00:00:00
[Background Conversations]
00:02:50
Sara Wood: We can do this. So have a seat and them I’m just going to kind of—
00:03:04
Ed Garr: That’s it; I’m going to be— hey, you all knew me when I was nobody. I
just want you to know. Next year I’m going I’m running for President next— in 2020.00:03:16
Sara Wood: 2020— that’s a long ways away.
00:03:18
Ed Garr: You know they’re already talking about who is going to be running in
2020 and there’s no one— they talk about Michelle Obama running.00:03:24
Sara Wood: I heard that; I heard that before. [Laughs]
00:03:24
Ed Garr: I’m like can we just get through this one first? [Laughs]
00:03:27
Sara Wood: I know.
00:03:27
Ed Garr: I mean come on. I mean please—
00:03:31
Sara Wood: I think everyone is ready for it to be over.
00:03:34
Ed Garr: Well, it was over from the beginning in my mind. But— the guys and I
talk— they love talking politics back there.00:03:44
Sara Wood: That’s what happens at work. Did you guys—do you guys have early
voting here in Kentucky?00:03:47
Ed Garr: No; we’re— you know we’re on—we’re one of only six states that doesn’t
have it.00:03:52
Sara Wood: I don’t think Mississippi does, either.
00:03:53
Ed Garr: I saw this morning on the news and people are trying to go back and
people are wanting to revote.00:03:57
Sara Wood: Oh really? [Laughs]
00:03:58
Ed Garr: They have--
00:03:59
Sara Wood: I was wondering about that.
00:03:59
Ed Garr: After the latest WikiLeaks thing came out they’re wanting to revote.
00:04:02
Sara Wood: Oh.
00:04:03
Ed Garr: And you know why? I think— I’m thinking to myself well you know it’ll—
the DNC came out and it was proven without— you can't debunk it that he— they— they stole the election from Bernie Sanders by cheating. That ought to have told you something was going to happen later on, too. If you’re still voting for somebody you know— I was having that discussion with my wife last night. And I said, you know, we live in a country now where the morals aren't very— our children are growing up thinking it’s okay to lie, it’s okay to cheat, it’s okay to commit crimes and it’s okay. I can— I can run for President of the United States. I can be whatever I want to be.00:04:39
Sara Wood: What did I hear this morning? [Background Conversation] I guess when
Jimmy Carter was running, so it was the day he was elected, and I didn’t realize that he was the first President from the Deep South to win since the Civil War when he won. I don’t know; it’s a fun fact I’m learning.00:04:54
Ed Garr: Most— most people of the South however do not— do not win. It’s true;
they don’t.00:04:59
Sara Wood: Yeah.
00:05:02
Ed Garr: Yeah; is considered the Deep South? Yeah; I guess. Mississippi is more
Deep South. Louisiana is more Deep South.00:05:08
Sara Wood: Everybody has their own like borderline.
00:05:11
Ed Garr: Yeah the Mason Dixon Line is supposed to be the drawing point.
00:05:12
Sara Wood: Is it?
00:05:14
Ed Garr: Whoever— wherever that imaginary Mason Dixon Line is, it’s supposed to
be south/north. Like Kentucky was a neutral state during the Civil War. But there were more Confederate Soldiers than there were Union Soldiers in Kentucky.00:05:25
Sara Wood: I was wondering about that.
00:05:25
Ed Garr: They have a lot or re-enactments here and there’s several close by,
which is a pretty interesting thing. Anyway they were more Confederate. Most of them didn’t do anything. There weren't that many slaveholders which again, the Civil War really wasn’t about slavery which people don’t understand either. It was an issue but it wasn’t the— that wasn’t the main issue. Okay anyway—00:05:44
Sara Wood: Okay so since we only have a little time I was going to go ahead and
check the levels— are you ready to go, Ed?00:05:54
Ed Garr: I’m always ready.
00:05:54
Sara Wood: Okay; let’s start here. So will you tell me your name and just kind
of introduce yourself and tell me who you are and where we are right now?00:06:04
Ed Garr: Okay—
00:06:07
Sara Wood: And you can look at me. You don’t have to look at the camera.
00:06:09
Ed Garr: That’s good to know. Thank you for telling me that. Ed Garr; I’m the
owner of Dixie Café and we’re in Corbin, Kentucky.00:06:15
Sara Wood: And can you tell me a little bit about the history of how you got
involved with the Dixie— like how did you come into this place?00:06:21
Ed Garr: Yes. We moved here in 2000 for jobs, and I retired in 2012. And I ate
here for the first time in 2012 when it was owned by the previous people. And when they closed around 2005, it just sit here empty for years. And I came into a breakfast group, which is behind us now eating— these other guys and some of them have passed away and started eating with these guys at the Dixie. But when it closed, we went to other restaurants.00:06:45
And so to make a long story short they— they wanted somebody to open the Dixie
again. They knew I had restaurant experience. We had owned two other restaurants, and I’ve worked for Marriott. And so I said I really don’t want to; so I put it off for almost a year. And one of the guys just kept begging me and begging me and said, you know you need to open Dixie. You— you’re the one that can do that.00:07:02
So from that, I came in and we managed to get opened August 2012. That
particular gentleman who begged me actually ended up dying the next May. He passed away, and he’s the one that begged me to be in here, so that’s kind of the history of how we got here. And my wife is a school teacher and we have seven children and so our children— it really is family-run. In fact, the lady who makes the chili here that we’re talking about, actually is from Corbin and she’s was our boys’ nanny.00:07:27
She came to the house every day when they were all in school and helped raise
them. So it’s pretty family oriented.00:07:33
Sara Wood: What— so you were talking about jobs drew you to Corbin— where were
you guys before? What were you doing?00:07:36
Ed Garr: We lived in Campbellsville, Kentucky, in the Greenville, Kentucky, area
and my wife is originally from Dayton, Ohio. Her dad was in the Air Force. And then I’m from Louisville, Kentucky, and I’ve lived a little bit of everywhere in Kentucky— different places. But we moved here from there.00:07:51
Sara Wood: And can you tell me a little bit about what you guys— your wife is a
teacher but what were you doing before you came to Corbin?00:07:57
Ed Garr: Before, I had been a minister most of my life— 27 years as a minister.
My— I have a degree in— master’s degree in music and administration and history. So I was kind of a history buff and then got into the music area and then spent 27 years doing it in the ministry. And then when I was done with that, that’s when we got into owning restaurants and working for Marriott, because I always cooked on the side. I liked to cook. So then I had— then I actually worked for a restaurant here in Corbin when I retired because the guy was a friend of mine. He wanted me to come in to help him out. It was Bubby’s Barbecue here in Corbin, which is a very good place if you ever do the barbecue trail again.00:08:30
And I worked for him just— just for fun because he needed some help, and he knew
that I had the experience doing it.00:08:36
Sara Wood: And what would you— you mentioned a man who passed away the May after
you opened. What was his name?00:08:41
Ed Garr: His name was Henry Rodgers. He actually was a Veteran of the Korean
War. He had a pretty interesting story. He got shot in the back when he was in Korea and he and one other gentleman got shot. They crawled under a bridge in Korea and the gentleman died that was with him. And he laid there for three days and thought he was going to die. And he hears somebody yelling out, anybody out there? this real Southern voice. He thought that guy can't be Korean. He’s got to be— he can't be the enemy. So he yelled back, I’m down here. And as it turned out it, it was a guy from this area, Corbin, Kentucky who was out on a patrol looking for any survivors. And Henry was one of the survivors.00:09:15
Sara Wood: And could you tell me a little bit about— I know that— I took
photographs of the--the newspaper articles but just since I have you in front of the camera, can you tell me what you know about the history of this place before? How did it start?00:09:29
Ed Garr: I mean what I do know is that it started across the street from here
and most guess it’s around 1929, 1930, as a pool room. And I think it was called Holcomb but— I think that was it. And then sometime in the 1:0090s, and when he passed away they sold it to another family that was called the Trosper family and his name was Teddy and Marsha Trosper and then later on Teddy passed away also. So they got out of the restaurant business and they— and that’s when it began to sit here empty.00:10:13
During that time they owned it, they did a major remodel because at one time,
the— all the, I think that was out here, the grill was out here, so you’d come in and the— Mr. Lawson or whomever was cooking they would be out here on the grill cooking. And you’d sit down at the bar; he could turn around and give the food to you, you know.00:10:29
They still had tables and stuff but that’s— it was kind of a cool thing because
there’s a picture of him, and I think you may have recorded it where he’s standing in the window and you could see him making his chili in the morning in the window.00:10:38
And then so— but they put everything in the back where the kitchen is now, which
we wanted to put it back out here but it was just cost prohibitive to do so.00:10:46
Sara Wood: Can you talk a little bit about in terms of the chili like what— and
if you don’t remember, we’re not asking for recipes— but could you describe the chili that you guys make?00:10:58
Ed Garr: It’s funny. We were talking about it this morning with one of my
customers back here. When I first came here, the first time, we ever moved to Corbin, we came down to The Dixie. Everybody said you have to go to the Dixie-C, so we did. And the waitress came and I said I want to try out this— these chili dogs y'all got. She said well, do you want a chili dog or a chili bun? I said why would I want a chili bun? That’s just chili on bread. I said I’ll be— I can get that at home. Why would I want that? She says— so she tried to explain to me the difference of the dog and the— and the bun actually cost more than the dog did which kind of was weird, too.00:11:27
And she says because we have to put more chili in the bun, so it costs more than
sticking a dog in it. That’s kind of odd. Anyway so she brings it out and I look at it and I go what is that? She goes that’s a chili dog. I said what kind of chili? I’ve never seen it before in my life because I’m used to the— you know the chunks of beef and the onions and the--whatever, noodles or whatever, the way we made chili where I came from.00:11:45
She said that’s what chili is in this area. And I went well that’s— that’s
unique and different. But basically what— what it is, it’s kind of like a meat in a soup. It’s kind of like— it’d be like vegetable soup with no vegetables in it and the meat ground up real fine. It’s really, really fine. For example, when we make it here, the beef alone when we cook it, it has to cook for almost an hour and a half just to get it that fine.00:12:06
Now we add some things to it, to help— to help you know get it down— you know,
like there’s— there’s liquid added to it and some spices and it helps bring it down to that texture. And then at the end, we put more spices in, and it cooks for another hour. It’s about a three-hour process from start to finish.00:12:20
Sara Wood: It sounds pretty laborious. [Laughs]
00:12:22
Ed Garr: Yes; that’s why I never make it. [Laughs] I have a lady who is from
here who makes it.00:12:25
Sara Wood: And what’s her name?
00:12:27
Ed Garr: Margaret.
00:12:28
Sara Wood: What’s her last name?
00:12:29
Ed Garr: Mills.
00:12:31
Sara Wood: And she was the nanny to your— ?
00:12:31
Ed Garr: She was the nanny and she— she makes the chili.
00:12:33
Sara Wood: Can you talk a little bit about what you know? Because this— we were
talking about this yesterday, but I didn’t have the tape rolling; do you know any— could you explain--you were just talking about the chili, and some of the stories I’ve heard of is that they started in pool rooms. Do you know anything about the chili bun in relation to the pool room?00:12:52
Ed Garr: It seemed to be a— it seemed to be a real culture phenomena in this
area that if you had a poolroom you had— you had to have this chili. And there were several pool rooms. Apparently, there was Thad’s, there was the Holcomb’s, there was the Dixie, there was— there was a Nevil’s, the gentleman that you met yesterday. There was always poolrooms, but every one of them had their own chili.00:13:09
And through the years the only one who really survived, I think, was the Dixie
and Thad’s poolroom because Thad’s only closed maybe fifteen years ago. See it lasted— I think when that gentleman passed away nobody in the family wanted to keep it going. Kind of with this one here, I mean, when the gentleman, when Thad passed away, I mean, there were people in the family who may have been able to keep it going, and I think maybe they even did for a little while. But as it turned out, through the years, no one really wanted to do the— it’s a lot of effort to run a restaurant. And there’s a lot of ups and downs and sometimes the downs aren't worth the ups. So I think that just discourages some folks.00:13:43
And the chili is very difficult to make, and it is unique to this area, so if—
if you’ve got four or five restaurants trying to sell this chili then yours better be the best or something unique about it. And so that’s what— and so through the years we’ve come down now; I think maybe only one or two other restaurants actually make— Weaver’s in London, I know, does. There’s a pool room here called White’s Poolroom, which is the only poolroom left that I know of in this area. And he makes his chili and then we make ours. But the rest of them really don’t make it anymore.00:14:11
Sara Wood: And you just dump it in the— ?
00:14:13
Ed Garr: They buy it.
00:14:16
Sara Wood: Could you talk just a little bit; is there a relationship between
chili and Corbin and— ? I’m just curious.00:14:23
Ed Garr: Seems to be. Now the, of course, I think you’ve learned from your
talking to people, it started out as a railroad town. You know, and it was a very bustling town for years and years and years. And somebody— here’s how I think it happened, like your grandparents have recipes or your great grandparents and it gets passed down through generations.00:14:39
Somewhere along the line somebody’s grandparent or somebody had this recipe for
this chili they thought was wonderful. So they tried it on somebody at a restaurant and they liked it. That’s my theory on that. I can't prove that because they’re all passed away, but it had to be something like that. I mean, why do you— there’s certain things we eat, like you may have a pie you like and you go to a restaurant and order that pie. Well, that wasn’t as good as my grandmother’s. That wasn’t as good as my mom made. And so that’s what happened.00:15:02
Like even now with our chili, even though the lady who makes it is from here,
you know there are people who go well that’s not the original chili. And I’m always amazed at that because the original chili was made— it’s been a little over 20 years since the— it was actually made by the person who made it every day.00:15:14
You’ve got amazing taste buds. Twenty years later you— that’s not the same
chili. That’s pretty amazing if you ask me, but it’s not because we don’t have the original recipe. It was never offered to us. It was offered to us by thirty one different people.00:15:29
Sara Wood: Can you tell that story about being—
00:15:30
Ed Garr: Yeah we had 31 different recipes that were given to—one gentleman drove
from Ohio, drove here from Ohio to give us his recipe. In church one Sunday, a lady come up to me and she whispered I have the recipe right here. And she handed it to me like it’s— like it’s some kind of CIA operative you know; handed me the recipe. So we brought them down and we laid them all out and we narrowed it down to sixteen that were the same or close to being the same. There were thirty one different things on these recipes. So even though they all had the original, there was thirty one different ones.00:15:58
Out of those sixteen, we made them all. We made all sixteen chilies and we got
down—narrowed it down to two, and my boys— my boys really got tired of eating chili. In fact, to this day they don’t eat chili on dogs because they— because we made them eat all that chili just to see if they liked any of them.00:16:11
Anyway, we got down to two, and we took them and put them in crockpots and we
took them to the local school system, middle school, where my wife works and sixty five people voted on it, and we furnished lunch one day with chili. And they had to vote which one the liked the best. And that’s the one we use today is the one that won that particular one.00:16:29
But yeah, it was interesting because the— all these recipes, what happened was
he didn’t give it to anybody. It was in his head, the man, and he may have written it down and given it to somebody in his family, but the ones we were getting were people who had worked for him or knew somebody that worked— and they watched him make it. You know, like I sat you back there right now, she’s getting ready to make chili here in a minute. If I sent you back there to watch her make it, you’d think you knew how to make it by watching her. But I promise you, when you try to make it, it would not be the same because she has no recipe in front of her. Everything she does is in her head, just like they did years ago.00:16:58
If you watched your grandmother make a pie, she didn’t have it written down
anywhere. She just made the pie. So then you try to duplicate it, like why didn’t that turn out like grandma’s pie? It’s different. It’s the same situation here. Yeah.00:17:12
Sara Wood: I just have two more questions for you because I know you— want to do
a time check? How are we doing on time here?00:17:16
Ed Garr: We’re okay.
00:17:17
Sara Wood: Okay; can you talk about— so you, you know, you talked about how you
were semi-retired and then people came after you to reopen it. What finally made you decide to do it because that’s a big— that’s a big—00:17:29
Ed Garr: Well I— without getting overly spiritual on you, actually, my wife and
I and children had gone to visit an aunt in Ohio and they were going to the zoo one day, it’s in Cincinnati. And I said I don’t want to go. I know— I really— people have been asking me, I said I just want to stay back and do some studying and spend some time alone and— and think about this.00:17:47
So I did.
00:17:48
And during that time I just felt a really strong urging— that’s the best word to
use— that God wanted me to do this. And so I came back really— well, the interesting part of the story was I couldn’t afford the restaurant. It was overpriced of what I could afford, so I thought well, this is not going to work out because I can't even afford it. So I thought well I’m done with that.00:18:09
You know I either heard God wrong or I’m not going to do this. So I went to talk
to a real estate guy. To make a long story short, he somehow bartered a deal where I could rent the building in a lease to own situation, you know, from the lady who owned the building, and she was very pleased with that. And so that’s how that worked out. And it’s been lots of ups and downs and struggles through the last— we’re in our fifth year now, but I’ve always known this is what God wants me to do. So that’s why I haven't quit. I should have quit a long time ago, you know when the economy went down in this area, when the railroad closed, when we had major factories close, our income went probably down over $1,000 a week and about $6,000 a month in sales over the last two years.00:18:51
I probably should have quit and walked away but instead, I always knew in my
heart this is what God wanted me to do. So that’s why I keep doing it. I mean I,I— that’s the best explanation I have for that.00:19:02
Sara Wood: What do you think this place means to Corbin?
00:19:06
Ed Garr: Ah at one time I thought— I think the people that are over the age of
50 it means a lot to them. They grew up here, eating here, coming here after school; at one time they let school out and the high school was two blocks away, they would converge them downtown during lunch and come to The Dixie or to Thad’s Pool room or the Crystal Kitchen, and other restaurants I’ve heard about. So it was a really, really big deal. And it was— it was a kind of rite of passage to go to The Dixie and get a chili dog or chili bun, you know, with your family. So that’s— that was a long— Well, when it closed, all those people grew up, they moved away, they forgot about it; we opened, and it was a lot of you know hoopla it was opening again. But we have discovered though, a lot of those people aren't here anymore. They’ve passed away, they’ve moved away, and so their children—. What we’ve tried to do is develop a new clientele base of people who—new children, you know new families who are young— get them to come and make Dixie big.00:19:58
You know they recently— I’ve had several people on our Facebook page message me
and told me, the reason I didn’t mention them— but you can read them— how much The Dixie means to them. It’s a part of Corbin, and that they’d like to see us always be here. So when we’ve gotten in trouble, financially— and we won't go into that story when my son got sick--there have been people who have come by and said, like yesterday— a good example, yesterday at lunch— I’m back there cooking and this elderly gentleman motions for me to come out of the kitchen.00:20:22
So I come out and he’s a retired doctor and he reached in his wallet and he says
I’m not on the computer and I don’t get on the internet, but my daughter told me that you all have been struggling a little bit. And I want to help you out. He says we’ve got to have The Dixie here. And he hands me a 100 dollar bill. And his daughter says we can't imagine Corbin without The Dixie. We just want to thank you for reopening it.00:20:40
And that was very, very nice. I think there are a lot of people that it has a
lot, a lot of sentimental meaning to them. And then, there’s a lot of people who are new or who didn’t grow up with tradition that it just doesn’t mean as much to them because there’s so many other choices now.00:20:55
You know for years, The Dixie was it. I mean you had years where it was the
only— there wasn’t— you didn’t have the Applebee’s and the Cracker Barrels and things they could go to. And when those all begin to come and as a lot of small towns in America, they bypassed them, you know with interstates and bypasses— the small-town restaurants, the mom and pop places just, they closed up.00:21:13
So what we’ve tried to do is revitalize that idea because it is, we are a mom
and pop, my wife and I, so the kids, and their nanny, and we have one employee. And she’s our waitress and that’s it. And we treat her like family, so we are your kind of like mom and pop restaurant. But we don’t get the interstate traffic. We don’t get you know a place like Cracker Barrel and I’m not picking on them but they’ll have more business in one day than I’ll make in six months just because where we’re located at and the chain and the power of money to advertise.00:21:42
So I think from all that said, I think The Dixie is pretty important to people
have always lived here. But the ones who are new or whatever it’s not so— necessarily true. And it’s helped that with modern technology, with internet, we’re on Trip Advisor, we’re always rated the top five restaurants in Corbin, so if you’re traveling down the interstate and you’re wanting to find something unique besides a chain restaurant, then we pop up as the— I think we’re—we were number two and maybe number one. We’re always back and forth there. And they’ll say well, let’s go to one of them places. It’s a mom and pop place. And that’s been kind of neat.00:22:16
Now one interesting side note and you might not want to put this on there is— my
wife a few weeks ago was waiting tables, and the guy is always complaining about our hamburger prices. He said well, this is an awful expensive hamburger. Well the average price of a hamburger across America in a restaurant and not in a fast— not a fast-chain restaurant is $7.72, according to the latest restaurant news. All right that’s— that’s all your— we’re $7.00.00:22:39
So she said to him, she said so we should be cheaper because we’re a diner? Yeah
diners ought to be cheaper because you know you’re a mom and pop diner and your food ought to be cheaper than the chain restaurants. And she looked at him and she said, so you think we get our food somewhere different than we do? That we, when our food service guy comes by we say to them, oh give us our mom and pop discount, give us our diner discount? We pay the same price for our food as they’re paying for you but they’re charging you 70 cents more for their burger, and you’re wanting us to charge cheaper because we’re a diner? She says is there any logic in that?00:23:10
Well, of course, he didn’t have an answer for that. But the truth is on that, we
have our beef delivered daily. You know, it’s a ground chuck and we don’t go to the store and buy it. You know, we shop locally. We get all our produce locally. There’s nothing we— the only thing we get it on trucks usually is some our canned goods and that’s about it. So that was a side bar; you may or may not want that— you may or might not want that on there.00:23:30
Sara Wood: I just have one other question. Do you know how The Dixie name?
00:23:33
Ed Garr: No; I do not.
00:23:35
Sara Wood: Just curious. I always like to ask that.
00:23:38
Ed Garr: Wait a minute. I’ve heard this story, and I could be wrong on this. You
might—a that’s— that’s a question you can ask the mayor if you ever get a chance to ask him anything, is that for years and years there was—there was the— the route from south to north before interstate existence and it was called The Dixie Highway. You know that, right?00:23:54
Okay and I think— and the North to South ran through Corbin, Kentucky. You know,
for— until the interstate was built this was— that street right outside is— was the interstate. That’s how you got south was through Corbin, Kentucky, through the— right through town.00:24:08
And so that was part of The Dixie Highway.
00:24:10
Sara Wood: Is that 25?
00:24:11
Ed Garr: Uh-hm.
00:24:12
Sara Wood: I was wondering about 25 because I— I knew I came up 475, obviously,
but just the way it travels.00:24:18
Ed Garr: Yeah and that’s— and that was the North and South— one of the North and
South routes that people traveled, and you can look at some old-time pictures here. I mean there was bumper-to-bumper people through here all the time. You had four or five gas stations on Main Street. You had hotels because it was the North and South route. So I’m just assuming that because it was called The Dixie Highway from the start to the end, because it led to the South that this is, that’s how it got its name, but I could not verify that.00:24:43
Sara Wood: And is there anything else you want to add before I turn the camera off?
00:24:47
Ed Garr: No; I’m glad you came by, though. It’s a very interesting thing that
you’re doing.00:24:51
Sara Wood: Thank you for your time. You’ve let me get in your hair random times
throughout the week, and Carolyn, too, so please thank her for me.00:24:57
Ed Garr: No problem; okay.
00:24:57
Sara Wood: I’m going to shut this— I’m going to actually— . [Background Conversation]
00:26:53
[End of Interview]
2:0030s, no one knows the exact date, it moved across to where it is— its current location overnight. Opened the next day.00:09:48
It stayed there— stayed here ever since then, and then, it changed hands to a
man named AJ Lawson who owned it for years and years and years. And he passed away in the 3:00