Episode 3939

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- This week on "Tennessee Crossroads," we'll visit a family-run restaurant in Silver Point. We'll meet an artist who works with everyday items in unexpected ways. We'll get a good cup of coffee in Franklin and discover the works of restoring centuries-old buildings from pioneer days. Good food and a history lesson. We got it all for you this week. Howdy, everyone. I'm Ketch Secor welcoming you to "Tennessee Crossroads." I beg your pardon. Do you remember the song "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden?" Well, in our first story this time, Miranda Cohen does promise to take you to a great place to eat in Silver Point, named The Rose Garden Restaurant.

- [Miranda] For more than half a century, this location in Silver Point has been the home of some great southern food, named for a once fragrant spot.

- There was a couple that had a rose garden bed here, and they wanted to do a restaurant, and then a little convenience store gas station.

- [Miranda] The Rose Garden restaurant began in Putnam County in 1972, and the aromas coming from here now are even better. Bacon, eggs, meat, and potatoes, and, oh, those homemade pies. This charming eatery has passed through the hands of Jennifer LeFevre's talented family, and she's proud to say they are still using the same timeless recipes.

- Yeah, we have the breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and hasn't changed much. What's not broke, don't fix it. Well, our breakfast is really good. We serve country ham and bacon and sausage and tenderloin and any kind of omelet you want and any style eggs and good old taters and biscuit and gravy.

- We come here at least once, twice, maybe three times a week. Omelet is my favorite for breakfast. The catfish is to die for.

- I get the BLT, but extra bacon crispy and I had add a fried egg on it. Then I get and home fries. That's my breakfast.

- The blueberry pancakes are to die for. I'm not even a pancake eater, but boy, they're great.

- [Miranda] The plates are generously filled with homemade favorites, cooked to order, and they are famous for their meat and threes.

- [Jennifer] We have salmon patty and wieners and kraut with stewed potatoes and macaroni and tomatoes and white beans and stuff that everybody seems to love. We have meatloaf, green beans, turnip greens, and we have fried chicken. You know, everybody loves that.

- [Miranda] But the most popular item is a true southern classic that the rose garden is doing right: savory, crispy catfish, and they will fry up 70 to 80 pounds a week.

- [Customer] Classic eggs.

- Anything else for you?

- No. I .

- All right. You enjoy.

- [Miranda] This huge display case is sure to get your attention as soon as you walk in the door and maybe motivate you to save a little room for dessert.

- Well, the coconut and the chocolate they've been making, it's been the same recipe from the very beginning.

- I love the coconut cream and the pecan. So, it's always a battle which one to get. Sometimes we get both.

- [Jennifer] And then, we have fudge and caramel fudge, peanut butter fudge, apple cherry, pecan, lemon ice box. We have banana pudding.

- One of the famous things here at The Rose Garden restaurant is the menu. It is handwritten on this whiteboard, and if it's on this board, it is available. And as they sell out of their most popular things, they come off the board.

- Most of the time people don't even look at a menu anymore. They just know what they want when they come in. Most of the girls know their drinks or what they order.

- Gimme two cheeseburgers, everything on 'em. Leave onion off of one of them.

- Okay.

- And order of fries.

- Okay.

- [Miranda] And just as Jennifer learned every aspect of running a successful restaurant from an early age, her daughter Savannah Williams is now following in her very busy footsteps.

- And I'd come home every Tuesday. "Mom, please take me to work with you today. Please take me to work with you today. I wanna work." And she finally, after the school year, let me start this summer before I turn 13.

- [Miranda] Generations coming together, serving generations.

- [Customer 2] Do we get our meal free today or something?

- You'll have to ask mom.

- Everything look okay, guys?

- [Miranda] Long time diners Shelly and Bruce Yoast have fond memories of bringing her father in for his favorite meal and a whole lot more.

- Well, this is a picture of my daddy, Dale Johns, and we just lost him in November, and this was the only place he liked to come to eat other than home. And he got catfish every time. It warmed our hearts to bring him here. And the girls were always so good to him and he just loved it. And you can see in the picture.

- Do you all need anything else right now?

- That's it. Thank you.

- All right. Y'all enjoy.

- I have great staff I couldn't do without. The community is here. You know, we have, like I said, every day we'll have repeat customers. You know, if they're not here, we worry. We have all walks of life. In the summertime, we have lake traffic, 'cause we're right here next to Center Hill, and we have a lot of lake people. We have a lot of older people that come. We've had families grow up here.

- What are you drinking?

- Sweet ice tea.

- Okay. Do you guys want lemons?

- Yeah, that'd be fine.

- Yeah.

- Okay. I think it's just, like, a comforting place to meet, and it's just a place to get together, and it's mostly calm and inviting. Sometimes it's a little chaotic, but I just think it has a lot of memories.

- [Miranda] Steeped in a long tradition of caring for others through a great meal at The Rose Garden, Jennifer can't help but think of her mother and her aunts as she watches her own daughter with bright hopes for a very rosy future.

- It means the world to me. I mean, I hope I make them proud every day with the food that we send and the smiles that we give and just taking good care of our customers.

- Do we need anything else?

- Thanks, Miranda. Looks like mom and daughter are serving some delicious food. Well, in our next story, I'm going to visit a Nashville artist who has made a name for herself using ordinary items you'd find in your kitchen in some truly extraordinary ways. This is the story of Vadis Turner. On the shores of the Cumberland River, in a makeshift studio in the basement of a house she grew up in.

- I came to this house from the hospital after I was born, and my youngest son also came to this house from the hospital after he was born.

- Vadis Turner is creating works of art, and not as a hobby or just a profession, but as a calling.

- I don't think you choose to be an artist, you just are. You know, all kids make art. You know, we're all born with this, this inclination, this desire to communicate or document with a visual language. And somewhere along the way, as we grow up, it ceases to be necessary, and it becomes optional. But it's never been optional for me. It's always been, you know, a life source, right? So, I didn't consider any other paths, and I smile saying that, because, you know, I should say this is a ridiculous way to make a living.

- [Ketch] But she has made a living at it. And while she may have started as a painter, she now works in somewhat of a different medium than most.

- I put down my paint brushes, and I started to experiment with materials from my mother's kitchen. I mean, I didn't have a job, so I didn't really have a lot of money to go blow at the art store. So, I just started scavenging within her kitchen, her bathroom, within her house for materials that I could make things with, just to sort of, you know, mix things up a little bit. And I found a roll of wax paper, and I unrolled the wax paper, and I realized that this could be something else. And so, wax paper was sort of like my gateway into mixed media. And the world kind of opened again that I can make art out of anything.

- [Ketch] So, with her wax paper and paint, her mineral, wool, lacquer, and all her other new tools, Vadis went to work.

- So, the big picture of my practice is to encourage the misbehaviors of domestic materials. So, I look at the home as a pallet, and the home itself is a grid and a vessel. And all of the resulting works that I make are vessels or grids. And I think about the grid. I define the grid as a predictable linear system. And in my hands, I want to turn it into an expressive body, right? Or I think about how I can feminize the grid.

- [Ketch] And Vadis filled her basement studio with works based on the concept of this grid, small and large, until it became apparent that she needed to find new homes for some of them.

- I laugh thinking about them being generous and scaled, because sometimes I worry that, you know, I, I don't wanna be making an archive of large temperature-controlled work for my two sons to inherit, right? I mean, you get to a point in middle age where you're like, "Okay, you know, like, I've made enough big stuff, and I've told a lot of stories. I really want those stories to get out there, which was very much the impetus for me making this outdoor sculpture series that I'm so thankful is on view at the Frist.

- [Ketch] A semi-permanent installation in the courtyard at the Frist, along with a temporary display inside helped to show the Nashville art community what Vadis had been creating.

- Outside the museum, I have an outdoor sculpture called Venus in the Landscape, and it's the second work in my outdoor sculpture series that reimagines Venus as a reclining nude. And I'm thrilled that one of my other bed sheet megaliths on permanent view at one of the main buildings in the New Hoft district. And it's a big red bed sheet megalith that you can see from the street.

- [Ketch] And while Vadis' work may now be getting national attention, she still returns to her Gallatin studio, grateful to be rooted in the community that has always been part of her life.

- Well, Gallatin is, I'm very much of this place. My studio is in the basement of my grandparents' home, who are no longer with us, but my grandfather was in the country music business, and this is very much a house that was built by his dreams. And it's amazing to me to bring my dreams to this place. I've also ruined the floor, but that I get to build my dreams in the place that his dreams built. And so, the studio is really important to me for that reason.

- Well, I know we're not in your studio, but tell us how this is a part of the work that you do.

- Walking is a very important part of my artistic process. I walk every day, and I walk in the mornings before I get to the studio, just so I can clear my head and let go of all the minutiae and little things that are buzzing around, and also just to be within the landscape here. You know, it helps put things in perspective.

- [Ketch] And with that perspective, Vadis is able to reimagine the stories of some of her sculpture subjects.

- So, I look at the stories of women, especially ones that have been outcasted for different reasons, and I think about how can I retell that story, and how can this character become an emboldened grid? So, this one's based on Cassandra from Greek literature. This one's based on Hagar from literature. The copper one in the back is based on Cersei from Greek mythology. And this red one is Diane de Poitiers who was the mistress of Henry II in France. And so, I take the lives and the legends of these women, and I want to extend the life and change the narrative.

- [Ketch] Changing the narrative of her subjects and of the way she wants others to see art, especially the next generation of artists.

- I think, to young artists, I wouldn't glamorize this world of work. It is a very unpredictable and ridiculous way to make a living. But it's hard for me to not be encouraging, 'cause, of course, if this is the world of work you were destined to do, you know? You have to charge ahead and do it unapologetically.

- Well, next time you're at the Frist, be sure to find Vadis' work outside in the courtyard. Well, for some, coffee might be the most important drink of the day. And if you find it at the perfect spot that's comfortable and familiar, well, then customers can become regulars, and often friends can become family. Get ready for a good cup of coffee at The Good Cup.

- Who wanted this brownie muffin? Alright, should be all set.

- Thank you.

- Yeah, you're welcome. No, I guess we have to eat it.

- [Laura] In the grassland village of Williamson County, the coffee beans start brewing early at a place so beloved, its customers even wrote a song about it. ♪ Well, I was in here at The Good Cup ♪ ♪ I come in here to drink it up ♪ ♪ With all of my friends ♪ That's an original by Rick Duvall and Steven Dudash.

- Good morning. Hey, I'm glad you're here.

- Oh, good to see you.

- Some people have said this place is like the sitcom "Cheers" where everybody knows your name. And I would say that is very true. I want people, when they come in here, to feel that they are known, that they are valued, and that we care. You wanna do the chocolate chip espresso muffin?

- [Laura] Owner Amanda Taylor has owned The Good Cup since 2009. Before that, she was an employee who didn't even like coffee, but had a dream of one day owning her own coffee shop.

- When I walked in the doors, I remember there being purple chairs, and I sat down in a chair, a cozy chair, and I thought, "This is it. This is the place." This is the place where I want to work, get my experience, and then hopefully one day have my own coffee shop.

- [Laura] The Good Cup was started by a woman named Ann Sale in 2003, and she taught Amanda everything she knew, eventually turning the reins and the business over to her.

- I wanted to be a part of a place where I could work, live, and be surrounded by friends.

- This location has been a part of this community for a long time, formerly a CY Market from 1966 to 1999.

- [Jerry] We used to sit right here and drink coffee, right where I'm sitting.

- Longtime regulars, like the unofficial mayor of Grassland, Jerry Rainey, kept coming after The CY became The Good Cup.

- The magic is all the people in grassland, all the people that come through. Very welcoming, very glad to see you. Not uncommon for somebody to be sitting there with an open space and invite a stranger to join them, you know? And they're not strangers anymore, after that happens.

- [Laura] Cozy is an intentional vibe here.

- [Amanda] I'm kind of a thrifter, and so pretty much everything in here has been secondhand. I don't like to buy anything brand new except for equipment. And so, I feel like every piece has a story to it. The mismatch and not having everything uniformed or perfect makes you be able to just kind maybe relax a little bit and kind of feel at home. I have customers who will knit blankets, and they'll just bring 'em in here and leave them on the couch.

- The Good Cup helps support families in Africa and Asia and many local ministries. Customers come to visit, work, read, and yes, grab a good cup of coffee and food,

- Iced maple wanted.

- Our coffee beans are locally roasted, so we use Bongo Java because I'm able to have a relationship with them. The reason I like Bongo Java is their beans are organic and they're fair trade. Not many roasters have that, and they've been in business for 30, 35 years.

- The muffins and scones are made here daily. Bagels and fresh breads come from a local bakery.

- We've been making some recipes for about 21 years, and one of the favorites is our chicken salad. And so, we made some today. We make it just about every day 'cause it's so popular, and it's very time consuming. And so, we zest some oranges and squeeze the juice over it. These are nice and juicy today. Then we just need the seasonings. Let's start with your hand, because then you can even out all the seasoning, so it's not just all in one bite.

- The BLT is pretty famous too. The ambrosia salad side is just like your grandma used to make. And here's an insider's tip: The Good Cup has a secret coffee drink. This drink is called the Holly. You won't find this on the menu. Only regulars know about this. It's named after the late Bill Holly, a longtime customer of The Good Cup.

- He used to come in here all the time years ago, and he would sit, and he would write. He wrote a couple books here, and he was also an artist and had artwork up on our walls, and he had passed away, and he had meant a lot to me just from being in here. And so, his daughter and I decided to create a drink, and we named it after him. The homemade vanilla syrup that we make, actually get the vanilla bean paste from the Spice Store in downtown Franklin. And then, we put some honey in there and some cinnamon, and it's a latte.

- [Laura] Today, Amanda does love a good cup of black coffee, but she really loves that she's living her dream and supporting a community that is helping her do just that.

- It's so much better and more than what I thought it was gonna be because of the community and how they have supported not just me, but all the employees, the staff. It's also the staff that make this place special. This place is not just about getting a drink or something to eat, it's the people in here that make it what it is.

- "The Good Cup Song." Thank you.

- Thanks Laura. I love they had their very own song. That's when you know you've made it. Well, our final stop this time is in Union City, Tennessee, and it's the Discovery Park of America; a fun place to visit any time of the year, but we were there this time to explore a mission of saving a pioneer village, a project that requires the unique talents of a team of top-notch Tennessee preservationists.

- [Joe] Since Discovery Park of America opened in 2013, it's attracted millions of children and adults and for good reason. With dazzling exhibits and interactive hands-on experiences, it's a first-class destination for entertainment and education; a place to be inspired by science, technology and of course history. An important historical component is here by the park's North Lake. It's called the Settlement, a collection of 13 hand-ewed log buildings from the 19th century, all donated by families from the area. Scott Williams, the park's president and CEO, showed me around,

- Of course, the centerpiece is a statue of David Crockett. David Crockett settled here in 1822. He was one of the first settlers here and one of the first hunters around nearby Real Foot Lake. And so, we tell a little bit of the David Crockett story here as well. It's set up like a community, similar to what one would've found, probably the houses would've been spread out a little more apart as people farmed. We also have agriculture here, so we have a heritage garden where people can see how fruits and vegetables and food was grown back then. So, that's another way people can see what was going on in the past.

- [Joe] But after nearly a decade of life at the park, the logs are definitely showing their age, mostly due to water damage, damage that threatens both structural integrity and safety.

- We sought out a lot of different people to talk to about what we should do, and we settled with Leatherwood because they seemed to get what we were all about. Of course, they were Tennesseans, which, you know, is a great thing for us.

- [Joe] By the way, Leatherwood has provided historic building restorations across the country. The man in charge is company President Vic Hood.

- No two projects are alike, and we really are faced with doing something new all the time. And that's a part of the enjoyment of what we do. We're taking out the dobbing and chinking in the building, and we're trying to find areas that are decayed; what's decayed, what's not. And we're discovering quite a bit more decay than we anticipated. Most everything we've run into is related to water. And so, that's been our main culprit in this case.

- This is a painstaking months-long project that'll cost the park about a half million dollars. A lot of expense, a lot of very hard work just to save a bunch of old logs. But when you're preserving a valuable piece of Tennessee history, it's all worthwhile.

- Absolutely. We cannot forget our history. History is crucial to our future. And so, as much as we and everybody else in Tennessee can help contribute to taking care of history, that's a great thing.

- Most of the cabins have survived about two centuries of weather and wear. Now, thanks to some new and old technology, visitors can safely and realistically experience 19th-century life in the country.

- Our objective here with this project is that the settlement will be around 10, 20, 30 years in the future, so that children and adults who visit here will be able to see how things were done in the past, how people lived, how they built their cabins, how their food was preserved. We tell all those stories here at Discovery Park.

- Another great story from the late, great Joe Elmore. Thanks. And thank you all for joining us this time. We always love having you along, and we'd love it if you check out our website, tennesseecrossroads.org. You can also find us on the PBS app, but most of all, come on back here next time. We'll see y'all then.

- Tennessee Crossroads is brought to you in part by.

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- [Trails And Byways Advertiser] 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.