[piano intro] - Next on "North Carolina Weekend", we'll explore the chill around our state from Skate the Square at Fenton in Cary, we'll check out the scene at Seagrove, celebrate live music in Marshall, and I'll spend a luxurious weekend at an award-winning boutique hotel in Raleigh.

Coming up next.

- [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[upbeat music] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ - Welcome to "North Carolina Weekend", everyone.

I'm Deborah Holt Noel.

And this week, we are exploring the chill around our state.

Right now, I'm at Skate the Square at Fenton in Cary.

It's only been open for about a year, but already, it's a very popular place for people who want to embrace the chill.

And that's what tonight's show is all about, finding places and things to do that celebrate winter.

Now, there are a couple of ways to get warm if you're watching from the Seagrove area.

One of them is beside a kiln at one of the more than 50 pottery studios in the neighborhood.

Another way is to stop by the General Wine and Brew, and Rick Sullivan decided to do both.

- [Rick] This is Highway 705, also known as Pottery Highway.

That's because it runs through the town of Seagrove, the largest concentration of potters this side of the Mississippi River.

About a hundred potters can be found here, working in about 50 to 60 studios.

It's a tradition that goes back centuries, and it all started with good dirt.

- As European settlers were migrating across North Carolina, they were farming.

And this area has really rich soil, great for farming, and as it turns out, has an extraordinarily, a great amount of clay that is incredibly useful for making things out of.

- [Rick] Some of these potteries go back as many as eight generations.

You can find out more history and information by stopping in at the North Carolina Pottery Center when you get to Seagrove, - We're able to provide maps of the local area, and we have those local example shelves.

So that gives individuals an idea to gauge what they're interested in and see which potters they want to go visit.

- [Rick] Choosing a direction to start off and then shopping the potteries is great adventure.

Meeting and getting to know a potter is even better.

And watching them at work is the best yet.

- I'm just gonna turn a vase.

This is a form I like a lot.

It's kind of a classic Greek shape.

- [Rick] David Fernandez grew up in Salt Lake City.

He studied and trained in Washington state, and he's been in Seagrove for nearly two decades.

He threw this vase together in a matter of minutes while we chatted.

- I learned in 1972, when I was in college.

My best answer when people ask me how long it takes to make pottery, I usually say 50 years and 15 minutes.

- [Rick] David not only creates pottery while he talks.

He's the mayor of Seagrove between the pots.

And in the afternoons and evenings, he now owns and operates the General Wine and Brew, a long overdue and instantly popular town hangout that opened after the isolation and distancing that was COVID.

- [David] Well, the General is in the original general store of Seagrove.

The building was built back in 1910, and it's been several different things.

It's been an upholstery shop, a general store, of course, and then it was our pottery gallery.

We converted it to the wine bar in the fall of 2020.

- [Rick] The General is a watering hole with some great beer and wine selections, some snacks, and quite often, food trucks.

And it's a great place to relax with shopping friends or to meet the locals.

A visit to Seagrove can be a great day trip, but you'll want more.

With so many great potteries to visit and potters to meet, my wife Lisa and I grabbed a room at the Seagrove Stoneware Inn.

David and his wife, Alexa, own the inn, as well as the General, and the Seagrove Stoneware Pottery Shop.

- David does everything with this pattern.

You saw him make pieces today.

So when he throws this on the wheel, he lets it get leather hard, and he takes a little wire tool and he cuts these lines in it.

He likes to decorate the outside of his pieces.

So now, he's doing all this stamping, especially on more of the vases and the bowls.

All my pieces are, they're very simple.

Most of my glazes are more of, they might be dipped twice.

I don't do a lot of decoration.

I just kinda do a simple contemporary look to the piece.

- [Rick] For some visitors, a pottery shopping trip to Seagrove is a pilgrimage.

- Friendships of the people we've made over here.

And they're just special.

A lot of them are like family now to us.

- [Rick] For these ladies from Tennessee, it's an annual girl trip.

- [Marlina] I moved from Tennessee to North Carolina back in 1991.

- [Rick] Uh-huh.

- I was raised in East Tennessee, around Knoxville, northeast of Knoxville, in Tazewell, Tennessee.

Best friend since fifth grade, Kammie, Sturgill now.

- Haynes.

- And her mama.

Well, sorry, Haynes.

[group laughs] And her mama, Georgie Duncan.

So when I moved down here after I got married, they came to visit me.

So we came to Seagrove.

Every single year, we've made the voyage down here.

We've been the jug ladies ever since.

- [Rick] How about that?

- And now, we have the littlest jug lady.

- [Kammie] The jug baby.

- Jug baby.

- The General Wine and Brew is at 124 West Main Street in Seagrove, and they're open every day except Monday.

For more information, give them a call at [336] 872-0034.

Or visit them online at thegeneralwineandbrew.com.

If you're heading to the mountains this winter and you're looking for something really authentic, head to Marshall where the music and dancing of The Depot are sure to chase your winter blues away.

[upbeat country music] - I wouldn't be anywhere else on Friday night except at The Depot.

- The Depot is free, open to the public, and welcomes visitors from everywhere to get a true mountain experience.

- The Depot is a local cultural icon.

Most of our pickers here have been coming for generations and been playing for generations.

And a lot of their families, when this was a real train depot, caught the train here.

- In the 1980s, the Marshall depot was gonna be torn down by Norfolk Southern Railroad because the train didn't haul freight or passengers anymore here.

Mr. Jarrett's mother, Linda, got wind of it, and she called her son, who happened to be the chief law enforcement officer for Norfolk Southern Railroad.

She said, "Forest, you can't let 'em tear down that depot.

That's where your daddy used to ride the train up from Hot Springs to visit me, to court me.

If it hadn't been for the depot, we never would've got together."

The end result was Norfolk Southern leased this building to the town of Marshall for $1 a year.

And they appointed a committee to decide what to do with it, and that committee decided to make this a music venue.

- Marshall's become known as an artist's community.

The old high school on the island was saved and turned into artist venues.

There's a public art project, murals and medallions throughout downtown.

There's lots of reasons to come to Marshall.

- The Depot is a community stage.

If you say you're a band, we'll believe you and give you a 30-minute spot.

Now, we've had some hard 30 minutes go by a few times, but not many.

If you come to The Depot on Friday night, the music starts at seven o'clock.

The doors open at six.

We put up on a band every 30 minutes.

And believe it or not, we have enough local bands to be able to schedule about six different groups in the course of an evening.

You never know what you're gonna hear when you come to The Depot.

I tell people that we don't charge an admission.

And if you don't like the music, we don't have to return your money.

- I would say a lot of it is older country music, but of course, we get a lot of bluegrass and gospel, and even to a little bit of blues.

- People have confidence in playing music here, and that's really appealing, especially to somebody who's played for a living.

It's, I just felt all that soulfulness come out.

- It's a family-friendly venue.

It's a good place for the kids.

They always have fun.

And the audience is invited always to get up and and dance.

We have dancers that get up that are, one person comes to mind.

She's 89 years old.

She has her dance shoes on with the taps, and she gets right up there and clog dances with the rest and has a ball.

- [Pat] We have people from all over the place come here and they'll ask me what a cake walk is.

And sometimes they think everybody's getting up to leave when it's a cake walk.

It's $1 a person.

That's how we pay the light bill.

And we'll walk around the room, and when the music stops, you stop, and the number you stop on may be the very number that'll win you a cake.

- Number five.

- [Pat] We also have a 50-50 ticket.

Basically, you buy a ticket for a dollar and at nine o'clock, we draw the ticket numbers.

And if you win, you get half of what's in the pot.

The most we've ever had in the pot was $500.

Can you believe that?

- [Logan] The fact that so many of the musicians here are native to the area and have grew up here and grew up together makes it a very authentic mountain experience, I think.

- [Pete] This place is a treasure.

If you haven't been here, you gotta get here.

- When you come in here and the music starts and you cake walk, or you get up and dance, or you watch dancers, you can't be down and out, I mean, because everybody's in a good mood.

We don't care who you love, who you pray to, who you vote for, who your daddy is, what you think about a pistol.

We love everybody.

Everybody's got a place here.

[crowd cheers] - The Depot is at 282 South Main Street in Marshall, and they're open Thursday, Friday, and Monday.

To find out who's playing at The Depot, give them a call at [828] 649-2332.

Or go online to marshalldepot.com.

These skaters are so fun to watch here at Skate the Square.

If you're looking for something a little whimsical this winter, Julia Carpenter found a place that's perfect in Pittsboro where fanciful yard art and colorful African fabrics come together at French Connections.

- [Julia] French Connections is unexpected and different.

From the moment you arrive, you are greeted by genuine colorful objects with a global flair.

This is an eclectic selection of ethically sourced goods.

For owners, Wendy and Jacques, theirs is a very personal collection.

- Jacques and I met in South Africa.

He's French.

I'm from Salisbury, North Carolina.

After we were married, we lived in France for a couple years and then we moved to Senegal in West Africa, where we lived for 10 years and we met all these wonderful people.

And Pittsboro allowed us the opportunity to bring all of our loves here and display it here in a town full of antique stores and galleries.

- When we moved to Pittsboro and opened the store, it was mostly just antiques.

And we were selling a lot of African fabric, and people were asking us, "Well, why don't you do the French?"

And I said, "Well, I definitely know where I can find that."

I used to work in the textile industry in France.

My family has five generations behind them of textiles in France.

And so we said, "Well, let's have some here in Pittsboro."

Okay, so here we're gonna measure three yards of this French toile.

- [Wendy] We sell to lots of quilters.

We also sell to lots of people who were doing outfits.

- We cut these fabrics down to two-and-a-half-inch squares, to five-inch squares.

Those are a good popular item also.

We do the work for the quilters, and they can buy a variety of 42 fabrics in one little pack.

We even ship back to France regularly, to England.

The West Coast buys a lot of the Provencal fabric.

When one design doesn't is out of print or out of stock in Europe, they'll type in that reference, find it online.

And that fabric came from France all the way to little Pittsboro, and we ship it right back over there.

- We do direct trade, so we buy 99% of what we have directly from the people who make it.

So we don't go through middlemen or dealers.

We have folks in the countries that we've lived in and where we know, where we have them collect things from folks directly.

- Here's another example of the West African prints with a large design.

Some of them have the smaller designs but are- - We import fabrics from different parts of Africa, and also Dutch wax from from Ghana and from Holland, and fabrics from Senegal and Mali, and we also have fabrics from South Africa.

And it's really what we love the best.

- [Jacques] One imported item in our store is also African baskets.

We import from about 20 African countries.

Each basket tells a story.

Each group of people in Africa have a different type of weave.

Here you can see some of the Zulu baskets.

On this particular wall, you have five or six different countries that are represented there.

They're just gorgeous pieces.

- For our clients, they know that we know the people that these came from, and they enjoy that.

And it's different.

It's not something that you find everywhere.

And so people who like to be a little bit different or have something that's unique, they can find it here.

- French Connections is at 178 Hillsboro Street in Pittsboro and they're open daily.

For more information, you can call them at [919] 545-9296, or go online to french-nc.com.

It's true, a lot of plants lose their leaves and color during the winter months, but there's one plant that remains vibrant all winter long, and Rick Sullivan went to see lots of them at Mitchell's Nursery.

- [Rick] Mitchell's nursery and Greenhouse in King is open year round, with an impressive assortment of plants and trees.

But if you visit the greenhouses in the holiday season, you might have the same reaction as Pamela from Fort Lauderdale.

- Wow!

- [Rick] There you go.

Oh, so you haven't seen a lot of poinsettia houses.

- No, not like this.

It's beautiful.

It's like a sea of celebration.

- [Rick] Celebrating the holidays with a stop at Mitchell's has quickly become a tradition for her extended family living nearby.

When did you discover Mitchell's Nursery and the poinsettias?

- [Gordy] Last year.

- We were having breakfast over at King.

- Having breakfast at King and somebody there mentioned it.

And so we came here, and we were blown away.

And ever since then, it's become one of our favorite places to come.

- [Rick] Used to be I'd only known one kind of poinsettia.

It was red.

Mitchell's has 93 different kinds, and you'd have a hard time finding many of these anywhere else.

- I was reading one of the magazines probably about three years ago now.

And at that time, we were one of seven commercial greenhouse operations in the United States and Canada that the breeders were sending cuttings to of numbered plants that are not on the market yet, that are not named.

So we're kinda unique.

- [Rick] Life on the cutting edge is colorful, but it's not for everybody.

- Poinsettia is probably the most difficult crop we grow because of insects and disease.

You water 'em too much, they get disease.

Water 'em too little, they drop their leaves.

It's just a fine line you got going there.

- [Rick] So you've given me a lot of reasons why not to do it.

[Judy laughs] - Right, right.

- [Rick] Why do you?

- 'Cause they're pretty.

- Still enjoy it.

- [Rick] But Judy, Jim, and their son, Jay, all say the hard work is already completed at the nursery.

Once you get 'em home, there's not much to worry about.

- New varieties of poinsettias are pretty easy to maintain.

Generally, from what I have seen, if you'll put a good cup of water on that plant about once a week- - Feel the weight of the pot when you wanna know whether it's dry or not.

- [Rick] Thousands of customers know about Mitchell's and their poinsettias.

Many of them come to the open house during the holidays each year to get them.

But you can come and get your poinsettias any day Mitchell's is open.

I did.

I got mine on a Monday after dispelling an old myth that poinsettias could be toxic.

They are not toxic to people nor animals.

That's according to poison.org, aspca.org, Pet Poison Hotline, WebMD, and others.

Look it up.

And so my young Labrador, Oscar, is all set to have a happy and colorful first ever holiday season thanks to Mitchell's.

- Mitchell's Nursery And Greenhouse is at 10 88 West Dalton Road in King, and they're open Monday through Saturday.

For more information, give them a call at [336] 983-4107, or visit them online at mitchellsnursery.com.

Perhaps one of the best ways to embrace the chill is with an overnight stay at an elegant boutique hotel.

Certainly what I found to be the case when I stayed at the Heights House Hotel in Raleigh.

[festive music] - When someone comes and stays on our property, we want them to feel like they are welcomed.

We want them to feel like they're at home.

It's like we want there to be a weight lifted from their shoulders when they step through the door.

You're greeted with a glass of champagne.

- Cheers.

- We've got a wine and cheese hour, and that's all complimentary.

And really, we just have, the spaces that we designed on the front are very much, they're supposed to be welcoming.

They're supposed to be community-driven places, a place where you can sit down and have a conversation with somebody, with either the person you're traveling with or with another guest of the hotel.

- [Deborah] You couldn't feel more welcome here at the Heights House Hotel.

And the interior design elements, from the color to texture to decor, are all beautifully incorporated to create a sense of luxurious comfort while also honoring the historical architecture.

- The Heights House Hotel is a historic house that was built in 1858 that has now been restored lovingly into a nine-room boutique hotel and event venue.

- Oh, man, I can't remember when we first laid eyes on it, probably 15 years ago now.

And when we saw it, it was a beautiful building.

I mean, the architecture stands out, and it is very unique for the area, but it needed some love.

But even when we walked through it for the very first time, we thought it was just, it's so amazing.

It's so beautiful in here.

And the architecture, they just, they don't build houses quite like this anymore.

And we liked the idea of the elevation.

This house sits on one of the highest locations in Raleigh, so we like that kind of heights feeling, right?

And it's the Boylan Heights neighborhood.

So we took from that and wanted to embrace it, and we took that and made that into our name.

- We wanted to keep all the original architectural pieces that we could or restore them, the molding, the floors, the doors, the fireplaces, things like that, but we didn't want it to feel dated.

So keeping those intact and then bringing in modern elements, just really trying to make that mesh, meet, and it hopefully worked.

The front four common spaces were originally used as the dining room, which we're sitting in now, the library, the parlor, and the drawing room, which is just a main sitting room.

And we're using them all exactly as they were intended originally.

They're great spaces for events, which we do too, small events to weddings.

And we're sitting where we have our guests have breakfast every day and get coffee.

- [Deborah] Keeping it local, coffee by Durham-based Counter Culture is available to every guest.

With this automated server, you can customize for lattes, espresso, and other coffee drinks.

Your overnight stay includes an elevated continental breakfast, featuring organic artisan breads and pastries from the neighborhood's Boulted Bread, fresh local fruits, and amazing quiches stuffed with goodness by A Place at the Table in Raleigh.

This is the common space experience, but the guest rooms are anything but common.

- You will be staying in the honeymoon suite.

- Wow.

- [Staff] Very lavish.

[chuckles] - Now, I'm not on my honeymoon, but sometimes you just have to treat yourself.

I'm gonna show you around.

The first thing I noticed was just how light and airy it feels in here thanks to all of the natural light that's streaming through these windows, and also, the high ceilings.

Behind this pocket door, a whole nother room, a sitting area, lots of space, gorgeous chandelier.

And just check out this tub, a claw-footed tub, again, with the gorgeous brass fixtures, and there's even a rain shower head.

And I love that there are full sized amenities.

These are brought in from Italy because this is an Italianate mansion, and this smells heavenly, like rose and bergamot.

Oh God, it's gorgeous.

There's no question, the Heights House Hotel offers an impeccable stay for overnight guests.

It's also within perfect proximity to lots of Raleigh attractions and restaurants.

- Downtown Raleigh has museums, shopping, and wonderful restaurants.

We're big foodies, so we like to suggest the restaurants to eat dinner when you stay here.

- [Deborah] For me, they suggested a local pub that was just a short stroll across the Boylan Bridge, Wye Hill Kitchen and Brewing, the perfect casual spot to meet with friends for craft beer and cocktails.

I invited my buddy, Heather Burgiss of "My Home NC" to nosh with me.

- [Deborah and Heather] Cheers.

- Cheers.

- Thanks for joining me.

Everything on the menu here is made from scratch, bright, full of flavor, and just delicious all around.

Add in outdoor seating with spectacular views of the city and Wye Hill really captures the life and diversity of Raleigh, fits right in with a stay at Heights House Hotel, a relaxing stay surrounded by tasteful elegance crafted from a relic of history in the heart of the capital city.

The Heights House Hotel is at 308 South Boylan Avenue in Raleigh.

To book your Heights House experience, give them a call at [919] 594-1881, or go online to heightshousenc.com.

Well, that's it for tonight's show.

We've had a great time out here at Skate the Square at Fenton in Cary.

It's a great place to embrace the chill, and they're open until February.

And if you've missed anything in tonight's show, remember, you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org.

Have a great North Carolina weekend everyone.

[upbeat music] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ - [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[dramatic music]