Dairy King | Tennessee Crossroads | Episode 3229.2

[Music] restaurants come and go as food fixations change one study found that more than half of all restaurants closed or get new owners within the first year of operation so in Robb wells heard about a restaurant at Nashville going strong after more than 50 years well he knew he had to bend the knee to the Dairy King the original Dairy King was probably built in the late 1940s and a bit later was owned by Bill Harbison in 1970 the Joneses Thelma and Dudley bought the place and everything was grooving until 1979 and a major flood hit but Thelma and Dudley picked up cleaned up dried out and reopened things were great again until 2010 floods couldn't dampen the Dairy King spirit like the Jones family just packed up moved to a new location here down the street from the old one and they brought with them all the important things you know like good food and friendly folks and could make you feel like you're part of the Jones family luckily this building was available and it just kind of worked out for us it was amazing the way it worked out but we got in here we built the thing and got open in around six and a half months we opened in November of that year that's moving right along we were blessed yeah here we go as Velma and Dudley's son Jeff Jones was there as the Dairy Kings reputation was built I got to go to work when I was 13 years old you know I think I think my mom paid me 50 cents an hour and you know for a kid that wasn't bad you know I worked summers I just worked all the time and all through school as things will go Jeff's parents got over even though his mom continued to work here until right before she died she was fry flat cornbread and that's what she would do and everyone was perfect everyone was a perfectly Brown on both sides she was the best you know and she'd come out and talk and sit down she fry some bread come out and she was just a rock star my mom my dad to his table was up on the corner and McCulloch and I are stable family we had the guys who come around and sit and talk and tell stories well how's the retired life a role that has passed to Jeff who seems to know many of the customers who come here hey guys come on in here how are you when Thelma and Dudley were gone Jeff and his wife Caroline stepped in to keep the team going even though it was tough following filmer and Dudley there were pillars of the community when I was in school you know just very active just great folks did get a lot of good work for a lot of people helped a lot of people out they just they were amazing I was fortunate to have enough parents no doubt about it big shoes to fill the the product and the reputation preceded me something else that preceded Jeff our employees who work for his folks and now for his employees like los anita gamers who's worked here for more than a quarter century because well your food is her passion when I was coming up coming from the country and you know back then you know you had the coop and learn how to do things you know and it just was a passion my whole family you know they liked cooking you know and I just I guess my mom you know and my dad and all of them you know they just enjoyed it and it's it's like a passion you know you got the feel for it you just can't throw something in the pot and say that's cooking you know you've got to have that feeling you know what I'm saying I do know and you will too when you taste what comes from lost Anita's passion and Thelma Jones recipe now the menu here has changed quite a lot since the early days when the Dairy King was really a hamburger stand serving things like chili dogs you know hamburgers and and soft-serve milkshakes and Sundays and oh that's what they were and that carried on you know through about the mid 70s and then when everything hit here on Murfreesboro Road and and then it my mom and dad took a pretty good hit Americans no longer had to get out of the car and get a hamburger so she retooled and started doing what she loves to do which is cook southern food and started out small with a bowl of white beans and cornbread and just kind of grew into a full-blown meeting three we did like 10 veggies and and three or four entrees five days a week got a sweet tooth there's one thing on the menu that will get your attention and keep it for a while basically it's a turnover like a peach turnover and out the turnover and then we dip it in a batter and deep-fried so the batter's flour sugar and it just really makes it crunchy and sweet and the pudding is incredible so it's just people go crazy about those chocolate fried pies I usually tell people you have to sign a disclaimer we're not responsible for 12-step programs chocolate not anything if you eat this on your own accord but yeah my dad was he was talking to crack digger I'll give you the first one free you know and then they'd be back but anyway he was a character [Music] well there you are Dudley and Thelma's legacy lives on here at the king one reason why Jeff and Carolina are happy to keep the place going carrying on the tradition and honoring my parents I think was big and we just got so many repeat customers like we just we shut down week after Christmas you know and I got people really need for a week you know so we've got so many loyal customers with both in the area locally and also we've got folks that come in that work here in Nashville that don't live here and they either come for lunch or they'll swing by I guess I'm taking home once we hear that Aggie heated here take it home either way you're likely to come back to pay your respects to the king as it moves into its next half century [Music]

Channel: Tennessee Crossroads

Views: 83,851

Keywords: NPT, Nashville Public Television, Tennessee, Tennessee Crossroads, restaurant, Dairy King, ice cream, nashville public television, npt, tennessee crossroads, wnpt, nashville pbs, tennessee pbs, tn, tennesseree, Restaurants & Food

Id: 8jZbZZMiXiI

Length: 7min 8sec (428 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 16 2020