Episode 3529

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

- [Announcer] This season, there's something small that makes a big difference. Flu vaccines, protect ourselves and others. Flu vaccines are available. Learn more at tn.gov/health/fightflu.

- This time on Tennessee Crossroads we'll make the sweet treat maker who takes the cake. Then travel to down near Chattanooga to meet a team of pipe organ makers. We'll visit a century old gathering spot in Murfreesboro and discover the mission of the United street tours, in Nashville. Hi everybody, I'm Joe Elmore. It's time again for Tennessee Crossroads, we're glad to have you. It's always a pleasure for us to check back on folks we've featured in the past on Crossroads. Well, more than a decade ago, we introduced viewers to a Nashville woman who started a little cupcake business out of her home. Well, as Laura Faber shows us, that little business has grown, but our sweets still take the cake.

- You can go ahead and measure out those chocolate cakes. Just keep scooping. You're gonna scoop until you're all done.

- [Laura] It's still dark when the day begins in this kitchen in Germantown. There is no time to waste. Butter is scooped cups, trays come in and out of the oven. Cupcakes cool, prepped for frosting. They all get a sweet swirl.

- That's good. I just want you to loosen that around the edges.

- [Laura] This is the family business of Mignon Francois, Creator and Owner of the Cupcake Collection.

- And what we do is we bring joy to people. This has become a destination. We see people coming to Nashville, and the first stop they wanna make is make sure that they get their cupcakes.

- I'm a day one Cupcake Collection person.

- Oh wow, that's awesome.

- [Laura] Francois was born in New Orleans, but calls Nashville home. The mother of six cooked up her business in 2008.

- I started my business on the last $5 I had for dinner one week. I just had heard Dave Ramsay saying that you could get out of debt by having a bake sale. And just because I couldn't bake, wasn't a reason enough for me not to try it. And so I enlisted the help of my daughters who were baking all the time. They were 10 and 16, but as soon as we got into it, they were interested in what their mom had to say about cupcakes so I had to learn how to bake.

- [Laura] It was a family affair back then, all hands on deck. In fact, Tennessee Crossroads featured the business in 2009, which was operating out of the family home. Those kids working behind the counter and in the kitchen back then, are still here today. Mignon's son, Xavier, and her daughter, Drew.

- You're scooping with me today? Yeah.

- [Laura] All grown with kid of their own.

- What gonna put on the inside of the birthday cake when you get finished scooping them?

- Joy.

- Joy? Yeah, I meant like sprinkles . Now here we are, 13 years later, having opened the doors, losing the house to foreclosure sale that very next month. We were able to save the property. And now I've become a noted baker in not only the city, but the country. So now we've been ranked as the top 10 in the nation. We have been consistently ranked as the best in Tennessee, as well as carried a best of in Nashville for almost the entire 13 years that we've been here. And we just got a nod as the best in Louisiana. Now that we've opened a store in new Orleans as well.

- [Laura] The teams in Germantown and New Orleans huddle every morning before the store opens.

- [Woman] New Orleans.

- Good morning guys.

- [Laura] And then it's time to spread joy.

- It's absolutely wonderful. I also love that from the very beginning, it's been a family business and they have a big family. We also have a big family.

- When I first got here, you know how everyone talks about like the place to go, the place to go. The Cupcake Collection was always number one. I was like, the cupcakes can't be this good, right? And then I came and I never laughed. So hence the 14 cupcakes this morning.

- Francois would've never guessed cupcakes would be her legacy. She studied to be a surgeon, but a pregnancy changed her journey. Years later, she asked her grandmother for help with recipes, but nothing was written down.

- She told me what to do with my hands. I used what she gave me and applied science to it. And from there I've been making recipes ever since. So what I couldn't apply to help me stay in school, and become a surgeon. I apply to heal people in another way. Because cake takes you back to a time when somebody saw you or they celebrated you.

- [Laura] Francois sells nostalgia and deliciousness with classic flavors like birthday cake, marble, strawberry, red velvet and carrot cake. There are seasonal flavors too, gluten free and vegan options and pup cakes too. It's a compliment when Francois hears that her cupcakes remind people of their grandmothers.

- You're never gonna come here and find a lavender tea, honey cupcake. That's not what the Cupcake Collection does, we'll leave that to everybody else in the business. All we wanna do is what takes you all the way back. And so all of our recipes should speak to something nostalgic.

- All right, I am about to try the number one selling cupcake in the State of Tennessee and Louisiana. This is the sweet-

- Probably even in the world, but you know.

- In the world, the sweet potato cupcake. Here we go.

- It's a Cupcake Collection original.

- Okay, it's moist, cream cheese. Oh my gosh. It's so good.

- I want you to say that.

- It's so yam good.

- We feel like sweet potato is the new pumpkin. I'm from new Orleans, and so sweet potatoes are a part of our heritage. It's a part of my lineage. So my family comes from one of the largest plantations in Louisiana and they were working a sugar cane plantation. So that's why it was so important to me to always make sure that we give sweet potato a name and a voice, and not to ever let it be confused with anything else.

- [Laura] Though the business has grown too big for them to live in this house anymore, she's committed to staying in Germantown.

- Jefferson Street was the place where people of color were able to have business. And this is the corridor along which the whole nation turned to watch a movement come to life, that allows me to be here today. And so it was really important to me that I stayed in this community and showed them that, you know, you can do well. I wanted to leave something for my granddaughter so that when they walk into a room at Nashville, Tennessee and say, my grandmother was Mignon Francois, I want that to matter.

- Laura] Today, Francois also teaches entrepreneurship. Is able to fund scholarships and more, all thanks to a bake sale years ago.

- We love to say whatever you need to celebrate, there's cake for that. And we like to think that the best one for it is sweet potato. 'Cause it makes everything just a little bit more sweet.

- Thanks, Laura. Guitars and pianos may be more plentiful, but the undisputed king of musical instruments is the pipe organ. Now only a handful of American companies build pipe organs using time honored European methods. And one of them is located just outside Chattanooga. Now for this company, making the world's best pipe organs, it's a matter of pride and precision craftsmanship.

- It's hundreds, if not thousands of pipes, playing an audible sound, a physical sound which develops in the room, and it surrounds you. So your body actually feels the sound, especially the base tones.

- [Announcer] It was that sound experience, that led Bruce Folks to start playing and later hand building traditional pipe organs. After apprenticing and working for a veteran builder, he and Ralph Richards started their own company just outside of Chattanooga.

- Really doesn't matter where you build organs because they all have to be shipped somewhere else. And so Ralph and I decided that Chattanooga was a beautiful town and it's within 500 miles of 50% of the U.S population.

- [Announcer] Since 1988, Richard Spokes and company has been building some of the world's best pipe organs, which today make majestic music in churches around the country and even in England. What's more they used the same craftsmanship that European builders employed centuries ago. Intricate processes involving a multitude of finally home skills.

- Art and architecture, there is physics, a lot of math there is metal working. And then of course there's just music.

- [Announcer] Each organ and its environment are unique. So before any construction starts, there's extensive research and design work.

- We start with the architecture of the room, that sort of develops the size and the shape of the organ. Some churches don't offer any inspiration, some offer so much inspiration we don't hardly do a thing.

- Ralph takes over when it's time to start the design of the exterior case of the instrument.

- Start with photographs and drawings. And I'll put in CAD drawings of some of our previous organs to start with, just to see the scale and the size of it, how it fits into the space. So we want the organ to look like it's always been there or that it was specifically designed for that space, in this time.

- [Announcer] Building a single pipe organ, can consume up to a year's worth of work. Hand making thousands of parts in the workshop from precisely fabricating rollers that operate the wind chest, to hand carving decorative features that enhance the organs aesthetics.

- We have amazingly talented group of men that work here, artisans, artists, they came from all over the world. All of them have multiple disciplines that there's not a one of them that just does one thing in this shop. A lot of them have musical backgrounds. Some have architecture training.

- [Announcer] One organ can contain thousands of pipes, all forged and correctly fashioned from lead and 10 alloy. Hand planning each sheet is critical for a couple of reasons.

- You wanna use as little planning time as you can. So we follow the taper of the sheet. So the pipe is thickest at the bottom of the pipe and finished at the top. Not only is there a feel to it, there's a musical sound difference. The pipes are livelier. They're not being not as thick at the top. When you blow on of those pipes, you can actually feel the pipe wall vibrating in your hand.

- [Announcer] Using templates, each pipe can be shaped and soldered into place.

- You have to have them progress in length and diameter, in order to get one pitch for each key on the keyboard.

- [Announcer] Reach pipe to make a certain sound. They get some almost human features.

- There's a foot with a toe, a mouth with a lower lip, an upper lip, a tongue or a language. That's the Latin word for it. They have ears on some of them, and some of them have a beard across the bottom here. And then the body.

- You have to give each and every pipe it's proper voice, which requires skilled hands and ears.

- And that pipe is still a little bit slow speaking. And then I'm gonna adjust the flue. That's this little slot here. You can't even see without a microscope what I've done, but you can hear it in that the tone is now it's a more mellow, full tone. That's all there is to it. Now you just repeating as necessary for 4,000 pipes, and you're all done .

- [Announcer] Because of their traditional artisan approach to production, Bruce and Ralph can only produce a couple of pipe organs a year. However, don't expect any changes in the name of, so called, progress.

- As soon as you turn it on to an industrial scale, you lose all control of the details and involvement. So, you know, if we're gonna put our names on it, we wanted it to really reflect the two of us well, and all of these guys.

- Remember that popular sitcom Cheers? And that line and the theme song about going where everybody knows your name. Well, Boston, isn't the only town with a place like that. Ed Jones found one in the 'boro. It opened around the turn of the century. No, not that actually, the one before.

- [Ed] If you're looking for a good restaurant, just ask the regulars how long they've been coming back.

- Run on, 33 years.

- 40 Years.

- 50 years.

- It's either 1953 or 1954, I'm not real sure.

- That's more than 60 years, which is just half as long as the City Cafe has been serving up Southern comfort food, with a heapin' helping of history. History carried on by Theresa and Roland Kellogg.

- Some of the things we hear is that we're old, that the tables are old. The chairs are semi old.

- And that we need to update the decor. But this is what it's about. It's about the history. It's about keeping the history alive.

- [Ed] History that dates back to the horse and buggy era. History that covers the walls and transports patrons back to a simpler time. History that you'll find in the people who dine there every day.

- A lot of the college students that used to hang out here, now they come back and bring their kids or grandkids. And it's memories, you know, that's been made here over the years.

- [Ed] Matt Ward is one of those memory makers.

- I started coming here when I entered college in 1961, we had a little click of friends that would come here frequently, at least once a week. I've been coming ever since.

- [Announcer] He made so many memories in fact, that he wrote a book about the place. Matt's inspiration spring from one particular section of the cafe, a table with two names.

- A community table or liars table, the guys sit around it and tell stories. And I just remembered a lot of those stories and wrote them down, put them in the book. I called it "True Stories and other lies "Told at City Cafe."

- [Announcer] Our favorite story was the one constantly being written in the kitchen, sheer poetry.

- We are a traditional meat and three. We do the traditional breakfast in the mornings, the meat and threes. We try to do as much fresh food as we possibly can. All of our desserts are homemade, in house. My husband, he makes all of our desserts. I come in in the mornings and do all of our meats and all of our vegetables. And then of course our cooks, they do all of the grilled foods and things. But we try to keep us traditional to the country foods that my grandmother taught me how to cook, my mom taught me and we have meatloaf on Mondays. And our new one that we've started are fried pork chops on Tuesdays, we do chicken and dressing on Thursdays, and fish on Fridays. Saturday, that's really my day of just depending on what I wanna get up and fix. So it's a free for all on Saturday.

- [Ed] While it does get busy at the cafe, it never feels rushed. And that's just what the Kelloggs want.

- We want that down home feeling that you can come here, if you wanna come here and have a cup of coffee and sit for a couple hours, read the paper, do your crosswords. We love it, we love it. We love coming and talking in the banter between our customers and, you know, I want my grandkids to come in here and see these things. And I want them to be able to share their stories on through the line.

- People want to share memories. They want to share some of their piece of history here. And a lot of it comes through, you know, in the pictures.

- A lot of our pictures have been donated by customers throughout the years. Nobody's a stranger here. I think all of our customers treat all of our customers like family.

- It's just a family. It's a family gathering place and you are not related, but you are family. And every time you come in, you feel welcome and wanted. And everybody that hasn't tried it should come in and try it because today is just like it was 40 years ago.

- We're kind of the custodians. So that's kind of the way we look at it is we're the custodians of City Cafe. We love this place.

- [Ed] And it shows. In the family recipes handed down through the generations, in the memories adoring the walls, and in new memories and new friends, being made every time door chimes at the City Cafe.

- They walk in the door, you're automatically family here, you come in, you relax. I think it's important that they come in, and not only enjoy a good meal, but they enjoy a good time in the atmosphere while they're here. So when they leave here, they can leave with a smile on their face. You never know what's going on with somebody when they come in, and if we can give 'em that little piece of happiness, is what makes my day.

- Well, hi, Mr. Larry, how are you?

- Thank you, Ed. If you're looking for a tour of Nashville, there are plenty of options. Several have even appeared on Tennessee Crossroads. Danielle Allen took a special Trek through music city, a while back with the United Street Tours. It's not a search for country artists, but rather activists who changed our country for the better.

- [Allen] The fight for civil rights echoed through the south in the 1960s. And it was heard loud and clear in Nashville. Those stories of trials and triumphs, are retold in books and documentaries.

- All right, let's rock and roll guys.

- [Allen] But, there's something about physically walking down the path of history, and that's where United Street Tours come in.

- All right, I'm gonna talk about this statue. I'll stand in the mud so you won't have to.

- [Allen] Shaquita Patterson is the Founder of United Street Tours. Her mission is simple, educate through storytelling.

- They looked around and they saw that no one was guarding the gate. So they went inside. The thing that makes a good story is, having one character and telling the life of that character, the ups and the downs, right? And because all of our stories don't necessarily have happy endings, it's very, very important for us to take you on a journey to how it got that way. Feel free to have a seat guys.

- [Man] Come on, guys.

- I'm gonna talk right from here.

- [Allen] We took a journey with Shaquita on her African American culture tour. She talked about people and events from the 1700s, all the way to the 1960s. She also does a tour for civil rights and a Nashville black wall street tour. Each one of these is different, but they all serve the same purpose.

- [Allen] The purpose of the tours is to unite people. So oftentimes when people hear black history, it's oh, that history, but really black history is America's history, right? So United just came from this whole idea of, telling black history to provide a unified America and not just singling black history outta the same. This is your history, this is my history. But we embrace all history, then we have have a holistic and a well rounded view.

- The idea for United Street Tours came about when Shaquita was a Dean at a local school. She was helping students do a black history project, but there was one small problem.

- I was very, very excited to get the students involved in planning black history, taking charge of what the theme was gonna be for Black History Month. So just went around, talked to students, interviewed them, and everyone was excited to plan, to get on board. But what I started to realize is that they didn't know much about Nashville's black history or about black history stories, to plan anything outside of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. So Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, a lot of us learn about him in school, but outside of that, they haven't been exposed to a wide variety of black history stories.

- [Allen] That experience gave Shaquita an idea, why not start a business that'll make those little known stories, well known. One that lets you take a close up look at the past. And from the there United Street Tours was born.

- Before starting this, I spent a ton of time researching, searching the internet, reading tons of books and just trying to pull out information that I thought would connect with people. So after, I don't know how many hours of research, something was missing for me, there's a lot of stuff that wasn't adding up. So what I started doing was reaching out to local history professors at colleges here. And I just start talking to people, just engaging in conversation. Tell me your perspective on this story. Okay, this is what I read. What do you think? So just talking to different professors gave me additional perspective to go by.

- [Allen] In addition to giving different perspectives, there's another perk to this tour. One that only comes with a little bit of walking.

- So this gives people time that you don't necessarily have when you're on the bus. And it also is more personable because I have an opportunity to stop and say, oh yeah, and look at this, right? So we are not passing things really fast. And people notice stuff all the time on the tour they say, "What does this mean? "Can you talk to me a little bit about that?" Those are things that can only happen on a walking tour because you're going at a slower pace and a more personable. Want to point this one out to you.

- [Allen] The tours cover stories you don't often hear, like Robert Black Bob Renfro. He was a quasi independent slave who owned a popular bar, but it also revisits the stories you'll never forget. Diane Nash, confronting the mayor on the steps of the courthouse and the sit-ins at Woolworth on fifth.

- Our last stop on the tour is at Woolworth on fifth. And at Woolworth on fifth, they get an opportunity to sit at the stools, and sit there and reflect and think about what they learn and things like that.

- [Allen] You'll also hear firsthand accounts of those sit-ins and the bravery it took to pull it off.

- John Lewis said he sat upstairs with a few of his colleagues and as he was sitting here, he could hear the sounds of his colleagues downstairs being beat up. Can you imagine? So he got up and just like, we walked up those steps, he immediately began to walk down those stairs. And when he got down there, all the non-violent resistance training that he had kicked in.

- [Allen] Every day Shaquita takes a new group on tour, going up and down the streets of downtown Nashville and sharing stories from black history. She hopes walking down memory lane, will pave a better road to the future.

- There is a lot of people that have difficulty having cross-cultural conversations, making cross-cultural connections, right? But when you can learn about your history or about the history of others, that kind of grounds you in this base of, this is what happened, what can I do about that to ensure that the future is this way or that way? So ultimately I hope that the tour started as an educational tool to expand the minds of others.

- Well, I'm afraid we've reached the conclusion of another Tennessee Crossroads. But I would be Remis not to mention our website, tennesseecrossroads.org. And the fact you can follow us on Facebook. Now by all means, join me here next week. I'll see you then.

- [Announcer] Tennessee Crossroads is made possible in part by;

- [Announcer] This season there's something small that makes a big difference. Flu vaccines, protect ourselves and others. Flu vaccines are available. Learn more at tn.gov/health/fightflu.