Episode 3813

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- This week on "Tennessee Crossroads," we'll sample Chicago pizza, tour a beautiful inn, visit a healing space for wild animals, and marvel at paintings you'd swear were photos. Hello, everybody, I'm Miranda Cohen. That's the lineup. We are so glad you're with us this week. Nashville may be Music City, but it's also become quite the foodie capital as well. You can find great options for just about any style of cuisine you can imagine, including a delicacy inspired by Chicago's Little Italy. Cindy Carter shows us what's cooking at 312 Pizza.

- [Cindy] Almost 500 miles separate Nashville from Chicago, but distance disappears once you step inside the 312 Pizza Company.

- [Kimberly] There's no greater feeling when you see a review that says, "I'm from Chicago, and this is the real deal."

- [Aras] Right.

- And that was our goal. It's like we just wanted people that miss home to be able to come and taste it and say, "Okay, yes, I found it outside of Chicago."

- [Cindy] Owners, Kimberly Wolff and Aras Alexander run this family-owned pizza joint in Nashville's Germantown neighborhood. And rest assured all the signature dishes from the Windy City, deep-dish pizza, Italian beef sandwiches, Chicago-style hot dogs, they're all on the menu.

- [Kimberly] But I will say, like, we do have to train the people that aren't from Chicago, like, the experience of eating Chicago deep-dish. And the first thing we always say is how long it's gonna take to get your pizza. 'Cause if you're not from Chicago, you're probably not used to coming in and waiting 45 minutes for a deep-dish. So that's the first thing we say is, "Hey, welcome. Our thin crest takes at least 30 minutes. Our deep-dish takes at least 45 minutes. So let's get you started with some appetizers."

- [Cindy] Aras and Kimberly are always happy to educate the uninitiated in Chicago-style cuisine, especially when it comes to their signature deep-dish and thin crust pizzas.

- But actually, the deep-dish pizza didn't start until the late '70s, early '80s, and it's actually-

- Like a celebratory pizza.

- Celebratory pizza or a touristy pizza. In a deep-dish pizza, it's less dough, more cheese. So you've got about a pound of cheese in a deep-dish pizza.

- [Cindy] Aras says when making a deep-dish, the pepperoni goes on top, but all other toppings are cooked underneath the sauce, making that deep dive into deep-dish all the more special.

- Deep-dish is so filling that you just can't eat it all the time. So a lot of people think Chicago pizza, "Oh, deep-dish." But if you're from Chicago, it's the thin crust.

- Thin crust.

- [Kimberly] It's cut tavern style or party cut as they say. So it's in squares, it's shareable, and that's something that it's really thin cracker crust. So you should hear like a snap when you break into our crust. And that is why you eat it with people, like on the regular.

- [Cindy] Most of the restaurant's recipes are family recipes. Three generations of testing and perfecting.

- [Cindy] So it started with my grandma. She lived in the little Italy neighborhood of Chicago, and all the Italian ladies taught her how to cook Italian food. And that's why like growing up, even though my grandma's family's like from the South, we had really good marinara, we had really good spaghetti sauce, because she learned it from the Italian ladies.

- [Cindy] Which made me wonder if I could learn how to master the Chicago thin crust from a patient Aras, especially since I don't know how to cook at all.

- So first things first, grab yourself some onions.

- [Cindy] Aras patiently took me through each step, emphasizing the importance of using fresh ingredients, locally sourced, absolutely no artificial food coloring or preservatives, and in my case, plenty of positive reinforcement.

- At an angle, push and pull. All right?

- Okay. Oh, this should be interesting,

- Right? So just keep your arm. Yep.

- [Cindy] Push and pull.

- Push.

- Oh, to the edge.

- Yeah. It's okay. We can fix that. We can just put all... You threw all the pepperoni.

- [Staff] Pepperoni, down.

- Pepperoni, down.

- Pepperoni, down. Pepperoni, down. Okay, so appearance-wise, my pizza does not look good. But the true test is in how does it taste. I did pretty good.

- I'm gonna go make some hot dogs, but I just wanna stop by and thanks for coming and hanging out.

- [Cindy] Ah, yes, those Chicago-style hot dogs. Representing the South side is the Comiskey, with relish, onions, and mustard. Representing the north side, Wrigley Field, with tomatoes, relish, onions, peppers, yellow mustard, sport peppers, pickle and celery salt, the works. And if you've never had an Italian beef sandwich, you're missing out on a true Chicago classic.

- [Aras] Well, fluffy, not stuffy, all right? You know, you've got the meat, the bun, you have either hot or sweet peppers. You know, it's just amazing.

- And then it should be juicy. I mean, most people like it juicy. But usually, like, in Chicago, they call it the Italian beef stance, where you lean against the table, you hold your beef, and you're like this because it's dripping down your arms.

- 'Cause you dip that whole sandwich into juice.

- [Kimberly] Into the juice, yeah.

- [Cindy] Wall to wall, high and low, everywhere you look, 312 Pizza Company pulls you into the Chicago experience. But it also pulls you into a family experience.

- [Kimberly] We want you to come in, we wanna know your name.

- [Aras] This restaurant is extension of our home. So people will come in, and they're not customers. They're guests at our house.

- [Cindy] It's that Nashville neighborhood spot that doesn't feel like Nashville at all.

- That was our goal. It's like we just wanted people that miss home to be able to come and taste it and say, "Okay, yes, I found it outside of Chicago." And I think we nailed it.

- Thanks so much, Cindy. That looked delicious. Have you ever wanted to get away from it all but not wander too far away from home? In our next story, we'll travel to Cookeville where a couple have turned their home into a luxurious getaway, or maybe the perfect place to tie the knot. If you've been to Cookeville, you've seen the sign. But do you know what wonders are hidden inside? The Saltbox Inn is a magical place, bursting with beautiful memories. It all started back in 1970 by a collector of rare and unique things.

- Well, it was built by a gentleman that was a Tennessee tech professor. He gathered a bunch of materials together and sort of backed into it. So old barns and old sheds and old brick, and he was a pretty much a do-it-yourselfer.

- [Miranda] Suzanne and Ed Buck have called the Saltbox home since the '90s. And the unusual name is more practical than you might think.

- The roof on this building is a saltbox style roof. When you have two stories in the front, a short roof and then a really long roof down to a one story, it's a saltbox. It's named after an architectural design.

- [Miranda] Another architectural wonder is this meticulously crafted log staircase in the great room.

- [Ed] Mr. Buchanan built that himself. He had leftover logs from building the home. But they told him he wouldn't be able to do it, and he just decided he would.

- The Bucks raised a family in this eclectic farmhouse. But when their children were grown, they decided they wanted to share their beautiful 5,300 square foot home with others.

- We thought that we could live here and have a B&B and have guests inn. Hmm, no. No. You know, you can be messy and you can't be messy with guests.

- [Miranda] So the Bucks moved to a smaller cabin on the property and refurbished the 22 acres into a dream bed and breakfast and event venue.

- I woke up one night and Suzanne said, "Are you awake?" And I said, "Yeah, I'm awake." She goes, "You think this is gonna work?" I said, "Well, I think if you build it, they will come." And she said, "Well, I sure hope so." And it was received by Cookville a lot better than we ever thought it would be. People became very excited about it and it became very popular.

- [Suzanne] I was crying that it wouldn't work and that nobody would come and we would go broke. And then it was like, "Oh my, now I'm crying that, how can we keep up?"

- I really thought if we could just do one or two weddings a month and, you know, maybe rent a few rooms, we could pay the mortgage. And the year before the virus, I think we did 45 weddings and 65 other events.

- [Miranda] The Saltbox Inn offers six luxurious bedrooms, a swimming pool, a hot tub, seven buildings and five picturesque wedding and event locations. They can accommodate almost any request and can host up to 600 guests. They even have some pretty fancy options of getaway cars. From this 1958 Tennessee themed pickup truck to this vintage Rolls Royce.

- [Suzanne] We can do as much or as little. We can get DJs, we can get bands, we can get caterers, we have a lady that does cakes. We kind of let a bride design her own. If she brings things in herself, that's great. If she wants us to do it, we can do that too.

- [Ed] Lots of gardens and patios and fountains and those types of things. 22 acres of land. We have a waterfall. We have a cave. Some interesting pieces on our property.

- [Miranda] As Tennessee is becoming more and more of a destination wedding location, the Saltbox Inn may be the perfect one-stop shop for a trip down the aisle.

- [Suzanne] Well, they can come in on Friday, get set up, have their rehearsal dinner, spend the night, you know, have ceremony and reception the next day, spend the night, get up on Sunday, clean up. It's just a whole weekend that they have a lot of time, kind of mini family reunions sometimes that weddings turn into. But, you know, everybody can just stay here. And so it's a fun time for the whole weekend.

- [Miranda] The Saltbox Inn also host Christmas parties, fundraisers, corporate events, and much more. The Bucks loves sharing their family home and treasures with others, offering up the perfect backdrop for family memories and introducing Cookville to people from around the world with stunning views, inn keepers well-versed in Southern hospitality, and a name you will never forget.

- But I mean, I love it. I love people. So it's fun meeting people, and you end up having friends that you never knew you would have. I mean, some people will call and go, "Now, is this the Sandbox?" I'm like, "No, it's the Saltbox."

- Every year, more and more people are discovering our beautiful state, and they're moving here. Now, that's great news for our economy, but not so good for our wildlife. Laura Faber gives us a behind the scenes look at a rare wildlife resource in the mid-state, and it's all about helping the animals thrive.

- [Laura] Behind every adorable photo of a baby animal, there is a story of a good deed, rehabilitation, and survival.

- Hi.

- [Staff] Hi. So we found the siblings.

- [Laura] Every day, one after the other, kind-hearted Tennesseans bring all kinds of injured and orphaned animals to a place called Walden's Puddle. Located in Jolton, this professionally staffed wildlife rehabilitation center serves 39 Tennessee counties. Carolyn Pendarvis is the operations manager.

- We're one of the largest wildlife rehabilitators here. We bring in orphaned, ill, and animals that are in need of care that cannot survive on their own without medical care. We bring those back into the wildlife center. We give them the food, the medicine, the nutrition that they need. They may be with us 24 hours or they may be with us for six weeks. Whatever that care is, we provide 100% of that back to that animal so that they can released back into the wild where they belong.

- [Laura] Walden's Puddles started in 1989 by a backyard rehabber named Vicki Carter, with a mission to help native species. The need grew, and the organization transformed. Now led by musician and animal lover Lane Brody, it meets incredibly high standards and licensing requirements.

- Although we're not deemed as sanctuary, we think of ourselves as a sanctuary. All of our animals here are in, they're in a rehabilitation mode. So we require quiet. We don't have animal viewings here. We're not a zoo. So you can't just kind of walk the grounds.

- [Laura] Drop-offs are by appointment only, and animal care technician Rebecca Garner says only trained staff and volunteers handle the animals.

- [Rebecca] We provide a service for the public in Middle Tennessee to take care of any injured, sick, or orphaned wildlife so that they can bring it here, we can rehabilitate it, and then we can release it back where it was found.

- [Laura] There are a handful of non-releasable animals that live at Walden's Puddle, like Graden the Grackle, an intelligent bird.

- He was attacked by a cat when he was a fledgling, so when he was learning to fly. So unfortunately, he ended up with some neurological issues and he unfortunately can't fly anymore, so he gets to spend his days here.

- This is Nigini. She's an albino corn snake, an educational ambassador for Walden's Puddle for 13 years, and she's never bitten anyone yet. King Arthur, a gorgeous red-tailed hawk, is actually a she.

- [Rebecca] She was hit by a vehicle and that impaired her ability to fly. And she also has some visual issues as well.

- [Laura] But the main focus is doing whatever it takes to return animals to the wild.

- We get over 2,000 animals every year. So we have a wide range of, we have to tube feed and syringe feed our babies. For our foxes, we get a lot with mange. So we have to treat the mange and then we have to get them back up to weight. So we have to feed them, we have to make sure that they are having clean bedding and nutrition while they're here so they can grow. We also have to do wound care on anything that's been attacked by something and has an open wound. And we have to treat any eye infections, we have to give fluids, medications, and we have to do this for a wide range of species.

- Human interaction is kept to a minimum. Animals stay from three weeks to a year. Once stabilized, they are moved to a pre-release enclosure with more space to build up strength, then tested to be sure they are exhibiting the proper behavior to survive. And finally, it's release day. Today, a pair of red foxes that came from the back of Sylvia Herzog's property. She first saw them on her security footage.

- I noticed that the male started to come out during the day, which is very unusual. And he was looking for food. He was very thin and his eyes were almost shut. He was almost blind. And so I knew he couldn't hunt 'cause of his eyes.

- [Laura] Both had mange, a huge skin problem with this species, but now are healthy. The male darts out. But the female, well, not all releases go as planned and the crate is dismantled. Finally, she runs.

- [Staff] Never seen that happen ever.

- Only for .

- I think we're very fortunate, and we have so much building in Nashville. A lot of the habitats are shrinking. And so that puts stress on the environment. And so we're seeing a lot more wild animals because of that. So it's great that we have Walden's Puddle to take care of our wildlife. The gift to the town, really.

- [Laura] A gift indeed. Walden's Puddle does not accept state or federal funding. It relies on donations of which 92% go directly to animal care. A rare and wonderful thing.

- [Carolyn] Every time we pick up the telephone, we remind ourself that it's all for the animals and that these people care. Oh my goodness. Laura, they really, really care about what's going on here.

- Have you ever seen a painting that you thought was a photograph, with details so exact that you thought they had to be machine made? Well, Diane Davich Craig certainly has an eye and an ear for detail, a trait which the artist and musician often considered a curse, until she discovered how to harness her talent, as Ed Jones explains.

- I'd always been interested in art, but music's kind of all encompassing. So after many years of playing the flute, I decided that I might just give art a try.

- [Ed] Diane Davich Craig is a woman on a mission. She's constantly in pursuit of perfection. That's true whether she's in front of a music stand or a canvas. Now, while it's generally considered a good thing to be the best you can be, for an artist, it can be downright distressing.

- I am really detail-oriented, you know? And I think if you're in a music career, you've always had to be detail-oriented. So you come up with that background and you just don't have a choice. When I first started, I thought I'll be a landscape painter and I'll paint all these rolling fields around Nashville. And then I realized I'm gonna paint every straw, every blade of grass, every little leaf on the tree. And I took a class with Charles Brinley, and he said, "You can't just paint every leaf." And I go, "But it's there, you know? I gotta paint it." And so then I realized landscapes not for me.

- [Ed] Fortunately, Diane was inspired by a Pennsylvania artist, Anthony Waichulis, who taught her a style of painting that fit her to a T. A T that stands for Trompe l'oeil.

- Trompe l'oeil means fool the eye, which actually means so realistic that you want to just pull the little things out of the painting. And it's true. If you saw his work, you just go, "That can't be a painting." I really work toward getting things really realistic looking. And what I do is, first of all, I use a lot of tiny brushes a lot of times to do very, very small details. But it's kind of a magic trick. Sometimes I'll put just that little dot of white highlight and I go, "Wow, now it looks like it's something real.

- [Ed] Helping herself and others deal with the realities of life is a side benefit to Diane's artistic endeavors. She started painting to take her mind off of her father's illness, which led to "Clyde's Ride," a tribute to her dad. While "Knockout" was inspired by her husband's health issues.

- Think about all the people that are fighting, like, fighting cancer. And we had just found out my husband had cancer, and I thought, "I'm gonna do something about fighting" and how you fight, and you can get through those things. "The Heartbreak Hotel," again, I didn't think about what it meant to me until I'd already started the painting. And then I thought, you know, "We all do have kind of our heart breaks." And I thought, that's just like a pearl 'cause it causes pain to the oyster. And eventually, that just covers over and it heals the pain.

- [Ed] Don't get the wrong idea. Most of Diane's work has a light whimsical feel. The vibrant colors and cartoon-like characters are guaranteed to lighten your spirits.

- I have certain feelings when I'm making the work. Everything's usually really happy for me because painting is such a happy place. And I hope that when people look at it, they get some happy thoughts and they start thinking about some people maybe they remembered and all the happy things and happy things that they're looking forward to doing. So you'll find that most of my work is very colorful and kind of on the happy side. I kind of love funny things. It kind of brings you back to your childhood. I love Mr. Bill and Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots and things like that. On eBay, I'll be scrolling around and I'll see like a box of trolls for $2 or something and I'll go, "Okay, I'm gonna get some trolls," and I'll figure out what to paint with it next, you know?

- [Ed] As musical director of the Nashville Chamber Players and an award-winning artist, Diane is often torn between her desire to paint and her original love of music. However, she was happy to discover that both creative outlets compliment each other.

- While I'm painting, I miss playing the flute. And while I'm playing the flute, I miss painting. So it's clear I kind of have to keep both going. But that's hard to do. And I don't even think I would be a good painter had I not learned the flute. So I guess that's a testament to sticking your kids in band class 'cause it really made me have an attention to detail and to learn how to learn. And that is, don't always work on the spots you can already play. Pick out those little spots that you can't do and work those one note at a time.

- [Ed] Whether one note or one brush stroke at a time, Diane Davich Craig will be thrilling the ears and eyes of her fans for a long time to come.

- Thanks, Ed. Well, that will do it for us this week, but you can check us out anytime at the website, TennesseeCrossroads.org, or the PBS App anytime you like. We hope you enjoyed the show. We sure enjoyed you being here. We'll see you next time.

- [Announcer] "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.

- [Announcer] 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.

- [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.

- [Announcer] 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.