Tuesday, May 10, 2022 Lynchburg - Home of Jack Daniels
We had originally planned on going to the Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage Museum today, but discovered that it is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. So plan B was to visit Lynchburg, TN- home of Jack Daniels Whiskey. We got to drive through the Tennessee countryside which was lush with deciduous forests and rolling hills. Lynchburg is surprisingly still in a “Dry” county which prohibits the sale and consumption of alcohol, although Jack Daniels has managed to work out some loopholes to allow the sale of bottled spirits and whiskey tasting tours on the property of the Jack Daniels distillery.
We went to check out a local institution, Mary Bobo’s Boarding House and Restaurant. It is in a historic building on the historic Lynchburg town square, and is the site of a longstanding boarding house with a longstanding tradition of hearty home cooked meals for guests. These usually require advanced reservations because they usually seat all guests together around big tables in fixed seating times, and serve them an all you can eat meal of good old fashion Tennessee cooking. However, since the pandemic began, when they were allowed to reopen, they had to implement social distancing, breaking up the big tables and keeping individual dining parties separate. We were fortunate to have walked in just before they were starting their last seating, so we were allowed to join in on lunch in one of the dining rooms. There were 3 other parties already seated at tables in the room. The largest party had about 6 people and they were having the all you can eat meal featuring fried chicken, roast pork with gravy, corn bread, mixed beans, fried okra, sweet pepper relish, broccoli rice and cheese casserole, mashed potatoes and Lynchburg candied apples. They also got coffee, tea, sweet tea and lemonade with free refills but for $30 each. We opted for a “One meat, two sides for $14” option.
The boarding house has the downstairs rooms devoted to a gift shop while the upstairs boarding rooms have been furnished as dining rooms with period mixed china pattern dishes and decor.
In addition to young male waitstaff who took the food and drink orders, a matronly woman served as the southern hostess for the room, who regaled us with stories about the history of the building, Lynchburg, and Mary Bobo in a living history telling style. It was a very unique and interesting experience, although we weren’t entirely sure when we were supposed to place our orders and get our food. But our hostess did manage to get through her presentation and as quickly as the waitstaff could take our orders, we had food show up almost immediately. We supposed the fixed menu helps to keep the food prep and deliveries well predictable and timely. The food was quite good, and the portions were enough to make saving room for dessert a challenge. They had a Pecan Pie (our hostess was very insistent that it is pronounced pe-Kaan. Pee-Can is what you keep by the cot in your tent when camping), and something called Chess Pie, which as a slightly yellow colored sweet custard pie.
We went to the Jack Daniels Distillery and passed some very fancy Indian motorcycles with matching side cars in the parking lot which were quite a remarkable sight.
The Distillery has a bit of a static museum in the lobby, and we purchased tickets for a “Dry County” tour, which does not include whiskey tasting. There are several other tour options that include different tasting and tasting plus meal options. We ended up with a little more than an hour before our tour, so we strolled through the historic Lynchburg town square.
We learned that not only is this area home to Jack Daniels, but it is also the home of the Moon Pie and Goo-Goo Clusters.
There is also a Jack Daniels barrel store that sells all manner of Jack Daniels merchandise and furniture featuring the Jack Daniels American Oak barrels and barrel staves. There are also many other tourist shops selling candy, T-shirts, and other Knick knacks.
Our factory tour was lead by a gentleman who looked like one of the members of the ZZ-Tops rock band, complete with the full beard and tattoos. It was good that he had a big voice to match his big frame. It was easy enough to hear him through-out the tour.
The process of making Jack Daniels is similar to other whiskeys we have seen but there is an additional step where the distilled alcohol product is “mellowed” by dripping it slowly through a 10’ column of hand packed sugar maple charcoal before being aged in the virgin charred oak barrels. A premium product called Gentleman’s Jack is run through a second 3’ column of charcoal after it is aged and before bottling to make it the smoothest whiskey possible. They make the sugar maple charcoal on site, and when they are done with it in the columns, it is pressed into briquettes and sold as Jack Daniels brand charcoal briquettes for use in BBQ’s. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the fermentation, distillation or barrel storage buildings, but did get to see the cave springs from which the water for making Jack Daniels comes from.
Jack Daniels also has its own fire department. They had a few antique fire trucks on display including an original REO Speedwagon.
The tour was well done and very interesting even without a whiskey tasting, which would have added $15-25 to the cost of the tour.
After our Jack Daniels experience, we took a drive through the Tennessee country side to see Randy and Ann’s 65 acre farm parcel which is a little more than an hour from their suburban home. The farm has a nice flat plateau on top of some rolling hillsides with trees along its borders with neighboring farms. Most of it is in hay, which is nearing readiness for cutting and baling.
Randy had been having a neighboring farmer cut and bale the hay so he can devote his attentions to other projects. The farm came with a nice barn with enough space for storing their farm equipment and implements. It also came with city water and electrical power. It has a working septic and they have added a small living area to the barn to allow spending weekends there.
We returned Randy’s home. Ben topped off the fresh water and did some trouble shooting because we had been smelling propane gas around the RV. The propane gauge is reading between 1/4 and 1/2, but there is very little LP pressure as evidenced by a minimal flame on the LP cooktop. This would also explain the water heater having trouble with reliable ignition, venting some unburned gas. Spraying soapy water on the LP connections did not reveal any leaks, so it seems the problem may be the low LP level in the main tank, or perhaps a problem with the main LP pressure regulator. Shutting off the main LP and switching to our auxiliary propane tank and regulator restored normal function to the cooktop and water heater. We will have to see if topping off the LP tank fixes the low pressure in the main system.
Randy made steaks and Ann made salad, fresh asparagus and potatoes for dinner, along with ciabatta rolls and butter. We were quite stuffed with delicious food, and could probably do with a few days of fasting after today’s food intake to be able to still fit into our clothes.
Tomorrow Randy returns to work early in the AM, and we will head off across Arkansas.
