Episode 3934

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- This time on "Tennessee Crossroads," Laura Faber gets a firsthand look at a glassblowing studio. Miranda Cohen finds a bakery that's whipping up unconventional treats. Cindy Carter gets on the barbecue train. And Joe Elmore takes us back to the days of the manual typewriter. Should be a good one. Howdy, everyone. I'm Ketch Secor, welcoming you back to "Tennessee Crossroads." Today we're featuring a centuries-old art form that has found its way to Nashville. Did you know that Music City has its first official hothouse? That's a studio where glass artwork is created. But as Laura Faber shows us, Nashville Glasshaus is so much more.

- [Laura] Tucked in between Berry Hill and Wedgewood-Houston lies Nashville Glasshaus. It's a 10,000-square-foot building that, owner Wyatt Maxwell says, gets more interesting the further in you go.

- We are in the Maxwell Gallery, but we're at the Glasshaus, which is Nashville's premier and only glassblowing studio. It's meant to very much be a place where you can interact with glass, whether you're making it or watching it.

- [Laura] When you enter, it's a coffee house where they roast and grind their own beans. But when you are in this coffee shop, you are surrounded by beautiful hand-blown works of glass art, all made on site.

- [Wyatt] The second you open the door, you're going to be inundated with installations and sculpture and artwork and the fact that, "Oh, I could take a class." I'll layer white on the base and then I'll wrap this really extra-dense cobalt blue on top, and then I'll go in and twist so it kind of starry-nights it a little bit.

- [Laura] Past the coffee shop section of the building, you enter the city's first hothouse.

- It wasn't as grandiose as it was just obvious to me that there's no place to blow glass in Nashville. Why not Nashville? It didn't make any sense to me.

- [Laura] Wyatt went to school at Center College for baseball and arts, then Belmont for business. Clay was his early passion. But after a glassblowing class, it was love at first sight.

- [Wyatt] Anything three-dimensional is, like, right up my alley.

- [Laura] Wyatt works closely with Paul J. Nelson, who he brought on board as his head of glass. Though the two are 30 years apart in age, they've known each other for years.

- Paul's very humble, but I've learned more from him in glass than anybody.

- A longtime glass artist, Paul guest-taught a class at Center that Wyatt took, and both studied under glass artist Stephen Powell.

- Glass is a living material. It's the most challenging material that I've ever worked with. It challenges me to this day. But what I really loved was the teamwork aspect of working with glass. You can't pull off difficult pieces without a big team, up to four or five people. Because the material's moving for maybe an hour and you don't have the physical strength to work the thing by yourself.

- [Laura] Watching Wyatt and Paul work in the hothouse is fascinating.

- [Paul] A lot of glass-making becomes about how you set up your bubble.

- [Laura] It's a centuries-old art form where artists inflate molten glass into a bubble using a hollow metal tube and manipulate it using heat...

- [Wyatt] At this moment, it is 289 degrees.

- [Laura] Movement...

- [Wyatt] The two things that you can't stop doing are turning the pipe and heating the glass.

- [Laura] Gravity...

- [Paul] And you can't quit. So it's a little bit of an endurance race.

- [Laura] And their breath.

- So now I can blow in. Once you have glass on the end of a pipe, there's never a time that you're not turning at all. So, really, to learn how to blow glass, you have to do it repetitiously over years. So, you don't become a glassblower over a weekend or taking an hour-long class. It takes up to two years to become a decent glassblower, and that's doing it all the time.

- You can watch the glass masters at work or take a class and make a piece yourself or with a group. But there is something else to experience at Glasshaus. Juliana, where are we?

- This is Maxwell Gallery. It's inside Nashville Glasshaus. So we are the only glass gallery in Nashville, which is really exciting. We have 720 square feet just in this room of glass artists from all over world. We represent 16 artists. We have hot sculpted, we have Murrine, flameworking, coldworking, cast. So it's really exciting 'cause it's so versatile.

- [Laura] Juliana is Wyatt's mom. She curates the gallery, and loves that it allows people to be exposed to glass on the very highest level.

- Stephen Powell is in museums around the world. He is no longer living, but he has a very sweet spot in the gallery because we probably wouldn't be here without him. We wouldn't be, because he taught Paul, our head of glass. He taught Wyatt, our founder. But his wife was really generous and trusting to trust me, a new gallerist, to show his work. And two of his pieces have sold, which is great.

- [Laura] Paul J. Nelson creates for the gallery too. One of his pieces, a glass guitar you can actually play.

- First approach was to take the guitar or the instrument to a sculptural place and look at it as a sculptural object and then be playful with it. But now I'm making actual playable guitars and banjos with glass. Glass and antique and vintage parts. So, I'm collecting all the vintage parts and then reassembling them to make something that might make a sound you've never heard.

- [Laura] Like the logo implies, Nashville Glasshaus is a happy place that combines good coffee, stunning art, and the chance to make a piece yourself.

- [Juliana] Like a lot of museums, you have to be very quiet and still and you can't come in. But I think the coffee shop kind of lets people relax and yes, you can bring your coffee and walk in. And I think the coolest thing is that we have a hot shop so they get to see it being made and they get to come in here and go, "How did they do that?"

- Getting to see people experience class for the first time, it's really cool. And then the community, like, the fact that people are receptive to experience something they've never experienced before.

- Thanks, Laura. How cool. Well, here on "Tennessee Crossroads," you know we visit bakeries all over the volunteer state. We love learning the secrets behind all those homemade cakes, pies, and cookies. Well, next up, Miranda Cohen visits a very unique specialty bakery in Mount Juliet, where they are creating the best dog-on treats for a very special clientele.

- [Miranda] These cakes, cookies, cupcakes, and treats are hand-decorated and beautifully displayed. But if you think this is just another great bakery, think again.

- [Lori] Hi, big guy. Hi, big guy. How are ya? How are ya? You're looking good.

- [Miranda] This festive local bakery in Mount Juliet has gone to the dogs, quite literally.

- If I could have a dime for every time we hear, "So this is for dogs?" and we're like, "Yep," and they're like, "It's good enough for us to eat."

- [Miranda] Sniff The Cook is a specialty dog bakery that caters to a very special clientele, big, small, short and tall. And they are all very good boys and girls. Lori Elam launched her business out of necessity, after her own canine companions developed allergies and other health issues.

- I've been making my own dog food for over 15 years and then I started making my own dog treats. 'Cause everything that was out there always had preservatives and, you know, just not stuff that I wanted to feed my dog. And doing so, it just made sense to open a business and kind of share the knowledge that I have, share all the yumminess that I'm giving my dogs, and be able to offer it to everybody in the Nashville-Mount Juliet area. We bake joy. We love what we do. Everything that we make is human-grade. We have fun creating all of our new recipes. Over the last couple years, we've created them even better, even limited more ingredients.

- [Miranda] Lori and her staff of seven talented bakers strive to use the very best natural ingredients in all of their tempting treats. Years of serious research and some taste-testing by bakery assistants, Ellie Mae and Duke, have resulted in goodies using less processing, fewer ingredients, and more of what dogs really need.

- We use all natural ingredients and we try to cater to all of the needs of the dogs. So even if a dog can't do wheat, then we have a variety, like our chickpea flour. We use honey and applesauce to sweeten. All of our coloring is all natural. So, we use turmeric for orange and yellow and spinach for green. And we just have fun with it. So we do whole wheat, we use chickpea flour. Everything that you bake with, we bake with. I do every vegetable imaginable. Obviously, I don't do grapes or raisins, but for the most part, over the years there's been more innovation. As close to Mother Nature as possible, that's always been my rule. That's kind of where my dogs are. Dogs are carnivores, so they do need their protein, and as long as you're changing up their protein. So, everything that we give to our dogs is going to be as natural as we possibly can make it, as close to Mother Nature as we can possibly be.

- [Miranda] All of the baked goods at Sniff The Cook are baked and decorated in-house. And these fetching treats have lots of special touches.

- [Lori] We do do a lot of specialty cakes. If somebody wants a pet portrait, you know, they want their portrait on top, we freehand everything.

- [Miranda] They bake up plenty of unique custom canine confections for every holiday and celebration. And their cases are always packed with seasonal goodies. Tons of birthday and "gotcha" cakes, even gender reveals.

- [Lori] That's so good.

- They also have a great retail space, including a cat corner. And they have lots of specialty foods and toys. And of course, dogs are not just welcome, they're celebrated.

- [Lori] What'd you do? What'd you do? There he is. Go get him, Deacon.

- Do you remember your favorite candy store where you could go in and buy candy by the pound? Well, here at Sniff The Cook, you could do the very same thing, but they are all wonderful, healthy treats for your canine friend. They have great flavors to choose from and, of course, they are taste-tested. Here you go. Here you go.

- [Lori] So we love it 'cause we love meeting their dogs. We love giving them our treats. We love... I mean, again, that's why we're here. We're here for the animals. We love our customers, but we do love our pets more than anybody.

- [Miranda] The staff of Sniff The Cook is also eager to help with dietary and nutritional suggestions, offering plenty of great choices for even the pickiest of pups.

- Lori's amazing. She gives the best advice. Also, she's clearly someone who loves animals. So, everything she's telling you comes from a place of love. And that's probably the most important thing. Also, the way it smells when I walk in... That's my favorite.

- But if I can give them a better quality of life by helping them with some better choices, then that's what we want to be able to do. And it puts smiles on people's faces. People may come in in a bad day or just kind in a mood, and they always leave with a smile. We do love what we do. And why not do that? Why not put smiles on people's faces and then they feel better giving their dogs something that's good for them? I mean, it's a yummy treat. My big thing is, is just getting out that knowledge, getting out the yummies and making every dog smile.

- Thanks, Miranda. Those look like some very satisfied customers. Well, our next story takes us to the home of the most famous whiskey in the world. But Cindy Carter didn't travel to Lynchburg for distilled spirits. She went to lift your spirits with the barbecue she found.

- [Cindy] All aboard. Today's destination, Lynchburg, Tennessee, as we ride the rails to some really great barbecue at the Bar-B-Que Caboose Cafe.

- Well, thanks for being here. Good to have y'all.

- [Cindy] You'll know when you arrive, a warm greeting and the distinctive smell of barbecue await all who buy a ticket.

- I love seeing the people come in, have a good time, smiles on their face. It's great.

- [Cindy] Owner Lori Frame wanders from customer to customer, making small talk and talking up all the menu items that make the Bar-B-Que Caboose a favorite spot for locals, tourists, friends, and family.

- Got your usual red-bean sauce.

- Yeah. Good deal.

- Yeah. Good deal.

- [Cindy] Lori and her husband took ownership of the cafe in 2022. Her father, Ken Fly, started the restaurant decades prior. No brick and mortar back then. Just the wagon parked on the town square and some recipes.

- And on the square, when we put it over here, we pretty much knew what we were doing and built a pretty good business doing that.

- [Cindy] Eventually, Ken took his business inside, serving up what he calls "special stuff," like barbecue sausage and ribs, which is what they were pulling off the smoker when we arrived.

- [Ken] You know, Bar-B-Que Caboose, it's got red beans and rice and jambalaya and, you know, exceptionally good ribs and pork barbecue. So, baked beans and coleslaw. It's all made right here, so it's all special.

- [Cindy] Pulled pork, smoked chicken, even barbecue pizza. Dessert? No problem, Lisa's got you covered.

- [Lisa] I make the desserts. We have a pecan pie, fudge pie, bread pudding. Lemon pies.

- [Cindy] And not surprisingly, many of the recipes prepared in the Caboose kitchen come from within Lori's family, something Lori believes sets them apart.

- [Lori] Got the favorite pecan, huh?

- Yeah.

- It's good stuff.

- It so good.

- Well, enjoy.

- The Jack Daniels distillery is less than a quarter mile away. And certainly, whiskey and barbecue go great together. But the Caboose was designed to be its own destination, independent of you know who.

- [Ken] But the idea of having Jack Daniels be in our draw was not the point. The point was to have the Bar-B-Que Caboose be a draw and have it be its own tourist destination. And so that's kind of what we worked for. ♪ You put the load right on me ♪

- [Cindy] Ken and now Lori have also worked to create a strong presence in this community. Bringing music on board is a big part of that. In fact, live music has been a part of this operation since Ken started working out of his old wagon.

- [Ken] We had music and barbecue for years. And that was that was primary, really. Because we've always played music, always liked music. And we've had live music. We had live music for years on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night.

- [Cindy] If you happen to glance up, you'll see the little engine that chugs round the dining room. Look more closely and you'll also see signatures from hundreds of customers who've stopped by the Caboose over the years.

- A guy from Memphis came in here and sit down and he said, "Hey, you run this place?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "That's the best red beans and rice and barbecue I ever ate." I said, "Where you from?" He said, "Memphis." I said, "Sit right there. Don't move." I went back to the kitchen, I cut the top off a pizza box and I put "the best I ever ate" on there and laid it on the table. He said, "I'll sign that." So he did and I put it up on the wall and people started signing it. And that's where it all came from.

- [Cindy] And it all just seems to come together at the Bar-B-Que Caboose Cafe. Small town, home cooking, good Tennessee barbecue and music, and the magic touch of a family committed to making this trip worth the ride.

- [Lori] Great service, great food, great atmosphere, just the whole package.

- [Ken] When they walk in the door, they're the most important person in the building. They need to know that they're welcome and know what we got and feel like they're going to have a good experience.

- Yum. Thanks, Cindy. Well, once in a while, old technology enjoys a comeback thanks to new younger audiences. Take the vinyl record, for example. Well, next look out for the return of the manual typewriter. Hard to believe in this digital world of ours. However, there's a Goodlettsville man who's playing a big part in the typewriter's revival.

- The visceral kind of experience that you have writing on a manual typewriter, it's just completely different from long hand, from writing on a computer. There's this ritual that you get into if you're going to write on a typewriter, and then you've got your paper, you've got your ribbon loaded. You kind of have to prepare. And it's just kind of a nice, like, personal moment where you have to sit and think before you just type, you know? But it takes all the digital distraction away.

- [Joe] Kirk Jackson had never touched a manual typewriter. That is, before the day he and his wife walked into a local thrift store. He saw one on sale, bought it, and soon his life would never be the same.

- Got it home and started playing around with it. And once I figured out how to clean it up and got a ribbon in it, I was three sentences in and I was hooked.

- [Joe] Love at first type? Oh, sorry. But yes.

- Next thing I know, three grew into 10 and my wife was kind of curiously tolerant but asking, you know, like, "What's the deal here?" And I'm like, "I don't know. I just like these things."

- [Joe] So much that his collection now totals about 250, with just about every brand made in America and Europe during the early and mid-1900s.

- And they just all have different feels. You know, some of them are way more responsive than others. And some, like the ultra portables, you really have to kind of bang on them to get a good imprint.

- [Joe] Kirk taught himself everything about the mechanics of these human-powered machines. So, eventually, he became a go-to guy for owners seeking repair work.

- Usually, they're just dirty. That's really what it is. I mean, every once in a while you'll run into bent linkage or something from the type bars. But I mean, these things were built to last. They're simple yet complex machines.

- [Joe] Kirk uses tools you can't buy new anymore, or like this one used for removing key rings. Kirk uses the internet to buy old typewriters which he in turn refurbishes and resells. In fact, his business name is Nashville Typewriter. And his customers call from around the country to strike a deal.

- I get a lot of people that'll reach out to me and ask what I think that they would like, you know. And that always excites me 'cause I like to talk about typewriters. So, I kind of ask them what they're looking for, what they're wanting to use it for, and that kind of directs me towards what they're after. But portables are really big right now. People are really interested in being able to carry other typewriter around, go to the park, you know, that sort of thing.

- [Joe] Sometimes a jewel like this Olivetti Studio 45 comes along and, well, it's just hard to let it go.

- Man, it showed up. I don't think it's been used. I mean, it's just pristine. A little return lever that's cast, like, brushed aluminum still has, like, the plastic coating to protect it from the factory. And I've kind of been wringing my hands over whether or not sell it, but I think that I'm going to have to get better about that and let it go.

- [Joe] Here's little typing trivia. The longstanding layout of the keyboard is called QWERTY, in all caps. And while most typists use all 10 fingers, many a writer has turned out classic works using the old two-finger technique.

- There's some people that two-finger hunt and peck that will absolutely rip them up. I mean, I've seen somebody do 120 words per minute, just, you know... So, I know it's... It's almost more impressive.

- This brings back memories. You know, typing was my favorite class in high school. Why? No homework. Got pretty good at it. Uh-oh. Kirk, got any white-out? While Kirk's in the business of repurposing and selling manual typewriters, he often gifts one if it's going to a youngster.

- Kids are really intrigued by them. You know, you can just tell that, you know, they'll push it and they're kind of tentative, they're afraid to break it at first. They're used to typing on, like, a laptop, but once you kind of show them like, "Hey, it's okay. Go ahead and bang on those keys," they just light up, you know? And it's like that for a lot of people. You know, people will ask me, "Why typewriters?" And I'm like, "Well, have you ever written on one?" And they're like, "No." And I'm like, "Okay, well, come here and do it." You know? And that's really all it takes, you know? And I've always got one with me. I'm that guy. I try not to, like, take them to the coffee shop and type on. I try to be respectful, 'cause not everybody loves the sound of a manual typewriter.

- [Joe] Thanks to collectors and a new generation of fans, this crusty old workhorse might be making a comeback. Nobody would be happier about that than Kirk Jackson. A man now captivated by the mystique of this timeless machine. Are you a typewriter nerd now?

- Yes. 100%. Non apologetic, 100% a typewriter nerd.

- Wow. Definitely a throwback of a collection there. Here's to you, Joe. Well, folks, we've come to the end of another episode. Thanks for being here. And remember, you can always find more stories on our website, tennesseecrossroads.org. Find us on the PBS app and be sure to join us back here again next time.

- [Announcer 1] "Tennessee Crossroads" is brought to you in part by...

- [Announcer 2] Students across Tennessee have benefited from over $7.5 billion we've raised for education, providing more than 2 million scholarships and grants. The Tennessee Lottery. Game-changing, life-changing fun.

- [Announcer 3] 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.