>> This week on friends and neighbors.

(happy music plays) >> Nick: You're on a beautiful piece of property here.

>> Jeff: The outdoor area is meant to be kind of a destination place as well as the inside of course.

we're trying to appeal to the families who want to come and have a good time and relax.

And then later on the evening when the bands kick off that's when the bar takes over and people have a good time drinking and the dancing and all those things.

>> Deanna: When I decided to leave my other job I thought I wanna bring that same piece and serenity to other people because I know everybody in their workplace is stressed out and everybody needs a place to relax.

>> Dan: I taught him how to build a couple paddles and he just took it and ran with it.

>> Eric: We started posting pictures of it on Facebook and people wanted to order them.

I've had paddle orders throughout the Midwest, Canada, England, and New Hampshire.

I'm Eric Plath I am 13 years old and I am the founder of Plath Paddle Company.

>> Michael: Well, the house actually was part of the inspiration.

I wanted to turn the house into a nice cozy restaurant.

We wanted to be in a relaxed atmosphere.

You can come in here in shorts and a t-shirt or you can come in here in a suit.

>> Doing as much as you can as quickly as you can is important to me.

Life is short and the earlier we get started helping our community the better off our community will be.

>> I have a very strong connection to other students.

Everyone makes an effort to help each other.

I'll remember the feeling of being here.

The feeling that I was a part of a family.

>> Shopping for fruits and vegetables in the Strack and Van Til produce department is a feast for the senses.

With produce picked at the peak of freshness.

From apples and avocados to pineapples and peppers.

Treat yourself to the best quality fruits and vegetables.

Find them at your local Strack and Van Til store.

>> A long lasting legacy of family ownership dedicated to generations of clients is what sets Centier apart.

Trust the integrity, experience, and personal service of Centier Indiana's largest private family owned bank.

>> Support for programming Lake Shore PBS comes in part from a generous bequest of the estate of Marjorie A Mills whose remarkable contribution will help us keep viewers like you informed, inspired, and entertained for years to come.

(music playing) >> Additional support for Lakeshore PBS is provided by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(fun music starts) >> Hi, I'm chef Nick.

Thanks for joining us here in St. John.

We're visiting with Northwood falls.

Hey, let's eat.

>> Narrarator: While their menu is filled with classic American pub fair focus on freshness and comfort.

Chef Jake is comfortable taking creative license with new takes on familiar favorites.

>> Chef Jake: So this burger is made out of steak scraps.

>> Chef Nick: Look at that.

Look how nice and red that is.

Look at that.

This is probably like a 80, 20 black.

So it's just enough fat to give you some flavor, but not a lot where it's like to make your burger greasy and nasty.

[Chef Jake] Right.

Right here.

We're making our smash burger so it doesn't have to be beautiful.

>> So like that?

>> Just like that.

[Chef Nick] Okay.

>> Chef Jake: Drop her down.

>> Chef Nick: It look good.

>> Chef Jake: Oh yeah.

(country music playing) >> Chef Nick: So we putting any seasoning on this?

>> Chef Jake: Yep.

We're gonna hit it with our lodge seasoning.

>> Chef Nick: Okay.

Tell me one item in this seasoning that makes it special >> Salt.

>> Salt (Chef Nick laughs) >> Garlic.

And that's all you're getting out of me.

>> That's all I'm getting?

>> Yep.

>> Wait, tell me more.

>> Chef Nick: Now, is there any kind of special bacon you use?

>> Chef Jake: Applewood smoked?

(country music plays) >> I find a lot of my inspiration going off of things that I loved as a child.

It's summertime everyone's grilling out and it was Memorial day so I was getting to thinking about America you know so I grabbed some root beer from our tap.

I reduced it down.

I added a couple things to make the vanilla and the other flavors pop.

>> Chef Nick: I'm gonna take a shot of root beer here.

You can put this on ice cream.

>> I know.

I know I'm thinking about it.

(uptempo music starts) >> Chef Nick: Let me see how these bun are.

They're about ready, huh?

>> Chef Jake: Oh, yeah.

>> Chef Nick: Those look good.

>> Chef Jake: Ready for a flipping.

>> Chef Nick: Okay.

>> Chef Jake: So you wanna scrape.

>> Chef Nick: Right.

You want all that good stuff >> Chef Jake: Oh yeah just.

>> Chef Nick: That's perfect.

>> Chef Jake: Yes.

Right there.

>> Chef Jake: It's all about the sear.

It's all about the flavor.

>> Chef Nick: A lot of people try to rush this by capping it and stuff.

The best way to put cheese on the burger is put it on the burger and let the juices, the fats come up to the top mix with the cheese and melt into the burger.

>> Yep.

>> Chef Nick: I love burgers.

(up-tempo, fun music plays) >> Chef Jake: So we got that nice and juicy All American right here.

>> Chef Nick: This is just like you're using wine when you're cooking.

I feel like taking a shot of this.

>> Yep.

>> And put the rest on here.

>> Chef Jake: One for me, one for you.

>> Chef Nick: So what do I do?

Just put it right on?

>> Chef Jake: Oh, glaze it.

Don't be shy.

>> Chef Nick: Look at that.

>> Chef Jake: I'll watch it stream down the bacon >> Chef Nick: I like that.

(drum roll) >> Now for the all American burger.

(country music plays) Oh, this is good.

I don't even want to talk anymore.

I want to keep eating it.

It has a lot of flavor to it.

It's a double stack burger.

It's a smash burger.

A lot of great homemade seasons are topping on it.

And probably the best part about this all you can tell they use a number one quality burger.

Got some nice Applewood bacon on here.

A great brioche bun.

He buttered the bun.

He also puts an A&W root beer sauce on here.

The sauce is like a banana foster sauce.

Something you can use on ice cream but you could also dip your French fries in it too.

And the fries are batter fried.

Crispy, tasty, seasons just right.

I don't think I wanna say anything else.

I think I just want to keep eating.

(country music gets louder) >> Narrarator: Zach and the bar crew worked with executive chef Jake to keep their drink offerings as fresh and unique as their food menu.

Including their own beer.

Brewed with coffee and a cocktail with a personal tie to the restaurant.

>> Zack: Today, we're gonna make a drink called "Me Irish Mum" >> "Me Irish Mum."

>> Named after Dana our owner's mother.

>> Okay.

Wait, wait, did Dana's mother make this drink?

>> I don't know.

I don't think so.

I think we're just an homage.

>> Oh, okay.

>> Sounds good.

Okay.

>> We got Jameson.

Some Midori which is just a melon liqueur.

>> He's got a nice little melon flavor.

>> What's Jameson flavor, like.

>> Zack: Like an Irish, like Irish flavored.

>> Okay.

>> Yeah.

Irish whiskey.

>> Irish whiskey, okay.

>> And then lemonade which is lemon flavor.

>> I know what lemonade is.

>> Zack: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

>> Chef Nick: That's good.

Let's put it together.

>> All right, cool.

So I'll pour it for you.

We're gonna do a full two ounces of this.

Throw that in there.

>> Okay.

>> Zack: Then we're gonna flip that jigger around.

We're gonna top it off with little Midori in there.

Do a shot of that.

>> Oh, Midori right.

>> All right.

That smell nice?

>> Oh, that does smell very good.

Smells just like watermelon like you said.

>> Zack: Yeah, right?

>> Zack: Top it with little lemonade.

It'll be next.

Same equal parts of that with the Midori.

>> Chef Nick: So we're gonna shake this up?

>> Zack: We're gonna shake it up.

>> Ready?

I'll shake it.

>> Yeah, I'll back up.

>> Wait, like that?

>> Zack: Put your hips.

>> You can do it.

You're the professional.

>> I like to hold it and go handle like that.

>> That this is nice and frosty.

>> Isn't that nice?

>> Zack: Take that guy.

And then just hold that like that.

There you go.

Right.

Little orange slice here.

Give it a little twist in your hand, right?

>> Chef Nick: Okay.

>> Zack: And just drop it in there.

That's your garnish.

See how that tastes.

>> Okay.

Here we go.

Is it five o'clock somewhere?

>> Yeah.

>> Okay.

Good.

Oh, that is very good.

>> Zack: Is it good?

>> Yeah, that is very good.

>> Zack: Good.

Right on.

That's the "Me Irish Mum."

>> "Me Irish mom."

(bagpipe music pays) >> We're here with owner Jeff Conti of the North Woods Falls.

And Jeff, describe what the theme is here.

The ambiance.

>> Well, it's a bit of an unusual place in a sense that we have a full service dining room.

A large dining room.

And we also have the bar and music plays typically from eight to midnight.

It's got the atmosphere and we knew it had the atmosphere going in.

So the, the goal was to obviously get the food, the drinks, and the service up to that same level.

And those are the three elements of this establishment.

>> Chef Nick: You're on a beautiful piece of property here.

>> Jeff: The outdoor area is meant to be kind of a destination place.

As well as the inside of course.

We're trying to appeal to the families who want to come and have a good time.

Relax and then later on in the evening when the bands kick off still an all ages deck, that's when the bar takes over and people have a good time drinking and the dancing and all those things.

>> Chef Nick: What's been some of the reaction from your patrons?

>> Jeff: That's probably the most enjoyable part about this.

The older people who used to come here remember it fondly.

Their kids who maybe weren't old enough to go to the bar but remember the dinners.

They're all coming now.

We hear it dozens of times every day, how grateful people are that we opened it.

(warm music plays) (nice music begins) >> Deanna: We are in beautiful Valparaiso.

We bought this property in 2010.

I would drive by it when it was for sale and stop here and just sit here and it brought peace and serenity.

And then the realtor called us and said, "Hey, you were looking at this farmhouse are you interested?

Because it's gonna go back to the bank and they're going to demolish it and take it back down to farm property because it's been for sale for eight years and nobody wants it."

While we were fixing it up I think our initial thought was just to save the property.

And then I started thinking wouldn't it be a cool place for other people to come and relax?

So I thought about maybe selling wine here started fixing the property up started looking into how to start a winery.

I was extremely naive on how difficult that actually would be but I kept plugging ahead.

>> Mike: Once we bought it, I was full in and I wanted to support her and her venture.

So we worked together on this.

From the very beginning we wanted everybody to feel like they were on vacation when they got here.

So we worked diligently for years since 2010 Rehabbed the house it was in pretty bad shape.

It looks really pretty now.

And when we started we had made wine and then it was kind of a shock to go from making small batches of wine to bringing grapes in and crushing them.

>> Deanna: At home, I would make homemade wine and say, "honey, let's try to make some homemade beer."

So we would do that at home.

And then I got the brainiac idea.

How hard would it be to do commercially?

(lady laughing) I was very naive.

So we got the idea that we would start making it commercially.

We worked a lot with Purdue their agricultural department and they helped us tremendously.

Other wineries helped us tremendously giving us advice.

>> Mike: You have to be so diligent with checking the wine on a regular basis and making sure that you're protecting the wine at all times.

There's a lot that goes into filtration.

We've had some battles with the wine itself making sure that we put out the best product that we can.

All in all, we put a really good product out.

Everybody loves our wine and we just keep moving forward.

>> Yeah, we get a lot of compliments on our wine and people will come here and say, "you guys make really good wine."

And then I tell 'em "yeah, sometimes we've made really bad wine too."

(Deanna laughing) But that doesn't get sold.

Before we even opened the winery a young gal stopped by here and asked if she could get married here.

And I told her, "no."

I said, "I don't do weddings."

Where would you get married here?

And she said, "The old quansit hut.

And I said, "have you seen it?"

She said, "yeah.

I come here when you're not here.

And it's, this is a beautiful property and I love this property and I wanna get married here."

And I thought, huh.

She did the same thing I did.

So I allowed her to have her wedding A few weeks later, neighbor stopped by and said, "Hey, did you have a wedding there?"

I said, "Yeah."

She said, "Can I have my wedding there too?"

And then from that point, all kinds of people started talking to me and asking if they could get married here.

And the vibe that I wanted for it was we want a family vibe with friends and kids and everybody helping out.

So when they come here, I show them the property.

I show them how beautiful it is.

And then I tell them I will help them.

You know and I help them through the process and I give them ideas.

So it's a very smooth process for them.

We're family friendly we're dog friendly.

I want this to be a winery that everybody can enjoy.

>> Mike: Yeah.

I love talking to people and we have musicians come every Saturday and Sunday.

So I'm up there belting it out along with them.

I just enjoy people and meeting people.

And we make sure that when they're here they make themselves at home.

But everything here really comes out of her mind.

She is relentless.

In the middle of the night she'll be dreaming of these new ideas and then she'll say, "Hey Mike, guess what you gotta do tomorrow?"

(laughing) >> Deanna: When I decided to leave my other job, I thought I wanna bring that same piece and serenity to other people.

Because I know everybody in their workplace is stressed out and everybody needs a place to relax.

I also like the farm aspect because you know, people come here and who gets to sit on a farm anymore?

And this farm was started in 1870.

So it has been here continuously as it is except improved.

So 150 years.

>> Interestingly enough the original home was titled under a woman.

A German woman.

>> Yeah, yeah, yeah.

>> Yeah, which was unheard of at that point in time.

So I just think it's cool that it's become full circle.

It's back to, you know, a woman running it with the help of her man.

>> Yeah.

(peaceful music plays) (piano music begins) >> I taught him how to build a couple paddles in the beginning and he just took it and ran with it.

>> We started posting pictures of it on Facebook and people wanted to order them.

I've had paddle orders throughout the Midwest.

Canada, England, and New Hampshire.

I'm Eric Plath.

I am 13 years old and I am the founder of Plath Paddle Company.

>> Dan: I helped start the Northwest Indiana Paddling Association.

I think he was actually in Utero the first time we did a paddle and he's had his own kayak since he was three It's, you know, pretty much in his blood.

>> I just like how every paddle is a little different.

And each one is unique in its own way.

My grandfather was a carpenter and four of my uncles are carpenters too.

We've been just doing a lot of wood working our entire lives.

>> Dan: My dad was an industrial arts teacher too, as well.

So Eric has latched on to it and taken it in ways I never even thought we were ever going to.

So it's pretty neat.

(saw comes on) >> Dan: Safety's a big part of it.

All this stuff generates a lot of dust.

We have a dust control system and also a dust collector.

And we also have the kids all wear masks.

So one of the first things we bought was what's called a saw stop.

It will sense the human touch and it will automatically throw a break on it.

So the worst you could ever get's maybe a tiny scratch.

The biggest thing is just training him and making him feel confident.

>> Eric: Katie, she is 11 years old.

My brother, Matthew he is nine years old.

They both really enjoy working on the paddles.

Sanding it typically also gluing together the shafts.

>> Dan: And varnishing and finishing.

>> Eric: Yeah.

>> Dan: We try to produce no waste or really minimize it.

We're also just trying to reuse things a lot.

>> Eric: The wood chips we use for our Guinea pigs that for bedding.

>> Dan: We have probably the cleanest Guinea pig cage around with how much it produces.

They're in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

And if they wanna do something it's up to them to pay for half of it.

And then I'll pay for the other half.

By having some ownership in it they take better care of it.

It means a lot more than just handing him something.

When we decided that he wanted to go to Marquette which you know going to a school like that's not cheap.

He wanted to do something that helped contribute to his education.

>> At Marquette.

You can earn an associate's degree in business while you're still in high school.

So I would like to do that.

I'm getting experience not only in woodworking, but in sales, web, designing taxes, all that.

>> Dan: It's also interesting because you go into a bank or a accountant and say "Well, we've got a 13 year old who's starting a business."

they said, this is dad's business.

I'm like, "No, this isn't dad's business."

You know, he's building these paddles independently.

You know, I'm kind of quality control just to make sure that he doesn't miss anything or if he needs some help learning a different tool or different technique for things you know, Eric's about running at about 95% of himself right now with everything >> So it's been for me, very inspiring.

>> Eric: Everybody is really loving them.

They say they're too nice to use.

They're just hanging them in their houses as decoration.

And then occasionally they're gonna go out and use 'em in the water.

>> Dan: They're really kind of a functional piece of art.

It's been really outstanding to see him take this and run with it.

Been really fortunate because one of the things I've really tried to instill in all of our kids is that independence.

And when you have work go towards the work don't go away from the work being lazy is not an option in our family.

(music plays) >> November 21st, 1998.

We opened the Monday of Thanksgiving week.

Unannounced just opened the doors and it's been crazy ever since.

(jazz music plays) Well, the house actually gave me the inspiration was part of the inspiration.

I wanted to turn the house into a nice cozy restaurant.

We wanted to be in a relaxed atmosphere.

You can come in here in shorts and a t-shirt or you can come in here in a suit.

I always prefer outdoor dining.

So I wanted to create that for my customers.

So, when we opened in November I told my wife and my accountant in June, we're gonna open a patio.

It almost doubles our business during the summer months.

It really does.

People come in and they'll actually wait for a table outside rather than the inside could be half empty and they'd rather wait for an outdoor table.

(funky music plays) >> Michael: Chef Jeremy's been here two years.

His cooking is really simple.

It's more like less is more sometimes with him.

(jazz music plays) One of his best dishes is a Cacio e Pepe which is just cheese and pepper but it's so delicious you can't believe it's only two ingredients.

(jazz music plays) >> It's an amazing dish.

it's one of my favorite things to cook but it's gotta be done right.

Start with a little olive oil, a little butter, fresh cracked pepper some salted pasta water.

You throw in the noodles and you need the starch from the noodles and then you gotta get the water level just right before you add the cheese or it lumps up.

It's just cheese and pepper but it just takes finesse.

>> Michael: The main menu is a collaboration between him and Chef Dylan and chef Mike and Culver.

We change it twice a year seasonally, but the weekly specials he has free run to do whatever he wants.

Jeremy's specials are really wonderful, especially the pastas.

I could eat anything you put in front of me off our menu.

It's all wonderful.

(jazz music playing) >> My wife and I really enjoy it.

She left a corporate job in the chemical industry.

She was a national sales manager.

When we opened the restaurant she retired from that and we've been busy ever since.

Neither one of us could do it without the other one.

Put it that way.

(piano jazz plays) >> Doing as much as you can as quickly as you can is important to me.

Life is short and the earlier we get started helping our community the better off our community will be.

>> Almost every single professor I've had.

I'm on a first name basis.

By building that relationship with faculty I was able to get involved with research.

It's one thing to read about an idea and a book versus physically doing it and seeing the results.

>> Strack & Van Til is your wedding planning partner.

Choose handcrafted designs by the trained floral designers in our floral department.

Plan a memorable meal for your reception from our delicious catering menu and let our bakery artisans design the wedding cake of your dreams.

Visit StrackandVantil.com for details.

>> A long lasting legacy of family ownership dedicated to generations of clients is what sets Centier apart.

Trust the integrity, experience, and personal service of Centier Indiana's largest private family owned bank.

>> Support for programming Lake Shore PBS comes in part from a generous bequest of the estate of Marjorie A Mills whose remarkable contribution will help us keep viewers like you informed, inspired, and entertained for years to come.

(music plays) >> Additional support for Lakeshore PBS is provided by viewers like you.

Thank you.

>> Did you know that you can find all of your favorite Lake Shore PBS shows online by visiting video.Lakeshorepbs.org.

You can stream a large selection of shows, including "I Own the Arts" "In Studio" and "Friends and Neighbors."

Lakeshore, PBS has taken great care to bring you the best in local content.

Not sure how to find local content?

Click on shows and sort by only Lakeshore PBS shows.

Not only will you find local content on Lakeshore PBS but you can also stream live TV right to your computer, Click on live TV and get instant access to Lakeshore PBS live wherever you are.

Lakeshore PBS is full of wonderful content created just for you missed the last night's episode?

No problem.

Lakeshore PBS has got you covered.

Search for your show and find your episode ready to watch anytime.

Visit video.Lakeshorepbs.org to stream your favorite local shows.

(outro music playing) (chimes)