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Southern Hospitality

(Courtesy of Susan Sully)

The American South has a reputation for its warm hospitality. This cultural feature has even influenced the way houses are decorated and built in the region.

Susan Sully has written several books about Southern architecture and design, highlighting the design principles and traditions that give the region’s aesthetic its distinctly unique identity—a “Southern style anthropologist” of sorts, as she describes herself.

The culture of hospitality has led to a local emphasis on making one’s home comfortable and welcoming.

Remembering the Past

Sully explained that before the advent of modern transportation, people spent a lot of time on the road. “They would sometimes just have to stop at a stranger’s house and at least ask for water, and sometimes ask for a place to spend the night. So there was this sort of readiness of providing hospitality to the stranger.”

(Courtesy of Susan Sully)

Southerners have thus adopted a real affinity for welcoming guests to their house. “Southerners are social. They’re more garrulous. And in a way, when you think of a Southern house, with the porch on front, it’s like the house is almost reaching out towards you…So I think, architecturally, the Southern house speaks about that friendliness,” Sully explained.

The hot, humid climate also played a hand in the emphasis on socializing: people would cool off by sitting on their porches, relaxing, and chatting for hours on end.

Southern homes also tend to have elaborately-decorated sitting and dining rooms. “They have a little bit of a ceremonial quality…so that, you’re really saying, ‘Hey, we’ve made this really special for you, because we’re glad that you’re here.’” At the same time, the furnishings would be comfortable, so that guests are encouraged to stay a while.

(Courtesy of Susan Sully)

Entrance halls are also important, as it is the first thing a visitor sees upon entering. “If they enter a place that kind of instantly engages them with something interesting, that’s more welcoming than something that just hasn’t really been thought about, or it’s kind of bland,” Sully said.

Above all, Southerners have a real nostalgia for the past. This, too, has roots in history.

Prior to the Civil War, the region was home to many wealthy aristocrats who bought the latest wares and beautiful things. But after the devastating conflict, “they couldn’t afford the best anymore. So they really hung on to what they had. Part of that was just a way of holding on to memories of your forebears,” as well as a way of life that was lost, Sully said.

The South’s strong sense of family tradition is also reflected in people’s preference for using heirloom furnishings. “There really is…a deep sense of fondness…for using your grandmother’s things and using it to tell stories. Southerners love to tell stories, and they love to have their houses full of things that tell stories.”

Decorating with Antiques

If you have inherited antique pieces, Sully suggests using them to add meaning and character to your living space. For example, Sully places a large 1936 unabridged Webster dictionary that she inherited from her grandmother in her living room. Her grandmother was a librarian.

“It’s a connection to something that my family valued, which is language,” she added.

Antiques can easily be incorporated into the home as accent pieces. The key to preventing the look from veering old-fashioned or kitschy is to offer contrast. For example, a French Louis XVI chair, with its curvaceous shape, can complement modern furniture pieces that have simpler silhouettes or straight lines.

(Courtesy of Susan Sully)
(Courtesy of Susan Sully)

Sully also suggests reupholstering antique furniture with a bolder color that you don’t usually associate with the time period. If it is not a fine piece, you can also paint it a new color or apply a high gloss.

Antique tableware can also be repurposed for everyday use. For example, instead of using silver cups or teacups as formal china, they can become flower vases.

For those who are new to antiques, Sully recommends going to antique stores and flea markets, or flipping through auction catalogs to see what you gravitate toward. That would be more personal and “lasting” than collecting something old at random, Sully said.

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Features

Temples of Transportation

Pennsylvania Station, New York, NY, April 24, 1962. (Library of Congress)

In 1862, arguably one of the darkest and most uncertain years for our republic, President Abraham Lincoln pressed Congress to pass the Pacific Railway Act. As North and South were being ripped apart, Lincoln, a former railroad attorney, sought to use the rails to tie East and West together.

America was still involved in the process of recovering from her terrible civil war, when on May 10, 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad was celebrated as complete. The railroad had been constructed in a mad dash, as the two competing lines, Union Pacific and Central Pacific, raced to complete as much track as possible. The prize, 6,400 acres of land and $16,000 for every mile of track completed, led to a spirited competition. Union Pacific’s Thomas Durant and Central Pacific’s Leland Stanford pushed their crews on. When they met in Utah, they kept on pushing right past each other.

In a photo of a trestle by Andrew J. Russell, the bridge itself is built of fresh cut timbers—quite a contrast from Benjamin Henry Latrobe II’s beautiful railroad viaducts. This photo reveals another graded right-of-way beside the completed track, bearing witness to the competition between the two companies.

The next few decades saw the nation steadily crisscrossed with railways, as communities and permanent infrastructure replaced the rolling “hell on wheels” camps of railroad workers. As the 19th century drew to a close, railroads became the primary connection between great cities, and the various companies sought to show their importance by building grand terminals. Their desire for architectural significance would create grand entrances to the cities they served.

Of course, the great classical forms of the 1893 World’s Fair would inspire many of them. Washington, D.C., as a result of the McMillan plan for the Washington Mall, built a grand station, “monumental in character,” designed by Daniel Burnham and William Pierce Anderson. Burnham had planned the great Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893, and for the Washington station, he chose a mixture of classical motifs. This station replaced a hodgepodge of railroad connections through Washington, placing tracks in tunnels and freeing the National Mall to become a grand avenue.

 

Burnham would also design the Pennsylvania Union Station for the growing manufacturing center of Pittsburgh, with its distinctive rotunda. It seems that every prominent city sought a great entryway in the form of her railway stations. America’s great classicists would find many commissions as they fulfilled that mission.

Cornelius Vanderbilt’s New York Central Railroad built a monumental terminal in New York City, beginning in 1869. Designed by John B. Snook in the Second Empire Style, it would be expanded and eventually replaced in 1913, with the present Grand Central Station, designed by Charles A. Reed and Allen H. Stem. Reed & Stem were hired to build a station that would compete with another great station being built by McKim, Mead & White in that same city. That great railroad rivalry would lead to New York City having two great entryways.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there was only one great railway into Manhattan—the New York Central. Cornelius Vanderbilt owned Manhattan, or so it seemed. Though the Pennsylvania Railroad was actually bigger than the New York Central, it was not able to come into New York City. Pennsylvania Railroad trains only came to the shore of New Jersey, and passengers would then ride a ferry to the docks of New York.

However, Pennsylvania Railroad President Alexander Cassatt would make a fateful trip to France to visit his sister, Mary, the Impressionist painter. There he would see electric locomotives being used to pull trains through tunnels beneath the ground. A great plan formed in his mind! It was a plan for not just one tunnel, but a series of tunnels that would bring tracks across New York’s Tenderloin District and continue on to Long Island. There, the Pennsylvania would connect with the Long Island Railroad.

But there was more. Crossing the Hell Gate Bridge would enable trains to connect with New England railroads as well. It was a brilliant, daring, and dangerous plan. The Hudson River was a mile wide, and tunneling had to be done in pressurized caissons through the muddy bottom. Engineer William McAdoo began the construction of the first Hudson tunnel in 1902, continuing an earlier tunnel begun and abandoned in the 19th century. This tunnel was completed in 1908, as were tunnels to Long Island under the East River.

Having acquired a significant amount of real estate in Manhattan—needed for right-of-way—the Pennsylvania Railroad commissioned McKim, Mead & White to build the greatest entry into New York imaginable. The result was the magnificent Beaux Arts Pennsylvania Station. Not to be outdone, New York Central hired Reed & Stem to design the competing Grand Central Station.

McKim, Mead & White would also design the James A. Farley Post Office Building as a companion to the terminal. Though this terminal was demolished in 1966, the Farley Building, with its fine Corinthian columns, remains. Its Moynihan Train Hall now provides access to the tracks of what once was Pennsylvania Station.

Cities of all sizes would build fine stations. Richmond, Virginia’s Main Street Station is an example of Italian Renaissance influence. Completed in 1901, it was designed by Wilson, Harris & Richards. It features a fine campanile, and a series of arches topped by a steep hipped roof. In Staunton, Virginia, Thomas Jasper Collins would place a bungalow style roof over a series of arches to create a distinctive train station. Built for the most part by private companies, these fine depot buildings would provide a unique identity for each metropolis they served—entering into the fabric of the republic’s civic architecture.

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Features

Cooking Close to the Heart

(Photo by Jamie Robbins)

To chef Jake Wood, who began his career cooking at top restaurants in Raleigh, North Carolina, his grandmother remains the best chef ever. Growing up down the street from his grandparents’ house in rural North Carolina, Wood remembers many family meals featuring his grandma’s “country soul cooking.”

“In my memories as a kid, those times with all of our family, and just all of us coming together over food, was something that was always special,” Wood said in a recent interview. Today, at his Durham, N.C. restaurant, called Lawrence Barbecue, those flavors and memories inform the menu.

(Photo by Tennet Rich)

For example, his grandma’s favorite snack is hominy with pork cracklings. Jake’s restaurant does a version of that dish with buttered hominy. His family also cooked a whole hog over open fire coals every Thanksgiving Eve. Wood draws on those recollections to serve up North Carolina-style pulled pork, alongside some Texas-style brisket, at Lawrence Barbecue.

Even the dishes that he didn’t enjoy as a child, he now recalls with fondness. Some things that Jake would kind of turn his nose up at were, for example, “when she cooked turnip greens. That would stink the whole house up. But now it’s like that smell is reminiscent of my childhood. It brings back memories.”

Soul Cooking

After years of working in the fine dining industry, Wood wanted to be cooking something familiar and approachable at his own restaurant. “Southern cooking is close to my soul, my roots, and my family’s roots,” he explained. “So, it feels good to be in a position to have a shop where we’re serving food that’s close to my soul, with my family’s name on it.” Things have just come full circle, he noted. “This is where I wanted my hard work to pay off.”

(Photo by Tennet Rich)

He is grateful that he can still visit his grandmother’s house regularly, and draw inspiration from the meals she cooks, asking about her recipes and how she has perfected them or retained their traditional renditions. Many of the daily specials that Lawrence Barbecue serves come from those cherished conversations with his grandmother, Wood said.

Meanwhile, the restaurant is named after his late grandfather, Allen Lee Lawrence, who inspired the base sauce for pulled pork. Before he passed away, he was developing a sauce along with Wood, incorporating vinegar and the cayenne peppers he grew in his garden. He called it “Peak of the Heat.” When Wood’s son was born in July 2019, Jake and his wife decided to name him Lawrence, also after Wood’s grandfather. The restaurant’s logo is a small baby in a diaper, straddling a smiling pig.

Wood also noted that many of the techniques treasured in Southern fine dining today, such as pickling, canning, and smoking, are actually ways of cooking that rural communities have long adopted. Through talking to his grandparents, he realized their cooking philosophy was: “You live off the land to not only feed your family, but to make a living as well,” meaning that what they ate often depended on what they had growing and what they had on the farm and had access to, by way of their own farm or neighbors who lived on the land close by. One neighbor had cattle or hogs, he explained, “or a cousin or an uncle would bring fish back from the coast in coolers.”

(Photo by Tennet Rich)

Though Wood cut his teeth on elaborate plating and complex chef techniques, he now hopes to have a restaurant with a familial, homey atmosphere.  He said they “just worry about the food being as delicious as possible and being here ready with a smile on our face every time somebody comes to our window. We’re always going to make that the base of what we do.”

A Community Comes Together

The restaurant opened in June, after a long delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But Wood called the change of plans “a blessing in disguise.” In 2020, pandemic-related restrictions devastated the hospitality industry. Wood was able to operate a ghost kitchen out of his restaurant space, with patrons picking up food orders from the premises. With the proceeds earned during the beginning of the pandemic lockdown, Wood served 500 free meals to people in the industry who were furloughed from their jobs. He said they just wanted to do their part “to provide any help that we could to some of our friends and fellow business-owners in the industry,” Wood said. Back in 2018, the local community had similarly rallied together in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, which wreaked havoc on the Carolinas. Wood, along with top chefs in the South, took part in a culinary event that helped raise over a half million dollars for small businesses to rebuild or recoup their losses.

(Photo by Jamie Robbins)

Later in 2020, Wood partnered with a local pub to serve his menu offerings as the restaurant space was being finalized; and he also did pop-ups, catering, and other collaborations with restaurants in the South. Through these events, the word was getting out there about Wood’s future restaurant. He realized that the tight-knit hospitality industry in the Raleigh-Durham area looks out for one another.

Wood is also very thankful that patrons continue to support Lawrence Barbecue. He said: “We know that people have a choice when they support a local business and when they go out to eat. And people put that trust in our hands every single time they come to us. It’s your money with us. And it’s our job to create memories for them and make sure that we’re doing our best every time. Because without them, we’re not here.”

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Features

Ringing in the New Year

MARION, NORTH CAROLINA

Voted as the best small town in North Carolina, Marion boasts one of the most impressive New Year’s Eve traditions—dropping a 6-foot gold nugget into a giant, 10-foot frosted doughnut—as part of their annual Gold Nugget Drop. The quirky tradition is inspired by the town’s gold mining past. Food and craft vendors set up stalls, and live music is provided all through the night, with the music hall hosting its own special New Year’s Eve tunes. The street party is not complete without its own scavenger hunt, costume contest, and annual New Year’s Eve road race—Resolution Run 5K, aimed toward encouraging residents to start the year toward a healthier lifestyle.

VAIL, COLORADO

The ski resort town of Vail is another perfect, family-friendly town for celebrating the holidays. With its picturesque winter wonderland backdrop and stunning snow-capped mountains, Vail offers some of the most memorable fireworks and light shows. The annual New Year’s Eve Torchlight Parade on Vail Mountain features ski instructors and locals forming a train, holding glow sticks, as they zigzag down Golden Peak, sending glowing ribbons behind them. This spectacle is shortly followed by an equally impressive fireworks display.

EL RENO, OKLAHOMA

Oklahomans’ favorite way to kick-start their year is with a (loud) blast as they fire guns and cannons to ward off evil spirits and welcome the new year. The Fort Reno Christmas Guns event takes place every year at the Fort Reno Chapel and Parade Grounds and was adopted from a German tradition brought to America by immigrants. German and Italian prisoners of war built the chapel in 1944. Attendees receive hot chocolate as they sit together to listen to traditional German and American folk tales inspired by the town’s historic past.

WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA

The colonial town of Williamsburg is known as one of the first planned cities in America and dates at least as far back as 1699, when colonial leaders petitioned for it to become Virginia Colony’s new capital city. The town is home to some of America’s first colonial homes and is thus known worldwide as the premier center for the preservation and interpretation of American colonial history. Williamsburg hosts Hogmanay—Scottish for New Year’s Eve. During the late 16th century, Virginia had a growing influx of Scottish settlers that led to many Scottish traditions being incorporated into American culture. Hogmanay dates back to the Vikings and involved celebrating the winter solstice. In Williamsburg, locals celebrate the end of the year by taking part in singing, storytelling, and dining on fine food. It’s also a great time for some (early) spring cleaning—getting rid of the old and welcoming the coming year with a fresh start.

TYBEE ISLAND, GEORGIA

Every year, thousands of brave locals take the ultimate challenge—by plunging into the icy Atlantic Ocean at noon on New Year’s Day to commemorate the start of the year. Known as the Polar Plunge, the chilling festival is usually held at Tybee Pier and Pavilion but has been put on hold for the last two years. Due to the pandemic, the Tybee Post Theater invited all to instead join in virtually and take the plunge from anywhere they chose.

MOBILE, ALABAMA

Alabamans in Mobile are famous for their annual New Year’s Eve Moon Pie Drop at midnight. Locals in this town are said to be the nation’s largest consumers of moon pies, so it’s no surprise that the town’s New Year’s Eve mascot is the 12-foot sweet dessert. The history goes back all the way to 1916, when it is believed that a hungry coal miner asked for a snack “as big as the moon”—hence the creation of the moon pie. To show their appreciation and welcome the new year, locals drop a giant, mechanical moon pie in downtown Mobile. Residents enjoy live music and eat plenty of food to their hearts’ content. The evening is brought to a close by fireworks above the Mobile River.

PANAMA CITY, FLORIDA

Many towns host New Year’s Eve ball drops, but in Panama City, locals drop 10,000 of them—all at once! Thousands attend this fun, family event to watch as the small beach balls come tumbling down in a flurry of colors. This event starts in the early evening, to allow children and families to attend without keeping their children out too late. At midnight, the city continues with its annual Pier Park beach ball drop, where the gigantic beach ball drops from the illuminated SkyWheel Ferris wheel. Many local bands attend to play music for audiences to enjoy.

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, WISCONSIN

The town of Prairie du Chien takes great pride in its fishing heritage—so much so that carps feature center stage in its annual Dropping of the Carp holiday event. The locals have celebrated this family-friendly event for the last 19 years. Originally, the festival involved lowering a 20-pound, real, frozen carp onto its throne in Lucky Park. Since 2019, the town has revised its tradition, moving the celebrations indoors. The event is now named Carp Fest, and celebrations still incorporate a predominantly children’s theme with coloring competitions, games, and singing. The frozen carp has been replaced with an artificial one, and everybody still gets the chance to kiss the carp at midnight for good luck—as per tradition!

FREDERICKSBURG, TEXAS

As the clock strikes midnight, people all over the world celebrate the start of a new year. The locals in Fredericksburg, Texas, however, prefer to travel back in time with a 1940s-inspired celebration. Strutting in their best vintage outfits, they meet up at the Hangar Hotel—designed to resemble an actual World War II airplane hangar. Visitors enjoy showing off their swing dance moves to jazz performed by Bill Smallwood and the Lone Star Swing Orchestra. Winners from the costume contest receive prizes from the Hangar Hotel, the Fredericksburg Brewing Company, and the Fredericksburg Herb Farm. A portion of the proceeds is donated to United Service Organizations (USO) Fort Hood.

SOUTH CAROLINA (and Other Southern States)

If you live in the South, you will be no stranger to a bowl of steaming black-eyed peas laid over a bed of collard greens and onions. The black-eyed peas are associated with good luck, and collard greens with wealth. Southerners are also big fans of cornbread—which represents gold and often accompanies the main meal. In South Carolina, locals enjoy eating their own rendition of this classic New Year’s meal with some steamed, brothy rice. The rice and pea dish is known as Hoppin’ John and is reminiscent of African bean pilau. Residents believe that for the best chance of luck, one must eat exactly 365 black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day!

 

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Festive Towns

Lobster trap tree in Cape Porpoise, Maine.

COLORADO

With the help of NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command center, based in Colorado Springs, you can track Santa through the skies and beyond. It’s a local tradition, born by accident in the 1950s, when a Sears ad misprinted Santa’s telephone number, redirecting children to call what was actually a secret military hotline. This mistake led to the development of a beloved holiday tradition enjoyed all around the world. Today, hundreds of thousands of children call the NORAD Santa hotline every Christmas Eve to speak to Santa and his team of elves. It’s become such an important festivity that NORAD developed its own Santa Tracker, using state-of-the-art military satellites, to send location information to online visitors about Santa’s whereabouts, as he sleighs across the country delivering gifts. The Santa Tracker receives 30 million visitors annually on Christmas Eve, from all over the globe.

FLORIDA

Holiday boat parades are a common occurrence in Florida. The state boasts some of the most iconic Intracoastal Waterway boat shows in the country. For Floridians, participating in one of these parades forms an important part of their Christmas holiday tradition. Fireworks light up the Intracoastal Waterway, leading a spectacular display of boats adorned with holiday lights and festive accessories, as spectators huddle around the water to enjoy music and fresh seasonal treats. Favorite locations include the boat parade in Boca Raton and the one in Palm Beach. The Palm Beach Holiday Boat Parade partners with the U.S. Marine’s Toys for Tots organization, a toy drive that aims to collect toys and redistribute them to local children in need.

HAWAII

While most places enjoy the typical winter-themed festivities, Hawaiians have adopted a tropical twist on the traditional Christmas celebrations. Most locals will import their Christmas trees months before the holidays begin, as that requires a lengthy journey across the Pacific Ocean. Some will even grow their own trees in their backyards. Walking around Hawaii, you will see palm trees, rather than firs, embellished with an assortment of lights. In Hawaii, Santa arrives at Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort riding the waves in a canoe, instead of his usual sleigh! There, visitors and locals can watch as he is warmly welcomed by a keiki hula group. Many photo opportunities are available with Santa. This event is followed by a traditional Hawaiian luau—a feast featuring lively music and cultural performances. The holiday dinner typically involves kalua roast pig, specially prepared in an underground oven referred to as an imu.

DELAWARE 

Locals in Delaware enjoy re-creating what Christmas would have been like in the 1800s by attending Yuletide at Winterthur, home of American horticulturist and antique furniture collector Henry Francis du Pont. Considered as the premier museum of American decorative arts, the home is transformed every year into a Christmas masterpiece. There, visitors can learn about the traditional festivities celebrated by du Pont’s family during his lifetime, as well as view the assortment of early American furniture he collected during the course of his life. The highlight of the tour is viewing the pair of dried-flower trees, covered with over 60 varieties of flowers taken from the property and placed on display as “living tributes of flowers and blooming plants.”

MAINE

Maine is known for its flourishing fishing industry. The locals love seafood so much that they even incorporate it into their holiday celebrations! There, you’ll find Christmas trees made from stacked lobster traps, and a holiday menu filled with seafood delights. Residents of Maine enjoy a hearty seafood chowder on Christmas Eve, and you can often spot lighthouses all across the state lit up with Christmas lights. Boothbay hosts some of the most incredible light displays in all of Maine—using 650,000 LED lights and transforming whole forests into a truly spectacular winter wonderland. Locals also enjoy felting or knitting by the fire.

ALABAMA

Each year, during the month of December, locals in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, gather together at the Alabama Theatre for a special holiday movie marathon, featuring classic Christmas films. Attending the theatre during the holidays has become an important family tradition among the residents of Birmingham. Doors open one hour before showtime, and a sing-along takes place before every screening, featuring The Mighty Wurlitzer Organ, one of the few remaining pipe organs left from the early 20th century. During this time, Alabamans enjoy indulging on one of the best Southern delicacies, pecan pie; and if they’re lucky, paying a visit to the famed Priester’s Pecans at Fort Deposit for some pecan candy.

INDIANA

As one of the first pioneer states in America, Indiana has plenty of fascinating history. Fishers, Indiana, hosts holiday events every year. The most notable is its Merry Prairie Holiday tradition, where locals can get a taste of Christmas during the time of the early settlers from the late 18th century. The state is also well-known for its spectacular motor racing displays, particularly the Indy 500, which creates a special feature during the holidays in the form of a drive-thru light show, called Lights at the Brickyard. There, families can take their cars for a 2-mile drive down an illuminated racetrack. At the end of this drive, kids will have a chance to take photos with Santa.

MINNESOTA

Duluth, Minnesota, is the home of Bentleyville, America’s largest walk-through light display. The best part about it? It’s free! Locals have the privilege of enjoying this annual tradition starting in late November and lasting all the way through December. This spectacular event brings families together to create unforgettable memories underneath a magical display of sparkling lights and decorations. The light tour now takes place in Bayfront Festival Park, but it originally started as a residential light display by Nathan Bentley, who was decorating his home in Esko, Minnesota, for the Christmas season. Locals quickly recognized this house as the most decorated and brightest residence in all of Esko. As its popularity grew, Bentley began to see an unprecedented number of locals visiting his residence. Overwhelmed by lack of space, the Duluth city mayor called him in 2008, and invited him to host his next Bentleyville “Tour of Lights” at Bayfront Festival Park. Since then, the Bentleyville Tour of Lights festival has been receiving hundreds of thousands of visitors every year!

MISSOURI 

Each year, the town of Kimmswick, Missouri, hosts its Christmas Cookie Walk, where horse-drawn carriages wind through the old-fashioned town, passing historic homes decorated in a multicolor assortment of lights. Step back in time as Christmas carolers, clad in vintage attire, walk through the streets and shops singing their holiday tunes. During the Cookie Walk, visitors can taste a variety of sweet treats from participating vendors and purchase a special Holiday Cookbook filled with merchants’ favorite recipes.

IDAHO

TubaChristmas is Boise’s long-awaited annual holiday—a community event for tuba and euphonium musicians, dating back to 1922. The musicians, a mix of novice and veteran players, come from a variety of ages, backgrounds, and professions. Locals typically gather around the state capitol building, where the musical ensemble plays a range of traditional holiday songs for all to enjoy.

 

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Features Generation to Generation

Shaping Flowers by Hand

(Lux Aeterna Photography for American Essence)

Adam Brand, fourth-generation co-owner of M&S Schmalberg Custom Flowers, joined his family business about 12 years ago. “My dad was a flower man. I never really appreciated what that meant,” said Brand. “The business was 90 years old at the time, and I didn’t appreciate that either.” It was only when Brand started coming into the factory and seeing the passion and admiration through the staffs’ eyes, that he finally realized the importance of his family legacy. Brand’s pride and ambition in continuing this legacy stem from his ancestor’s love for the craft. “It’s absolutely morphed into something that I love, and I’m proud of,” he said.

Located in the heart of New York City’s historic Garment District, Schmalberg is the last remaining artificial custom flower factory in the entire city. The flowers are still handmade by expert flower makers, using traditional techniques and vintage molds passed down in the family.

Vintage molds are still used today in the manufacturing of flowers. Image courtesy of M&S Schmalberg.

Schmalberg has worked with numerous top fashion designers like Vera Wang, Marchesa, Oscar de la Renta, Ralph Lauren, and J. Crew. The company has also produced flowers for theatrical productions and TV shows—typically used for costumes or to emulate flowers in vases—like “The Gilded Age” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” “We’ve worked with the New York City Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera, the Australian Opera, and even Walt Disney,” Brand said.

The company was founded by brothers Morris and Sam Schmalberg in 1916, when the Garment District was considered the fashion manufacturing capital of the world. “There’s a picture in the hallway of 35th Street in the ‘40s,” said Brand. “And you see all the trucks and pushcarts. It was like a highway of just fabrics and dresses going from one factory towards another to the designer.”

Brand’s grandfather, Harold, was a Holocaust survivor from Poland. Harold was 17 years old, and living in their attic, when he first started helping out at Schmalberg, a company started by his uncles. Harold eventually got married and had children—Adam’s father, Warren Brand, and Warren’s sister, Debra—who took over as their father got older. Adam now runs the family business, assisted by his team of expert flower makers.

Traditional flower making is on the decline, as an increasing number of companies have turned to Chinese manufacturers and automation. “As the last competitors in New York closed down, a lot of the time, my dad would buy out their old tools,” said Brand. “There’s nobody who owns a factory like this that could make thousands, 10 thousand pieces or more, that pays New York wages. That’s really a true American-made company.” Every single flower that leaves their factory is proudly made with vintage molds that have remained in the family for decades.

The Gift of Flowers

The company produces flowers using a variety of materials: silks, synthetic polyester, leather, suede, cotton, velvet, felt, and velour, but they are capable of using almost any fabric. “Most of what we do for clients is with their own material. That’s kind of what makes us special,” explained Brand. He has transformed many old wedding dresses that would have otherwise been forgotten in an attic somewhere, into beautiful flowers. Customers often gift them to their children or loved ones as tokens to cherish forever.

Flowers can be made using all kinds of fabric, including satin, silk, and even velvet. Image courtesy of M&S Schmalberg.

The company often gets approached by clients for unique projects, from making flowers for weddings, to crafting florals from curtain drapes that match a bouquet on the dining table. “We had a bride once send us fabric from her wedding dress, and we cut 100 flowers that she put on the plates of every guest,” Brand said. They also work closely with milliners who purchase flowers for their hats.

Brand has also worked with Eagles and Angels, a company that salvages veterans’ old army uniforms, and repurposes them into high-end accessories. Together, they took old uniforms and created limited-edition fabric carnations from them. Brand said that these types of custom orders give him the most joy, because the company is helping to repurpose something with a lot of memories into something beautiful, while offering loved ones a way to honor these heroes’ sacrifices.

The Process

One of the perks of working with an American-made company is the versatility, customization, and level of detail that goes into every product. “We did a project with Marc Jacobs, who wanted flowers with specific color graduations on them for a runway piece,” recalled Brand. “They came in on a Thursday and needed everything by the weekend, like five thousand flower petals.” The company brought fabric that had been pre-dyed in-house, and Brand’s team cut it to achieve the unique coloring they wanted on the flowers. This would not be possible if manufacturing was off-shored.

M&S Schmalberg has a special crafting process that allows them to produce detailed pieces for their clients. He explained that the company either offers its own fabrics, or clients send in their own. Then, the team will cut the material into panels and apply a fabric stiffener to it, to provide the material a little extra body, and allow its shape to hold better when placed in the molds. This also allows the embossing molds to imprint on the fabric better.

Brand explained that, in the old days, workers would use vintage die cutters and a rubber hammer—swinging hard over the mold—to cut the fabric. “As long as I’ve been alive, we don’t have to do that,” he said. To make the process easier and less hazardous, the company sawed the long handles off the molds and now uses a mechanical machine to automatically do the cutting. “We’re still using the same fundamental process, but we’ve modernized it. It’s safer; it’s faster, and it’s more efficient.”

Next the fabric is embossed with vintage molds inside a modified electric hydraulic press. The operator simply has to place the petals on the plate and push a button on the side, allowing the machine to press the flowers into unique shapes. “It’s just a more modern way, but still using the same molds that have been in the family,” said Brand. The final step in the process is assembling the flower petals to make a complete piece, which is done by slipping flower petals through a wire and using a special paste to hold them together.

Flowers of all shapes, colors and sizes are made daily at the flower factory. (Lux Aeterna Photography for American Essence)

Family and Legacy

Each member of Brand’s team has been working with the family for decades and has formed a special bond with them. “Alex, who does the cutting in the back, used to come over for Thanksgiving and different holidays when I was 3 or 4 years old,” Brand recalled. Miriam, who weaves flowers together by hand, “was here long before I was even born.”

Brand hopes to someday hand over the reins to his daughter, Skylar, who is just over a year old. “To be able to have the opportunity to pass it down would be really, really outrageous,” he said.

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Features

Among the Ashes

(David Dudley for American Essence)

Regenerative farmers Robert and Jodi Bronner stood on a charred hillside in Enterprise, Utah, holding hands in the early morning sun. The smell of charred earth lingered in the cool, damp air.

Though they usually began work when the sun came up, they started late on that summer day. They were exhausted. The hills to the north, west, and south were scorched by a wildfire that had ripped through the area in June. Since then, the community—neighbors, customers, and fellow farmers—had rallied to help the Bronners get back on their feet. Even with their help, the couple was still struggling to catch up on their work, as well as their rest.

A Devastating Fire

The Bronners, who specialize in high-quality pork and poultry, had kept their butchery equipment in an aluminum building located about 50 yards uphill from where they stood. Back in June, Robert saw lightning strike about 5 miles to the west of the building. It was 11 a.m. He called 911. The dispatcher said that firefighters were already en route. Though firefighters descended upon the fire quickly, the fire’s behavior was erratic. It grew quickly and burned uphill, devouring everything in sight.

“We thought the building would be safe, because it’s metal,” Robert said. “But it turned into an oven. When I came back later that night, I touched the wall, and it burned my hand. Everything inside was incinerated.” The building smoldered for 10 days after the fire. Somehow, a trunk of blankets survived, as did a photo album.

(David Dudley for American Essence)

About 20 feet downhill from the burned building, there was a small wooden house that had been occupied by pigs before the fire. The little house, as well as the 4.6-acre patch of land where the pigs had lived and cultivated the soil for three years, were the only things in sight that were left untouched by the fire. “We didn’t have time to round up the pigs. The firefighters told us that we had to go. So, I cut holes in the fence, to give the pigs a fighting chance.” Robert said. “Later, when we returned, the pigs were here, safe. It was a miracle.”

A Community Rallies Together

Before the fire, Robert said he had been getting closer to earning his livelihood from his small business. “The American Dream,” he said. But the fire destroyed all of the Bronners’ butchery equipment, feed, and supplies.

“But the hardest part,” said Jodi, “is losing the place where you farm. All of our animals leave the land better than they found it. Just as we try to be good stewards of the land, the animals do, too.”

The Bronners, who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had to start from scratch. “Though this has been hard,” Robert said, “it has given us the chance to press reset. It has tested our values. I was taught to never give up. You have to have faith when something like this happens.”

The Bronners were used to helping others, but the thought that others would come to their aid had never crossed their minds. So, when their church, neighbors, and customers began offering help, the Bronners were overwhelmed with humility and gratitude. “We needed their help more than we knew,” Robert said. “After weeks of moving things, and cleaning, I realized that I couldn’t do it alone.”

A local church leader offered to bring some men to help the Bronners move the burned equipment out of the building. Then, various community members and customers offered to give the Bronners totes, barrels, and buckets. “We really needed those,” said Jodi. “But really, we needed so much more. We lost nearly everything in the fire.”

That’s when Kat Puzey, the executive director of MoFaCo, stepped in. “What happened to the Bronners would put most small farmers out of business,” Puzey said. “It’s devastating. They’d built something that was well on its way to becoming a sustainable business. And, they have the best chicken around.”

(David Dudley for American Essence)

Puzey started a fundraiser for the Bronners, who’d lost over $10,000 in equipment. She set a modest goal of raising $5,000. Robert was about to dip into his life savings to replace the butchery equipment when he learned that Puzey’s fundraiser had raised $4,500, which was available to use immediately. “With GoFundMe,” Puzey explained, “you can begin using funds before you reach your goal. Robert used that money to buy new equipment, so he could continue to fill orders.”

The Future

A month after the fire, the Bronners were still struggling to get back on their feet. As they looked around the charred hillside, they were silent. They wouldn’t be able to farm this land for a long time to come, and their makeshift slaughterhouse was being razed. Then, Jodi noticed some new plants reaching up from the blackened soil. “That’s the pigs,” she said. “They spent three years cultivating this soil. Now, it’s regenerating itself faster than the rest of this land.” But even that land, an unspoiled island among a sea of charred earth, would take years to fully regenerate.

Nevertheless, the Bronners said they felt blessed by all the support they’d had. They were offered some land in Beryl, Utah, where they had begun to set up shop again and resume their farming operation. Equally important, they said, were the thoughts and prayers offered by the community. “While the money helps to keep our business alive,” Robert said, “people’s kindness has helped to keep our spirits up. We couldn’t do this without them.”

As Robert and Jodi turned away from the burned land to the west, they faced lush fields to the east. They held hands in silence as they walked toward their truck. Then Jodi stopped, squeezing Robert’s hand. “I guess this is goodbye,” she whispered into his ear. “We won’t be coming up here anymore.”

(David Dudley for American Essence)

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Entrepreneurs Features Generation to Generation

Mentoring Through Golf

(Unsplash)

When Sean Washington was growing up in Shreveport Louisiana, the only free summer program he had access to was golf.

“I grew up in a single parent household,” Washington said. “My mom raised me and my brother and we lived right up the street from the city golf course. It was a good way for all the kids on the block to go do something constructive.”

Washington was only 9years old but he says he will always remember the caliber of men he met there every summer until he was 15 years old.

“All the African American professionals went to that golf course,” he said. “It was a raggedy golf course but it was their country club, so to speak, and I got to see solid men like doctors and lawyers talk business while they had fun. I was part of a group of 8 boys who got to caddy for them because there were no golf carts at the time.”

Washington, who works as a financial advisor, now lives in Frisco, Texas where he recreated his childhood experience to benefit others with Golf 3:16, which he co-founded with Eric Williams.

“Golf put me in a place of seeing the positiveness of men and being around them and getting that culture and understanding of the ability of what I could do,” Washington said. “With Golf 3:16, we are exposing kids to the possibilities of what they can do versus where they see themselves today but, bigger than that, they are introduced to God.”

(Courtesy of Sean Washington)

Both Williams and Washington, who play golf every weekend, consider themselves to be men of God who serve as mentors in their local church. They envisioned using Golf 3:16 to teach at-risk students life skills like perseverance, leadership and overcoming challenges. That was 11 years ago.

“What’s invaluable for us is the core values that we teach our kids, which include faith, self-discipline, respect, servanthood, accountability, and integrity,” said Williams who works as a pharmaceutical executive. “While the game is played, within the ropes, these core values transcend the game and can help the students be strong citizens in whatever city they end up in by leveraging those core values.”

Since then, 130 children have participated in Golf 3:16. At least one has received a college scholarship for golf, specifically.

(Courtesy of Sean Washington)
(Courtesy of Sean Washington)
(Courtesy of Sean Washington)
(Courtesy of Sean Washington)

“We’ve had kids come through the program and end up excelling in other sports or academically,” Williams added. “We have several students who are now playing in Frisco Independent School District who otherwise would not have been interested in the game.”

Some 6 percent of all National Collegiate Athletic Association (N.C.A.A.) golfers are black, Latino, or Native American, according to media reports, with Asians representing 5.9 percent of all players. But with programs like Golf 3:16, Washington hopes more golfers of color will emerge in the future.

“If there was more exposure to the sport by family members and a commitment from people who are already engaged in golf, I think we would have a bigger number of kids interested in golf,” he said.
Golf 3:16 is an acronym for God Offers Love and Forgiveness from the Bible verse John 3:16.

“We create an environment of learning and we make that experience fun with gift cards and extra snacks if they do something different or putt or share a Bible verse, for example,” Washington said. “That helps break up the monotony of just hitting a golf ball.”

(Courtesy of Sean Washington)
(Courtesy of Sean Washington)

Golf 3:16 was among the 20 nonprofits this year that received a grant from the Village Giving Circle, a philanthropic organization dedicated to funding black nonprofit organizations in North Texas. Golf 3:16 plans to use the $11,000 to invest in their students and provide greater access and opportunity for them to learn.

“We wanted those funds to be able to purchase a vehicle so that we can get kids to our program who don’t have a ride,” Williams said.
The program takes place year-round on Sundays from 2 pm to 5 pm at the Lake Park Golf Course in Lewisville and includes monthly service projects as well as four life skill classes.

“The golf course we went to initially for about the first eight years was in The Colony, Texas and we didn’t have to pay anything because they believed in our vision,” Washington said. “It was a very small course and we were limited in what we could do. That’s why we moved from that course to Lake Park where we do now pay.”

To navigate around the cost of golf, Washington and Williams have turned to grassroot resources.

“We have a few fundraising events,” Washington said. “One is a big golf tournament we have held every year over the last six years, which is probably one of the biggest golf tournaments in North Dallas. It has given us the great opportunity to secure the resources we need from people who connect to our vision of introducing children to God with the game of golf.”

 

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Features

The Power of the Bow Tie

Jonathan Ziss poses for a photo at his home in Merion Station, Pennsylvania on October 20, 2021. (Rachel Wisniewski for American Essence)

One June morning a couple of years ago, Philadelphia-based attorney Jonathan S. Ziss started strategizing about a case even before he left home for work. Should he wear a tie? If so, what kind?

That afternoon, Ziss would be going to a court-ordered inspection of an automobile dealership he contended wasn’t playing fair with his client, a competing dealership, and he knew the other side’s lawyers wouldn’t wear ties. If he did wear one, he figured, the other lawyers’ clients might think him more serious than their own attorneys. They might even think Ziss knew something they didn’t.

The occasion, Ziss decided, called for a bow tie, and he had just the one among the 50 in his closet: a schoolboy two-tone repp-stripe. Draping it around his neck, he let the left side hang about half an inch longer, as right-handers will. Then, he carefully tied a knot whose pinch the other guys’ attorneys might figuratively feel if his bow tie had the intended effect.

“I try to pay attention to both the message and the effect,” Ziss said. “I always want to establish myself as an authority in the courtroom—he who should be listened to. Judges need to learn about each case, and I want to be the voice they want to listen to in order to learn. In some situations, I feel—literally feel—that a bow tie enhances that dynamic.”

Jonathan Ziss goes through his bow tie collection in his home in Merion Station, Pennsylvania on October 20, 2021. (Rachel Wisniewski for American Essence)

A bow tie is more than just a tie, aficionados say. “It’s an expression,” said Kirk Hinckley, founder of the subscription retailer BowTieClub.com, based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and himself a bow tie lover. “It shows a sign of authority.” Bow ties stir something in the wearer as well as the beholder, said Richard Taylor of Detroit, founder of HarrisonBlakeApparel.com. “They make people happy,” Taylor said. “You wear a necktie out of necessity. You wear a bow tie out of love.”

Sales trends seem to substantiate this. While long ties have been selling less even before COVID-19, and are thought by some to be an endangered species, sales of bow ties have held steady or at least tracked a less precipitous decline. A 2015 report by the market research firm Grand View Research projected that the bow tie segment of the necktie industry would experience the fastest growth through at least 2019 because of the “rising adoption of bow ties as casual wear accessories, especially among millennials.” That trend seems to be holding, industry observers say.

Bow tie sales are recovering from the pandemic-related recession faster than long ties, said Hinckley, who has provided ties for former presidents, including Barack Obama’s inauguration bow tie.

“I wouldn’t say bow ties are outselling neckties,” Taylor said. “But I think, moving forward, you might see bow ties on the rise because you can wear them this time of year with sweaters. They’re a little less formal.” A bow tie can be worn without a suit more easily than a long tie, said Hinckley, who has more than 300 bow ties at his home, where he takes those with slight defects. “The typical bow tie wearer is very independent—not someone at Procter & Gamble, but lawyers, judges, and architects,” he said.

Ziss wears a bow tie 8 out of 10 times he appears before a judge and for most jury trials. While he can’t say if he’s ever won a case because he was wearing a bow tie, he’s seen the difference the accessory can make. During a jury trial in 2010, a judge and his law clerk wore bow ties on the second day, after seeing Ziss in one on the first.

Though the striking individualism of bow ties, together with their intimation of membership in something bigger than oneself, might suggest they’re an American phenomenon, they aren’t. Neither are neckties. They got their start in the 17th century when Croatian mercenaries in the Thirty Years’ War wrapped their necks in fabric. After the war, French soldiers copied the look, then the upper classes started wearing bow ties. Today, Asia Pacific, where the influence of Western culture is boosting the popularity of bow ties, holds the largest market share, according to Grand View Research.

But the United States has played a key role in driving the evolution and popularity of the bow tie. In October 1886, Pierre Lorillard designed the tuxedo and debuted it with a black bow tie at a ball held at the Tuxedo Club in New York. And in the 20th century, actors such as Charlie Chaplin, Fred Astaire, Marlene Dietrich, and Katharine Hepburn caused bow tie sales to spike from time to time. So did movie and television characters such as James Bond and, more recently, Doctor Who.

Ziss has worn bow ties ever since his wife bought him two at Burberry more than 30 years ago. One was yellow, one red. “I think she was looking ahead to a formal event a few months out,” he said, “and she wanted me to be ready to rock a self-tied bow tie.”

Ziss learned to knot those first bow ties with the fine motor skills he honed building model airplanes. All he needed was a diagram and half a dozen tries. “It’s like any other folding or tying or close-up work,” he said. “I learned to pin my daughter’s hair into buns when she was appearing onstage at the Philadelphia Academy of Music in ‘The Nutcracker.’”

Jonathan Ziss poses for a photo in his home, sporting one of his signature bow ties, in Merion Station, Pennsylvania on October 20, 2021. (Rachel Wisniewski for American Essence)

Ziss doesn’t wear a bow tie everywhere. Last winter, while at a court hearing representing a group of car dealerships whose fleet salespeople had allegedly left in a coordinated exodus to go to work for a competitor, taking with them proprietary information—the same case that would lead him five months later to that dealership inspection—he opted to dress more conservatively. The hearing was in a town “where strangers stand out,” Ziss said, and it was his first appearance before that judge. “For an unfamiliar lawyer to be perceived as flashy—and to be wearing a bow tie—was just too risky,” he said. He wore a conventional tie, orange with tiny dots.

It was a bow tie, however—the two-tone repp-stripe—that Ziss decided to wear to inspect the car dealership that day in June 2019. It proved a good choice. “I was able to establish and maintain a dominant role among the lawyers there and differentiate myself from my team and from the dealership brass, who wore traditional suits,” Ziss said. “I think it worked.”

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Features

Iconic Posters for America’s Greats

Press site Hatch Print Shop general hanging posters. (Photo by CK Photo/Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)

Nashville being synonymous with country music, it’s no surprise that locals and tourists alike are unabashed in proclaiming their love for this genre. While most are familiar with the downtown live music scene, where many country music legends of yesteryear (and today) jump-started their careers by singing in bars and music clubs, fewer know about the print shop that catapulted musicians to fame through poster advertisements. From Elvis Presley to Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton, “Hatch Show Print” shop has produced iconic concert tour posters for America’s most beloved music stars.

Today, the shop still designs all its posters by hand (no computers involved) with the same wood types that have been used for decades, giving the posters a vintage look. The shop designs and prints posters, not only for today’s biggest stars, but also for major events, such as a 2020 presidential debate that took place at Belmont University in Nashville.

Hatch Show Print still uses the same presses and letter blocks that existed back when the shop first opened in the late 1800s. (Photo by Donn Jones/Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)

Hatch Show Print was established in 1879 by Charles and Herbert Hatch, who grew up learning the craft of letterpress printing—the earliest form of printing, done by pressing carved wood and metal letters, called type, onto paper with ink—from their father, William. The shop’s first job was to print handbills for a lecture series by minister Henry Ward Beecher, brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the 19th century abolitionist.

Over time, the shop became known for its simple yet sharp designs, and soon, many wanted to use Hatch Show Print’s posters to get their messages out. In the 1920s, with the advent of radio, music stars were born; and for the first time, Hatch began printing photos of popular names on tour date announcement posters. It was innovative at the time.

Such a poster was designed to promote Elvis’s first concert. As Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium became a pivotal performance space for country music singers—earning it the nickname “Carnegie Hall of the South”—the shop began printing posters for its musical acts. Eventually, Hatch Show Print became the go-to printer for entertainers touring in the South.

Today, Hatch Show Print is the second oldest print shop still operating in the United States. Presses from the same era as when the shop first opened are still in use, dating back to the late 1800s. The machines previously ran on steam power, but now they are connected to electricity. The shop no longer adds new letter blocks to its collection: all are stored in the shop’s shelves and type cabinets. And the shop’s printers, who are also its designers, insist on mixing their own inks in-house.

Custom wood or linoleum block carvings can also be created for the shop’s clients. One poster featuring TV journalist Anderson Cooper, which even depicted the lines of his nicely coiffed hair, took the carver just two-and-a half hours to complete.

Hatch likes to hold on to its history. During a recent tour of the shop—which is now located on an historic property within the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum—the guide pointed to an old wood block depicting Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover, who ran against each other during the presidential election of 1932. The block had broken in half, but the shop still kept it, for memory’s sake.

(Courtesy of Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp)
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Features

Baking With Love

(Courtesy of Kristina Cho/Mooncakes and Milk Bread)

Kristina Cho has vivid childhood memories of the scene at her grandparents’ Chinese restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio. It was the kind of place where literally everyone in the family chipped in to help.

“I remember growing up, all my aunts and uncles and my mom had full-time jobs elsewhere working at hospitals and banks—you know, very normal professional jobs. But they would still come to the restaurant after work,” Her mother was an all-around talent. “She would do everything,” Cho said in a recent interview, from hostessing to making drinks at the bar to being the carry-out runner. “I just remember my mom zipping through the restaurant constantly, even though I knew that she was working at the hospital, like 40 hours a week.”

Her maternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from Hong Kong in the late 1960s and later decided to open a restaurant to support the family. Her family members worked hard to keep the American dream going.

Cho’s family instilled in her a love for food. She recalls regular childhood trips with her grandfather to get dim sum, the Cantonese brunch meal that typically serves bite-sized treats with tea. “When we would order things, he would whisper in my ear and explain” what the different dishes were. Later, while researching for her cookbook, “Mooncakes & Milk Bread: Sweet & Savory Recipes Inspired by Chinese Bakeries,” she discovered a little more about her family history: her grandfather’s first restaurant job was as a baker. The job was a step above dishwasher in the kitchen. “It also was a rare station, because few Chinese restaurants served desserts beyond fortune cookies and sliced oranges. He spent day after day making endless trays of his golden, almond-studded cookies,” Cho writes in her cookbook.

Grandpa’s Influence

This discovery also held special significance—her grandfather’s background as a baker meant that her passion for baking had a family connection. “When I was writing the book and I learned a little bit more about my grandpa’s baking journey, it made me feel like, ‘Oh, there’s some type of connection there.’ I’m not the first baker in the family. My grandpa actually did it first,” she said.

Cho writes in her cookbook that her grandfather, who passed away several years ago, once made his family-famous almond cookies for her before she left for college; the cookbook includes a recipe for the treats as she remembered from that day baking with her grandfather. She also turned to her grandmother for help developing recipes for traditional Chinese desserts (which are often steamed, not baked), but she wished she learned more from her grandfather. “Looking back at it, I wish I took better notes to fully remember how to do this stuff. He always had a mind of tinkering and figuring out how to do stuff. I definitely took that with me as I got older and went through different career paths and ended up doing what I do now,” Cho said.

She wasn’t always a baker; she trained to be an architect and moved to San Francisco to work as a designer for several firms. But being an architect did not satisfy her creative energy the way baking and cooking did. In early 2017, Cho started a blog called “Eat Cho Food,” creating recipes inspired by her family’s Cantonese cooking and developing her own twists on her favorite foods.

Unique Flavors

“Mooncakes & Milk Bread” is a compilation of her inventive projects, as well as an homage to the Hong Kong-style bakeries that are a fixture of Chinatowns across the country. Owing to over 100 years of British rule, bakers in Hong Kong adopted Western baking traditions, creating pastries, biscuits, and cakes “using the ingredients they had access to and incorporat[ing] flavors and ingredients more aligned with the Asian palate. Sugar levels were reduced, cakes became lighter, and ingredients like black sesame seeds and mango worked their way into everything. Thus, the classic Chinese bakery style is a quirky melding of Western and Eastern cultures,” as Cho explained in the book.

(Courtesy of Kristina Cho/Mooncakes and Milk Bread)

Cho said that this is similar to how bakers in America use the ingredients native to their region. “[They] are adjusting their recipes and flavors to wherever they are. So did the bakers back then in Hong Kong. Instead of using cream or butter, maybe they’d use coconut milk or lard, because that’s what they had, you know? So they adapted it.”

Cho melds East and West in her recipes, too, with fun takes on classic Western pastries like black sesame souffle cheesecake, Asian pear turnover, and Thanksgiving “guabao” with leftover turkey, brussels sprouts, and cranberry sauce sandwiched between steamed buns. Sometimes, she celebrates her Midwest upbringing; the book includes a recipe for “pepperoni bread,” what she calls “an Ohio delicacy”: pepperoni stuffed into a roll. Her version uses milk bread, a fluffy bread made with “tangzhong,” a roux of milk and flour.

Cho also pays tribute to pillars of her Cleveland community who are not blood-related, including Auntie Lydia, a close family friend. Cho’s grandmother first got to know Lydia through the latter’s mother-in-law. “After living in Hong Kong and immigrating to Cleveland, she hung on tightly to the practices she’d learned from her own family and found Lydia’s mother-in-law’s food comforting and familiar. Over decades, the three of them bonded in the kitchen as they gossiped, swapped recipes, and made enough food to feed their loved ones and more,” Cho wrote in the book—noting that without Auntie Lydia, her grandmother may not have learned to make some of the traditional recipes showcased in the book.

The baker expressed gratitude for these keepers of important food traditions, too. “I’m thankful that someone like her exists in our small Chinese community and continues to carry on the history, culture, and recipes for future generations. It’s not only the bakeries and restaurants carrying on our food traditions—it’s also the quiet home-cooks and Auntie Lydias of the world,” Cho wrote.

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Features

A True Home for the Holidays

Benjamin and Kirsten Watson, and their seven children aged 2 to 12, have recently put roots down in Georgia, closer to their extended family and grandparents. (Courtesy of Benjamin Watson)

As people of deep faith, retired NFL star Benjamin Watson and his wife Kirsten know that Christmas is about much more than tinsel, tunes, and turkey. Like a 21st-century version of the eponymous family at the center of the 1970s TV series “The Waltons”—who, like the Watsons, raised four boys and three girls and likewise built their values around God—the couple understand that a well-functioning family is built on a strong, loving relationship between husband and wife as well as parent and child.

At the Watsons’ new home in Fayetteville, a small town south of Atlanta, Georgia, there’s special reason to celebrate this year as father, mother, and the kids, ages 2 to 12, settle into the first home they’ve ever owned. That’s because Benjamin, the former tight end and 2005 Super Bowl champion who played for the New England Patriots, Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens, and New Orleans Saints, now has firm roots after hopscotching across the country.

Benjamin and his wife both graduated from the University of Georgia, Athens, and knew that they would likely return to Georgia. Kirsten has family in Atlanta, while his family is in South Carolina. As their parents got older, they wanted to make sure their seven children spent more time with the grandparents.

(Courtesy of Benjamin Watson)

Now, without having to worry about finding suitable rental properties in different cities as their kids are growing up, Benjamin and Kirsten are publicly sharing their thoughts on how to build a stronger marriage and stronger family. They’re doing so through their blogs, through a weekly podcast that was started in 2020, in personal appearances, and in print. Benjamin’s “The New Dad’s Playbook,” a how-to on parenting, was released in 2017; “Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race. Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us,” published in 2016, continues to garner critical acclaim.

7 Kids, 7 Life Lessons

With seven children in various stages of growth, here is what the couple, who first met through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, told parents and parents-to-be during several episodes of their podcast, “Why or Why Not with the Watsons”:

Bring faith home, but keep work at work: “It’s easy to just wait until Sunday,” Kirsten said about showing a family’s devotion to God. “Bringing it into the family is something we have to be intentional about.” At the same time, Benjamin said, work should not be brought home at the end of the day—something he learned from a former teammate. “Being present, I think, has been important to me; […] when you walk through that door, you’re a daddy, you’re a husband—you’re all those things that are much more important and separate than your occupation outside of the home.”

(Courtesy of Benjamin Watson)

Engage in annual check-ins with your spouse: “We talk about our highs and lows, we talk about our goals, we talk about sex life, we talk about our fears, […] and sometimes that conversation is 5 minutes and sometimes 50 minutes,” Benjamin said. Kirsten added, “If we can’t communicate together as adults about certain things for whatever reason, we have to be able to understand that those types of things play a role in how we will communicate with our kids.”

Create special moments with your kids, but not always as a group: “Make some memories—a ‘last good adventure of the summer’ type thing. But as a father, I simply wanted to get with the girls because there are certain things that a dad can impart to his daughters or impress upon his daughters that I can’t do when I’m with everybody,” Benjamin said. “To ask them about their fears, to ask them about their dreams and their ambitions.”

Move as a family. Whether it’s in the NFL or some other occupation, parents sometimes decide to live apart when a better job offer comes along, Benjamin said. The Watsons always stayed together, choosing to rent so as to smooth the transition to their next stop. “We decided we wanted to stay together wherever we moved,” Benjamin said, and he and Kirsten presented a united front to their kids despite their own mixed emotions about moving. Eventually, kids “adapt and create memories,” he added.

Benjamin Watson played tight end for the New England Patriots when the team won the Super Bowl in 2005. His NFL career took him to different cities, and the family made a conscious decision to always move together. (Courtesy of Benjamin Watson)

Build and maintain friendships: “Mommy, why would I go make friends in a new place and we’re only going to be there for a year?” the Watsons’ oldest child once asked Kirsten. She responded in a spirit of giving. “Even if we’re going to be there for a year, there is someone there that needs you. They need the gifts that God has given you. They need how you speak to them. They need your friendship for this one year, rather than you need somebody.”

Don’t be a helicopter parent, but pray: In a tumultuous climate riven by a virus; on-again, off-again schooling; and polarized opinions about race and religion, “we always talk about grounding our children at home,” the Super Bowl champion said, “and then understanding also that we don’t own them, that we are stewarding them. And that quite honestly, we can’t protect them from everything.” Praying for your children is important, added Benjamin, who is the son of a pastor.

Give fewer gifts at Christmas: All across America, there’ll be plenty of gifts under the tree this season. “If you buy a Christmas gift that really grabs your child’s attention for more than three, four weeks, you’re doing really well, honestly,” Benjamin said. He advises cutting back on the number of gifts given and rethinking the holiday. “You receive, but you also understand the importance of giving because Christmas truly is about giving.”

“We do know that God will show up, and He shows up and He meets us exactly where we are,” Kirsten told listeners in one of the couple’s early podcasts. “Our hope is that we can share some of that with you.”