Episode 3614

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

- [Announcer] You can't predict the future, but you can count on Tennessee Tech always putting students first. Our faculty, staff and students have shown strength, compassion, patience, and kindness during these trying times. For us, it's personal. That's what you can count on at Tennessee Tech.

- [Joe] This time on Tennessee Crossroads, we discover some fascinating history at a Nashville cemetery. Then enjoy some ice cream treats in Dixon. We'll pig out at Hog and Hominy in Memphis and have a flashback to a creepy home visit at 1988. Hi everybody, I'm Joe Elmore. Welcome this time to Tennessee Crossroads. Sure glad to have you. With Halloween just around the corner what better time to pay a visit to a cemetery. Cindy Carter recently braved the hallowed grounds of Nashville's city Cemetery and found some frighteningly interesting stories.

- [Cindy] Just about a mile from downtown Nashville's booming Broadway Street, there's a quiet place where silent voices still have so much to say. The Nashville City Cemetery is more than the final resting place for more than 20,000 people. It's also a green space, a garden, a public metro Nashville park, and an outdoor museum.

- Nashville City Cemetery is in effect, a history book of Nashville. The founders are here, some of the principal early settlers are here. This tells us the story of how Nashville came to be and how we came to be the city that we are today.

- [Cindy] Past Cemetery Association President, Jim Hubler, leads a tour through the headstones and monuments providing context for the stories they represent.

- [Jim] Follow me, Mr. Robertson.

- [Cindy] And some visitors strolling through the park just might be lucky enough to spot a ghost from the past, eager to share their story.

- [William] Good afternoon, how are you folks?

- [Students] Good.

- Yeah, I am Governor Carroll.

- [Cindy] William Carroll was elected governor six times and held the office longer than any other Tennessee governor. His military career includes service under Andrew Jackson during the Creek War, and again, during the war of 1812.

- [William] I had the great distinction of commanding the Tennesseeans at the Battle of New Orleans. And after that amazing victory, I came back here to Nashville and embarked on a certain business endeavor. You see, I brought the first steamboat to Nashville and named it after my friend, Andrew Jackson.

- [Cindy] Full disclosure, this is not the ghost of Governor William Carroll, but the cemetery does often call upon volunteers to embody some of the notable individuals buried here.

- [Jennifer] I've always just loved the past. It's what makes us who we are today. And if we don't rarely remember where we come from, who are we gonna be in the future?

- [Cindy] Volunteer, Jennifer Watts, portrays Anne Cockrill, the younger sister of one of Nashville's co-founders, James Robertson. In 1779, at age 23, Cockrill was already a widow with three young daughters when she braved a thousand mile river journey with a large group of friends and family headed for, what was then, Fort Nashborough.

- [Jennifer] I, though, most am proud of the fact that I will become known as the first teacher of the Cumberland settlement. As we were traveling four months down the river, all the way here to the town, we did get the opportunity to learn and grow with my students, all the children that were going be joining us on this grand adventure.

- [Cindy] Cockrill was also the first woman to receive a land grant in Tennessee, but as notable as she is in Tennessee's history, Nashville City Cemetery Association President Jeff Seller says, "Every person buried here has a story worth telling. The cemetery is uniquely diverse and has been since it opened to the public in 1822."

- [Jeff] No matter who you are in, in the 19th century, you could be rich, you could be poor, you could be black or white. You were buried in the public cemetery of Nashville. And so for that reason, we have a great cross section of our city, from rich to poor and all in between are buried here at the city cemetery.

- [Cindy] 6,000 African Americans are buried here, enslaved people, free people, some prominent in their day and some absolutely groundbreaking.

- [Jim] This is the grave of one of the original Fisk Jubilee singers, Ella Shepherd Moore. She was born an enslaved baby and her mother didn't want her child to grow up to be a slave, so she was going to drown her in the Cumberland River. Another one of the enslaved women saw this happening or about to happen, and she intervened. She said, "Honey, don't do that. That child has a future."

- [Cindy] Ella's musical talent led to the formation and organization of the famed Fisk Jubilee Singers.

- [Jim] Follow me.

- [Cindy] Guided tours are offered once a month, but because this is a public park, self guided tours are possible daily. Now, the headstones don't just mark the graves. Many of them are unique works of art, and it's really cool to consider what the symbols might reveal about the person buried underneath, such as obelisks, which represent greatness or ivy, which represents immortality. But few are as detailed as William Drivers, the man who gave the American flag its nickname, Old Glory.

- [Jim] The grave's interesting. It's a tree that's cut short because that was a symbol for a life cut short. It also has a ship's anchor on it because he was a sailor.

- [Cindy] The symbols and crumbling stones were in danger of becoming a forgotten footnote until the city of Nashville intervened with restoration projects for the graves and monuments.

- [Jim] And by preserving it, we're handing it on for generations to come.

- [Cindy] Today the Nashville City Cemetery is a quiet refuge, a place to learn and remember the many souls buried here still have something to say to all who care to listen.

- [William] So thank you for visiting my tomb today.

- Thank you, Cindy. Lactose intolerance aside, have you ever met anyone who doesn't like ice cream? Me neither. Well, in our next story, Miranda Cohen gets the scoop on a busy little ice cream shop over in downtown Dickson.

- [Miranda] There is something about ice cream. No matter what your age or where you're from, the sight, the sounds, even the smell, we'll get back to that. Takes you back to your childhood.

- [Tom] It's delicious and it's kind of magical. There's something about it. It's in a frozen state, and then as it comes into your mouth and warms, the flavors explode and it's just an enjoyable thing.

- [Miranda] Tom Costa and his family have always been big fans of ice cream, always dreaming of owning their own shop. And, on their frozen quest, the Costa's found themselves on a new adventure. The family album turned up roots in Tennessee, and the rest, as they say, is history.

- [Tom] It was a family friendly place that we were gonna raise the kids, and we thought, "Let's, move here" and looking for something to do in California, I was farming citrus, so we had a little citrus ranch. It was great for the kids to run around the trees, and so there's no citrus in Middle Tennessee, "What am I gonna do?"

- [Miranda] What he did was a scoop of pure genius. Costa, along with his wife Lisa, their three sons and young daughter set up shop here on Church Street in Dixon, bringing their vast knowledge of dairy farms and citrus trees and blending them into decadent concoctions.

- [Tom] We're making a premium ice cream, in shop, 14% butter fat, and just trying to use the best ingredients and a process that really makes a great ice cream. So I went to a scoop school, learned how to make ice cream. We really wanted to do with a high butter fat and process, have a really creamy, delicious ice cream and it works out good. And I make all the ice cream, so if it's not right, you can come see me. You look at the guy that did it, you know, right in the face.

- [Miranda] For the name of their warm, inviting, fun and whimsical place. They looked to their youngest child and only daughter, Katie.

- [Lisa She's been such a good ambassador for the business since the beginning. You know, she's got that spunk and that attitude, that really made us want to put her face on the business.

- [Katie] It feels amazing and it's just wonderful to see everyone happy. And when families come in to make memories and just, they're all happy and it just feels great. I think it's a big deal to me because there's nothing more that I love to be with my family and to make other people happy.

- [Customer] It's fun, it's a joyful experience. Ice cream just brings a lot of joy to our family 'cause it's something that when we have it, everyone's smiling and happy.

- [Miranda] Katie's ice cream was a family affair from the very beginning and they were determined to open an old fashioned-looking ice cream shop with all the modern amenities like a kid's outdoor playground, selfie walls, colorful cows, local art, and authentic pictures of Tom's father in his early days as a rodeo cowboy. And thanks to modern technology, they never really close. So say you're craving ice cream on a Sunday or a Monday or after hours. Well, the Costas have thought of that too, with a custom made "Katie's Ice Cream Machine" vending machine so you can have your favorite treat 24 hours a day. Okay, now back to the flavors and the ice cream that you can smell. Thanks to years spent farming California citrus and inspired by travel to New Zealand and Great Britain, Costa is blending creamy ice cream with bright and fragrant fresh oranges. Then he adds in rich dark chocolate morsels for their signature orange chocolate chip at Katie's Ice Cream they dish up delicious, elevated versions of the old fashioned favorites, but also like to kick it up a notch with bold and savory flavors and creative blends.

- [Tom] My wife helps out a lot with the flavor. So the, the peanut butter nutella was her idea. That's where we're taking a Reese sauce and then we're adding in nutella swirling that in, and then Nutter Butter cookies. So you get this really creamy, loaded ice cream. And our customers are really good about suggesting an ice cream. So they'll say, "Tom, can you do a a Mexican chocolate?" So we have a little fun with that. Oh, we sell a lot of honey butter pecan and we sell a lot of, we call it Granny Lays Banana Pudding that's got vanilla wafers, little marshmallow swirl in and it's really, really good.

- [Miranda] And if you like your frozen favorites to go, Katie's has you covered. So, come for the ice cream, the old fashioned charm and hospitality. Bring your sweet tooth and your sense of adventure and don't be surprised if you leave with some new friends and lots of memories.

- [Jim] To have a place that sparks a little conversation. I get so many people that come in and say, "Oh, my uncle used to rodeo" or "Oh, you know, I know the lady that did that art." And it makes, cuz the enjoyable thing is sharing these stories and hearing their stories and having a place for families to come together.

- [Lisa] You know, you're usually coming to have ice cream to celebrate birthdays, winning a baseball game. Everybody's got these great memories of when they went for ice cream as a child with their parents, with their grandparents. And it just, it's a generational love.

- [Joe] Thanks a lot, Miranda. Several years ago, a couple of Memphis foodie friends followed their Italian roots and their passion for cooking to Italy and then back to the Bluff City. Well, the result was a string of restaurants that fused deep south and Italian influences. On our trip we focused on Hog and Hominy. A place where, well the name says it all.

- [Andy] Like our backgrounds were so similar that it was kind of like, I didn't even know there was another family that did what we did on Sundays.

- [Michael] To the degree of craziness.

- [Andy] Right?

- [Michael] And I think the culinary bug is one of those things. It's like if it gets you, it gets you. And it's like you either love it or you hate it. We had so much fun doing it and our grandmothers were such strong influences on our food and what food means to us. So it was kind of like, I don't know, it just made sense.

- [Joe] Michael Hudman and Andy Tyson knew long ago, their shared passion for food would lead to this. Two award-winning restaurants that showcase their inherited fusion of southern and Italian influence. After college, they followed a plan, first culinary school in Charleston, South Carolina, then back home to intern with a top master chef, then off to Italy to discover old world cooking techniques.

- [Andy] It's really where I would say our food really took shape. Our whole idea behind what we try to do.

- [Michael] It's like how not to waste food. And we try to come up different creative ways to make it approachable for all of our customers.

- [Joe] After Italy, it was time to make the big move and open a restaurant back home.

- [Michael] When we saw this place, it reminded us of when we lived in Italy so much our favorite part was going to those restaurants without the sign on the door. It just a family's home and you walk in and they just prepare whatever they were making that day. They'll give you their house made wine and we loved it so much. It was so comforting, especially for us being so far away from our families and we wanted to bring that experience back to Memphis.

- [Joe] They named it Andrew Michael's Italian Kitchen and it was an instant success. Food and Wine Magazine even named the guys two of their top 10 young American chefs.

- [Andy] Italian food and Southern food have so many similarities. They both kind of rooted in that peasant form of food. And it's all about what we've realized, it's all about in-season and that's what we've tried to focus on. So you take.

- [Michael] It's simple. You don't, try to manipulate the food that much. You just let it.

- [Andy] Yeah, our farmers work so hard that we try not to screw their stuff up too bad.

- [Jim] After a couple of years they wanted to try another dining quest across the street. The quirky name Hog and Hominy even reflects their southern roots.

- [Andy] Tennessee was known in the 1800s as the Hog and Hominy state. They're the biggest producer of pigs and pork and corn. And so we were kinda like, that's kind of catchy and snappy. So we decided on that.

- [Jim] It's a more casual place with a more fun approach to food.

- [Michael] We tried to have fun, it's really loud. The menus set up to where you come in, share a bunch of food and you just have fun.

- [Jim] Andy's making me a buffalo pigtail appetizer.

- [Michael] So these are pigtails that we've already braised.

- [Jim] A lot of customers order this once on a dare and they always come back for more.

- [Andy] All right, so this is, the pecorino vinegarette. We create pecorino cheese, we got lemon and cream, mix it together and then we'll do a little salt on our celery leaves and a little bit of fresh lime juice. It's all set up there.

- [Jim] So how would it you eat something like that?

- [Andy] So the best way to eat it, the ears, you just go in there and start fighting down on 'em and the tails, you kind of pop the whole thing in your mouth and then chew on it and then all this left is a bone. It's easiest way. If you try to get a fork and knife in there, it's never gonna happen.

- [Jim] Not gonna work? Buffalo pigtails, there you have it. That's good.

- [Andy] Right?

- [Jim] Yeah.

- [Andy] Don't waste anything. Use the whole animal.

- Everything but the squeal right here, right? Hog and Honimy's signature pizzas are Michael's pride and joy. Using a specially built brick oven.

- [Michael] So, we have our fire on the left hand side and then we do pizzas starting at 12 and we have five spaces that we rotate pizzas in.

- [Jim] Michael's gonna make me a house favorite, red eye pizza.

- [Michael] This is our, the one that we do with the red eye pizza. This is all of our salami scraps, red wine, colombian chilis, a little bit of tomato paste and pork stock. Do a little bit of the cooked tomato sauce with all of our salami scraps. Little red wine and chili flake. So this is some roasted pork belly that we have. So we take the Newman Farm pork belly, put a cure on it overnight, roast it in the oven and then we shred it some fontina cheese and then this fresh buffalo mozzarella. We use the Caputo brother's cheese curd. It's just a little bit extra virgin olive oil and a little salt.

- [Jim] A few more ingredients go on. And then one final touch. Looks beautiful.

- [Michael] Let's finish this pizza off. Do a little bit of cheese. Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper the egg, always. So that's the red eye pizza.

- [Jim] Here goes my first sample of red eye pizza complete with the egg. Wow, that's an explosion of taste. I gotta lick my fingers.

- [Michael] It's so great to be a part of a city where they want to be able to get behind you and they want something awesome, they want something different, and it makes our job easy. You know, we just have to keep on pushing ourselves to make sure we keep 'em coming back.

- [Jim] Where else can you have a drink and play a game of Italian bocce while you wait for your meal? Meal is so good that Conde Nast Traveler named Hog and Hominy, Best New Restaurant in the south.

- [Andy] It's just unreal. And it was a huge honor and it just says a lot about the staff that we have, 'cause we can't do it all by ourselves, so I mean, it has a lot to do with everybody that's behind us in the city of Memphis.

- [Jim] Michael and Andy now enjoy the kind of success that inspires many young American chefs. Well, you must have really supportive wives, both of you, right?

- [Andy And Michael] Yes.

- [Andy] Yeah, they definitely are.

- [Michael] That's the strength behind this team for sure. And they allow us to do what we need to do and the coolest thing about it is they're totally supportive. they see that we get to do our dream and what we love to do every day, and they totally understand it.

- [Jim] And despite the long hours, their passion for creating great food only grows. It's an American dream that was spawned many years ago. Well, we're gonna wind up this Halloween episode with a flashback that will bring back spooky memories for some of you. We've ventured into the crossroads catacombs and dusted off this classic with Janet Tyson from the year 1988.

- [Janet] I'm looking for a ghost from Nashville's not too distant past, so I thought I'd start my search here. Then many of you may recall a goofy ghoul who haunted Channel Four's airwaves back in the early seventies, Sir Cecil Creape. Now, those were the days before the bizarre popularity of slice and dice horror movies. When Fright Flex left a little to the imagination. Maybe we can resurrect Sir Cecil and return to a time when fright was all in fun.

- [Narrator] This is Creature Feature, exploring the realm of the unknown.

- [Janet] From 1970 through '73. Channel 4 ran a Saturday night late movie called "Creature Feature." Those sometimes corny, sometimes camp, old scary movies did attract an audience. But Creature Feature owed its popularity to its host, Sir Cecil Creape.

- Did someone call? Oh, there you are. Trick or treat.

- [Janet] Sir Cecil lived in the catacombs beneath the WSM Studios, unearthing old movies, screening them on his dilapidated projector and inserting his own little mini dramas between the reels. For old time's sake, I decided to find out what's become of Sir Cecil. I tracked him not to some dark damp tomb, but to this sunny tree lined Nashville Boulevard and the home of his creator and alter ego, Russ McGown. Russ's century old historic house is really more like a museum filled with memorabilia and machines from the bygone days of film, radio, television, and the world of entertainment. It was Russ's flare for the theatrical that inspired the character of Sir Cecil Creape.

- Well, he's 180 degrees out of phase. He sleeps during the day. He's up at night. Anything that's good is bad. Anything that's bad is good, up to a point. He's never mean, he's never vicious and he always fails. He really is a cross between the hunchback of Notre Dame and Oliver Hardy. I mean, he gets frustrated, very, that sort of thing. And generally, that's not me. I'm a little bit more laid back than that.

- Well, did you ever feel like you had created a monster?

- I couldn't go out and cut the grass. The neighborhood children would come. They wouldn't say anything. They wouldn't do anything. Just stand down the street and stare. Then when they stop doing it, then you start worrying about it. So I got where I can appreciate a little better, and I've learned one thing that real talent never refuses an autograph.

- I'm about to create a disguise to wear as I go knocking on doors tonight. I hope to disguise my natural charm sufficiently so that I will be a frightening figure.

- [Janet] Creature Feature was aimed at the high school and college age demographic, but it had quite a large children's audience as well.

- One little boy wrote in that his mother would not let him sit up till 10:30 on Saturday night to watch the show. So he would go to bed at seven o'clock and set alarm clock and wake himself up, watch the show, then go back to bed. That's the only way she'd let him watch it there.

- That does it. Sir Cecil has blown his coup.

- [Janet] So until Sir Cecil is summoned by some programming executive, Russ rehearses his lines.

- Need someone call. Oh, there you are.

- Well, great fun memories and a great show, I thought. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you'll join us next time. By the way, have you heard about the new PBS video app, where you can watch Crossroads and any of your PBS favorites on your phone? Well, there's our website. I want you to check out tennesseecrossroads.org. Follow us on Facebook. See you next time.

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

- [Announcer] You can't predict the future, but you can count on Tennessee Tech always putting students first. Our faculty, staff, and students have shown strength, compassion, patience, and kindness during these trying times. For us, it's personal. That's what you can count on at Tennessee Tech.