Episode 3831

- [Announcer] "Tennessee Crossroads" is brought to you in part by:

- [Narrator] Some of our biggest checks have also made the biggest difference. The Tennessee Lottery, proud to have raised more than $7.5 billion for education. Now that's some 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.

- [Narrator] The Co-op system in Tennessee consists of independently owned Co-ops, driven to serve farmer-owners, rural lifestyle customers, and their communities throughout Tennessee and in five neighboring states. More at ourcoop.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.

- This week, we sample award-winning ice cream, learn ancient techniques from a bead artist, get a burger at the pharmacy, and watch the sparks fly in South Pittsburg. That's South Pittsburg. No Steelers around here. I'm Laura Faber. Welcome to "Tennessee Crossroads." I scream, you scream, we all scream on social media. Just kidding! We scream for ice cream, of course. Vicki Yates visited the winner of an award for Music City's best ice cream in 2024, and here's the sweet story.

- 10.72, please. Thank you. It'll ask you a few questions. Receipt if you'd like one. You having a good day?

- Oh, yeah.

- Good.

- [Vicki] Even if you weren't having a good day before, you will once you make your way into Janarty's.

- [Janelle] How are you guys?

- [Vicki] To be more precise, it's Janarty's Homemade Ice Cream shop in Smyrna.

- [Janelle] Hello. Welcome in.

- [Vicki] And the locals don't mind waiting in line-

- [Janelle] I'll be right with you guys

- For the chance at a cold ice cream cone-

- All right, there you go. Enjoy.

- Or a hot, unique flavored coffee. Jarnaty's has been in business since 2018 and as you can see, it's very popular. And the reason for that is great ice cream. Mm!

- I would say this is a really good place for ice cream because they, like, make it here. It's like a small, like, business, so it's, like, a really good place to come. You can gather, there's lots of places to eat, and they have really good flavors.

- [Vicki] The benefactors of all of this creamy goodness are Janelle and Marty Schiff. That's where the name Jarnaty's comes from.

- Well, we wanted to do something different than any other ice cream shop. Most ice cream shops will do... A lot of them do the same thing. And we just looked at Smyrna, and Smyrna doesn't have a homemade ice cream shop, and especially the way we do it, we make everything from scratch, and we wanted to be different, kind of set ourselves apart from other places. And so that's what we did.

- [Vicki] Marty and Janelle were inspired by an impressive group of investors, better known as "Shark Tank."

- [Marty] Well, we watched "Shark Tank" and Food Network. We watched, like, "Chopped" and different things like that and kind of got ideas from "Chopped" about our ice cream, different flavoring pairings, and that kind of thing. But as far as "Shark Tank," we watched how business is run, how they run, how the money side of it runs, and business concepts.

- We just quit careers. I was in nursing school. He had gone from musician to grocery and was working really, really hard and trying for management, and just the grind was really hard on him. And so he said, "Do you think this idea is crazy?" I said, "Yes. Let's do it."

- [Vicki] And do it they did. Marty, former guitarist for Martina McBride, is a lover of ice cream but has celiac disease. So he makes sure that everything in Jarnaty's is gluten-free, from the coffee to the sweets. And, of course, that includes all of the ice cream.

- And there's a lot of bad gluten-free things out there. But ours, I cook. I'm kind of more of a cook than I'm an ice cream maker, but I've learned how to make things taste that like they're not gluten-free.

- [Vicki] And while you can often find that you have to wait in line, no one seems to mind.

- We were hoping for families, of course; what I didn't expect, sad note, but beautiful, is people coming on their high notes, coming on their days where it's celebratory. What catches me off guard is when people come, and it may be their worst day, but you're the best thing that's happening in that day. We have a regular, he's been coming since the beginning, and he's sadly on hospice now, but his beautiful bright spot in his day is his daughter coming to our shop, getting his favorite ice cream, and bringing it to him.

- [Vicki] Speaking of daughters, Marty and Janelle have three of their own: a five-year-old, a seven-year-old, and their eldest daughter, KJ. KJ is also a Jarnaty's employee, specifically the manager. And she's responsible for much of the artwork, including that in coffee.

- It's more fun for me. It's actually a big reason why I feel motivated to come in every day. Not just because they're my parents and stuff, but just it motivates me a lot to do things like this to help them out.

- [Vicki] And now that Jarnaty's has become a popular downtown destination, Janelle says that reputation brought an unexpected guest.

- [Janelle] And we've been blessed to have someone from the Food Network come in and say that it's some of the best she's had. And I said, "Don't lie to me. Maneet, don't lie to me." But she said, "No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't. This is amazing." We're boutique, and we know we are. In Smyrna, they've welcomed that, and people, you know, they come in and they just got their paycheck and they worked an hour to buy our scoop of ice cream. And we don't take that lightly and don't take it for granted.

- Thanks, Vicki. Educating younger generations about different cultures is a passion of the artist featured in this next story. Sally Wells, a revered Choctaw Indian elder, is a master of several endangered Tennessee art forms. Even at 80-ish years young, she is still creating and teaching.

- You look beautiful.

- [Sally] Well, thank you.

- How you doing?

- [Sally] I'm good.

- Beautiful work.

- [Sally] Well, thank you.

- [Laura] At the annual Nashville Pow Wow, Sally Wells is treated like a celebrity by people who attend. She has been influential in the Native American community in this state for more than half a century.

- My parents moved us to Tennessee when I was about 12 years old, and we've lived here since. I was born and raised at Choctaw Indian Reservation in Philadelphia, Mississippi. I've been here in Nashville area around 50 years. The government relocated Indian people off the reservation because there was nothing for them to do, and we were starving. So my parents move us to Tennessee. My parents, they can't do nothing but working on a farm. So they move us to here.

- [Laura] Raised on the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indian Reservation, Sally is one of eight children who years ago moved with a small group of Choctaw to West Tennessee. Now considered a master of several endangered Indian art forms, Sally is a bead worker, dressmaker, traditional cook, and speaker of the Choctaw language.

- [Sally] Yeah, I learned all my stuff. Anything I do back here that I prepared, my mom, my mother, is one in charge of all that. She used to say that we need to learn to take care of ourself when we get older. And she said, "This is one of the things that I did." So she teach us how to all the beadworks and all the basketmaker and clothes and all that. So that's how I learned. I was maybe about 12. And rest of the stuff, making dresses and beadworks and cook and all that, it's come from my mom.

- [Laura] When Sally creates beadwork, she doesn't use a pattern. So how do you come up with the patterns? When you are making a piece, you just have it all in your head? But the patterns do have meaning. The Choctaw wear elaborate beaded clothing and jewelry for special occasions.

- Things like maybe wedding or something like that. So that's why they used all these beadworks and stuff. That's why we always wear our jewelry, we call it jewelry, when something special come up. These are arrowheads, that's what they hunt to survive to eat. And then I got diamonds on my skirt like that. If you look at the rattlesnake on top of the head, that's what diamonds are, that's what it represent. Everything we normally do is animal of some kind that represent, that we appreciate it. That's what we live for.

- [Laura] Her work is intentional and her skill is undeniable. Sally doesn't consider herself an artist, but she has been featured as an artist in residence at several Tennessee museums, and she was honored with the Governor's Art Award in 2019.

- [Sally] Tennessee does not recognize American Indian here when Governor Lee choose me and give me award for 2019 for my work. And I was pleased with that. It was so honored because nobody know us.

- Sally has been in charge of the Arts and Crafts Demonstration Village at the Native American Indian Association of Tennessee's Pow Wow for decades and ensures that all vendors and demonstrators are Native artists practicing authentic art forms. The goal? To teach Tennesseans about this culture. You will always find Sally demonstrating her beading artistry here at the Annual Pow Wow. She actually helped create this event years ago. It's a way for the Choctaw community to connect and a way for the tribe to share its heritage with all of Tennessee. Education about the Native American culture is a lifelong passion for Sally Wells and no question goes unanswered.

- They asked, question mark, "Do you eat pizza?" And then he said... That was it. "How come you don't wear feathers?" Things like that. And I just appreciate that they asked because I can teach them. You know, I don't know if you remember that or not, but, you know, we wear feathers for a reason. I had six grandkids, and I want him to learn before I go. It's just heritage, I guess, who we are. And I guess that's what I want them to learn, where they come from.

- Our next story covers another award winner, this one for burgers. Cindy Carter headed to the pharmacy to see if she agreed. Spoiler alert: she did.

- [Cindy] In East Nashville, the prescription for a great burger can easily be filled at this neighborhood pharmacy, The Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden, to be exact.

- A lot of people say we're the best burger in Nashville. Something we don't take lightly, something we don't assume is the case. But it's really wonderful to hear that from our patrons.

- [Cindy] And if that doesn't clue you into what the pharmacy specializes in, pay attention to the restaurant's full name and you've got a pretty good idea of what's on the menu. Great burgers, milkshakes and old-fashioned soda fountain drinks once found in most American pharmacies, as well as German wurst and beer selections that are often sipped and savored in this beautiful beer garden.

- [Daniel] We have a large beer garden outback, which we think's one of the best outdoor spaces in Nashville. We really love hosting people out there.

- [Cindy] Daniel Frasier is the Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden's general manager. He's also a man who is very enthusiastic about burgers and this kitchen cooks up a lot of them, gourmet in every way.

- [Daniel] So our top-seller is the Pharmacy Burger. That's our flagship. It's your classic with lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, yellow mustard with some cheddar cheese. Just a great classic burger. But a newer addition to our menu which is our White Oak BBQ Burger. One of my favorites. We make a house-made Coca-Cola barbecue sauce and we smoke our own onions on it to get that smoky flavor in the sauce. We also got some fried onions on top of there, some Gifford's bacon with pickles and provolone cheese. It's really, really lovely. Really lovely. One of our more unique burgers is the Stroganoff Burger, which is our take on a Stroganoff bechamel. We use a mushroom bechamel cream sauce with caramelized onions, Swiss cheese, and a little sour cream. It's one of the more unique ones, I really enjoy. It's really lovely, especially in the fall and winter when you're wanting something a little hardy.

- [Cindy] And that's just a taste of the burger offerings which include vegetarian selections such as the Black Bean Burger and Falafel Burger. Just like an actual old-time pharmacy, this pharmacy gets creative with its milkshakes and sodas, all dreamed up in their soda shop. Okay, so it's the restaurant's bar, but one that has plenty of family-friendly offerings.

- [Daniel] Our Creamsicle Soda's one of our favorite, kind of a classic orange soda there. We also make a classic Pharmacy Cream Soda, which is our take on a cream soda, that's one of my favorites. The Mint Phosphate is also really good, just a classic mint, really refreshing. And a lot of people also enjoy our ginger and our strawberry-ginger soda where we're using our fresh ginger to make our syrup. We use a little bit of jalapeno in there to give it an extra kick.

- [Cindy] Sodas served with a few modern twists but they still use a vintage soda gun to ensure authenticity.

- I'll make a Pharmacy Cream Soda to show. So we're gonna use our house-made vanilla and lemon syrups there, add a dash of some custom-made acid phosphate like they used to do in the old-timey days. That's when we're gonna add our soda from the authentic 1950s soda gun there.

- Full disclosure, The Pharmacy was never an actual pharmacy but there was once a drug store located on the adjacent property. And when the owner of both properties was developing the land, he came across hundreds of these old-time pharmacy bottles. Thus the inspiration. A few of those bottles are displayed throughout the restaurant, along with other memorabilia to remind patrons The Pharmacy is local, part of the community. And that's exactly what owner Cees Brinkman had in mind when he opened The Pharmacy in 2011.

- And the neighbors, initially, were somewhat, of course, against it, but later on, they said, "You know, since you guys opened, people walk again after dark on the street with their kids." That is so beautiful and that's what my goal has been for this area and it worked out really well.

- [Cindy] What has also worked out really well is the restaurant's beautiful beer garden. Cees believes a space like this can't help but attract locals who want to get together, have fun, and connect. It's also a great place to enjoy the restaurant's very best of their wurst.

- [Daniel] We smoke and pack and grind our own wurstchen in-house. Bratwurst, knackwurst, bauernwurst, and jagerwurst. Burgers are definitely the main attraction but we like to think people come back for the sausages a lot of times.

- [Cindy] And of course this wouldn't be a German beer garden without beer.

- [Daniel] We don't serve any domestics here. We've got beer that we think can meet all tastes and styles. We wanna give you an experience that maybe, it's familiar, it feels homey, but it's also gonna be slightly different.

- [Cindy] The Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden has a little something for everyone. So, if you find yourself at East Nashville, hungry for good food and a really cool atmosphere, this pharmacy has just what the doctor ordered.

- Thank you, Cindy. I am hungry now. Well, chances are you have at least one piece of cast iron cookware in your kitchen. And chances are, it came from a factory in Tennessee. Lodge Cast Iron has been making heirloom-quality cookware since 1896, and the legacy lives on.

- [Joe] Things are pretty quiet on the picturesque Main Street of South Pittsburg. However, just a couple of hundred yards away... Lodge is one of the oldest, most successful manufacturers of cast iron cookware in America, from humble beginnings in 1896 to today, with state-of-the-art foundries, turning out skillets and more with amazing precision and speed.

- We're gonna go from a raw material, the pig iron, that you see on the ground, to a finished product in a box, ready to go to our consumers and our fans in 2 1/2 hours.

- [Joe] And according to Lodge veteran Larry Raydo, that's more than 1,600 pieces an hour on one foundry machine.

- It's a fascinating process, and it's not something that people get to see every day.

- [Joe] Well, this must be our lucky day. We're getting an inside visit at one of the two main foundries, where an age-old process combines with new skills and technology. It all starts with a combination of pig iron, recycled steel, and castings from the foundry. Then the material is heated for 45 minutes at about 2,800 degrees. A bag of silicone is added at a precise time to increase tensile strength. Impurities, called slag, rise to the surface, and they have to be removed before casting. A cast is made by pouring molten iron into molds made of sand with some water and clay added. Sand molding has been around since 680 BC, and for good reason. You see, sand melts at a higher temperature than iron, so it holds its shape when it comes in contact with molten metals. A vibrating conveyor helps shake off the molding sand, then a rotating drum filled with iron media finishes the job. In the finishing area, each product is blasted with steel shot. Then they use a grinder to remove any possible rough edges. And finally, the newly-cast cookware gets a bath of soap and water with steel media added to enhance the finish. Before 2002, the final process was all up to you, the customer, a process called seasoning.

- It was coated in wax. The consumer would have to go home, wash it, take the wax off, coat it with oil, put it in your oven. And what did you get? 450 degrees in the oven, maybe? I don't know. And you'd have to smoke up your kitchen, and then it would only come out a caramel color. Most folks think cast iron seasoning comes out black when Grandma used to make them and all that, they didn't. We developed a seasoning process in-house here, completely in-house, where we actually apply the oil and send it through industrial ovens at about 650 degrees, and they're in there 13, 14 minutes, and they come out black, ready to use.

- Well, since visitors aren't allowed inside the foundry while it's in operation, you can enjoy the next best thing with a virtual tour here inside the Lodge state-of-the-art museum. It's a fascinating destination for folks who love all things cast iron and for those who just wanna explore the history of America's original cookware. Brand Development Manager Walker Henley showed me around.

- The story of how we make our products is really the first thing people wanna see, so we infused a lot of the foundry process into our museum. Also, of course, the history and legacy of Lodge. We've been here 126 years. We've got generations of stories to tell, family ownership, generational employees. The evolution of our foundry industry is also very interesting. And then, of course, just the fun stuff. How do we use cast iron? We cook food with it, we celebrate it, online, with each other, we make memories. So it's really a celebration of all things cast iron.

- [Joe] While I was there, I met Bob Kellerman, a great-grandson of Lodge founder Joseph Lodge and now retired CEO.

- I miss the people greatly, we have a lot of wonderful folks around here, but I don't miss the stress or responsibility. It's like I have seven Saturdays a week now.

- Bob may be retired now, but still loves extolling the virtues of newer Lodge products, like the Blacklock series.

- It's triple-seasoned, so it's like you're buying Grandmama's pan.

- [Joe] Well, Grandma never had a choice of cookware like this. It's the Lodge Factory Store, where visitors can shop for their own heirloom-quality cookware, bakeware, and all kinds of kitchen accessories, and at home, they'll continue this cast iron tradition and pass it on to future generations.

- [Walker] We make a product that is, comparatively speaking, inexpensive and lasts forever.

- That's all the time we have for this week. Check out our webpage, Facebook page, and YouTube channel for tons of content. Meanwhile, we'll see you next time. Thanks for watching

- [Announcer] "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 two 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.

- [Narrator] The Co-op system in Tennessee consists of independently owned Co-ops, driven to serve farmer-owners, rural lifestyle customers, and their communities throughout Tennessee and in five neighboring states. More at ourcoop.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.