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- This week, we'll dine on lakeside barbecue, visit a Greeneville car museum, explore the history of photography, and indulge in tasty Czech pastries.

Sounds like a sweet show.

I'm Vicki Yates, welcome to "Tennessee Crossroads."

(upbeat music) If you've ever visited Nashville Shores, you may have noticed an unassuming blue building near the boat dock.

Inside, you'll find a great mix of barbecue and the blues that make Papa Turney's a popular lakeside destination.

This building, located on Percy Priest Lake, used to service boaters who docked their vessels here.

And while the area is still accessible to boats, the building has taken on a whole new ambiance.

(upbeat music) Gwatholyn Irene Turney is one of the owners of Papa Turney's barbecue in Hermitage having moved the family business here about 12 years ago.

- We started out in a food truck, and then from the food truck, we went into like a little 16 seater place.

And then one night, we used to have live music in this little place.

And so one night, this gentleman came in, and he stayed all night.

And unbeknownst to us, he was really watching us to see how we interacted with the customers.

- Good to see you, brother.

- [Vicki] Mike Papa Turney takes it from there.

- A friend of mine told me about this place, so we did a proposal on it, and the gentleman that we presented the proposal to that was a GM of Nashville Shores, we didn't know it, but he had came to the little brick and mortar building on a Saturday night when we were doing music.

And he basically leased his place to us based on how he was treated in our little restaurant that night.

And we didn't know who he was.

- [Vicki] And that enabled them to open this structure as Papa Turney's Barbecue.

- The meat is kind of all my or our recipes.

And I don't say that we do Memphis style barbecue or Carolina style barbecue.

We do good barbecue, and the Barbecue World cost stick burners, we use hickory wood, some seasoned, some grain, but we just do really good old fashioned barbecue.

Everything's a dry rub.

Nothing's mopped or cooked in any sauce.

What we're gonna do is re-season these and finish them.

We do a smoked catfish that's kind of our own signature recipe.

I could tell you what's in the rub, but then Brandon would have to kill you with this plastic fork.

We're gonna put a little bit more seasoning on the brisket.

These were on the grill for about three hours.

Took them off, let them rest, and now we'll finish them.

- [Vicki] And was it worth the wait?

- Y'all okay out here?

- Yeah, we just ordered our second- - It's so good.

I wanted more ribs.

- So this is gonna be round two?

- Yep.

- [Vicki] This hungry group is visiting Nashville from the West Coast.

- We're actually from California, and my brother just looked this place up online, so we saw the pictures on the water and everything and the food as well.

So we're like, we have to come here.

Best of both worlds for sure.

- [Vicki] So what do you think of the food?

- Amazing.

Oh my gosh, I ate that so fast.

And we're getting some more as well.

So amazing.

It's so welcoming too.

- One of the best parts about it.

I mean, the food is top notch, but just meeting Mike and feeling like family is really one of the best parts.

- [Mike] This is the Faded Blue blues band.

And we got some horns with us tonight.

- [Vicki] What else is top notch?

Miss Zeke's Juke Joint.

- We get a lot of travelers.

People want to experience something authentic, and something authentic to the south, to blues music.

And that's what they get here.

So the customers come from all over the world.

We had a guy here this morning from Great Britain.

They came for this authentic Juke Joint experience.

We wasn't playing music then, but I think the gentleman had never even heard of what a turnip green is.

And when he left, he knew what they were.

Yeah.

And he took some with him, he did.

Thank you.

Mr. Dave Duncan.

(upbeat music) What do you know?

I think he know a good thing.

- [Vicki] The authentic Juke joint got its name from an authentic music lover, Mrs. Turney.

♪ Shoot straight, there you go ♪ - Zeke is my nickname.

And so we were trying to come up with names for the music venue.

And so it was a few other names floating around and I said, "It ought to be called Miss Zeke's Juke Joint."

And everybody's saying, "Yeah, nobody wants that."

Okay.

So I left it alone.

I didn't think anything of it.

Went on, time went on.

I came in one afternoon and they had up on the board.

Miss Zeke, I just versed into tears.

I couldn't believe that he would do that for me.

He would do that for me to put my name up up on the music venue because one thing he knows I love music, all kinds of music.

He knows I love music.

(audience cheering) - While most customers are here to enjoy the hot and smoky meats, Miss Zeke's Juke Joint can also bring the heat.

(upbeat music) Juke joints originally got their start when many Black musicians had nowhere else to go.

But Miss Zeke's is open to anyone who wants a great time, great music, great food, and a great welcome.

- [Mike] We serve the human family.

That's what my wife said, gay, straight, Black, white, tall, skinny, whatever.

I believe that this place look like God want the world to look.

Everybody eating together, fellowshipping together, playing music together, laughing and talking and having fun.

We're one, y'all.

(crowd cheering) - Are you a car buff, a history buff, or maybe even a movie buff?

If you are, have we got a place for you.

In our next story, Miranda Cohen travels to Greeneville to meet a man with a rare collection of vehicles you have to see to believe.

(upbeat music) - [Miranda] One of Kent Bewley's earliest memories is of being around cars.

- I was a car guy from very, very young, and enjoyed the dealerships and did everything from carry out the garbage to sell cars to clean cars, worked in parts, service, everything.

- [Miranda] Since 1937, his father, RR Bewley, owned several car dealerships in and around Greeneville, and the younger Bewley grew to share a passion for his family business.

- [Kent] I told somebody that I've done everything you can do with a car.

I've raced them, I've rented them, I've leased them, I've sold them, so we're just big time car people.

- [Miranda] He is also somewhat of a vehicle historian as the owner of the City Garage Car Museum here on South Main Street.

- [Kent] Cars, had over 40 cars stored in a warehouse with flat tires and dead batteries.

And so this building became available, and so I bought it and Biddy, my wife and I did most of the decorating and did the total layout.

And it's just worked out beautifully.

- [Miranda] This 12,000 square foot one-time service station is now home to an impressive collection of 42 very rare vintage automobiles.

You can see everything from a 1901 Oldsmobile to a very rare Canadian made Bricklin to the very first Subaru that was ever shipped to the US.

And Bewley does have a few favorites.

- [Kent] The DeTomaso Pantera, and I bought it brand new.

It has 4,900 miles on it and it has a certificate of origin that's never been titled.

It's the only one in existence that's never been titled.

(upbeat music) - [Miranda] The classic '57 Chevy and the '52 Pontiac have been in the family since they rolled off the assembly line.

There are Corvettes, Cadillacs, and even a nod to NASCAR.

And if you're a movie buff, there is plenty for you too.

- [Kent] The sheriff's car outside, it looks like the Barney Fife car, was in a movie, was in two movies.

The Rolls Royce Cornish back there was in the movie "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."

- [Miranda] Okay, Mr. Bewley, no doubt, one of the most recognizable cars in here is the DeLorean.

So when was this car made and how many of them are still out there?

- I think they produced from '82 to '84, and there's probably less than 10,000.

We think this one is the lowest mileage.

It has 727 miles on it.

And it's never been out of this county.

It was purchased in Nashville truck up here, and it's been in Greeneville ever since.

(upbeat music) - [Miranda] The vehicles are displayed with nostalgic memorabilia.

It is like a drive down memory lane.

Bewley has been collecting vintage cars for decades, and he is not putting the brakes on anytime soon.

Private owners and dealers continually seek out Mr. Bewley with the hopes of adding to his grand collection.

- [Kent] The best source of getting cars for me now is wives that want their husbands to get rid of these cars.

But we have opportunities almost monthly to buy, and we're very selective in what we buy.

But people come from far and wide and let us appraise them, and then we end up buying some of them.

Uniqueness, very rare, cars that are very rare, but there's no set rule for that.

It's just how you see it and how it will fit in the museum.

- [Miranda] Bewley says the younger generations marvel at the polished chrome, metal, and meticulous engineering.

But for many, it is much more of an emotional journey.

- [Kent] Just the memories, the pleasant memories, and it is just a special attachment.

Well, it's kinda like a fraternity or sorority or whatever you want to call it, but car people are car people.

And it's intriguing in a small town like Greeneville and they seem to think it's much smaller than it is.

But a lot of people come in and they'll say, well, they're in a hurry, and they end up staying an hour or two hours, they'd become enamored with it.

We draw a lot of people into Greeneville that would not come otherwise, they come here to see cars.

- Thanks Miranda.

Lots of people have a side hustle these days.

Very few have one like Blake Wiley.

Blake's always loved photography, but several years ago, he discovered a basic historic process called tintype.

And picture this, he loves to share this old time adventure with others as Joe Elmore discovered.

- [Joe] While Blake Wiley's day job is in the tech industry, he's always had a sideline love for photography.

(bright music) First film, then digital.

But later in 2005, Blake began to focus on a photographic process that's more than 170 years old.

- I had been researching and known about tintypes before I saw a guy doing the process.

And I think the term was, if you like history, if you like you working with dangerous chemicals.

And I was like, "Well this is for me.

Let's do it" - [Joe] Cheaper than its predecessor Daguerreotype, tintype was a more affordable medium for 19th century family portraits.

You've probably seen them in antique stores.

Matthew Brady was a tintype pioneer, credited with capturing Civil War era pictures, including this one of General Ulysses Grant.

And even this famous photo of President Abraham Lincoln.

Well these days, Blake welcomes curious clients to his home studio ready to have their image captured with this vintage process.

For many, it's the nostalgia, and being part of such a non-digital adventure.

- There's a bit of a yearning, I think, in people for the old stuff, the old ways, right?

Analog, you've got the record stores that are really popular today.

It's very similar, right?

You've got this very analog process that is, you know, and you actually get to hold something that is the actual picture that was taken, that's something that's gonna last for generations, and it can be passed through your family, or it may end up in an antique store itself one day.

This camera though is a large format camera eight by 10.

It's a century studio camera.

The depth of field is very narrow on the process.

I mean, I can use, sometimes I'll take a photo and I can get somebody's nose out of focus and their eyes in focus and when you're really close.

So it's something where you're under the hood, under the dark cloth, and everything's upside down and reversed.

And so you're having to look at each focal point and get this everything in focus as much as you can.

- [Joe] Before using the camera though, Blake has to prep the metal plate which will become the actual picture - Trophy aluminum is what it is.

You have to have a black background for the portrait for the picture to be taken on.

And we pour the film on the actual plate.

Come on in, have a seat right here.

- All right.

- [Joe] Well today in his studio, Blake's subjects are Jason and Jenna Fessler.

And the first order of business here is setting up this enormous light.

That's because tintype likes lots of light.

- [Blake] All right, just some focusing.

- [Joe] Then the couple will need to stay still for the critical following step.

- It's the focusing that's really the key piece.

So if somebody moves even just by a little bit forward or backwards, they're going out of focus.

And I can't see that after I put the plate in the camera.

So I can't see that they've moved.

So there are some times where somebody's out of focus and I may have to redo it.

All right, one, two, three.

Good job, guys.

You can move and relax.

All right, I'm gonna put that right there.

- [Joe] Finally, it's off to the dark room for developing, fixing, and furnishing the plate.

And at last, the couple's finished tintype photo is good to go.

- For the people that come in, I really try to make it an immersive experience.

So they get to see the process.

I walk them through, tell them about the history.

I get to show them, they get to smell everything as well, the chemicals.

And I'll have people come in and they're like, "This smells like my high school dark room" when they were still doing dark rooms in high schools and colleges.

- [Joe] Now this story's not about me, but Blake insisted.

Who knows, maybe I'll wind up in an antique store someday.

- A little dramatic lighting, if you don't mind.

- I love it.

Dramatic lighting.

- One, two, three.

All right, now you can move.

- [Joe] And what an incredible experience.

But before leaving, I had a question for Blake.

In those old tintype portraits, why did people never smile?

- I think it's a new process, they don't understand.

There's not this selfie environment that we have today.

But it was a very new thing and they were used to seeing portraits, painted portraits, and people that were very still and it was really a continuation of that in a way.

- [Joe] Anyway, Blake Wiley has a lot to smile about.

Enjoying his high tech day job while pursuing this low tech craft in the timeless world of tintype.

- It's kind of an honor for them to allow me to take their image like that because the way the process is, the engagement and the fact that they get to place this in their homes and enjoy it for generations even.

(bright music) - Nothing brings back fond memories like the sweet smell of something delicious baking in the oven.

It can take you back to those family gatherings as a kid when you stuffed yourself with your favorite food.

Well, Ed Jones found an East Nashville bakery a few years ago that will put you right back in grandma's kitchen, especially if you hail from the Lone Star State.

(upbeat music) - [Sarah] There's the strawberry kolache.

- I don't know what kolache is.

- [Sarah] When we first opened, I bet you at least 50% of the people that came in had no idea what they were.

- I had no idea what a kolache was coming in.

- [Sarah] At least 30% of the customers that come in every day, still no idea.

- We live in Toronto, which has got a pretty eclectic food culture, but I have never had or heard of a kolache before.

- I didn't know when we opened that I would be teaching so many people what they were.

It just didn't even hit me.

- [Ed] Well, it finally did hit her.

And now Sarah Way's Yeast Nashville Bakery gets hit every morning by hungry customers in search of the mysterious kolache, which was a mystery to Sarah when she moved to Texas.

- So I lived in Houston for about 17 years.

I had no idea what they were before I moved there.

I grew up in northern Michigan.

It's an everyday staple there.

They have them in gas stations, they have their own shops, you can get them wherever, and they're very easy to eat on the go.

So in Houston, everybody's on the road.

So they're always eating kolaches I guess.

- [Ed] So what is a kolache?

- They're similar to a Danish where they have a sweet filling and they're round, it's a sweeter dough than that.

So it's a different texture.

People still call them Danishes.

They'll still say cream cheese Danish.

We just go with it.

- [Ed] As it turns out, that's just half of the story.

The kolache originated in Czechoslovakia, but when the Czechs migrated to Texas, meat-filled versions were born, which Sarah calls the savory kolache.

- All right, they get one more turn and then we'll be good to go.

(upbeat music) Every day we do a sausage and cheddar and a jalapeno sausage and cheddar kolache.

And then we do four different sweets.

We do a blueberry, cherry, cinnamon apple, and cream cheese.

And then we'll have a special of the day for our kolache.

Sometimes it's sweet, sometimes it's savory, and it can be something like blackberry goat cheese, or it may be one that we call cheeseburger.

And people are like, what?

Who wants a cheeseburger one for breakfast?

But once they try it, they're like, "Oh yeah."

So it's nice because we can be more creative with the special ones.

But then we have the nice just normal ones that if people wanna just grab something they're familiar with, they can.

- [Ed] Well, we've solved the mystery of the kolache, but how did Sarah, the Michigander turned Texan turned Tennesseean turn up in a bakery?

- I just missed them so much that I started trying to make them at home.

So you can't make them just in a small batch.

So I would share them with friends and they're like, "You should sell these."

And I was like, ha ha, whatever, you know?

And when they wanted to move my position back to Houston and I was like, "No way am I going back there.

I'm staying here.

This is awesome."

So I was like, "Well, I guess I'm gonna try it."

- [Ed] Much to the delight of her customers, - I come to Yeast Nashville almost every single day.

- So delicious.

The best kolaches I've ever had.

- We have some that come every Monday through Friday.

We have some that come Saturdays and Sundays, just depending on the work schedule.

And it's great because now I'll run into them all over the city.

I'll run into different people all the time and I love it.

I love it.

So yeah, it's more friends than customers.

- [Ed] And Yeast Nashville has more to satisfy those friends than just kolaches.

Hey Thomas, would you like to talk to us, sir?

Like shy, but hungry Thomas's favorite.

- Cinnamon rolls.

- Cinnamon rolls, absolutely.

- We do giant cinnamon rolls.

And then Wednesday through Sunday, we do breakfast tacos.

We also have what we call crustless quiche, which is always vegetarian and it's always gluten-free.

So we have that one option every day for those that want that.

(upbeat music) This neighborhood is very good about mom and pop shops.

They want everything local if they can get it.

And they've been very good about making us what we are.

Look at you, those look great.

Did you make those?

- [Cook] No.

- The people in my staff are what has made this a success.

I have a feeling that you're never gonna get yelled at.

We don't really do that here.

- [Ed] No, there's no yelling at Yeast Nashville.

- Taco!

- [Ed] Well, not in anger anyway.

Sweet and savory not only describes the kolaches, but the atmosphere as well.

- [Customer] I just love the people here.

They're so sweet.

Everybody's so friendly.

Lot of love here.

- [Sarah] I want people to come in and feel like they're in Grandma's kitchen.

- I actually grew up with my grandmother making them.

So this was nostalgic, just a great find.

- And we've had a lot of people that say, "Oh my gosh, it smells like my grandma's kitchen in here."

And I was like, "Yes, that's what I was hoping for."

And we want everybody to feel welcome and very comfortable.

We have people who have family coming into town, or best friends coming into town, they're like, "Oh, we have to take them to Yeast."

- [Ed] Yes.

Take it from shy Thomas's mother.

- Get one of everything if you can.

They're all so different.

Some mornings I feel sweet, some mornings I feel savory, and they have everything I need.

- Thanks, Ed.

Well, we're out of time for this week, but please visit tennesseecrossroads.org for more stories, and check out the PBS app while you're there.

Until next week, thanks for tuning in.

(upbeat music) (bright music) - [Announcer] "Tennessee Crossroads" is made possible in part by.

- [Narrator] Students across Tennessee have benefited from over seven and a half billion dollars we've raised for education, providing more than 2 million scholarships and grants.

The Tennessee lottery, game-changing, life-changing fun.

- [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.

- [Narrator] The co-op system in Tennessee consists of independently owned co-ops, driven to serve farmer owners, rural lifestyle customers, and their communities throughout Tennessee and in five neighboring states.

More at ourcoop.com.

- [Narrator] Middle Tennessee State University College of Liberal Arts helps students explore the world, engage minds, enrich lives, and earn a living.

More at mtsu.edu/cla.