[soft music] - Next on North Carolina Weekend, join us from the state farmer's market in Raleigh, as we highlight some of our shows fan favorites, like the Dirty Dancing Festival, S&T Soda Shoppe and the Wooly Worm Festival, coming up next.

- [Announcer] Funding for North Carolina Weekend is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches.

You're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[upbeat music] ♪ - Hi everyone.

Welcome to North Carolina Weekend.

I'm Deborah Holt Noel.

And this week we are at the state farmer's market in Raleigh.

I love shopping here.

This is one of four state farmer's markets operated by the North Carolina department of agriculture, where you'll find the freshest and widest variety of produce and plants from local farmers.

Did you know that they get 3 million visitors a year?

You'll find everything from jams to jellies to fresh produce and plants.

They also have several restaurants, a bakery, a coffee shop and more North Carolina farmer's market is absolutely one of my favorite places to eat, shop, and really just enjoy the fresh air.

Speaking of favorites we decided to highlight some of our fan favorites in this episode.

We begin with a story that got more than 700,000 Facebook views and it involves music, movie stars and Dirty Dancing.

[upbeat music] - Patrick Swayze passed away in 2009.

And at that time, the town got flooded with phone calls and people asking what we were doing to commemorate his passing and the town wasn't doing anything.

And so quickly, they pulled together with the help of the chamber and county tourism, a candlelight vigil in the location where the movie was filmed just to pacify you know, interest from fans and over 700 people came in the rain to this event.

So it got people thinking maybe we should do something more with Dirty Dancing.

We just, the community didn't realize the huge impact at the time.

There are a lot of Dirty Dancing fans in the world.

If you look at their Facebook page for the movie, there's over 17 million likes.

So pretty much, anytime you say Dirty Dancing, it has a good chance of going viral.

People naturally gravitate to the concept, and it's a really fun thing to come and learn how to dance and commemorate the movie with other people who love it just as much as you do.

So it's a really fun time for people.

[energetic music] We have dance lessons all day from the Asheville Ballet and they also do performances from the movie.

[upbeat guitar music] And we have live beach and soul music band.

Then we also do a shag competition.

Watermelon games which are hosted by Pan Can the pancreatic cancer action network.

[crowd cheering] [audience applause] And then the famous lake lift competition, [audience cheering and applause] which is full of laughs.

[laughing] [audience cheering and applause] ♪ It's the truth ♪ ♪ And I owe it all to you ♪ - The festival itself is just centered on the concept of loving dance and loving that kind of music from the sixties.

[upbeat music] Taking the dance lessons might be the best part because the Asheville Ballet is so encouraging.

[upbeat music] And there's just so many components to the festival.

So whether you like shopping, you can shop with arts and crafts vendors, and we have over 20 of those if you like beer gardens, we have those.

If you like bands, we have beach and soul music band.

So you can park yourself in front of the stage all day and watch day's worth of entertainment on the stage.

[swing music] - I love the teaching 10.

It's a lot of fun to like get out and dance with everybody.

And I know everyone's having a whole lot of fun so it's fun to like jump in the crowd and dance with them.

[energetic music] I know all the dancers at Ashville Ballet are going to be here and would love to help you dance.

And there's plenty of amazing bands to hear and jump up and dance, but nobody's judging you just step up and dance.

- It's just a great time to come and dance and be carefree and, and just enjoy being outside in this beautiful scenery that we have here.

So I really hope people take advantage of this opportunity.

- The Dirty Dancing Festival in Lake Lure is on pause at the moment, but they do plan several virtual events.

For more information, go to dirtydancingfestival.com.

Another fan favorite takes us to the town of Washington and a soul food restaurant called King Chicken where they'd been serving folks food for more than 50 years.

And for sure when you go, you definitely want to check out the checkers action out front [blues music] - Man, the chicken is, it's like it just lights your soul up.

When you bite it, everything in your body start working.

- It's a great community place.

Good chicken, good beans.

Breakfast is tremendous.

- When I come in and order, all I have to do is nod and she goes, the usual?

Yep.

- Soul food.

I mean, we just, we've got some of the best old fashioned food there is around.

- It's like everybody's grandmother cook.

- That's what you always hear when you ask people in Washington about King Chicken Inn.

That the food tastes like their Southern grandmother's cooking.

- King Chicken with the first thing on this stretch, stretch of highway - Granville Lilley's father, Stansel opened King Chicken over 60 years ago.

And at first it was a combination service station and laundromat.

- Little pop shop serving hot dogs and hamburgers.

And it did so good.

He's told my brother myself, he'd gone close the laundromat.

And then they decided to close the brand new service station stayed open 24 hours a day but we had four to back the markets, we had national spending we had Hamilton Beach, We had the shirt factory.

We had the garment factory.

All those places are gone, but King Chicken.

Old fashion eastern North Carolina food has been right here rocking.

- But after 30 years even Granville Lilley started to get tired.

So he began looking for a new owner.

- Had this friend who just kept telling me, hey you need to go sit and talk with Mr. Granble.

Just go, just go see him.

And I did one time and I kinda kind of put it on the back burner for a few months.

And he called back again and said, look, it's it's time.

You need to go sit down and talk with him.

So, so I did and we came and sat down and then once that happened, I just knew he was he was the guy I wanted to be associated with.

- I looked at his smile and talk to him and saw how good natured he was.

- We thought he would be good for King Chicken, and King Chicken would be good for him.

- It was about this time last year he said, man, I need you to pray for me.

I said, yeah, what's going on?

And he goes, I'm getting ready to do something.

He goes, is that it just kind of out of my element when I'm getting ready to take a new job.

And I was like, really?

What is it?

He goes, well that's the bad thing is I'm asking you to pray for me but I can't tell you right now.

- Couldn't think of a better business here in town to be able to carry on.

- I'm sure you're going to get something.

Come on back here.

- There's another thing about King Chicken that's almost as famous as the food and it's the checkers action out front.

- They started on the car hood.

It's where they first started playing checkers at and those guys stay around all the time.

They really, really look after King Chicken - And they've been doing it probably 40 years, 45 years.

- This checker board was made.

And if you can see any signs up here John three 16, and that's the Bible verse.

- It's painted with Bible verses and a hand painted the whole thing.

And it stays there 24 seven - We come every Friday after we swim and we eat collards.

- We'll probably say probably about I'll say about 25 or 30 bushes, today.

Collard man brings him in.

We'll sit down and pick and wash them and then we'll put them in the cooler.

And then on Fridays, we'll line the stove up and just put them on and cook them.

Take them up, chop them.

We ready.

My birth mark is a collard.

[laughing] In the morning time, they love the cheese biscuits, but they eat chicken from the time we open to the time we closed.

So it's the business.

It's the chicken.

It's the wonderful attitudes of the girls.

- So I have customers tell me everyday don't change your thing and keep doing what you're doing.

Cause we want King Chicken to be here for many more generations.

- King Chicken drive-in is roosted at 601 Carolina Avenue in Washington.

And they're open every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

For more information, give them a call at [252] 946-4594. or visit them online at thekingchicken.com.

This is the state farmer's market restaurant a very popular breakfast and lunch spot.

And you should try their pancakes.

They are huge.

Now on the Eastern part of our state, our viewers really loved a feature that we did about a breakfast spot where the line extends all the way to the parking lot.

It's called Yoder's Pantry and it draws hungry folks from miles around.

[energetic music] - The line to get into Yoder's Dutch Pantry on Saturday mornings is as good as any restaurant review.

- What time did you get here this morning?

- We got here about five after six.

- That's almost an hour before the place opened.

- That's right.

That's correct.

If you don't get here you'll see the line going out the door.

And usually we're about first ones in line.

- Why do you come here so early?

- So I can see the good looking women.

[laughing] - What about the food?

- It's good.

It's really good.

- Today I'm planning on getting a blueberry pancake with scrambled eggs and bacon.

- You sound excited about that.

- I am.

- Most time I get biscuit and gravy.

That's really good.

- What are you getting today?

- Biscuit and gravy.

- When the door opens at 7:00 AM, Pete and his niece Annie are the first ones in.

Leading the line of loyal Yoder's lovers.

- Well Yoder's is a bakery, restaurant and a bulk food store.

We are very, very busy place.

- The bakery is truly the heart of Yoder's.

The homemade bread is made fresh daily and is the foundation for breakfast and lunch here.

- What's the most popular thing here?

- I would say it's the French toast with the butter syrup.

- How y'all doing?

Everything good today?

- Yes sir.

- All right.

- Yoder's is owned and operated by Mennonites.

Treating others well is at the core of their faith.

So the staff becomes friends with customers and customers become friends with each other.

- We would just like to promote that as a, as the theme of our business that we're friends meet.

- In Yoder's Pantry, you'll find things like bulk spices, sauces honey, jams and candies, as well as treats from Yoder's bakery to take home.

Next door is Yoder's farm and garden supplies store.

Here you can find hardware, garden tools, furniture novelty items, and more.

- It looks like a little bit of everything.

- It is a little bit of everything.

- Y'all doing all right?

Waiting your turn?

- Henry Yoder owns both the store and the restaurant.

He and his family moved here from Ohio in 1999 and opened this business soon afterwards - It has grown to something a little bit more than I had in mind, but I did realize that I can't pay the bills unless it is something that the whole family is interested in.

- Including children.

- Sometimes I ask children out in the front if they came to see me or if he Corky and they'll respond to every time they came to see Corky.

- Quirky is Yoder's resident parrot.

- Here at take your hand, open it up, open you're hand up all the way, just like that, just like that.

Corky, put your wing up.

And see there how you pet him down?

And he pretty much recognizes a lot of people, he knows a lot of people and he responds to them.

He knows when some people come into the room without them even saying anything he knows who they are and he responds accordingly.

- He has a wide vocabulary.

If you can get him to talk, he whistles.

He can Yodel and he can, he can interact with you.

- Corky comb his hair.

- It's not hurting.

- Ow.

It's not hurting.

It's tickling.

He just tickles.

- Cory and the store give people something to do while waiting to be seated at the restaurant.

Of course, you may recall that Annie and Pete didn't have to wait because they were the first in line when Yoder's open.

- When you coming back?

- Next Saturday, five after six.

Me and my uncle will be right here.

- Yoder's Dutch Pantry is at 4102 North Carolina Highway 118 in Grifton.

And they're open Monday through Saturday for breakfast and lunch.

Give them a call at 252-244-1759 or go online to yodersdutchpantry.com.

Right now we're inside the market shops at the farmer's market.

And here you can find jams, jellies, meats, cheeses, just about everything.

With over 15,000 square feet of warehouse space, there's plenty of room to shop here.

Our next fan favorite became super popular on Facebook for throwback Thursday.

It's vintage North Carolina Weekend, and it's about the Wooly Worm Festival in Banner Elk, still going strong.

[upbeat music] - Banner Elk is a small mountain town, probably known best for its association with North Carolina scheme.

But in the fall, Banner Elk puts on one of the most unique festivals you'll find across our state.

This festival has everything you'd expect to find in a fall festival.

There's fair food and tent after tent of crafts and vendors.

Like most mountain festivals there's a healthy dose of music to enjoy over the weekend.

And you can even find a genuine high country storyteller to while away the hours.

But make no mistake about it, the Wooly Worm festival in Banner Elk got it's name because the Wooly Worm gets center stage for a full weekend in October.

Now this isn't just two days of celebrating the Wooly Worm, it's two days of racing, Wooly Worms up a string and like most races in this state it brings out a lot of people.

- We had 60 people at our first festival and now we have over 20,000 in the two days.

Now that's not real big if you live in Raleigh with some of the stuff going on there but when you're in a one-stop light, small tourist town and you bring 20,000 people and crowd them into a small field like this, that's a lot of people.

- On your mark, get set, go.

All right, they are off and racing.

- Now people don't just come out for the thrill of the race.

There are cash prizes up to a thousand dollars if your worm is the grand prize winner and the grand prize winning worm is pretty important at this festival because it's unique coloring is supposed to predict the upcoming winter weather.

- Every season has 13 weeks on your calendar.

I didn't know that in school, but I've learned it since.

And a Wooly Worm has 13 of these body segments.

So you start at his head as the first week and his tail is the last week of winter.

And you judge by the color of that segment.

- So if you're coming out to the Wooly Worm Fest and you want to race, you need to find a worm.

And usually the best place is on a quiet back road this time of year.

- So go on a side road when the sun is shinning and air crawling across that asphalt.

But when I jump out, they see this hat and they say, oh God, that's that Wooly Worm guy.

He's crazy anyway.

And they put up with me and I collect some worms.

- So if you can't get out and pick your own worm you can buy some racing worms at the festival.

And once you have your worm you have to come up with a name.

- This is Tennessee Flash because she's a big Alabama fan.

She lost $5 to me on the game yesterday.

So she's trying to get it back.

She won't.

This is Wooly Wonder.

- Wolly Wonder?

- Wooly Wonder.

- All right, we'll check out you guys' progress, thanks.

- After you've named and registered your worm, it's time to sit back and wait for your heat and begin to come up with a strategy.

- He's eager to race.

- And this is the semifinal coming up, so we think we're going to win.

- Any strategy when you're up there with Scott Scotty.

- Well we let him have a nap after his first race and now he's getting more.

He's getting warmed up again.

- Once the race starts, you cannot touch the string or the worm.

And you may have noticed two main strategies to hurry your worm along.

Look here as we observe the clapping beneath the worm method and the blowing underneath the worm method.

There is no evidence that one is really better than the other.

After getting to observe a few races, it was my turn.

My worms started out strong that beginning of the race but before long, I noticed that the other worms just seemed to be outpacing it.

- It stopped.

And just like that, my dreams of worm glory were over.

- What happened to your worm?

- I don't know.

He must've reached his goal.

He's hanging on for all his worth though.

- No worries.

There's always next year, plenty of racing left to watch, beautiful weather to enjoy, an a fair going on all around you.

And you always can start planning for next year.

I think the first thing I'll do is pump the two time winner Michael and his worm Hurricane about where to find the fastest worms.

For North Carolina Weekend, this is John Bollenbacher.

- The 44th annual Wooly Worm festival is scheduled for October 16th and 17th 2021 in lovely Banner Elk.

For more information visit the festivals website at averycounty.com/chamber.

This is the market bakery inside the market shops at the Raleigh Farmer's Market.

And the thing to get here is their fresh squeezed lemon or orange aid.

Woo, thank you, Tia.

Wow!

Now another fan favorite that is famous for its old fashioned drinks is the S&T Soda Shoppe in Pittsboro.

And what would our show about fan favorite be without our own Bob Garner?

- Our goal is to present a time period that is often forgotten.

A lot of times people do the fifties and the sixties for a diner.

Well, my dad wanted to do the 1940s and earlier.. - [Garner] All the way back to around 1900 in fact.

Like the mahogany furnishings and cabinets from a former soda shop and drugstore in nearby Mebane.

There are at least 32 flavors of ice cream at any given moment, sundaes, sodas, shakes, and a banana split that's a major attraction.

This banana split is kind of like the whole S&T Soda Shoppe.

There's so much here that, you know you're probably never going to see or experience at all but you still have to go for it anyway.

[chuckling] Obviously that's delicious.

People come from all over central North Carolina to get one of those, and lots of other things as well.

Isn't that just a feast?

But rather than just ice cream and cold sandwiches as originally planned, S&T's has all kinds of sandwiches hot and cold, burgers, hot dogs, salads, and full entrees including classics from a famous former eatery located just a few miles up the road.

There were a lot of specialty dishes at the Ram's Head Rathskeller in Chapel Hill that was in business for years and years.

Two come to mind immediately.

One was the famous lasagna, always served with garlic bread and a simple salad with their house dressing, the other, the gambler a skirt steak with some grilled onions, some steak fries also some of their delicious garlic bread.

Wow.

Now it's available in right here.

The old days kind of live on.

Now, the secrets of the lasagna was getting enough melted cheese all over the top of it that it ran down the sides of the bowl.

You really had to have a nice ooy gooy mess there.

Oh, does this ever bring back memories.

That has been recreated so closely to the original from the Rathskeller.

I can't even believe that.

I had a bunch of it there and I intend to eat more of it here.

That is delicious.

There were lots of different descriptions of the gambler on various Rathskeller menus.

Usually they didn't waste time on fancy descriptions.

As I recall, they more or less described dish as a pan of half burned steak and some grilled onions along with some French fries and they'd let it go at that.

A little reverse psychology going there because it just makes you want it even more.

And it is delicious.

A lot better than a plate of half burned steak.

- As important as the food is, it was the collectibles that brought S&T Soda Shoppe into existence rather than the menu.

- And all the antiques that we have come from various antique shows, malls, collections private collectors.

- [Garner] I was going to say, it looks like your family has been collecting stuff it's whole existence and it's all here.

[chuckles] - Yeah, we, before we had the restaurant, my mom and dad used their house basically as a storage building for all the antiques that we were going to use for the business.

- The S&T in the name comes from owner, Jean Oldham's son Steve, who runs the frenetic kitchen, and TJ, but Jean's wife Vicki who helped open the place in 1997 is the one many customers remember most vividly.

- Twice this week on Tuesday, children that I held as babies came in with their dates to bring them to the the soda shop.

To me that's just awesome.

I love that.

That's the best thing.

[upbeat piano music] - S&T Soda Shoppe is at 85 Hillsborough Street in downtown Pittsboro.

And they're open Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 AM to 7:30 PM.

For more information, give them a call at [919] 545-0007 or visit them online at sandtsodashoppe.com.

Well, that's it for tonight show.

We'd like to thank the folks at the North Carolina state farmer's market in Raleigh for hosting us.

There's more than just produce here.

It's a great place to visit and support your local farmers.

And if you've missed anything in today's show just remember, you can always watch this again online at pbsnc.org.

Have a great weekend everybody.

[upbeat music] - Funding for North Carolina Weekend is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty unique history, and diverse cultural attractions from the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches.

You're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.