Tennessee Crossroads 3721

- [Narrator] "Tennessee Crossroads" is made possible in part by... - [Phil] I'm Tennessee Tech President Phil Oldham.

Here in Cookeville, Tennessee's college town, we are bold, fearless, confident, and kind.

Tech prepares students for careers by making everyone's experience personal.

We call that living wings up.

Learn more at tntech.edu.

- [Narrator] 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.

- [Joe] This time on "Tennessee Crossroads," we'll take you to a locally owned restaurant serving great food, while serving the community of White House.

Then discover how a carpentry shop in Hampshire became a center of creative upcycling.

We'll see what's brewing at Beck's Farmhouse Coffee in Joelton and wind up in McMinnville at the Falcon Rest Mansion & Gardens.

Hey, what a show on this week's "Tennessee Crossroads."

I'm Joe Elmore, and we're sure glad to have you.

(soft feelgood music) We've met numerous couples who operate outstanding locally owned restaurants around this state.

The couple you're about to meet is known for creating crowd-pleasing food, supporting their dedicated staff, and providing valuable service to their community.

(light airy music) Okay, don't let the name fool you.

This place is in Tennessee, White House to be exact.

The only thing not from here is this elk named Glen.

Inside there's kind of a warm western vibe to the place.

That's the way Andy and Rosie Rutherford like it.

- [Andy] Rustic theme, down to earth, come as you are pretty much, and just come and have great service and great food.

We've always been about, as long as you give great service, people don't mind waiting.

- [Joe] Andy and Rosie practically grew up in the restaurant business.

- That's right.

- [Joe] In fact, that's where they met, destined to be partners in both marriage and food service.

- Got a grilled chicken sandwich with honey mustard.

I'm pretty much a happy go lucky one.

But it's always good to see you.

- You gotta go to work.

- Absolutely.

(laughs) And she's more of the disciplinarian.

- I got your pot pie right now, Ms. April.

- [Andy] She's all about the kitchen, the cleanliness, the recipe adherence and all that.

- [Rosie] No meat, no cheese.

- [Joe] Andy and Rosie took over the Colorado Grill Steakhouse in 2013 with the goal of offering delicious food, along with exceptional service.

The menu options range from steak, of course, to seafood, from pasta dishes to burgers, salads, tacos.

And as they say, the list goes on.

It's all served up in a friendly, almost family-like atmosphere.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- [Andy] We don't do reservations because you have no idea when they're gonna leave.

It's kinda like a meeting place after church and things of that nature.

You may deliver their food, and they may be visiting with someone else at another table.

So it's almost like that gathering place that everybody comes and meets and you know it.

We understand it.

It is what it is.

- [Joe] While steak is part of the name, the menu's bestseller comes from the sea instead of a ranch.

- [Rosie] Bourbon Street salmon.

We marinate it up to 12 hours before we serve it, but it serves salmon, Bourbon Street salmon, and our cedar plank salmon.

So our salmon is one big hit that's around the community.

If he posted on a Friday, and we already got them orders in, and he posted that on the website or on his Facebook page, we're almost running out of salmon come Sundays.

- [Andy] Now when it comes to burgers, it's pretty much a tossup between beef and bison.

- [Andy] The bison burger sells very well.

- [Rosie] You get a little bit of tanginess into it, but no grease.

It's not dry.

It's actually a good flavor.

- [Andy] Our salads are really good for lunch.

Yeah, we have a Colorado salad, which is a nice salad with fruits, fresh strawberries, things of that nature.

And it has a blueberry balsamic goes with it.

- Ooh, thanks April.

You know the menu here is extensive, everything from seafood to steaks.

But for something out of the ordinary, I'm going for the bison burger and an order of fried green beans.

Woo hoo.

(green bean crunches) Those are good.

(warm acoustic music) The old saying the customer is always right may be obsolete at some places, but according to Andy, it's more relevant than ever in his kitchen.

- [Andy] It's just taking a lot of pride in doing that, but it's also making sure you're taking care of your kitchen staff to where they know how to season it properly, and they're cooking it properly and they're making sure it gets out kind of thing.

Because a lot of times at the end of the day, we can cook a perfect medium steak, but if it's not medium to the person paying for it, doesn't really matter what I think or the cook thinks.

Doesn't really matter.

We either need cook it more or cook it less.

That's the only thing that matters.

- [Rosie] Just get it right.

- Get it back out there to the table 'cause there's somebody not eating.

- [Joe] Pleasing guests with good food and service seven days a week is a full-time job in itself.

But along the way, the Colorado Steak Grill has received numerous awards for community service and support of local youngsters.

Some who just may land their first job in life here.

- [Andy] There's nothing that upsets me more if I see someone that says, you know what?

I want a job.

I don't wanna do anything other than fast food or restaurants.

And I think fast food and restaurant is a great job.

I think you can make a lot of money into it if you apply your effort.

But I think if you work in a restaurant, there's no job you can't do.

- [Joe] Well, no doubt, the employees here do their jobs, and many have risen through the ranks.

To Andy and Rosie, well, they're all part of a big happy family and a big reason the Colorado Grill is such a haven for hospitality here in White House.

- [Rosie] You do it for the strive of watching this family grow and them going off and doing something on their own or staying with you, growing with you.

We have managers here that started at 16, or coming in as a single mom seven years, putting in, and now they're managing the restaurant.

So it's a pride thing that they, watching them grow up and take over.

It's just the joy you see out of it.

- Nowadays, there's a deepening appreciation for old stuff, and that especially holds true for artists and craftsmen.

It's called creative reuse or upcycling.

Danielle Allen introduces us to a man who salvages old pieces of wood and furniture and reimagines them into pieces of art.

- It's my hoarding stuff.

(light cheerful music) - [Danielle] Old pieces of wood, tobacco sticks, those sound like things you no longer need.

But with the right pieces (wood tumbling) and handy tools, (saw whirs) those old items become new again.

(staple gun clicks) - [Monty] I just love using materials that, that have a history behind them.

A lot of the stuff I build, I can not only tell you what kind of wood it is, but where it came from, that it was an old house in Columbia that got taken down, or an old barn that was taken down.

- [Danielle] Monty is the owner of an artisan shop in Maury County called Copperhead Creek Studios.

(staple gun clicks) He spends countless hours in his wood shop taking discarded materials and bringing them back to life.

- [Monty] To me, just being in my woodworking shop and seeing something, seeing a piece of wood, or seeing an older piece of furniture or a box of parts and just putting it together in my head before I even start, and seeing how pieces come together... And sometimes you'll be down to that one little piece on something that you're not sure about, and I'll glance across the shop and I'll see something.

I'm like, that's it.

It's almost like a puzzle sometimes, but I don't know, the pieces just come together.

And to me that's just, I don't know, it's a gift from God to be able to do something like that.

(saw whirs) - [Danielle] That gift allows Monty to make furniture, home decor and art that's truly one of a kind.

And when he's not creating his own pieces, he's helping his customers' ideas come to fruition.

- [Monty] Well, a lot of times, people are looking for a cabinet or a table, a coffee table, but that's another thing.

When you go to stores, you're limited to size, height, all those dimensions are set for you before you even walk in the door.

When you come to me, we can change all that.

We can make it exactly what you want.

We can make it out of whatever you want and whatever finish you got or want.

So yeah, and that way they can have their ideas and their picture and their vision of what it is.

And then I try to capture that vision from them and come up with that piece for them.

- [Danielle] From the time that he was a little boy, Monty had a hammer and nail in his hands.

He eventually spent 25 years as a cabinet builder and carpenter, but then he decided it was time to build a different type of career.

- [Monty] I think I just reached a point in my life where I just wanted to create, I wanted to make stuff, and that instead of just going out and doing jobs here and jobs there, not that it's, there's not creativity in that, but a lot of times when people have you do this job or do that job, you're pleasing what they have in mind.

And so I wanted to build stuff that was coming from my ideas and out of my head and ideas that I come up with.

(soft nostalgic music) - [Danielle] One of the first things Monty repurposed was tobacco sticks that a friend gave him years ago.

Today he uses a wide range of materials and he often finds inspiration by simply stepping outside.

- [Monty] A lot of things that I build, I think I see in nature.

My wife laughs at me, but I tell her that the wood speaks to me and I see pieces, and then, I don't know, that's the way my mind works.

I can almost see the finished piece before I even begin.

(knife scraping) - [Danielle] It usually takes about three or four days to complete a project, but sometimes inspiration strikes, and there's no time to stop when the creative juices are flowing.

- [Monty] That's right, you can't.

Once you start it, gotta get it outta your head.

- [Danielle] Once pieces like this nativity scene are done, Monty takes them down the street to his shop, Copperhead Creek Studios.

It's then sold, along with other locally made products.

- [Monty] This is a shop that you can buy things made by local artisans, and that's all it is.

It's all handmade by local artisans.

To me that's very unique.

And you're gonna find stuff here that you're not gonna find anywhere else because this stuff came out of these guys' heads.

- [Danielle] Monty started off showing his pieces in artisan shows, and eventually fulfilled his dream of opening this quaint little shop.

He attributes a lot of the success to his business partner, who also happens to be his partner in life.

(both laughing) - [Monty] I could never have done any of this without my wife, Renee.

She has an eye for...

I can build something, but to set it out and make it look good, that's her department and that's where she comes in.

And she's just been amazing, amazing.

- [Danielle] This couple works as a team in their business.

But when it came to naming the shop, well, Monty takes full credit for that one.

- [Monty] There's this little club here in town called The Men's Club, and they, when I bought that property and I told them I was gonna build a house back in the hollow back there, they were like, oh.

They said, "That's Snake Hollow."

Said there's more copperhead back there than anywhere in Maury County.

Well, I've seen a few, but there is this little creek that runs beside the house down through there.

And so I always just called it Copperhead Creek 'cause it doesn't have a name on the map or anything.

So when we were coming up with the name for the business, I thought that's kind of cool, Copperhead Creek.

- Freaks a lot of people out.

- But it does, it scares some people.

- He wanted it to be Copperhead Creek.

- But it's kind of danger too, so it kind of draws you in.

- [Danielle] That's not the only thing drawing people in.

The custom work and the friendly atmosphere keep customers walking through the door.

Monty hopes that visiting his door will remind everyone that we're all just as unique as the items he sells.

- [Monty] The world we live in today is, everything's mass produced, it's assembly line.

There's not much originality left.

And so God created each of us as such unique individuals.

And so in that way, I want my pieces to be very unique and each one showing a glimpse of who we are, that God sees us as very unique and one of a kind.

- Thanks Danielle.

Our next story features something that's pretty important to most of us, our morning cup of coffee.

While those fancy brews are all the rage these days, Miranda Cohen found a place in Joelton where one family is brewing up the perfect cup, while keeping it simple and delicious.

(machine whirring) (mellow thrumming music) - [Miranda] For the Stakelbeck family, it is just another day at the office.

And as owner Brandon Stakelbeck will tell you, working at Beck's Farmhouse Coffee does have its share of perks, lots of friendly faces, the unmistakable aroma of freshly brewed coffee and a cozy inviting atmosphere.

- [Brandon] Coffee is a common ground for people.

They come together, they talk, it's intimate, but it's also community.

- [Miranda] Lots of people from Joelton, Tennessee will remember this trendy coffee house as the old general store.

- [Brandon] Had this building out here that used to be an old market, and we just brought it back to life.

A lot of people have stopped by that remember it, and they remember Bologna sandwiches and 22 bullets.

- [Miranda] Once bullets and bologna, now it's all baristas and brewing.

Beck's pours the finest coffee you can find.

And though some of the flavors and blends may be exotic, ordering is easy.

- [Brandon] We try to just take coffee and demystify it.

We try to take all the pretense away.

We're just regular people and we love coffee and we think everybody should have a great cup of coffee.

- [Miranda] And if coffee is not your cup of tea, Beck's has something for you too.

- [Brandon] We have loose leaf teas, we have several black teas, green teas.

There are some that don't drink coffee, and we want to give them a great experience also.

- [Miranda] You can also have this great experience right from your car.

- Good morning!

- [Miranda] Beck's offers more of a coffee drive in.

There is a smiling face there to greet you, and you tell them exactly what you want.

- [Brandon] They could come up and order from their cars.

Get their order, it's transmitted to us in here, we'll make it and we'll run it back out to them.

- There you are.

- [Miranda] Whether it's lattes, espressos, frappes, pressed, poured, or whole beans ready to go home with you, just what is it that makes Beck's coffee so good?

To find out, we have to go out back.

(gravel crunches) Now, as quaint and cozy as it is inside of Beck's coffee house, the real magic happens out here in this red barn, where they have a 30-year-old coffee roaster where they roast every bean.

- [Brandon] So when we get the beans in, we get these big burlap 150 pounds of coffee, and it's green and it's in its raw state.

It's already been processed.

It's been dried to a certain percentage.

And I take that coffee and I put it in a roaster.

And we take it through a process of roasting it and adding gas, adding air, adding time to come up with a flavor profile that we want.

- [Miranda] The secret to roasting the bean perfectly is constant movement at a high temperature.

The beans will shed their outer layer, and then are cooled quickly.

The result is this beautiful, dark, rich aromatic gem.

- [Brandon] What we try to do is not over roast the coffee.

Most of ours are in that middle range, so we can bring out what the grower wanted.

So we wanna take it from that green state, roast it to where it's really blossoming, and then we wanna bring it and expertly prepare it.

- [Miranda] Beck's imports their delicate Arabica bean from high in the mountains of places like Guatemala, Somalia, Columbia, Ethiopia, and Jamaica, depending on where is yielding the finest crop.

- [Brandon] We have a couple importers that we use.

They take care of making sure that the growers use sustainable practices, that they pay well.

There's a thing called fair trade.

It's a natural product, and a harvest from Guatemala this year is gonna be different from the next year.

And so it has to be hand cultivated, it has to be handpicked.

They can't take machines up there.

They help us in that process, picking the best coffees that are available at that time.

- [Miranda] So whether you prefer smooth and silky or fragrant and bold, Beck's will guide you to a custom made cup of perfectly prepared coffee.

And the only thing Brandon Stakelbeck loves more than coffee is his staff, which includes his wife, Tracy, and their four children ranging in age from 12 to 21.

- [Brandon] They're not pretentious.

They are down home and they're excellent.

Love them, and I'm just thankful for them.

To have my family here is, it's kept us going.

But more than that, I have the best, I have the best job in the world because I get to see my family all the time, every day, and we're living life together.

- All right, here you go.

- [Miranda] And from the looks of the busy Beck's baristas, the community is loving them too.

- [Customer] I love the space.

It's got a great backstory.

It's actually pretty fantastic and pretty inspiring, and I think they carry that same story into the vibe of the coffee shop.

So it's a great place to come socialize, maybe take a small dose of sanity.

- My hopes for the future is just to be a good influence in this community, a place where people can come in and really get loved on.

- Thanks Miranda.

You've probably heard of the Biltmore Mansion over in North Carolina, famous for its modern conveniences, well, modern at the time that is.

McMinnville is home to a mansion that's been referred to as the Biltmore of Tennessee, for some of the same reasons.

A few years back, Ed Jones toured the historic Falcon Rest Mansion & Gardens.

(tranquil acoustic music) - [Ed] This is the story of a mansion built ahead of its time and the couple that saved it from destruction.

Falcon Rest has been called the Biltmore of Tennessee due to its modern conveniences that were nearly unheard of when it was built in 1896.

That's when a wealthy businessman named Clay Faulkner decided to build a home across the creek from his textile mill.

Now, he made a promise to his wife, I'm gonna build the best home in the region, a promise he made good on.

And when the promise was delivered, it was state-of-the-art.

- [George] It had central heat and air, electric lights, pressurized running water, indoor bathroom, had refrigeration.

And so that's what makes this place so unique to Tennessee history.

- [Ed] That's the owner of the Falcon Rest, George McGlothin, who in another day and time would've made a great carnival barker.

- [George] You wanna go down there and take a picture of this middle window, and if you see a little lady with a high neck dress and her hair in a bun, that is Darthula Saunders, the mother-in-Law.

She lived here, she died here.

You can't get rid of that woman.

- [Ed] George's wife Charlien nearly got rid of him for buying the once dilapidated mansion.

- [George] I tell people I bought this home Easter week 1989 without my wife ever having seen it.

- He came home and he told me we had bought a mansion, and I said, what does it look like?

And he said bad.

- [George] And I brought her here on Easter Sunday.

- [Charlien] And had me standing right here.

So it literally looked like a bomb had hit it.

And I said- - You put a mortgage on my house for this.

- I thought it would take us 30 years just to restore the mansion.

- Because it looked, as she said, like a bomb hit it.

- Of course, we're still here 30 years later, but we've done a whole lot more than that.

- [Ed] That is an understatement.

When the "Crossroads" team first visited Falcon Rest, the mansion was a bed and breakfast, and George and Charlien had just reached an important milestone.

- And by the way, we just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, and we might make it, what, to 26?

- I think so, and we're still married here.

- [Ed] Now, having reached their golden anniversary, the McGlothins are not only celebrating a successful marriage, but many improvements around the property as well.

- [George] Well, we started with the mansion, and then we went to the carriage house and we spent a couple of years restoring there.

And then I think the next thing was we did the courtyard here, and then we started with the gardens.

And now a lot of these things that were put in originally are growing up and just really stunning.

- [Ed] In case you haven't noticed, George is a gifted showman.

- And if I look any older, please don't tell me.

I'd rather not know.

Follow me, let's go.

- [Ed] Often entertaining visitors with theatrical productions in the carriage house.

- [George] And we also have a tea room where people can come and have lunch here every day.

You don't have to have reservations.

And so they can tour and they can eat and they can shop.

We also have Falcon Manor.

Falcon Rest is the tour mansion, and Falcon Manor is the accommodation side.

The mansion is only used for tours.

- [Ed] Of course, most visitors do come to tour the mansion and step back in time to America's Gilded Age.

Like these fine folks from the Senior Activity Center in Smyrna.

- [Interviewer] We thought we'd come because we love to visit old homes, and it's one of the most interesting houses that we visited because of all of the history and how much work they have actually put in to refurbishing the house.

- [Charlien] You enter into the downstairs foyer with the original staircase there.

Gorgeous staircase and solid as a rock because of the way the mansion is built.

The parlor is graced with a beautiful spindle freeze all the way across the width of the room.

The lavender room was Daisy's room.

She was their middle daughter and she was a gifted artist.

She was 16 when they moved in.

Across the hallway, the blue room, it's got a fabulous half tester bed in it that is probably the finest we have ever seen.

- [Ed] All the rooms and furnishings in Falcon Rest are exquisite, but many visitors are most impressed by a secret room with a strange name.

- [George] It's called the Slopey Room.

- [Charlien] There's a secret door that people think is a closet, but they find there is the Slopey Room.

The grandchildren said they would play in this attic when they came to visit.

It was an unfinished attic then.

It's a big surprise when people get here.

Some people say it's their favorite place in the house.

We hope that doesn't hurt Mr. Faulkner's feelings.

- [Ed] I'm sure the Faulkners are just thankful that the McGlothins returned their beloved Falcon Rest to its former glory and now share its beauty and history.

- Well, with that, we gotta say goodbye, but not before a mention of our website, tennesseecrossroads.org, a place where you can download that PBS app.

And of course, you can join us right here next week.

I'll see you then.

(bright jazz music) (soft music) - [Narrator] "Tennessee Crossroads" is made possible in part by... - [Phil] I'm Tennessee Tech President Phil Oldham.

Here in Cookeville, Tennessee's college town, we are bold, fearless, confident, and kind.

Tech prepares students for careers by making everyone's experience personal.

We call that living wings up.

Learn more at tntech.edu.

- [Narrator] 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.