Episode 3811

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- [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.

- This week, we'll take you on a spicy trip to White Bluff. Explore the history of Sumner County, satisfy your sweet tooth in Lynnville and check it into an old bank that's now a beautiful hotel in Linden. Glad you could join us. I'm Vicki Yates. Welcome to "Tennessee Crossroads." For nearly a century, a dynamic duo has graced America's dinner table. Salt and pepper shakers were invented in 1858 by John Mason, the same man who gave us the mason jar. Coming up in our first story, Miranda Cohen travels to White Bluff to visit a unique eatery that is putting our favorite spices front and center.

- [Miranda] Salt and pepper. What's not to love about America's favorite seasonings? These kitchen mainstays may sound simple, but they have been adding a dash of flavor to our food for more than a century. And when Chuck and Candy Rota wanted to open a home style southern kitchen, the name seemed obvious, The Salt and Pepper Grill.

- And then one day, I am thinking of all the stuff that we have to buy to open a restaurant. And there was two things that really crossed my mind. "Oh my goodness, we gotta remember those salt and pepper shakers."

- [Miranda] In fact, decorating with this famous duo started during the Great Depression and really took off during the 1960s. And what started as a quirky idea has grown into an enormous collection.

- Hey, we'll just put all salt and pepper shakers out everywhere. And then immediately, customers started going, "Hey, we were on vacation, we saw this, we thought about you. Here's a set." "Hey, my aunt died. She collected salt and pepper shakers. Here's a box if you want to go through them."

- Here at the Salt and Pepper Grill, You can look along the walls and see a huge collection of salt and pepper shakers. All are different, but at each table, they feature some of Chuck's favorites, like these fishing bobbers, even these little carrots. Every table has their own unique set.

- And you know, my wife's all about getting them on the table and I'm all about, "Hey, these were a gift. Hey, these were somebody's ants. They go up on the shelf so nobody can get to them." And then I see them rotated down, you know, and they love it. I mean, you know, we have things like fishing bobbers, you know, the red and white bobbers. We have shotgun shells that are salt and pepper shakers. We have aliens, we have Spock and Captain Kirk, you name it, they've been through here. So they love it.

- [Miranda] Chuck and Candy are quite the dynamic duo themselves. No strangers to the restaurant industry. The natives of Lewisburg and Centerville wanted to bring good Southern made from scratch food to White Bluff.

- Chuck is the... He is the one out front that runs. He knows everybody's names, he knows their kids now, he knows, he just knows it. And, you know, we're just a good tag team. I run the back, he handles the front and everybody's just so sweet and so supportive.

- [Miranda] And while it is Chuck who never met a stranger, only friends he hasn't met yet, as he likes to say, he is quick to credit his wife for their vast and varying menu of delicious southern fare.

- And then my wife kept pushing me, "Hey, we've gotta improve this menu." And she's like, "We've gotta take it up a little bit, you know?" So she brought in the salmon, the lasagna, you know, pork chop, Alfredo, she kept pushing to, and she still is pushing to improve it and take it up. The Alfredo's a favorite. They love our salads, they love our cob. And we do a mixed green with like iceberg and green leaf, and we chop into a little smaller. It's easier to eat. We smoke meat on Mondays. We do a pulled pork and some ribs, and we smoke some wings. And then all the white beans, turnip green, green beans, we do a skillet corn. That's a mix of corn and some other things. Mac and cheese. We're pretty much a scratch kitchen, just about everything's made here.

- [Miranda] And the Rotas have discovered barbecue is not the only hot topic of southern culinary debate.

- It triggers something for them. You know, and meatloaf's a sensitive item because you're competing with mom's meatloaf or grandma's meatloaf. And I like ours because it's middle of America, right down the center of America with just a slight twist to it. And I would say percent of people really enjoy it.

- [Miranda] Their southern style meatloaf is a fan favorite. A close second might be their classic meat and threes, or their hand padded and cooked to order burger.

- The hamburger's always a classic. And you can dress up as much as you want, but I learned the best hamburger is you know, just cheese and ketchup and mayonnaise. But either way, it's just fresh. It's hand patted, you know?

- Oh, I get cob salad, I get the meatloaf. I love the meatloaf. I've had the steak, I've had the chicken Alfredo is wonderful. The roast beef is one. Everything I've eaten here is good and it's a lot.

- [Candy] So our cooks are phenomenal. They get back there and they bust it all day. And they're the ones cooking the meatloaf every morning. They're the ones chopping the fresh salad every day. They're the ones doing everything we need done to make sure that when the customers come in, we're on point.

- [Miranda] The whimsical salt and pepper shakers may draw you in and you really can look at them for hours. But the homemade dishes with a pinch of something special will bring you back. A fun collection that has captured the attentions of diners and added a dash of deliciousness to the community

- Just to produce good food and have a place to work for some people and the locals have some place they can kinda call home and know who it is.

- Thanks, Miranda. Back in 2020, a nonprofit was formed in Sumner County to oversee three important landmarks. Historic Castalian Springs' mission is to preserve and perpetuate three unique home museums. Joe Elmore paid a visit to discover how each offers its own special glimpse into the past.

- [Tonya] When we look at Cragfont, it is the kind of very pinnacle of wealth in this area. When we look at Wynnewood, this is both a family home and a business. So it's kind of different. And then Hawthorne is very much a middle class home. So what many people could have aspired to?

- [Joe] Three unique sites, three compelling stories. One historic community. Now called Historic Castalian Springs. Tonya Staggs serves as executive director.

- There's a link there with the family, but also all of these sites are very important to this community and the founding of this community.

- The oldest of the historic home trio is Cragfont, completed in 1802 by owners James and Susan Winchester. Certainly one of the finest homes in Tennessee until the frontier moved further west. Much of the furniture crafted in Baltimore by a nephew of Winchesters. He likely learned his craft from British artisans up east. It's a reminder that fine furnishings were obtainable even in the wild frontier, for a price. Wynnewood, completed in 1830, was once the largest log structure in the state of Tennessee. It was built by Alfred Wynne, who was a merchant, a local tobacco farmer, slave trader, and father of 14 kids. Oh, and along with his wife, an innkeeper. Almira Wynn was the daughter of Cragfont owner James Winchester. The Couple's Resort Inn was on a major thoroughfare coming into what was then the western frontier. It was also built to attract visitors to the so-called curative sulfur springs. This historic spring house is a lasting reminder of a time when people came from several states to seek the cure. Catie Latham not only conducts tours here, she conducts ongoing research into this piece of architectural history.

- It's open as a resort two separate times entirely. This first era is summer 1830 to about the start of the Civil War. And that focuses really on the medicinal benefits of the sulfur water, those healing properties that it was thought to have.

- [Joe] You have to wonder, how did the winds manage to raise 14 kids here and still entertain a steady flow of in guest?

- [Catie] That's one of the things we're still figuring out about the building, is how they managed to operate both a family home and a business at the same time. And it seems to change. We have evidence throughout the building of literal walls being moved and layouts changing since we have some rooms that we currently have set up as family, some as guests. And we try to just reflect both of those to the best that we can with what we know.

- [Joe] The resort business was paused after the outbreak of the Civil War, and it didn't restart again until 1899 when the remaining wind daughters leased it to an outside manager. 20 summer cottages were built on a hill behind the inn with one still remaining. There was even a dance pavilion in bowling alley. Then in 1914, the winds closed the end and focused on farming. The State of Tennessee bought it in 1970.

- [Catie] We have some pieces in here that are original to this house specifically. A lot of the books here behind me are original to Wynnewood. The parlor table right here, and the mirror and the fire back are original to both Cragfont as well as Wynnewood. Myra Winchester Wynne actually inherits those and brings them here. And then some pieces are just period and not original to this house.

- [Joe] Catie says visitors reactions vary. However surprised is a word often heard.

- [Catie] It's not what they're expecting. When you pull up and see a giant log building. And so it's really amazing to see people kind of learn and put these pieces together. We talk about resort, we talk about slavery, we talk about the family, like it's just such a complicated building and we just always hope someone that people come away from this learning something about that.

- [Joe] By the way, a ferocious tornado tore through Wynnewood in 2008, leaving behind structural damage and old fallen trees. Fortunately, after a lot of work and expense, the grounds and buildings are now intact. Down the roads, it's the third historic home of the trio, Hawthorne Hill. It's a brick federal house, distinctive in more ways than one.

- [Catie] It's preserved but not restored. So it's not gonna fall in it's taken care of. But when you go inside, you're really seeing the original finishes. It's almost like going into an abandoned home that's sort of frozen in time. We don't have it furnished. So it's very different than your traditional historic house museum experience.

- [Joe] Here's an interesting fact. Its original owner, Dr. Humphrey Bate was leader of the Possum Hunters, starred on the Grand Ole Opry.

- He was born there, supposedly taught to play harmonica by a formerly enslaved man.

- [Joe] While Hawthorne is only open to visitors one Saturday a month, guided tours of Cragfont and Wynnewood are available from Thursday through Sunday. If you go, you'll be transported into the lives of the Winchesters, the Wynnes, and others who shared a fascinating history here, creating stories that are still being uncovered.

- We are finding all kinds of things about the sites. And so uncovering that history and being able to share it with the public is really the most exciting thing.

- If you grew up in the south, there's a good chance you've enjoyed a fried pie, a true southern delicacy. Laura Faber traveled to Giles County and met a couple, making these sweet treats. The delicious, good old fashioned way.

- About 60 miles south of Nashville sits the quaint little town of Lynnville, Tennessee in Giles County. 59 homes and businesses sit on the historic register here. We came to town today to check out one business that's making some history of its own by frying up pies. Think fruit filling or other sweetness wrapped in dough, similar to a pie crust and deep fried, add a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream. And you've got a bowl full of nostalgia. Lynnville fried pies has been serving up sweetness since 2014. Chuck and Patty Nicks are the owners. Okay, so who's the baker? Were any of you bakers?

- No.

- [Laura] Like Chuck, were you a secret baker in your life in California?

- No, never. Never.

- And he still isn't.

- It really started about the building. It was grandma's market and we tore everything-

- Redid it.

- [Chuck] Out of the place and redid everything. And we stood back and looked at it and said, "That looks pretty good."

- [Patty] And now what are we gonna do?

- [Chuck] What are we gonna do with it now?

- [Laura] Chuck is originally from Tennessee and remembers eating fried pies as a boy. Patty, who is from California, had never heard of them before.

- A fried pie is definitely a southern delicacy, or a southern dessert I should say. And like Chuck says, he remembers being a kid and buying a fried pie and stick it in his pocket and carrying it around all day. And so it got squished but they eat them in, you know, so we like to sell them fresh. It's also sometimes called a hand pie. And it's about, they're about so big and they're made from a circle. So, and they're closed and crimped in with a filling inside. And it's a pastry dough. When we fry it, the pastry is like a, I mean it's a pie pastry. And it puffs up and it is flaky and it has a flavored filling inside. And we have nine flavors that we make and-

- [Chuck] These are all fruit flavors.

- [Patty] They're fruit flavors, they're all sweet.

- [Laura] Everything here at the Lynnville Fried Pie Company is homemade. The dough and the fillings. Chuck and Patty sell nine different flavors.

- [Speaker] The dough is very important.

- [Laura] 650 to 800 pies are made every day. They are built in stages, cut into circles first, then filled.

- Each filling has a different amount of scoop in it.

- [Laura] The perfect crimped edges come from a hand cranked machine, then they are carefully fried to a golden brown.

- We need to let those cool a little bit before we put them up front.

- [Laura] I read a lot online about the flaky crust. You can't tell me everything about that, can you?

- No.

- Can't tell you anything about that.

- [Laura] It's a secret that you're protecting, how you get these crest so flaky.

- [Patty] It is a secret because we have a lot of people who come in and request and wanna know if we use this or we use that, but, you know, it's the secret sauce, so. All right.

- All right, I want a chocolate fried pie.

- Sweet wife?

- For my sweet wife. You know, since you mentioned it, I feel guilty if I don't get her something.

- [Patty] That was my purpose.

- I knew usually put a guilty upon this.

- [Laura] Chuck and Patty have had other careers before this one. They never would've guessed this would be their retirement job. With a staff that's like family, serving up a dish of deliciousness that happens to bring back happy memories for lots of people has been priceless.

- We do something that people don't, you know, it's unique. It's different for them and everybody's happy. And when they leave, they're happy. So it gives you a good feeling.

- Back to the old is forever new. Keeping something that has been around for a long time. And when customers come in and we get into a conversation, we'll say, "If we come in second to grandma, we feel like we've won and we put a smile on your face while you're doing it."

- Thanks, Laura. Judging from the name of our final story, you might think we took a trip to the coast, but the Commodore Hotel isn't near the ocean. It's in the lovely but landlocked town of Linden. Cindy Carter met the couple that refurbished a dilapidated old bank and turned it into a destination fit for a Commodore.

- [Cindy] When the weekend rolls around in Linden, Tennessee, you'll need to follow state route 100 to the town square, hang a right of the classic car, walk past the Minnie Pearl statue and make a hard left when you hear the music play. That's when you'll know you've reached your destination, the Commodore Hotel. A historic hotel that has reemerged as the place in Linden to stop in, stop by or spend a night or two.

- And there aren't a lot of historic hotels left. Especially in small towns, they've been knocked down because there was no business.

- [Cindy] Not here, not anymore. Business is back at the old hotel, thanks to owners Michael and Kathy Dumont, who fell in love with the Commodore in 2004.

- No intention of ever running a hotel. We were gonna like renovate it and turn it over to an operator. And that was our plan. And you know, things change.

- [Cindy] Boy did they. After years of disregard and dilapidation, the Dumonts turned the hotel and Linden into a destination like it was back when the town was a frequent overnight stop in between Nashville and Memphis.

- [Michael] We have stories of Elvis coming through here and Johnny Cash.

- [Kathy] Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

- That's awesome.

- Definitely.

- Elvis supposedly had his hair cut here in town one day.

- It was a shave.

- It was a shave, yeah.

- [Cindy] The original building was built in 1939 by local businessmen, Robert Staley, who ran the hotel and a cafe until he passed away in the 1950s.

- [Kathy] It went into disrepair for about 20, 25 years. And then we bought it.

- [Cindy] Bought it, and slowly brought the hotel back to life. Much to the great interest of the locals who were understandably curious about these strangers from the northeast.

- The town embraced the project and us at that time because while we were renovating, my whole job basically was, my days were spent touring people around the local townspeople and everything would come to town. They would say, "I'm so glad that you're saving this."

- And the Dumonts wanted to save as much of the original hotel as they possibly could while modernizing it to keep their guests comfortable. The Commodore's lobby just feels like something out of an old movie or television show. Behind the front desk, the restored staircase leads to the second floor guest rooms and no two are exactly alike.

- [Michael] Everything in the rooms is pretty much original. They were four bathrooms up there for 14 rooms when we first bought this. So we left those original bathrooms 'cause they're quirky.

- Rest assured, each bedroom now has its own unique bathroom and offers its own unique experience like the Commodore's quarters, the nautical themed room, like the hotel is named for, not this Commodore, but this one. Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, a hero from the war of 1812. Or the Newport Suite, which pays subtle tribute to Commodore Perry's hometown of Newport, Rhode Island. The Dumonts can also customize the rooms with birthday, wedding, or other celebratory extras. The Commodore Hotel's footprint is actually larger than this building. There are 11 rooms inside the original hotel. But just a few steps down the sidewalk, there are nine more renovated rooms inside what was once the town's boarding house. And a little further on top of the old bank building, there's a loft space, bringing the total to 21. Yes, the Commodore does stretch out a bit along Main Street, but that gives guests an opportunity to dive into Linden's shops and businesses that have popped up around the town square since the hotel reopened.

- [Michael] You know, it wasn't an easy path 'cause when, you know, we opened this thing up, We had no goodwill built in. It wasn't a tourism destination. And so it took us a long time to get interest. A lot of things happened, some organically, some were forced.

- [Cindy] That's because not long after Dumonts moved to the area, a recession gave Linden the distinction of having the second largest unemployment rate in the country. There were few jobs, few visitors, and plenty of boarded up buildings. A little Linden reinvention was in order and the hotel's reinvention was the start.

- So to have a 24/7 presence in a small town is actually a real benefit to the local community and the local business community.

- [Cindy] Now, the small town is once again a stop for folks who want to get away, enjoy history, appreciate art, maybe even fish kayak on the nearby Buffalo River. All of which the Commodore tries to facilitate.

- [Kathy] People from the big cities. We thought it's peace and quiet. Get away from the city, take a breath, you know, lower your blood pressure.

- [Cindy] And the Commodore Hotel is all, once again, a place where locals can gather to mix and mingle with those big city folks and each other.

- [Kathy] We have our speakeasy or bar lounge. And then we also have a restaurant, which is open for lunch and dinner on weekends. And we have live music on Friday and some Saturday nights.

- [Cindy] So if you want to join in on the fun, you don't really need directions. Once you get to Linden, it's easy to spot the Commodore Hotel. It's the place that looks like history, but feels like home.

- Thanks, Cindy. Well, we're out of time for this week, but please visit tennesseecrossroads.org for more stories and check out the PBS app while you're there. Until next week, thank you for tuning in.

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

- [Narrator] Students across Tennessee have benefited from over $7.5 billion 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 and Byways, discover Tennessee's adventure, cuisine, history, and more made in Tennessee experiences showcased among these 16 driving trails. More at tntrailsandbyways.com.

- [Narrator] 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.