photos in front of I Dream of Weenie.

- [Miranda] A modern fryer has been added to the kitchen, so french fries, fried green tomatoes, and even corn dogs have been added to the menu. And even wearable weenies, hair clips, handbags, and Legos, of course, all hot dog themed.

- [Leslie] Well, we really leaned into some hot dog merch because it's just so much fun.

- [Miranda] I Dream of Weenie also serves the vegan, vegetarian, gluten, and dairy-free options as well.

- You know, the hot dogs are great. They're all beef hot dogs, but it's not about the hot dogs, it's about the creations that Leslie makes, and the hot dog in the bun is just a vehicle to get Leslie's pimento cheese or her chili or her mac and cheese or her slaw.

- Oh, it's always wonderful. She has a new spin on hot dogs, and she can create different toppings, so every day can be a little bit different.

- [Miranda] Leslie Allen says the support of the East Nashville community has been beyond her wildest dreams, and she hopes the magic will continue.

- [Leslie] I do want I Dream of Weenie to be in the community always, because I think it is something that is unique. I can't take credit for the idea, but I can be proud of the fact that we have kept it going through some very challenging years, and come out on the other side in we hope a new and exciting way. And this was such a leap of faith to buy a food truck that operated out of a VW bus, and it really took a lot of soul-searching, but it's one of those things that once I did it, it absolutely was the best decision I've ever made.

- Traditional artists say there is nothing more satisfying than making something with their hands, completely from scratch. Next, we meet a Cookeville artist who is doing just that in multiple mediums. Chances are you've seen her amazing work and thought, how did she do that? There are many tools in an artist's studio, and in Cookeville, Tennessee, Cindy Billingsley uses them all, whether painting one of her exquisite wildlife portraits or molding and sculpting clay.

- I sold portraits in high school. I was probably known in high school for the one always dragging art around, because I always had something in my hand. Portraits was my main focus for probably 15 years or more.

- [Laura] Cindy's work can be found all across Tennessee. Her murals and sculptures are inside the children's section in the Brentwood Library. As a student of fine art and illustration, portraits and wildlife have always been a passion. But her interest in sculpture piqued after seeing an exhibit of French sculptor, Auguste Rodin.

- [Cindy] When I saw a Rodan exhibit and then they had Camille Claudel, which was kind of his assistant, you know, and they had part of her, you know, something just clicked and I just wanted to sculpt. And so I started learning on my own, picking up books and stuff and what clay I could find. And then they had a head class I took at Watkins School of Art there, and then that's when Alan LeQuire was teaching the class. And then I kept pestering him, don't you want an apprentice? Don't you want an apprentice?

- [Laura] Of course, LeQuire is a master sculptor in Nashville whose work includes "Athena" at the Parthenon and "Musica" on Music Row.

- [Cindy] He never had a female apprentice, so it took me a long time to talk him into it.

- Cindy learned every step of sculpting, including the art of casting, a 7,000 year old complex process used to take a sculpture from clay to a mold which then can be bronzed. All of Cindy's life-size sculptures consist of hundreds of hours of work, and they all start on a smaller scale called a maquette. This is her "Suffragist" sculpture that she's working on now. This is the bronze lion that sits now in front of the Brentwood Police Department. And this will be a seven foot eagle that will hang on the memorial wall at the Cookeville Police Department.

- So for a seven foot eagle, I've gotta put all the feathers in the right, I've gotta know all the interior feathers of the wings. I gotta know how the wings work. I gotta know how the heads and the talons work. So I have to do all the bird research on that end before I even, you know, start the large sculpture.

- [Laura] The maquettes allow Cindy to troubleshoot and calculate the scale she needs to get to the life size version. But it's when Cindy can combine painting and sculpture and a social issue that she is most fulfilled.

- [Cindy] To me, it's like speaking in two different languages. I can have an idea and I might be able to relay it better in painting as a narrative, or I might want you to come up close and have something to touch and feel like a sculpture.

- [Laura] For instance, she had a very personal connection to an exhibit on Alzheimer's disease.

- [Cindy] My whole life, Mom was my biggest supporter, and I probably wouldn't have been able to be an artist if it wasn't for Mom's support. So when she got Alzheimer's and she was losing her voice, art was a way I could give her voice back to her. Plus it was a place for me to put my emotions of, you know, 'cause you're watching your mom disappear day after day.

- [Leslie] Her sculptures are incredibly detailed. Her wildlife portraits look like photographs, like this painting of "George," a bison from a nearby ranch in Cookeville, or these bees, one of my favorites.

- [Cindy] Art's how I make a living. I feel extremely lucky. Yeah, it's the only thing I ever wanted to do.

- Whether by the stroke of a brush or molding a block of clay with her hands, Cindy Billingsley is a true talent. Now we head to Tullahoma for a little Celtic cuisine. Joe Elmore found this story about a couple whose trips to Ireland and Scotland inspired them to open the gathering spot of their dreams.

- [Joe] The Emerald Isle of Ireland is far away from the town of Tullahoma, Tennessee, yet after you discovered flags flying on this restored 1920s Craftsman home, it might feel a whole lot closer. Inside the Celtic Cup, the decor is reminiscent of a 19th century pub. The food and drink are genuine, and the mood is friendly. The proud owners, Chris and Denise Smith, opened the place when Chris retired from the military while stationed at Arnold Air Force Base. At the time, their sights were simply on a traditional coffee shop.

- We've had a lot of different military assignments, and one of the things that we would do is try to find a local coffee house at our new assignment, right? 'Cause that's kind of the hub. You get the feel of the community that way. And when we came here at Tullahoma, we started looking around. It was like, where's a coffee house? There wasn't one, and so in the back of our mind all this time, we had this idea that Tullahoma needs a coffee house.

- [Joe] Well, not just any coffee shop. This place needed a special identity, a theme, if you will.

- [Chris] We tried different themes. We had one-

- [Denise] We were just kind of brainstorming it all.

- One, it was a '50s diner, you know, with black and white tile and that kind of stuff. But I think this fits us much better. We tied the Celtic with a coffee house, and people are like, "Well, Celts don't drink coffee or didn't drink coffee," but you're missing the point. This is kind of modeled after a Irish pub.

- [Joe] The Celtic Cup has enjoyed a dedicated local following and a growing number of out-of-town visitors. After you take in the warm, pub-like feel of the place, well, you can enjoy a proper cup of tea or a coffee just about any way you want it, even with a little bit of extra Irish spirit. Now, some people just come for the scones and other pastries or a taste of Italy from the gelato bar. On the menu, though, you'll find a selection of authentically made Celtic lunch favorites.

- [Denise] We have Scotch eggs, dragon eggs.

- [Chris] A dragon egg is a spicy version of a Scotch egg. If you don't know what the Scotch egg is, you take a boiled egg, you wrap it in sausage, and then we bake ours off.

- [Joe] Denise also makes a tasty Irish version of Welsh rarebit.

- The cheese sauce that I make has 4-year-old aged Irish cheddar in it and about five types of mustard, and then, so that's the sauce, and then we put Irish Dubliner cheese on that, and then the rasher. If you're not familiar with a rasher, it's Irish back bacon. And then we put tomatoes on it and then more cheese, and then you toast it. And so we built our Celtic menu over time, making sure that we did it right. When we went to Ireland and we went to Scotland, and we tasted the foods and we talked to the locals, and then you find people who have been there who know it, you know, a local Scotsman or an Irishman who can authenticate it for you and say, "Yeah, that's just like Grandmother made." We have some wonderful staff, and their heart is into the business, and they work hard and they love what they do, and I think we have a great relationship with them.

- [Joe] Once a week, the upstairs dining room is occupied by the Highland Rim Tatters. Now, tattering is a technique for handcrafting durable lace from a series of knots and loops.

- Tatting is more of what's considered a new lace. It's only been around for a couple hundred years.

- [Joe] For a truly decadent treat, there's always the old Irish tradition of afternoon tea, complete with finger sandwiches, scones, cakes, and fruit. And after all this, it seems like a traditional nap might be in order. The Smiths moved around a lot during Chris's military career.

- Well, thank you, thanks for coming in.

- Love your place.

- [Joe] But they found a true home here in Tullahoma, a place where together they can pursue a Celtic American dream.

- And it's taken us 14 years to get to this point, but yeah, we're really having a blast right now. We've had folks come in here and they see the place and they go, "Wow, could you open a place like this in LA or San Francisco or Chicago or even New York?" We've had some folks from New York. Oh my God, no, no, this is the one of a kind.

- Tennessee has such a rich musical history, and no city plays a more important role in that history than Memphis. Of course, Sun Studios was the birthplace of rock and roll, but Stax Records had soul. Danielle Allen takes us down memory lane with a visit to the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. ♪ These arms of mine, they are lonely ♪

- [Danielle] From the unmistakable voice of Otis Redding. ♪ Who is the man that would risk his neck ♪ ♪ For his brother man ♪ ♪ Shaft ♪ ♪ Can you dig it ♪

- [Danielle] To the undeniable funk of Isaac Hayes, Stax Records played a short but vital role in soul music. What started as a small record company ran by a brother and sister duo in the 50s grew into a distinctive sound recognized around the world. This was where unknown artists became stars, and their songs defined an era. Although it's been decades since the records were recorded, their music plays on.

- Memphis is still an active, vibrant music community. It's everywhere, and so I think that's one of the things that we try to do here at the museum, is not just talk about what's in the past, but also what's happening now too.

- [Danielle] Jeff Kollath is the executive director of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. It opened in 2003, and sits at the original location of Stax Records. When visitors go inside, they'll find a collection of more than 2,000 artifacts and exhibits outlining the history of soul music.

- [Jeff] Much of what we have on display is permanent. It's a part of our permanent exhibition. It's been here since the museum opened in 2003, but we do change things out occasionally. Because of our small staff size, we're not an active collecting organization nearly as much as we would like to be or should be. Hopefully, that will change soon. But we're able to change some things out here and there and put out some new things. But really what we're doing is trying to, with the permanent exhibition, anything we bring in that's new or different is really just further enhancement of the story, maybe tell the Stax story in a little bit different way. The Stax story is so broad, there's so much there, and you know, for what we do in our exhibition here, we do a great job telling not, I guess I wouldn't say one version of the story, but several stories within there. But there are many more to tell.

- [Danielle] Those stories are told through elaborate stage outfits, music awards, and pictures that take you back in time. Many of those images highlight how Stax Records broke the mold in music and society.

- Stax is unique for, you know, a lot of reasons, but of course, the one that's part of our real core story is that this was an integrated workplace at a time when segregation was rampant here in Memphis, Tennessee and throughout the South. Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, you know, created, made a very intentional decision to create Stax Records and to run Stax Records in the way that they did, and they're heroes for that.

- [Danielle] Now, if you want to get a visual of the impact of Stax Records, take a stroll down this hallway. This is the Hall of Fame of Records, which represents all the music released from 1957 until 1975. That includes about 280 LPs and 900 singles from performers like Sam and Dave, Rufus Thomas, and the Staple Singers. And many of the people on these walls combine different styles of music to create that Stax sound.

- [Jeff] Something that we're all pretty passionate about here is that Memphis music is the genre. There are not genres within Memphis music. Everybody knew everybody. Most everybody could play different types of music. Isaac Hayes was as inspired by the Grand Ole Opry as he was by gospel music growing up. I mean, it's a pretty remarkable thing to be able to put all of that together and to create that Memphis sound.

- [Danielle] Speaking of Isaac Hayes, he's one musician you'll see a lot of here. There are several items pertaining to the entertainer, however, one in particular drives a lot of traffic in the museum.

- [Jeff] '72 custom Cadillac, peacock blue, 24 karat gold plating and accessories, white fur carpet or faux fur in the interior, which I'm from the north, that would not work in the north. It gets pretty slushy up there. But TV in the front seat, refrigerator and bar in the back. I mean, it's a remarkable piece.

- [Danielle] This unforgettable car is a conversation starter among older visitors who remember seeing it around town. And for students taking their first drive through Stax memory lane, it's one of the many ways the museum engages a younger generation.

- [Jeff] Really diving deep into the biographies of the performers and the people that worked here, it's very impactful. So many of them are kids from South Memphis, and we get a lot of school groups that come from the elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools within, you know, five, 10 miles of us. So I think those stories, you know, personal stories really work well, and I think just engaging them in a level that we really haven't done before. We have a new educator that started last year. She's completely revamped our school tour program. We've seen more school tours this year than we ever have before.

- [Danielle] The museum isn't the only one working to get the attention of youngsters.

- I came because I saw a lot of things that I would like for my grandchildren to see. I would like to take pictures and let 'em know how it used to be and what a reel to reel is, you know, what a dialtone telephone is, the old stuff, even those little Coke bottles over there. That's what I wanted them to see, and plus I wanted to like reminisce.

- [Danielle] There's definitely a lot of reminiscing at the Stax Museum, but this is also a historical place that embraces the future. ♪ Squeeze her, don't tease her ♪ ♪ Never leave her ♪ ♪ You got to love her, ha ha, heh heh ♪ ♪ Try a little tenderness ♪

- [Danielle] The museum is part of the Soulsville Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization that enriches the lives of young people through the Stax Music Academy and the Soulsville Charter School. With the work of the museum and the schools, they're keeping the spirit of Stax Records alive, one note at a time.

- [Jeff] We want to be, just like the record company, we want our doors to be as open as possible, and we want people to come in and experience the story. And especially in here in Memphis, it's important, we think it's important that Memphians know this story and be proud of this story, 'cause it's, again, it only could have happened here, and it only happened.

- I got to go, y'all, and I don't wanna go.

- Thanks, Danielle. Well, that'll do it for this week, but please visit tennesseecrossroads.org for more stories, and download the PBS app while you're there. Until next time, thanks for tuning in, and take care.

- [Narrator] Tennessee Crossroads is made possible in part by.

- [Announcer] Students across Tennessee have benefited from over seven and a half billion dollars we've raised for education, providing more than 2 million scholarships and grants. The Tennessee Lottery, game-changing, life-changing fun.

- [Narrator] Discover Tennessee Trails & Byways. Discover Tennessee's adventure, cuisine, history, and more made in Tennessee experiences, showcased among these 16 driving trails. More at TNTrailsAndByways.com.

- [Announcer] Middle Tennessee State University College of Liberal Arts helps students explore the world, engage minds, enrich lives, and earn a living. More at mtsu.edu/cla.

- [Narrator] Amazon, a proud supporter of programming on public television. Amazon focuses on building long-term programs that have a lasting impact in communities where employees live and work. More at aboutamazon.com.