Chattanooga

Lifting Tia-Numa’s Curse

Romantic travelers want to be transported to another time and place, even if it’s just for dinner. And many don’t need to go any further than the warm spots in their memories where spirits of their youth play in familiar surroundings. That why folks still trek to the Empire State Building, decades after it stopped being the tallest in New York. That’s why sports buy every seat to Wrigley Field, Cameron Indoor Arena and Keeneland even though the comforts and amenities in those places are sorry by today’s standards. It’s also why travelers adore historic old hotels like the Ahwahnee at Yosemite, the Greenbriar in Appalachia and the Grand on Mackinac Island where Hollywood goes to make movies about time travel.

Entire towns are sometimes holy depositories of zeitgeist - a German term that means “spirit of a former time.” Historic twists of fate can freeze cities and ghost towns in time like Bruges and Maccu Piccu on a grand scale of centuries. On old Route 66, Albuquerque has become adored by travelers for maintaining a cornucopia of Eisenhower era quirks and amusements, punctuated with outdoor adventure, gorgeous landscapes and time warp architecture. Just as that New Mexican city marked the two thirds mark on Route 66 between Chicago to the California coast, Chattanooga marked a similar progression on old Highway 41’s route from Chicago to Florida. That’s just the beginning of the similarities.

Both towns were best known to most of America through popular songs about travel - “Route 66” for Albuquerque and “Chattanooga Choo Choo” and “Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy“ and “Ramblin‘ Man” for Chattanooga. Both are drop dead beautiful mountain towns where nature provides everything an adventure traveler could desire - river treks, skydiving, gliding, hot air ballooning and rock climbing.

Because songs are so much a part of the way we imagine Chattanooga, Wroburlto and I planned our trip for Riverbend Festival - nine days of eclectic music ( Last year we saw Willie Nelson, Three Dog Night and Train, plus numerous other acts on smaller stages) on the Tennessee River downtown, with one day off for the Bessie Smith Strut, a neighborhood blues fest that celebrates Chattanooga’s most famous singer and attracts some long distance barbecue kings besides. We checked into the newly remodeled Chattanooga Doubleday, just four blocks from the music festival and even closer to the famous Tennessee Aquarium and downtown.

Chattanooga is pedestrian friendly. The Doubletree was just a block from a city wide free shuttle bus service that connects just about every part of town we wanted to visit and making it possible to only rent a car for one of the four days of our trip.

Tia-Numa & His Curse

Determined to get some educational stuff in before dinner, we walked up, 80 feet straight up, to check out a most peculiar art museum whose history includes as many colorful anecdotes as a half dozen William Faulkner novels combined.

The Hunter Museum of American Art was built on holy ground - former home of the Cherokee’s giant hawk god “Tia-Numa.” After chasing Tia-Numa and his people away, white folk first built an iron foundry on this sacred bluff - an offering to the gods of industrialization. Union forces destroyed the foundry in the Civil War and then insurance broker Ross Faxon built an Edwardian mansion here, with lots of Classical Greek touches thrown in. About the same time, local businessman Ben “Quick” Thomas bought the national rights to bottle Coca Cola during a gentleman’s outing. The founder of that soft drink company couldn’t imagine why anyone would ever want to drink Coke out of a bottle, so he figured he was stealing $1 from the imprudent Thomas.

Ben’s nephew George Thomas Hunter was a gay blade who suffled around Chattanooga in Rolls Royce, took over his uncle’s company and broke the hearts of all the unmarried women in town. He bought the Faxon mansion and later willed it to the city, to be turned into an American Art Museum. Two modern glass and steel additions later, it’s remained true to its American-only mission. It dazzled us with do-it-yourself art mirrors

and some food art - Severin Roesen’s “Nature’s Bounty” and Rich Goodwin’s “Huntsman’s Door.” Our visit coincided with “Jellies: Living Art,” a collaboration with the Tennessee Aquarium that paired the artistic splendor of fine glass sculpture with the living beauty of jelly fish.

Dinner in Bluff View

Glass fish make us hungry so we walked a couple blocks to the Bluff View Art District where a single family revitalized a turn of the last century neighborhood over 50 years of due diligence. Dr. Charles and Mary Porteras began purchasing property and remodeling arty conversions back in 1960, when Chattanooga had been stung. The New York Times named it America‘s most polluted city. That was the curse of Tia-Numa.

Anchored by the River View Art Gallery, with a super regional collection of high and folk art, the area includes an outdoor sculpture garden that overlooks the Tennessee River, B&B’s, additional galleries and three distinct restaurants all of which are provided by Bluff View’s own coffee roaster, bakery and chocolatier.

We learned that the bakery turns out over 50 pastries a day, all laminated, hand mixed, artisan products. We tried croissants, puff pastries and the area’s signature - The Nun, a “Napoleon with a hood.

The chocolaterie was run by Jerome Savin, a French educated chocolate genius who prefers Callebault and high cocoa butter (22 - 54%) confections. His mastery of tempering allows these high fat treats to have reasonable shelf life and a signature sheen.

Just to be sure, we only ate freshly made truffles. In a former glass factory, coffee roaster Matt showed Wro the dramatic differences in fresh beans.

We had to choose between two fine dining restaurants - Tony’s, which makes all its pasta from scratch daily, and Back Inn Café, a more traditional place with historic trappings. Wro chose the latter for its library dining room. I began dinner with huge seared scallops served with a sweet pepper pomace and lemon emulsion and charred pico do gallo. Wro opted for fried green tomatoes, the first of many versions we would have in Chattanooga and one that would set the template for “Chattanooga fried tomatoes” - a serving that included cooked prosciutto, lots of melted goat cheese and some fresh greens.

We split an excellent lump crab timbale served simply with sliced green apples and crostini with olive oil. Knowing we would be visiting the fresh water aquarium, I reasoned that this might be my last conscience-free chance to eat frog legs for awhile and huge legs from Indonesia proved irresistible fried in panko and served with slaw.

Lobster bisque was made with lobster shell stock and salad was fresh as spring time.

Wro ordered turbot ( whose relative would cast indicting eyes at us when we visited the Aquarium) served on wild mushroom risotto with crispy noodles and haricot verts. I ordered a NY strip “Rembrandt style,” rubbed in coffee and served with asparagus, mushroom cream sauce and truffled mashed potatoes.

Crème brulee and chocolate mousse cake finished our evening. We retreated to the music fest and thanked God that our hotel was only a few blocks away lest we fall asleep on the music grounds

Blue Plate

The next morning in our hotel lobby, we saw a guy wearing a T shirt for a tow truck museum. Loving such quirky places, we followed him into the gift shop and asked about it. He offered to drive us there. Turned out he was Bill Mish , the owner of the hotel. That’s the kind of place Chattanooga is.

We began the next day at Blue Plate, a metropolitan diner with a locovorean spin on comfort food. The place is designed for efficiency and that encourages the use of fresh food. There is only one tiny freezer and only two flat top stoves. Yet they manage to serve breakfast lunch or dinner at all hours they are open.

“This is a metropolitan diner, not a Mom & Pop. We hired an architect from Berkeley. It was really something new in 2005. Now it’s a style all around town,” said owner Rob Gentry of black and white schemes with wood and exposed ceilings.

“No one was doing breakfast downtown then. I see now why Waffle House does so well. Even though our average check is only $12 - $13,” Gentry continued.

Chef Joseph Black showed Wroburlto around. Joseph invented a Moon Pie cheesecake that both the restaurant and the Moon Pie company brag about. He showed Wro his stashes of local goodies - Aretha Frankenstein pancake mix, pastries from Bluff View and Niedlov’s bakeries, Stone Cup coffee, Spencer Farms chickens, River Ridge Farms pork and eggs, House of Rayford turkey, Clumpie’s Ice Cream and Mayfield Farm cream.

We tried a light breakfast of pancakes, with free ranged eggs and bacon. plus meat loaf and mashed potatoes with collard greens and creamy mac & cheese. I know that doesn’t sound like breakfast but soul food is hard to find in San Francisco, so we get it while we can.

Song of the Southside

The Southside is Exhibit A in Chattanooga’s most recent renaissance. Anchored by its old railroad terminal, it is a Bruges Syndrome story. Like that medieval Belgian city, economic circumstances froze the industrial southside’s real estate and architecture in time for decades. As suburban sprawl dominated new construction between World War II and the 21st century, the southside’s old brick buildings languished - too sturdy to tear down cheaply until restoration and gentrification became stylish. Now the southside and downtown are trendy again and not just on the covers of bricklayer magazines.

Southside revival began with the brick and mortar version of a song. “Chattanooga Choo Choo” was written by Mack Gordon & Harry Warren while traveling on the Southern Railway's "Birmingham Special" train. Glen Miller’s version of the song was # 1 hit in America for nine weeks during World War II. The inspiration for the song was a small, wood-burning steam locomotive which belonged to the Cincinnati Southern Railroad and now is a main attraction in what used to the Chattanooga Terminal.

Opened in 1909 that railroad station hosted thousands of travelers during the Golden Age of railroads. Now known as Chattanooga Choo Choo, it was saved from the wrecking ball in 1971 and transformed into The Garden’s, a restaurant modeled on Tivoli in Copenhagen. Today, it’s a 23 acre complex offering a variety of overnight accommodations, including Victorian Era train compartments and suites, plus authentic New Orleans trolley rides, a model railroad display, formal gardens and a bar that evokes that glorious era.

Holmes Wreckers & Other Heroes

We could have lingered all morning at the Choo Choo but Wroburlto is a modern bear more interested in tow trucks than antique trains. So we took Bill Mish up on his offer and headed to the International Towing & Recovery Museum and Hall of Fame. I am not making that up.

There we learned that the Holmes Wrecker (1913) is not a slut TV show and that the Bubble Nose is not a fish. Well at least it’s not just a fish.

Those are both famous antique tow trucks that now educate and comfort fans who come from all over America to see them. This quirky museum also enshrines workers who gave their lives as first responders - a frightfully under appreciated number of brave souls each year. We also saw the world’s fastest ever tow truck, appropriately owned by a garage in Talladega, Alabama. Wro loved this place and even Mamabear was fascinated.

Tow trucks make us hungry so we moved down the southside to the University of Tennessee where Chattanooga Market’s open air, covered pavilion showcased regional farmers and artists, live music and chef demonstrations.

This is a real farmers market, meaning vendors must personally produce the goods they sell. I bought a Smokey Mountain bow knife for $30. I have never found a better tool for slicing bread or frozen meat. We also found the best strawberries and okra (from Mike Mayfield of Mayfield Farms) and peaches (from Ahzlewood Orchards in Cleveland, Alabama) in years - and I live in California! Signal Mountain Organic Farms sold Wro some radishes that were so fresh he needed to wash the bite down his throat with a strawberry smoothie from Bunky’s Salad Station.

Moon (Pie) Over My Amity

Chattanooga Bakery is an indisputable American icon. It’s just that most people know it by another name. This bakery makes a product that defines a Southern lifestyle as in “You’re a red neck if your wedding cake is a stack of Moon Pies.”

Chattanooga Bakery Vice President Tory Johnson told us the story of the birth of Moon Pie, no relation to Tia-Numa.

“Campbell’s Flour Mill started here in 1902 and by World War I they had excess production. So they started bringing out new items. Moon Pie developed after visits to the coal mine region of Kentucky where miners said they wanted something bigger and more substantial in their lunch pails. Moon Pie was developed in response to that - a snack as big as the moon. It was about the 200th new item brought out by the bakery,” Johnson said.

By 1930, Moon Pie was so popular it was the only item the bakery made. Still a family owned, family run company, they make six flavors now. The original flavor is the original s‘more - chocolate enclosed marshmallow. In southern lore, Moon Pie is linked with RC Cola, so we asked about that.

“RC Cola was the first soft drink to bottle in 20 ounce sizes, when others were still preferring 6 and 8 ounce bottles. So, the blue collar lunch became a Moon Pie and an RC. It stuck ever since,” explained Johnson.
Other Moon Pie lore.

~ Moon Pies were one of three things, along with Coca Cola and Bazooka gum, that Oprah said made America American.

~ 2008 was the year of the first non-marshmallow Moon Pie, with peanut butter filling introduced.

~ Sam Walton told Wal0Mart managers that each needed to promote a personal favorite item. He held up Moon Pie’s as his personal favorite. Kiss-ass managers followed his lead and Moon Pie sales soared.

~ Chattanooga Bakery purchased Betsy’s Cheese Sticks of Alabama recently, looking for a product for the high end market. Betsy’s Cheese and Sweet sticks are made without high fructose corn syrup.

Knead Love?

Junk food history always makes us hungry, so we decided on a moveable feast dinner, with bread at one Southside place, appetizers and cocktails at another, entrees at third and desserts at a fourth.

Niedlov’s Breadworks on Main Street was a charter member of the area’s revitalization program. This artisan bakery sells to walk-in customers and also provides bread for Greenlife Grocery and Chattanooga’s fine dining establishments. Niedlov’s signature loaf, Wholely Whole Wheat, is the city’s only organic, naturally leavened whole-grain bread.

Wearing a T shirt that said “We knead to love,” owner John Sweet said he learned in Germany that “Good bread is a commonality to good life.”

Niedlov’s practices extensive fermentation. Sweet wanted a unique leavening agent and created his own mother starter (we call that sourdough in San Francisco) on Lookout Mountain. As the Chattanooga food renaissance developed, he moved to the southside to be in the middle of it.

Moveable Feast

At Niko’s Southside Grille, owner Nick Kyriakidis added linen tablecloths, dark woods, modern lighting and impressionist art to the brick wall ambiance of an old warehouse. Chef Edward Lewis turns out “Greek & Southern fusion” cuisine - grouper is given a Thai treatment, grits are served with shrimp and tasso ham, quail are wrapped in bacon and flat iron steaks are marinated in Jack Daniels.

But old Greek American favorites dominated the appetizer menu we tried: traditional hummus; tzatzikis; and tapenades with pita and sweet potato chips; beef-stuffed grape leaves; fried calamari rings; fried kasseri cheese with pecans and bread toast; and some fried green tomatoes with arugula, goat cheese and prosciutto.

St. John’s Restaurant and its owner/chef Daniel Lindley are Chattanooga’s consensus top dogs. Wro gets excited about meeting hot chefs so he was disappointed that Dan couldn’t be there the night we came. We discovered much later that he was having surgery after a bad accident.

Set in a 1920’s bank with live jazz, balcony dining and deco trappings, St. John can certainly transport diners to another time and place. It epitomizes the black & white, mortar & brick, marble & wood, Modernist “Chattanooga style.”

Our plan had been to have entrees only but we couldn’t resist a couple appetizers: divine tenderloin tartare with a capers, shallots and quail eggs;

a baby beet salad with pea shoots and marinated mozzarella; and an heirloom tomato salad smartly paired with a Parmesan soufflé, fresh basil leaves and sherry vinaigrette

To honor our original plan, we also ordered entrees. I tried a Kobe steak heftily paired with mashed potatoes. Wroburlto has been a pork belly sampling tour for several months so he ordered a “pork tasting” that also included loin, a rib and pepper risotto with smoked onions. It was served minus the belly with an explanation that they had run out. That provoked such ostentatious despair that our server returned to the kitchen and found some after all.

Full as we were, the highlight of our moveable feast still awaited us at Table 2. That place is one of the few hot new places in town that deviates from the “Chattanooga style.” It’s more like late Gaudi - bold and metrosexual with reds and golds, velvets and crystal, open glass and open kitchens. The patio was conspicuously part of the restaurant and even had outdoor fireplaces. Semi-private booths were draped in theatrical curtains.

The kitchen professes faith to sustainable, organic and natural foods. Pastry Chef Rebecca Barron presented a wondrous array of nightcaps paired with fine dessert wines. Georgia Peach bread pudding was beautifully layered in a cocktail glass with candied pecans and home made vanilla ice cream.

A strawberry rhubarb shortcake was served cream puff style with a strawberry compote and freshly whipped cream.

A spicy chocolate pot de crème might have been the best we ever had - with multiple flavors of dark chocolates, cayenne pepper and strawberry coulis. We tried three excellent wines with these desserts - a Marcarini Moscato d’Asti, an 06 Chateau Roumieru Lacoste Sauternes and an 05 Four Vines Zinfandel Port, from Paso Robles.

We could barely stay awake long enough to catch a couple Three Dog Night songs at Riverbend.

A Teaching Farm

Crabtree Farms is Chattanooga’s urban teaching farm offers public tours and teaches visitors about sustainable flower and vegetable production, ecology and seed propagation. I figured it was time Wro learned that food didn’t just come out of restaurant kitchens.

Melanie Mayo showed him around. They visited mushrooms deep in woods, mosquito-filled woods. We learned that shiitakes take 7 - 18 months to grow and that morels grow near dogwoods here too. Crabtree also cultivates night velvet, bolshoi breeze, WW70, CW25 WW40 and WR72. Not as romantic sounding but just as good.

“One guy inoculated his compost heap with mushrooms and got a bunch the next year,” Mayo reported.

Wro also saw paw paws, strawberries and all kinds of green foods.

Moses & the Promised Land

We went appropriately to lunch then at 212 Market, proclaimed Chattanooga’s greenest restaurant. This “Mom and Daughters” café is a labor of love by Maggie Moses and her daughters Susan and Sally. It’s also the only restaurant in downtown Chattanooga that predates the Aquarium - or as the Moses like to say “We were downtown, before downtown was cool.”

They have reputations for being the major teaching restaurant in the area, a hands-on learning center for culinary students and recent grads. All three ladies are almost always working in the kitchen or bakery. They are also a great supporter of local farms as well as green foods. This is one of the few places in America where turkey is always Bourbon Red, a legendary breed that many feel is the ultimate in turkey tasting. The menu was punctuated with other local farm brands - Sequatchie Farms, Meadow Creek Dairy, Fall’s Mill grits.

The dessert tray was enticing, but we managed to stick with just two: one of the best tres leches anywhere;

a chocolate mousse; a crème brulee and a bread pudding. Did I say just two? I meant just two each.

Fish We Didn’t Eat

If the Hunter is old Chattanooga, the Tennessee Aquarium represents New Chattanooga. Designed by Boston architect Peter Chermayeff, its opening in 1992 signaled the city’s intention to rid itself of a negative image from Tia-Numa‘s curse. The place first opened as the world’s largest freshwater aquarium. Today the original building showcases “River Journey,” with exhibits that follows a single drop of water flowing from the Appalachian Mountains down the Tennessee River to the Gulf of Mexico.

One popular rumor, which will never be likely die or be confirmed, is that Home Depot management bore such a grudge against Chattanooga that they donated money to Atlanta for the purpose of building a bigger aquarium. Chattanooga responded by hiring Chermayeff’s firm to build a $30 million, 60,000 square-foot adjoining building, which opened in 2005 and jumpstarted a downtown revival that also created a beautiful new ball park, the Riverfront festival grounds and the restaurant renaissance we had come to sample.

The new aquarium building showcases “Ocean Journey,” a story of the unique coral reef systems in the Gulf of Mexico. We watched 10-foot sharks, fierce barracuda and graceful stingrays glide through amazing coral formations. Other galleries showcase cuttlefish, scaly tarpons, squid, crabs and jellyfish, some of which we found on local menus.

We saw the rest of “Jellies: Living Art,” the collaboration with the Hunter that paired the artistic splendor of fine glass sculpture with the living beauty of jelly fish. In a butterfly gallery we particularly enjoyed the Tawny Owl, who did not seem to mind us at all as he sat in his black olive tree.

The aquarium boasts more turtle species than anywhere in the world. We met Oscar, a rescue turtle, who had been run over twice by motor boats. When he first came to the Aquarium, his lungs popped out when he inhaled.

Downtown Dine Around

After the overindulgence of the previous night, we decided to only hit two restaurants on our next dine around. We started with Easy Bistro, another paragon of the Modernist/Deco black & white, masonry and tile Chattanooga Style. Chef - owner Erik Niel is a Cajun country transplant who keeps a faith with both his bayou and gulf roots by blending Deep South and Continental cuisines. This was the only place in town where fried green tomatoes were not covered or stuffed with melted cheese.

Erik’s were heavenly with just bacon, black eyed peas and a crawfish vinaigrette.

He also served some marinated olives, a baked oyster confit, shrimp cocktail, salad with spring mix and endive, strawberries and candied pecans.

Oh, and a couple dozen raw oysters and an order of heavenly potato ravioli with local peaches and crabmeat, in brown butter with shallots and capers.

This was an occasion in which we could barely force ourselves to leave and move on with our plan. Especially since Erik’s menu offered two fish we had never tried before - triggerfish and scamp grouper. We calmed our nerves with a couple house gin specialties - a cucumber-infused gin and ginger cocktail and another featuring elderflower liquor and orange bitters.

I also tried my first Sazerac, America’s oldest cocktail making revival now that absinthe is legal again.

We plunged on to Hennen’s, the sister restaurant and neighbor of Blue Plate. It’s just as a casual despite being an upgrade from diner to steakhouse. Casual steakhouses are a popular tradeoff, customers give up expectations for prime, dry aged beef in exchange for prices that range between $16 - $30. Southern style sides (wilted greens, mashed sweet potatoes, grits, etc.) were also priced low $3 - $4.

Despite all the great appetizers at Easy, we ordered carpaccio with horseradish cream and a gumbo with good roux. For entrees we tried prime rib with peppercorn sauce and some Carolina red trout. Wro’s prime rib didn’t’ come out anywhere near the promised degree of doneness, but in this economy he reasoned he was lucky to be eating beef at all and didn’t pout too much. Powdered beignets and chocolate cheesecake with fresh berries calmed his disappointment. Since Hennen’s is actually inside the Riverbend Festival grounds, it was easier to crawl over for the music before crawling back to the Doubletree

Quirky Roadside Attractions

We started our last day on North Shore, Chattanooga’s riverfront neighborhood and home to Coolidge Park, specialty shops, cafés, outfitters and galleries. We had Clumpies Ice Cream for breakfast. In the shop of a third-generation candy maker, Clumpies makes each gourmet flavor in small batches. We tried fresh peach and blueberry before visiting the 82-year-old steamboat Delta Queen, who began her life floating to San Francisco from Stockton. She is now a floating hotel and lounge.

Then we stopped in Hanover Gallery to see the latest works of Toby Penney, a Tennessee artist who sculpts amazing fruits, vegetables and tubers from perspectives both above and below the ground.

The time had come to rent a car and drive to Boathouse, a restaurant accessible by car, bike, parachute or kayak none of which is my preferred mode. Owner Lawton Haygood patented the Tuff Grill, the standard restaurant operation for wood burning grills. He has my kind of food group philosophy, he says that his rib eyes are “flavored with fat.” Lawton put his name on a Lawtonrita, which we ordered while contemplating lunch. It was simply a classic margarita, with the best tequila and freshly squeezed lime juice. Boathouse featured “Gulf Cuisine” - meaning barbecue, wood grilled meats and fresh seafood, three of the best things in life. We sat on a shaded porch and devoured fresh oysters.

Boathouse sells more fresh oysters than anyone in Tennessee - they take twice-a-week delivery of Appalachoia and luck would have it ( actually it was planned) we showed up at delivery time.

Specialties include wood grilled chicken and El Scorcho, a cioppino like soup. So we ordered them both, plus an appetizer of wood-grilled squid and rotisserie brisket while we contemplated our main order - more raw oysters. Fortified with so much gulf food, I was ready to visit Chattanooga’s most revered and quirky roadside attractions.

Located deep within the underground caverns of historic Lookout Mountain, Ruby Falls’ is among the highest waterfalls in America and has been a huge tourist tradition since 1929.

“No one knows where the water comes from, or where it goes, said tour guide Brent Wade, “in the “30th year of temp job.” He assured me that there were stairs if the elevator breaks down.

People have been willing to crawl on their bellies for 17 hours to see the waterfall. Fortunately for us, pathways are pretty wide and tall now. I didn’t even conk my head. It took us just 20 minutes to walk to the amazing waterfall.

Rock City Gardens opened in 1932 and advertised on barns roofs throughout the South. On top of Lookout Mountain, it features pathways through massive ancient rock formations, gardens with over 400 native plant species, the gnome-inhabited Fairyland Caverns, panoramic views of “seven States” and more.

Roadside attractions, not to mention driving, make us hungry so we returned downtown to Bluewater Grille. This place is a sister to two Florida seafood restaurants, with fresh fish handpicked by a team of chefs in St. Augustine Florida. We tried a lobster bisque and a crab and roasted corn chowder. We followed that with grilled grouper and mahi mahi and some Kobe beef sliders. All were matched with house made beers that had most appropriate names - Big River Lager, Sweet Magnolia Brown Ale, Southern Flyer Light Lager.

Having eaten with some restraint, we were primed to strut rather than crawl. The legendary Bessie Smith Strut is a free downtown event that features live Rhythm & Blues music on three stages. It’s known as the largest block party in the South.

We walked around talking to the smokers, mostly local guys with awesome equipment.

Ron Jones had the biggest smoker, long-trailer sized. He’s a Chattanooga-born guy who recently moved back from Houston. So he combines southern and Texas style Q, specializing in briskets but using an East Carolina sauce.

In the African-American Museum that hosts the Strut, we learned two amazing life stories. Bessie Smith began singing on Chattanooga streets at age 8. By age 9 she was making $8 a week singing in clubs - big money then. She beat Ma Rainey in a talent show and then stowed away on that famous blues star’s train. Ma took her in and mothered her the rest of her life. Bessie died young in a car crash in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Her grave was unmarked till Janis Joplin erected a memorial pillar.

Jimmy Winksdale was the best jockey of the turn of the last century, winning two Kentucky Derbies before the Ku Klux Klan chased black men out of racing. He moved to Russia and became the best jockey in Europe, until the Bolsheviks chased him out of the USSR. He moved to Paris and was the leading trainer there, until the Nazis chased him out of France. He moved to Charles Town in West Virginia, where black men could train and own race horses. In 1960, Jimmy was walking the streets of segregated Louisville during Derby Week when some older horse owners recognized him and demanded that the Brown Hotel lift their racial ban and permit him to drink with them in Louisville’s ultimate bar. What a life.

When is Spike Lee going to make that movie?

Last thoughts -

Chattanooga is rightly proud of its food renaissance. While St. John gets most of the accolades, our singular experiences found a bigger movement, with Table 2 and Easy Bistro every bit as deserving of honors and with Clumpie's, The Chattanooga Market, Boathouse, Bluff View, Blue Plate and a dozen amateur smokers all contributing to a roots-to-table scene as quirky as the city's best known roadside attractions.

If You Go

Chattanooga Doubletree407 Chestnut Streetchattanooga, TN 37402(423) 756-5150http://www.chattanooga.doubletree.com/

This hotel topped the entire Hilton system for customer service in a customer poll. That showed on our stay with sensationally friendly, accommodating people - and that’s saying something as Wro can be really demanding. It’s also a green hotel, recycling everything from garbage to lighting.

Chattanooga African-American Museum
200 E. MLK Blvd. , Chattanooga, TN 37403
423-266-8658
http://www.caamhistory.com/

Bluff View Art District

411 East Second Street, Chattanooga, TN 37403
800.725.8338 http://www.bluffviewartdistrict.com/

Ruby Falls
1720 South Scenic Hwy. Chattanooga, TN 37409 423-821-2544
http://www.rubyfalls.com/

Hunter Museum of American Art

10 Bluff View. Chattanooga, TN 37403
423-267-0968
http://www.huntermuseum.org/

Tennessee AquariumOne Broad Street, Chattanooga, TN 37401-2048 800-262-0695
http://www.tnaqua.org/

International Towing & Recovery Museum and Hall of Fame
3315 Broad St., Chattanooga, TN 37408-3052(423) 267-3132
http://www.internationaltowingmuseum.org/

Back Inn
411 East Second Street
Chattanooga, TN 37403
800-725-8338 ext. 1

Blue Plate
191 Chestnut St. # B, Chattanooga, TN 37402-1035(423) 648-6767http://www.theblueplate.info/

Niko’s 1400 Cowart St., Chattanooga, TN 37408-1113(423) 266-6511http://www.nikossouthside.com/

St. John’s1278 Market St., Chattanooga, TN 37402-2713(423) 266-4571
http://www.stjohnsrestaurant.com/

Table 2 232 E 11th St., Chattanooga, TN 37402-4208(423) 756-8253
http://www.table2restaurant.com/

Easy Bistro
203 Broad St., Chattanooga, TN 37402-1010(423) 266-1121
http://www.easybistro.com/

Hennen’s 193 Chestnut St., Chattanooga, TN 37402-1012(423) 634-5160
http://www.hennens.net/

Blue Water Grille
224 Broad St., Chattanooga, TN 37402-1009(423) 266-4200
http://www.bluewaterchattanooga.com/
　

Memphis Soul

Which Came First, the Music or the Food?

When I visited Memphis in June 2007, the city was beginning an eerie 12 month celebration of tragic anniversaries and pilgrimages. May marked the 10th anniversary of the drowning of soulful pop icon Jeff Buckley, whose body washed up by Beale Street, the legendary birth place of the blues. August brings the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s demise, an event known across the Planet Elvis as “Death Week,” despite civic efforts to put a more lively spin on it. In that vein, all of 2007 has been christened the “50th anniversary of soul music,” reckoned by the emergence of Stax Records which was synonymous with the sultry horns, organs and drums that amplified the blues and merged them with gospel.


All those events were preludes to the following April and the 40th anniversary of the day the music died - for this city, and for race relations in America - when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel.


Memphis was dressed up for its big year like Elvis in a brand new jump suit. Graceland has been expanded into a shopping mall, a Heartbreak Hotel and a series of museums. The former Sun Studio, where Elvis, Howlin’ Wolf and Johnny Cash all cut their first record, is now a time travel machine to the middle of last century. Beale Street is still edgy, though it reminded us more of touristy Bourbon Street in New Orleans than the infamous strip that drew generations of Delta musicians to its bright lights. When we walked Beale Street, we heard more Elvis, and even Neil Diamond, impersonators than original blues singers.

Soul music may have been born in Memphis, but its children moved away before they grew up - Howlin’ Wolf to Chicago, Isaac Hayes to Hollywood, Aretha Franklin to Detroit, etc.. Another, more deeply significant, soul culture remains predominantly Memphian. While authentic soul food cafes are disappearing from the genre’s co-founding hometowns of Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit, they are alive and loved in Memphis. So much so, that our biggest problem organizing a soul food tour of Bluff City was choosing which ones to visit.

For expert counsel, Wro and I began at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art where curator Stanton Thomas had organized a special exhibition Soul Food: African American Cooking and Creativity.

The exhibition included works by well-known artists like Carrie Mae Weems and Whitfield Lovell, plus numerous original photographs and artifacts that deal with stereotypes and demeaning images - from Aunt Jemina to Uncle Ben.

Stanton told us that the public reaction had really been positive, opening up a dialogue by not sweeping such things under the table. He also told us that the museum is planning a much bigger show in two years - Landscapes of Slavery - which will probe into plantation culture with similar straightforwardness. Wro suggested we prepare ourselves for that, by visiting Slave Haven.

Slave Haven

The Underground Railroad stopped at the home of Jacob Burkle, just a few blocks from the slave auction. The museum teaches about “creative coping” - from the physical challenges of hiding in tight spaces, to the intellectual devices that slaves created to communicate. Docent Elaine Lee Turner told us about coded messages in all spiritual songs - “the Jordan River stood for the Ohio River, the gateway to freedom. Canada, and complete freedom was ‘the Promised Land,” she said.


Quilting too had a coded language which pointed directions to safe havens. After slavery ended, the hidden meanings of quilts were lost until it was discovered that Nigerian ekpi cloth contained the same codes.

We learned the names of two legendary slave traders. Nathan Bedford Forest became an infamous Civil War general - either a terrorist or freedom fighter depending upon your politics, but certainly a ruthless man who later founded the Ku Klux Klan. Wade Bolton was an even richer slaver. He left money to establish a school for the white children of the area. Bolton High School still exists, but now it is mostly African-American.

Roll over Jordan, in your grave.

Crossroads & Corners

Turner also explained that much of what became soul food originated as resourceful coping mechanisms for slave survival.

“Africans were forced to make do with the worst foods on the plantation, whatever was leftover, the entrails of the hog and all that. But you see, watermelon is a diuretic. So even though, they were eating foods that they weren’t used to and which weren’t good for their health, they knew that watermelon would cleanse their system. So, when you see the stereotype caricatures about watermelon and the African-Americans, now you know the story behind it,” she said.

At Four Way Restaurant, we found a good story behind some mighty good food. Owner Willie Bates explained.

“I grew up here in Sugar Hill (neighborhood). In 1955 I had a red wagon and passed this place daily with that wagon trying to earn some money cause I came from a single parent family. I never dreamed I might own this place one day. I left Memphis to play football and went into the insurance business, but when I heard it was for sale in 2001, I knew I had to try for it.

“I got outbid, but the other guy didn’t come through with money. So I got it . It was ordained. This place meant so much to the neighborhood. I remember in 1947, Mom needed shoes fixed, but she had no money. Well the show maker took care of her anyway and the shoe stitching machine out front is there to remind me of the love of community.


Wro and I visited with a group of Tennessee State University alums who lunch at Four Way every first Thursday of the month. Several of them said they grew up here in Sugar Hill and recall how the Four Way stood in stark contrast to other aspects of crossroads where it stands, known as “the Corners.”

“All the players hung out across the street. The ministers would come here after church, while the festive people would hang out around the corner,” explained Andre Woods of Memphis.

“It’s so important to have Four Way back. It’s a great motivator to the young African-American kids that they can be successful. It helps expel black stereotypes,” added another alum.

Wro noticed a customer eating a three-way vegetable plate with three orders of collard greens. Figuring that was a powerful endorsement, we asked him about them.
“I only eat greens because they rid the body of evil toxins,” he replied, insisting on anonymity.

I had some delicious fried chicken and Wro ordered neckbones. We both had collard greens, how could we not? Wro loved his limas and I loved my black-eyed peas. We split a piece of sweet potato pie. A full toxin-fighting stomach made us appreciate Willie Bates’ achievement.

“The re-emergence of Four Way is meant to be. It’s served many kings. Martine Luther King, jr. ate here before his “Mountain top” speech. Elvis ate here. And Don King ate here. We are here again now five years in October, which will be 61 years since it first opened. We are here, ordained to spread the good vibes,” Bates said.

Which Came First, the Music or the Food?

After becoming aware of soul food’s religious connection, Wro began asking about “the origin of the soul” - or, which came first - soul music or soul food? Full of gospel-loving, evil-killing soul treats, we went looking for the origins of soul music. There are complicated discussions about that, but I prefer a simpler one - that soul music began when one legendary white man could find no other word to describe what he heard being sung by one legendary black man.

Sam Phillips, who also “discovered” Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash said that Chester Burnett was his greatest discovery and that losing the man, better known as Howlin’ Wolf, to the Chess label in Chicago was his biggest career disappointment. He also lost Elvis to RCA.

“His song ‘Moanin’ at Midnight’ …when it came out, it was as if everything just stopped, everything that was going on. Time stopped. Everything stopped. And you heard the Wolf. This is where the soul of man never dies," Phillips wrote.
Soul music became an urban phenomenon simultaneously in African-American neighborhoods of Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and Memphis. Though each city developed a distinctive style, Memphis musicians relied most heavily on gospel.

Stax

At the center of Memphis Soul was Stax Records. The studio produced nearly every singer, songwriter and musician in the area, including Booker T. and the MG’s, the house band most responsible for the “Memphis sound.” Stax neighborhood also produced Aretha Franklin; Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire; and Reverend Al Green, who recorded his biggest hits at nearby Royal Studio. Known as “Soulsville, USA,” this neighborhood’s interracial rails carried the soul train. We learned that most all the soul groups in the 1960’s were racially mixed and Elvis was heavily influenced by black musical scene.

Loving flashy clothes and things that shine, Wro was in heaven at Stax Museum. Two thousand interactive exhibits included Otis Redding’s favorite brown suede jacket, Albert King's famous purple Flying V guitar, Tina Turner's gold sequined stage dress and Ike Turner’s silver lame suit and Fender guitar. We saw the very organ Booker T. Jones used to record “Green Onions” as well as Isaac Hayes' peacock-blue 1972 “Superfly” Cadillac El Dorado. Phalon Jones' saxophone was salvaged from Lake Mendota after the fatal crash that took Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays.

We heard how Redding came from Macon to record at Stax in 1962 with Johnny Jenkins‘ band. Otis did not sing lead during Jenkins’ session, but afterwards he grabbed the microphone and belted out his compositions “These Arms of Mine.” Stax immediately recorded the song.

More moving were some video testimonies about how Soulville changed utterly after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968. Suddenly, the inter racial harmony ended, as did Stax before the decade was over.

Alcenia’s

The music also died suddenly for Betty Joyce (BJ) Chester-Tamayo. BJ. opened Alcenia’s as a form of grief therapy after losing her only child in a tragic accident.

When we entered her Pinch District café, Wro was thrilled to be greeted with a hug.

“I hug everyone who comes in because I know they could go to a lot of other places and I really appreciate that they came here,” BJ explained.

While Alcenia's is famous for its desserts, the restaurant also earned a reputation for ''meat-and-three'' selection. Crispy fried chicken (with just flour) and (cornmeal) fried catfish are famous, but the fried green tomatoes are legendary. We learned why, BJ makes them lighter than most, without the corn meal crunch. To balance these fried meats, fruits and fish, we tried some fried sweet potatoes, which BJ served with cinnamon, butter and sugar.

“I was raised on those,” she confided.

We enjoyed turnip greens and mac and cheese (which in Memphis, counts as a vegetable), egg pie, bread pudding and German chocolate cake, with coconut-pecan frosting.

Décor includes a portrait of BJ’s two Alcenia’s - her grandbaby, 10, and her mom, 86. Walls are painted orange, purple, green and yellow.

“You can see, I don’t like color,“ BJ joked.

We asked about a sign across the street that read “Coming Soon, Soul Food.”

“I’m not worried. That sign has been there a long time now and I haven’t seen anything more than a sign. Memphis has so many restaurants there is always lots of competition. That’s why I appreciate my customers so much that I hug and kiss most of them when they walk through the door. I believe that what’s yours is yours and no one can take that away.

“Alcenia was six months old when I started this place. I never ever cooked growing up, but I wanted to go into business making preserves like my mother’s. My mother was a great cook. I think it’s so important that we pass on the knowledge. After my son died, I knew I couldn’t let my mother’s art die with her, I had to learn it and teach it to my grand baby. She’s already learning tea cakes too. She’ll be better than I am.

“When I started, I intended to sell preserves, which I still do at the Farmers Market. But it just evolved into cooking things too and suddenly I was running a restaurant,” she recalled.

Besides the green tomatoes, which BJ buys from local farmers, she’s famous for “ghetto Kool -Aid,” salmon croquettes, Saturday brunch (which alternative papers consider Memphis best bargain at $10). Plus the best corn bread I ever tasted, made with cornmeal, sugar and water before being fried on a greased grill. BJ served ours with her famous pear preserves, made with fruit from her mom‘s pear trees in Mississippi. Then she gave me a tip so brilliant I can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself.

“At home, I make corn bread in a hot wok.”

Alcenia’s is THE soul food place for soul musicians, especially since Isaac Hayes restaurant closed last year. Charlie Musselwhite is BJ’s biggest cheerleader.
“Everywhere Charlie goes, all over the world, he always tells people and the media that Alcenia’s is his favorite restaurant and because of that we get people from all over the world coming here to see for themselves,” BJ said.

That’s probably why it’s one of the only soul food joints in town that stays open late and offers beer. Because of so many international visitors, she also keeps her vegetables vegetarian, which is unheard of in soul food.

“Lima beans are my only non-vegetarian vegetable. I just can’t make limas without ham hocks,” she confided.

“I try to feed the heart and the head besides the stomach,” BJ said, hugging us good bye. Wro was pouting, he wanted to hang out late and “see who might show up,“ but I insisted we turn in early. We had a date with history.

Sweet Lorraine

The moment I laid eyes on the Lorraine Motel’s neon sign, I recalled the day the music died for all race relations in America - when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968. In the aftershock of the assassination, motel owner Walter Lane wife Lorraine died of brain hemorrhage. Bailey kept a couple rooms as shrines to Dr. King and to Lorraine, but by 1982 his business was in foreclosure. A long fundraising drive saved the Lorraine and in 1991 it was incorporated into the National Civil Rights Museum.

The museum‘s presentation is stark and honest. It made me recall some deep feelings that had begun to surface at Stax after listening to the testimonies about how the interracial harmony of the time died with King. I wondered for the first time, I think, what I personally had lost that day, without ever acknowledging it: Friends, innocence, idealism?

We listened to a interview with a man who stood with King when he was shot, I think it was Reverend Ralph Abernathy, but I am not sure. He mentioned how he quickly removed a cigarette from King’s fingers, because the chain smoker didn’t ever want children to see him smoke. The museum retained the dirty, overfilled ashtray in the Reverend’s motel room - just as it was.

Across the street, Wro stood in the rooming house bathtub where Ray fired his fatal shot. We learned that this poor white trash had an elaborate travel itinerary through Canada, Rhodesia and South Africa. Many such questions about the murder have been orphaned from their love-seeking answers.

Too much sadness makes me hungry and nervous. I found myself asking Museum President Beverly Robertson about soul food’s place in the Civil Rights Movement.

“Cooking and the experience of unification and unity both occurred around the dining table. We discuss topical issues, we deal with concerns around our children, at our churches, the most fun time is after the sermon is over and everyone has had a good shout to sit down at the dinner table and eat fried chicken and fried catfish and spaghetti and cole slaw. Those traditional things. There is a warmth about it and there is a connection that resonates with African-Americans around the entire dining experience,” she said, graciously.

Coping in the New Millennium

At both the Civil Rights Museum and the Brooks Museum, we had been told that no soul food odyssey is complete without a visit to “Willie Mo’s.” Wro and I don’t like incomplete odysseys, so off we went. We would find that here too, the story of coping and survival plays a soulful tune.

Willie Moore’s Family Restaurant wasn’t always a family place. In fact it still looks like it’s former life as a juke joint.


“Before the casinos opened up (in nearby Tustin, Mississippi) my business was 95 per cent bar and 5 per cent food. After they opened, most of my customers were gone south on weekends, as if they couldn’t gamble away their pay checks fast enough. So, I had to re-invent my business. Today, it’s 95 per cent food and 5 per cent bar, the complete opposite of before. I did it by giving people soul food and lots of it,” Willie Moore explained.


So today, his restaurant has that red velvet and dark wall look of a juke joint, which it still is, but only on Saturday night. Almost everyone we talked with all week raved about Willie’s neck bones, so Wro and ordered a plate as an appetizer. Willie delivered about triple the amount of neckbones that we had been served at Four Way. We tried some delicious greens, some beans, some fried okra and some smoothered chicken.


All that prepared us for a soul food epiphany - a dish neither of us had ever heard of, much less seen on a plate. At first I thought Willie had served us deep-fried spare ribs, but he assured me that it was indeed “big-boned buffalo fish.” Eating them was like eating crab on the Eastern shore of Maryland, or eating hamachi kama in a Japanese restaurant. As with those dishes, you really have be willing to get your hands messy, but the succulent fish meat was more than worth the effort. Wro and I agreed it was certainly the best fish we had ever tasted for less than $30 a serving - and it only cost about a fifth that!

After a piece of Willie’s sweet potato pie, the band was setting up for their gig. Wro claimed that was the definitive answer to our question. Soul food comes first, then soul music, at least for those of us who sleep at night and wake up in the morning.

Recipes

Fried Corn Bread

Adapted from loose instructions of BJ Chester-Tamayo
Serves 4 to 6
Half cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 to 2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup hot milk
1 tablespoon corn oil

Mix the dry ingredients, then stir in the beaten egg and milk.. Use a big spoon to drop into a hot oiled wok and fry till golden brown on both sides. Serve with butter and fruit preserves.

Betty Joyce Chester-Tamayo’s Corn

1 - 2 tbsp. butter
Half cup chopped celery
Half cup bell pepper
Quarter envelope Lipton onion soup mix
2 tbsp. Flour
16 ounces canned corn, drained and reserved
2 tbsp. Pimentos, drained
Dash of sugar
Pepper and salt
In large skillet, melt the butter and saute the celery and bell pepper until soft. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
In a bowl, mix the reserved liquid from the corn and whisk with flour until thick. Set aside. Add corn, soup mix and sugar to skillet. Add butter if needed. Simmer for 15 - 20 minutes. Add thickened liquid and a quarter cup of water. Simmer on low heat till ready to serve. Stir in pimento the last few minutes.

If you go…

National Civil Rights Museum
450 Mulberry St.
901-521-9699
http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/
　
Sun Studio
706 Union Ave.
901-525-8055
http://www.sunstudio.com/

Soulsville: Stax Museum of American Soul Music
926 McLemore Ave.
901-946-2535
http://www.soulsvilleusa.com/

Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum
826 N. 2nd St.
901-527-3427
Info@heritagetoursmemphis.com

W.C. Handy Home & Museum
352 Beale St.
901-527-3427
Info@heritagetoursmemphis.com

Peabody Hotel
149 Union St., 901-529-4188

Soul Restaurants

Alcenia's (Betty Joyce Chester-Tamayo )
317 N. Main St., 901- 507-1519 Tues.-Thurs. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Fri. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Sat. 3 p.m. -10 p.m.
Sun. 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Four Way Restaurant, formerly Grill (Willie Bates)
998 Mississippi Blvd., 901 507-1519
Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Sundays 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
soulful breakfast on Saturdays from 8 a.m. - 11 a.m..

Willie Moore's Family Restaurant (pronounced ‘Mo)931 S 3rd St., 901-774-9247
Mon. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Sundays 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. (the place is a night club on Saturday nights)

Ellen's Soul Food Restaurant
61 S. Parkway E., 901-942-4888
“Miss Ellen’s” has been the darling of the Gourmet magazine set and probably has the best rep in town with tourists.

Ernestine and Hazel's 84 East G.E. Patterson Ave., 901 523-9754) Famous for the one and only "Soul Burger." Night spot with shady past.

Interstate BBQ 2265 South Third Street, 901 775-2304. The town’s third most famous Q after the tourist clichés Rendezvous and Corky’s, Jim Neely’s place has an eclectic Q menu - BBQ pork spaghetti, smoked turkey and chicken besides the standards.

Payne's 1762 Lamar Ave., 901 272-1523. Fabulous Q and a respected blues joint too.

Uncle Lou's Fried Chicken 3633 Millbranch, 901 332-2367 and 6749 E. Shelby Dr., 901 363-9444. No wehere near as hot as Nashville chicken, it’s honey sweet and a bit spicy.

Cherry Quest

photo by Lisa Waterman Gray

Door County Wisconsin

Cherries have baffled me for decades. Almost all other stone fruits are sweet when ripe but cherries come in both sweet and sour varieties. Most fresh fruits are best when a bit soft to touch but the cherries worth cherry-picking should be firm and hard. Finally there’s that old song “Sweeet Cherry Wine” by Tommy James and Shondells:

“Yesterday my friends were marching out to war, oh yeah.
Listen now we ain't a marching anymore,
No we ain't gonna fight,
Only God has the right
To decide who's to live and die
He gave us sweet cherry wine
So very fine.”

That song deduced that God supported conscientious objectors because He invented cherry wine. That logic was difficult for me but I didn't have much experience with cherry wine or the God who invented it.

Lately, one sour cherry, the Montmorency, has been hailed as the latest super food, particularly for arthritis pain. I am generally skeptical about new super foods, but being in a high risk group for arthritis, I am willing to drink the Montmorency brand of Kool Aid. So, when Wro started pestering me to visit Door County, Wisconsin during cherry harvest, I booked tickets.

Montmorency cherry trees love Door County. They’re tough enough to survive northern Wisconsin’s cold winters because ground snow protects that trees’ roots. Surrounded by Green Bay on one side and Lake Michigan on the other, Door County’s climate is milder than mainland parts of Great Lake states.

A fully mature cherry tree produces more than 100 pounds, or 7,000 cherries, or enough for about 28 pies. Most trees are harvested, by shakers, in late July and August. Door County begins about 40 miles north of Green Bay Airport and roadside cherry stands begin popping up even sooner.

I made Wro wait for The Cherry Hut in Fish Creek which is Door County’s oldest roadside market. Then we bought some sparkling cherry juice, some straight cherry juice, so cherry jam and some cherry preserves. I planned on saving the sparkling stuff for a celebrative moment, but Wro popped the cork and we devoured it in the rental car before it could get warm. I should have known from the Tommy James song that cherries undermine discipline.

Kingdom So Delicious

French fur trader Pierre Esprit Radisson discovered the Door County peninsula in the late 1600s and dubbed it "A Kingdom So Delicious," because of its abundant fish, food and game. National Geographic magazine used Radisson's quote as a title for a 1969 cover story that made the county one of America’s first culinary tourist destinations.

Now there’s a three week agritourism festival in September celebrating Door County's unique variety of crops and its commercial fishing industry with tours of fishing boats, organic farms, grass fed ranches, the USDA Potato Gene Bank and of course the cherry and apple harvests.

Door County harvests around 8-13 million pounds of cherries a year, mostly Montmorencys.

We were told that the year's harvest was “below the low end because of a nasty late Spring freeze.” Clearly we had no time to waste - we had to eat every application of cherry we could find before the cherries ran out. World peace and the cure for arthritis were at stake. So we went looking for Al Johnson’s goats.

Goats on the Roof

A county icon for six decades, Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant has seen a lot of changes. Al’s son Lars told us that Al was more famous as fisherman than a restaurateur until he got married.

“As old timers tell it, he served breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen, and then hung a “Gone Fishin’” sign on the door. That was before he met Mom in 1960. She added a lot of feminine touches and a gift shop where people could browse while waiting to be seated. Today, we have two Butiks that draw people day and night. All our food is served on dishes from Porsgrund, Norway, the decorative rosemaling (style of painting) is done by Norwegian artist Sigmund Arseth,” Lars explained.

Lars added that Al’s personal vision also defined the restaurant, in a more playful manner. Al recruited waitresses from Sweden in the early years and later from other European countries. Many stayed and helped maintain the Scandinavian charm of Door County. Many of Al Johnson’s year-around employees have been there over 10 years, some as much as 35 years. A bigger change also involved Scandinavian imports.

“The restaurant was renovated in 1973. The log buildings were assembled in Norway, taken apart and shipped to Sister Bay, where they were put together around the existing building. An underlayer was put on the roof and seeded with grass in Old Swedish style,“ Lars said.

Later in 1973 Oscar the goat was given to Al by Al’s fishing buddy Winkie Larson.

“Winkie was always playing jokes on Al and one day, Al caught him climbing the ladder, with Oscar under his arm, heading to the roof. Oscar kicked until both he and Winkie fell to the ground. Oscar was fine but Winkie broke his collar bone. As soon as he recovered enough to carry a goat up a ladder, Winkie succeeded in establishing our Goats on the Roof tradition.”

Wro counted 7 goats on the roof on our visit. They ranged in age from young kids to older goats. They graze during the day and pose for tourists with cameras. The goats seemed rather unaffected by the attention and in nice weather they work a 9 to 5 shift.

The restaurant serves around 2,400 people a day in the height of the season.

We ordered the specialty of house - Swedish pancakes, but passed on the recommended imported lingonberries (a small, red berry much like a cranberry or currant in taste) sauce. World peace demanded we substitute cherries. The Swedish pancakes were light and came with loads of whipped cream too. Wro ordered a homemade Swedish meatball sandwich, on limpa bread with beet salad to fortify us for our next cherry mission.

Simon Creek Vineyard and Winery

Simon Creek Vineyard and Winery lies directly astride the 45 North Parallel - the halfway point between the North Pole and equator. It is the most modern winery and largest vineyard (30 acres) in Wisconsin. Winery tours show the winemaking process from harvest through bottling and casing.

The tour ends at the tasting room overlooking the glass enclosed wine production area (36,000 gallons in stainless steel wine storage tanks), the vineyard and a pond. A lounge area and outdoor terrace allow visitors to sample the finest vinifera and hybrid wines. We could have lingered if so much did not depend on our mission.

Because the original Mr Simon refused to sell his farm to Al Capone, “Untouchable Red” is the name they gave their best seller, a cabernet sauvignon blend. I thought their Jackson Port was their best wine but their cherry wine was too sweet to convince me that we should stop fighting Al Qaeda. Wro tried more cherry juice.

Lautenbach's Orchard Country Winery & Market

Seeking less saccharine nostalgia, we headed to Lautenbach's Orchard Country Winery & Market. In 1958, William and Ruth Lautenbach bought a farm with a dairy barn, over 100 milking cows and a few remnants of a once flourishing cherry orchard.

Bob Lautenbach, their eldest son, took over the family farm in 1969, and began planting new cherry and apple trees until he filled 100 acres with over 8,000 trees. In 1975, a farm market was added - to sell fresh fruit and fruit products to passing tourists. In 1985, a winery and cider mill was established in the restored dairy barn.

Bob showed us how Montmorency cherries are freshly picked and packaged. Some become wines, such as "Cherry Blossom," others become fresh baked cherry pies, or fresh-pressed jugs of tart cherry juice, or dried cherries, or rows and rows of scrumptious cherry jams and preserves.

Wro picked his own fresh cherries while I toured the winery and market, buying all the above and wishing later that I had bought more of the jams and cherry juice. Temporarily cherried out, it was time for the ultimate Door County dinner.

White Gull Inn

White Gull Inn in Fish Creek has been a hospitality legend for more than a century. With rooms furnished with exquisite antiques and three hearty meals a day (including cherry stuffed French toast for breakfast), it's the county's most famous inn. It's even better known though for hosting "Door County's best fish boil."

That was the consensus expert opinion of several folks we asked, all of whom demanded to remain anonymous, if you know what I mean.

Current owner Andy Coulson filled us in on some White Gull Inn history. "The inn's history shows how little things change over a century. Way back then, it was established by a successful urban professional who fell in love with small town charms and changed his profession late in life.

Back in the 1890's, Fish Creek was already transforming from a fishing village into a tourist town. A Milwaukee German doctor named Herman Welcker fell in love with this little inn and bought it. He built little cottages surrounding the main building, a style that has been popular ever since.

He also bought an entire building and shipped it, over the ice of Green Bay, to establish a casino. His inn was across the street and catered to casino guests," Andy said.

Andy himself was working in Australia, with no intention of ever leaving that country, when he heard that the White Gull Inn was for sale. That was over 30 years ago and he's been here ever since. Andy and his wife Jan run the place and have turned the inn's fish boil, which was the county's first commercial fish boil back in 1959, into county lore.

Freshly caught Lake Michigan whitefish are cooked outside over an open fire, just as they were a hundred years ago by the Scandinavian settlers of the Peninsula. The fish are cut in chunks and cooked in boiling water with small red potatoes.

"Other fish boils add onions, but we think onions overpower the flavor of fresh fish," Andy explained, adding that salt is the only spice used.

When fish oils rose to the surface of the boiling cauldron, Master Boiler Tom Christianson tossed some kerosene on the wood fire beneath the pot. The resulting burst of flames spilled fish oils over the side of the pot and left the fish perfectly cooked. It also made a fabulous photo op. Wro suggested that it was a good metaphor for the end of war, whether paired with sweet cherry wine, or not. That worked for me.

Inside the White Gull Inn dining room, the whitefish and potatoes were served with lemon, melted butter, garden fresh coleslaw and homemade breads. Oh and homemade Door County cherry pie for dessert. Duh.

Beyond Cherry Wine

The best recipes we picked up in Door County has nothing to do with cherries. Hey, our mission is completed.

Al Johnson’s Swedish Glögg

Makes about 1 gallon
1.5 litre bottle of inexpensive dry red wine
1.5 litre bottle of inexpensive American port
1/2 bottle of Vodka
2 bags Grandpa Lundquist's Swedish Glogg Spices
1 bottle of Swedish Glogg Mix (liquid)
Peel of one orange
2 cups sugar
Garnish with the peel of another orange

If You Go...

Best Time to Visit

A three week long agri-tourism festival in September celebrates Door County's unique variety of crops and commercial fishing industry, with tours of fishing boats, organic farms, grass fed ranches, the USDA Potato Gene Bank and, of course, cherry and apple harvests.

Lodging

Landmark Resort
4955 Landmark Circle Unit 4215, Egg Harbor, WI 54209, 920- 868-3205
www.thelandmarkresort.com
Outdoor pool, indoor pool, hot tubs, fireplace in lobby, steam rooms, fitness center, game room, tennis court, shuffleboard court, volleyball court, basketball court, laundromat,

White Gull Inn
4225 Main Street ~ PO Box 160 ~ Fish Creek, WI 54212, 888-364-9542
www.whitegullinn.com
Exquisite antique furnishings and a fabulous dining room anchor this inn that has been part of county lore for three centuries. Walking distance to the county's best shopping too.

Wineries

Door Peninsula Winery
5806 Hwy. 42
Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235, 920-743-7431, 800-551-5049
www.dcwine.com

Simon Creek Winery
5896 Bochek Road, Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235, 920-746-9307, www.simoncreekvineyard.com

Lautenbach's Orchard Country Winery
9197 Hwy 42, Fish Creek, WI., 54212, 920-868-3479,
www.orchardcountry.com

Other Cherry Fixes

Door County Coffee & Tea
PO Box 638 - 5773 Hwy 42 - Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235, 800- 856-6613
www.doorcountycoffee.com

Al Johnson's
10698 N. Bay Shore Drive
Sister Bay, WI 54234
800-241-9914 ext.25
www.aljohnsons.com

Wilson’s Restaurant & Ice Cream Parlor
9990 Water Street - P.O. Box 187
Ephraim, WI 54211, 920-854-2041
www.wilsonsicecream.com

Alexander's
3667 Highway 42, Fish Creek, WI, 54234, 920-868-3532
www.alexandersofdoorcounty.com

White Gull Inn
4225 Main Street ~ PO Box 160 ~ Fish Creek, WI 54212, 888-364-9542
www.whitegullinn.com

Sweetie Pies
PO Box 196 - Fish Creek - Wisconsin - 54212
877-868-2744 (toll free) or 920-868-2743,
www.doorcountypies.com