Episode 3927

- [Presenter] Tennessee Crossroads is brought to you in part by.

- [Announcer] 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.

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- [Announcer 3] 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 find the taste of Chicago in Tennessee. Discover a unique hotel in Linden, meet a Cookeville artist who works in different mediums and tour an outstanding Tennessee State Park. We've got a little something for everyone, howdy, I'm Ketch Secor welcoming you to Tennessee Crossroads. We're known for some very distinct food down here in the south, y'all, but sometimes you might just crave something with more of a northern twist. In our first story, Miranda Cohen introduces us to a family who has put the Chicago cuisine on the Tennessee map.

- [Miranda] It is a very favorite spot. Campione's taste of Chicago is the place to get the most authentic food from the windy city. And it's located in Gallatin, you know where.

- You know where the Kroger is here, where's another one? You know where that is, over by there. You know where the gas station is, what's over by there?

- [Miranda] And they serve it all with a smile and a great sense of humor.

- Now you're talking about pop, yeah, we offer, we offer a pop. Yeah, not Coke, knowing what kind of Coke do you want, it's a pop.

- [Miranda] And they dish up all the delicious Chi-town classics, hot dogs, fresh Italian beef, sausages, pasta and of course pizza. Four generations of Campione descendants are bringing the very best Italian family recipes to Tennessee.

- I have gotten to work with generations of my family, my grandparents whose original recipe and the name Campione's is after. So being that they're not here anymore, I treasure every one of those minutes.

- [Miranda] Jessica Russell and her husband Jeff are the owners, they took over from her parents, Rob and Mama Deb Coxworth, who started Campione's nearly 20 years ago when they realized there were lots of Chicago transplants who were hungry for a taste of home.

- We just took all of our savings and put it on a dream to bring a flavor to a place that never had it. Just to watch someone take their first bite of a beef sandwich or somebody that hasn't been back home to have one for 20, 30 years. We've had people walk through the door and walk in here and just start crying because they feel like they got to go home.

- You know, it's our goal to transport 'em back to Chicago, get that feel of, you know, not just the overall vibe of it, but the experience that we give them. You know, we, you know, mention, you know, Hey no ketchup, forget about it. You know that kind of things.

- [Miranda] First up, their award-winning Italian beef is a must.

- [Jeff] Italian beef is simple but complicated. You start off with a top round steak and it's cooked in its own juices for a long period of time. Cooled off overnight and you slice it up paper thin and then it's put put back in those juices and warmed back up. And then you take all those nice slices of meat, you put it into the sandwich, you actually take the sandwich and you dunk it back in the juices. And then you top it with either a giardiniera pepper or a sweet bell pepper.

- This place is the bomb, this is so authentic. They have the bread, the beef, the gravy, everything is just authentic, it's marvelous.

- My way is put some sweet peppers on it. But you also tell 'em you want it dipped or you want it wet. So it makes the bread nice and soft.

- [Miranda] And of course colorful, flavor packed pure beef hot dogs with the works, well almost everything.

- [Jeff] And then it has to have mustard, neon green Chicago relish is a big one. Tomatoes, onions, pickles, sports peppers, and a dash of celery salt. And it has to be on a poppy seed bun.

- [Miranda] One condiment did not make that list.

- No, no ketchup.

- [Miranda] And you can't have a Chicago food conversation without deep dish pizza. That is a thing of beauty.

- Yeah, you can see the pieces all messed up 'cause they did the cheese It tastes even better than it looks.

- [Miranda] So deep dish is Chicago pizza, right?

- What, is it goofy?

- Okay, so it turns out authentic, windy city pie is made thin and crispy with an almost cracker crust. Okay Jeff, so you're getting this pizza out of the oven. It smells delicious, thin and crispy, right, Chicago pizza. Thin and crispy. Okay, so what is the next step, let me guess. You're gonna cut it in diamonds, right, in triangles.

- No, thin crust Chicago style pizza, we cut into squares. What they call tavern cutter party cuts. So classic Chicago pizza is sausage and giardiniera pizza. So giardiniera is a spice mixture. It's a spicy blend of basically pickled vegetables. All right, so we're gonna grab a corner piece. It's gonna be hot, cheers.

- Cheers.

- Nice and crunchy.

- Delicious, absolutely delicious. And finally, the godfather of all desserts, handmade and filled to order.

- Cannolis, our iconic Chicago dessert. We actually have a cheesecake but it is Tennessee cheesecake. We're not messing with that. But we make our own homemade brownies, cookies, we have caramel apples 'cause they're in season right now. So something's changed seasonally.

- [Miranda] Campione's taste of Chicago is sure to transport you back to the land of the bears, the bulls, the cubs and the hawks. But the taste of authentic Chicago cuisine and the warm and hearty heartland welcome will bring you back.

- [Jessica] The love that we put into the food. That's the secret ingredient, you have to cook with passion. You can't cook with an ugly heart is what my mom used to say. So if you do that, bitterness transfers into the food to make those recipes that we grew up with and share that and honor my grandparents who were a huge part of this restaurant and those recipes and the love that went into that food.

- [Deb] I mean that's priceless, families, everything. If nothing else in life at the end of the day is your family.

- It felt amazing seeing our family bring recipes that we've grown up making every Sunday and all come together and do that and share it with other people. It is a really neat thing to be able to share that.

- Hey, thanks Miranda. Well, judging from the name of our next 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, Tennessee. 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 mini 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. They've been, especially in 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. That's awesome. Elvis supposedly had his hair cut here in town one day.

- It was a shave.

- It was a shave, yes.

- [Michael] 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] 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.

- [Cindy] 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.

- [Cindy] 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 locked 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 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 the 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 or 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 lower your blood pressure.

- [Cindy] And the Commodore Hotel is also 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

- Fun, well thanks Cindy. You know, traditional artists say there's nothing more satisfying than making something with their hands completely from scratch. Laura Faber introduces us to a Cookeville artist who's doing just that in multiple mediums, from portraits to murals to bronze sculptures. And chances are you've seen her amazing work and thought, how did she do that?

- [Laura] There are many tools in an artist's studio and in Cookeville, Tennessee, Cindy Billingsley uses them all, whether painting one of her exquisite wildlife portraits or molding and sculpting clay.

- I sold portraits in high school. I was probably known in high school for the one always dragging art around because I always had something in my hand. Portraits, it was my main focus for probably 15 years or more.

- [Laura] Cindy's work can be found all across Tennessee. Her murals and sculptures are inside the children's section in the Brentwood Library. As a student of fine art and illustration, portraits and wildlife have always been a passion. But her interest in sculpture peaked after seeing an exhibit, a French sculpture, Auguste Rodin.

- When I saw Rodin exhibit and then they had Camille Claudel, which was kind of his assistant, you know, and they had part of her, you know, something just clicked and I just wanted to sculpt and so I started learning my own, picking up books and stuff and what clay I could find. And then they had a head class I took at Watkins School of Art there. And then that's when Alan LeQuire was teaching the class. And then I kept pestering him, don't you want an apprentice? Don't you want an apprentice?

- [Laura] Of course LeQuire is a master sculptor in Nashville whose work includes Athena at the Parthenon and Musica on Music Row.

- [Cindy B.] He never had a female apprentice. So it took me a long time to talk him into.

- [Laura] Cindy learned every step of sculpting, including the art of casting. A 7,000 year old complex process used to take a sculpture from clay to a mold which then can be bronzed. One of her most recent sculptures is the bronze lion that sits at the Brentwood Police Headquarters. It's a five foot long memorial that honors fallen officers and those who have served 20 plus years.

- [Cindy B.] The chief of police in Brentwood had decided he wanted a sculpture for the memorial. He had seen that Washington DC has some like a grouping of lions. So he had saw that when he wanted something similar. And so I really wanted the job because I, you know, I'd done a lot of wildlife and it was right up my alley and it was like, and I wanted a bronze, you know, 'cause a large life-sized bronze commission. And so I did, I sent him like probably five or six different sketches of different lions like standing up or lying down. Do you want him powerful and like brave or do you want him like solemn because it's a memorial. The chief wanted him, the lion alert and protective.

- [Laura] The lion took 250 hours to complete, starting with 400 pounds of white oil-based clay supported by pipes and metal mesh so it wouldn't collapse and could be transported to the foundry for bronzing.

- [Cindy B.] I like creating it, but I like the response you get from people because an artist always, especially a sculptor, they live to do a life-size bronze because it's something that's out in the public and it's gonna outlive them.

- [Laura] On this day, Cindy is creating another life-size sculpture, a public commission for a city in Indiana of a woman named Marie Stuart Edwards.

- [Cindy B.] She was a suffragette in Indiana and she was big in suffragette. She was one of the main suffragette and so she was known when she was like 12 years old to get the first bicycle in the town. So bicycles at the time were the first thing it gave really women freedom because this was, so she grew up in like 1890s and so back then you had to get somebody to like drive the carriage for you or drive the car for you. So women were never like could just get on something and go and so bicycle was the first time they could like just go somewhere by themselves.

- Every project begins with hours of research from data and historical photographs, inanimate to actually observing wildlife. All of Cindy's life size sculptures consist of hundreds of hours of work and they all start on a smaller scale called a maquette. This is her suffragist sculpture that she's working on now. This is the bronze lion that sits now in front of the Brentwood Police Department. And this will be a seven foot eagle that will hang on the memorial wall at the Cookeville Police Department.

- So for seven foot eagle, I've gotta put all the feathers in the right, I've gotta know all the feather, interior feathers of the wings. I gotta know how the wings work, I gotta know how the heads and the talons work. So I have to do all the bird research on that end before I even, you know, start the large sculpture.

- [Laura] The maquettes allow Cindy to troubleshoot and calculate the scale she needs to get to the lifesize version. But it's when Cindy can combine painting and sculpture and a social issue that she is most fulfilled.

- [Cindy B.] To me it's like speaking in two different languages. I can have an idea and I might be able to relay it better in painting as a narrative or I might want you to come up close and have something to touch and feel like a sculpture.

- [Laura] For instance, she had a very personal connection to an exhibit on Alzheimer's disease.

- [Cindy B.] My whole life mom was my biggest supporter and I probably wouldn't have been able to be an artist if it wasn't for mom's support. When she got Alzheimer's and she was losing her voice, art was a way I could give her voice back to her. Plus it was a place for me to put my emotions of, you know, 'cause you're watching your mom disappear day after day.

- [Laura] Her sculptures are incredibly detailed. Her wildlife portraits look like photographs like this painting of George, a bison from a nearby ranch in Cookeville or these bees, one of my favorites.

- [Cindy B.] Our talent make a living, I feel extremely lucky. Yeah, it's the only thing I ever wanted to do.

- [Laura] Weathered by the stroke of a brush or molding a block of clay with her hands. Cindy Billingsley is a true talent.

- Hey, thanks Laura. Well our final segment is the next installment in our Tennessee State Park series produced by John Geiter. This week John takes us to beautiful Roan Mountain State Park.

- My favorite thing about Roan Mountain is just the uniqueness of the area. It's such a biodiverse part of the state. It's home to tons of rare and endangered species, plants and animals that we have right here within in the park boundaries, which is pretty cool. I'm Monica Johnson, Park Manager at Roan Mountain State Park. So I'm excited to talk about the park and why it's so special to East Tennessee. And one of those noteworthy things to point out, I think is this Appalachian farm that we are currently at today that gives visitors an opportunity to step back in history when they come and visit the park. During peak season, we give tours of the house and that also allows the visitors to experience a glimpse of what farming was like back then. Another key point of our history is the Peg Leg Mine. Back in the mid 18 hundreds, John T. Wilder spearheaded iron mining in this area. The mine on the park itself was actually mined for iron. That iron was transported across the Doe River to a smelter and then a water wheel operated a 500 pound trip hammer that would bust the iron up. They would load it on the train and take it to Cranberry, North Carolina. And then from Cranberry, North Carolina it would go to the steel mills up in Ohio and Pennsylvania for steel production. In terms of visitors coming is just the opportunity to unplug. We don't have cell service within the park and very few of our facilities have wifi. So it allows people to kind of detach from reality and get back to nature, which I think is a key thing for us working here and our visitors coming. Just to be able to get away from the hustle and bustle of the everyday life of working and being in a city and all that. A lot of people use the park as a base camp for adventure. There's a lot of things to do in the surrounding areas and visitors like to come here, camp, stay in our cabins, and then kind of venture out. Our cabins are very unique in the fact that there's no other park in the state that has cabins set up quite like ours. They're tucked into the ridges of the park and back in the mountains. They're very wooded, very unique cabins. They have wood fireplaces in them. They do have central heat and air and wifi now, but we don't have TVs. And I think that's another unique opportunity for people to experience connecting with your family, connecting with your kids that we have kind of lost over the years, I feel like. During the fall, the fall colors, they're just typically always really bright and colorful. And then obviously winter, we do get snow. And on a pretty regular basis, I think we average somewhere between 80 to a hundred inches a year depending on the season. Right now we have snow, it came early. And then I experienced this just last night and for the first time I got to see the northern lights within the park boundaries. As a manager, I think my favorite part is being able to educate my staff and the visitors and how to help protect these natural and cultural resources for future generations.

- Well that brings us to the close of another show. Check out our website at tennesseecrossroads.org and please join us next week. Till then, thanks for watching.

- [Presenter] Tennessee Crossroads is brought to you 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 2] Discover Tennessee Trails and Byways where adventure, cuisine and history come together with 16 scenic driving trails, you can discover why Tennessee sounds perfect. Trips can be planned at tnvacation.com.