[piano intro] - Next on "North Carolina Weekend," join us from High Point as we travel the Triad.

We'll preview the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, explore the arts in Winston-Salem, and visit Bright Penny Brewery in Mebane.

Coming up next.

- [Narrator] 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 traveling around the Triad.

I'm in High Point, a rapidly transforming city in the Triad, famous for its biannual furniture market, which brings over 150,000 visitors a year and is home to more than 100 furniture stores and outlets.

That's why High Point is called the Home Furnishings Capital of the World.

But there's more to High Point than furniture, it also has great restaurants, inns, breweries, High Point University, and now the new Nido & Mariana Qubein Children's Museum that just opened.

And it's definitely a great place to take the kids.

Now let's head to Greensboro where another event brings in young musicians from all over the world to the campus of Guilford College.

It's called the Eastern Music Festival, and it's been a highlight of the Triad for more than six decades.

[orchestral music] - It's intense with our schedule and the music is demanding, but it's really rewarding.

- We get to work with some really awesome professionals and that's a really cool experience.

- And it gives you such an exponential way to grow.

- [Deborah] And the Eastern Music Festival has grown.

From its early beginning in 1962, as a small modest music camp, the EMF now brings hundreds of the best young musicians, music faculty, and professionals to the beautiful campus of Guilford College in Greensboro.

Here, these aspiring students practice and perform for six intense weeks.

- Shelly Morgenstern, who started the festival 60 years ago, had a vision for what he wanted.

He wanted a professional orchestra and he wanted all of those professionals teaching students.

- The kids.

The kids, that is really what it's all about.

These young people come from all over the country.

They come from all over the world and they bring with them such a wealth of talent and such energy.

- There's so much energy in the air all the time just being around so many people with the same passion as you.

And you can just hear music wherever you go.

It's amazing.

[orchestral music] ♪ - I've played so much music I never played before.

I've met so many great people.

- I enjoy being around students and faculty that are equally as determined to be great players.

It's just a once in a lifetime thing and you're never really gonna be around the same people again.

- I think just being with like musicians that like to play and are interested and work hard, it's really rewarding.

- You know, you're not just colleagues with these people, we're not just part of the same orchestra, we're living together.

We're roommates, all of us practically, which just creates such a bond.

And I think it translates to our music.

- [Deborah] That bond has led to a group of over 10,000 alumni who, like today's students, have been taught the rigors and discipline required to perform at a professional level.

- I think it's a good introduction to the real working musical world because it is intense and there's a lot of time constraints.

Here we only have, well, a couple days to learn all our new music for the next concert.

We have them weekly.

So it's really a good way to learn what the real professional world is like and how to manage that with your time.

- I've been given a lot of great opportunities playing very difficult pieces, and when I first get them, I'm like, "How can I do this?"

But after a week of working and trying really hard, I've risen to the challenge and it's awesome.

- I've never had to get a program ready that quickly, but they're preparing us to be professionals, so.

- And I always say my favorite part of the day is watching the kids, just the light bulbs go off.

Just to see that moment when it's in a rehearsal or it's in a performance and everything clicks.

And they met as strangers and they suddenly are performing as an ensemble and it's magic.

It's magic.

- [Deborah] But the intense rehearsals are coupled with fellowship and friendships made, as a visit to the dining hall reveals.

From shared meals to shared practices, life on the campus at Guilford brings its own rewards.

- [Ben] I've met so many great people.

My ability as a player has just been greatly expanded on.

And I love it here.

[students chattering] - [Deborah] The late afternoon summer sun seems to bathe Guilford College in a magical light as the students prepare for the evening concert.

Tonight's performance is a symphony by Dvorak.

- Our concerts are what one would consider casual.

In other words, you don't have to get dressed up to come.

There are no airs.

Our hall, Dana Auditorium, here in the Guilford College campus, one of the best acoustical halls in the country, but it's not, can I say, fancy.

It's a down-home wonderful place to hear great music.

And we're so thrilled to be here at Guilford College.

And it has become a destination place.

- I'm extremely looking forward to performing the Dvorak tonight and we've worked so hard on it.

And I'm really excited for everybody to hear the beauty of it.

[orchestral music] - [Deborah] And that beauty can be heard in performances large and small at the Eastern Music Festival.

[orchestral music] The Eastern Music Festival runs June 25th through July 30th, 2022 on the campus of Guilford College in Greensboro.

For tickets and more information go to easternmusicfestival.org.

This is Congdon Yards, a fascinating collaborative workspace here in High Point, that was once the site of a massive hosiery mill.

Take a look around, the design elements in this city are just amazing.

You know, there's a local celebrity here in High Point, who was once featured in the Food Network series "Chopped."

Let's meet Daniel Gray, who today is the owner of Uncle Cheesecake.

[upbeat music] Marine, firefighter, chef, and entrepreneur Daniel Gray, also known as Uncle Cheesecake, has brought attention to his beloved hometown of High Point.

After his national TV appearance, sweet tooths have flocked to his two Triad bakeries to sample Daniel's delightful desserts.

- Growing up in High Point, man, it was a lot of fun.

Played a lot of sports out here.

- [Deborah] Daniel moved to High Point as a young boy.

His mother was an immigrant from Liberia.

- Everyone knew my mom for her cooking, so she was always in the kitchen.

And as a kid, I was a bit of a mama's boy, so you could always find me lurking around the kitchen and figure out what's going on.

- [Deborah] After high school, Daniel joined the Marines, where his cooking skills made him quite popular with the troops.

- I did a lot of cookin' and all of the Marines and all the friends and things would come to my house to eat.

Once I created the cheesecake, everyone started asking for it.

Then they started telling their friends and their friends tell their friends, so then all of a sudden I became the cheesecake guy.

And then one day with a group of my Marine buddies, I was just sitting down thinking, "It's a lot easier to sell cheesecakes than it is to sell private dinners."

We sat down and ended up coming up with Uncle Cheesecake, and he made that happen.

- Nah, he told me about it and I was like, "Cool, go ahead and do it."

I always try to be encouraging and I know he could do just about anything he set his mind too.

- [Deborah] After an eight year hitch in the Marines, this budding entrepreneur found a new challenge.

- Then a fireman actually came up to me, the recruiter.

And he wanted me to, he's like, "Daniel, you're super athletic, you do this, that, and the third.

You should come be a fireman."

And I always laugh about it 'cause originally I told him no.

So fire department schedule is really, really good.

So we work one day and then we're off for two days.

So those two days I'm off I am running around, business stuff all day long.

If I'm not at a fire station, I'm either in a kitchen or in a bakery somewhere.

- [Deborah] Then came "Chopped," another watershed event for Daniel.

- I'm a threat in this kitchen because I bring creativity.

I'm going to "Chopped" to win.

[firemen applauding and cheering] So when I went on the show, everyone was like, "oh, the cheesecake man, he's gonna be on a baking dessert show."

And that was the big thing.

I was like, "It's got nothing to do with desserts."

And they're like, "Really?"

I was like, "Yeah, I actually can cook."

- [Deborah] From "Chopped" to cheesecakes, or Uncle Cheesecake to be precise, Daniel's first brick and mortar store in High Point.

- I branded it Carolina-style cheesecake.

It's something that you're only gonna get from us.

Mainly, it's a lot lighter than most people are used to.

It's a whole lot smoother.

A lot of cheesecakes tend to end off with a powdery or a feathery finish.

My cheesecake tends to just disintegrate on the roof of your mouth and just dissipate evenly.

And it's just not as sweet as a lot of other cheesecakes.

- You can't get 'em anywhere else.

- [Deborah] One store wasn't enough.

Daniel also owns the bakery where he got his start.

- Babycakes was actually the first place I commercially sold cheesecakes at.

So to go back and buy Babycakes was a big deal for me.

The old owner helped me out a lot to get in on my feet and helping me build a lot of this.

- [Deborah] The next stop in Daniel's busy day is the YMCA Boys and Girls Club of High Point, where he delivers cupcakes and a message.

- Langston Hughes, he is my favorite poet ever.

And he was known as the guy who led the Harlem Renaissance.

And trying to talk about some of the struggles and the things that black people were going through in the country, as well as in New York at that time.

- [Deborah] Cheesecakes and cupcakes are just the beginning for Daniel Gray, a father business owner, chef, and most of all, an advocate for the town and people of High Point.

Uncle Cheesecake is at 3800 Tinsley Drive, Suite 111 in High Point and they're open from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM, Tuesday through Sunday.

For more information, give them a call at [336] 485-4939, or go to highpointbakery.com.

This is COHAB Space and High Point, a place that connects the community through design and music.

Isn't this cool?

You know, the Triad is just a hotbed for arts and creativity, from architecture to the visual arts, and Julia Carpenter discovered the Sawtooth School for Visual Arts in Winston-Salem plays a vibrant role in uplifting artists in the Triad.

[relaxing music] - [Julia] We start early learning to use our hands and tools to create objects, objects to use, objects to share and objects to treasure.

- Every quarter we offer over 150 workshops and classes, servicing over 1000 students.

We have classes for children ages three through senior citizen, and we offer classes at every level of interest and every level of experience.

I took classes here at Sawtooth as a child and through middle school and high school.

And now working here, it's a dream.

- [Julia] Since 1945, Sawtooth School for the Visual Arts has served the community in the original Hanes Hosiery Plant with its unique roof line, which inspired its name.

- I love it just because of the serendipity of it.

You never really know what you're gonna get until you just do it.

And it's a risk sometimes, but it's a fun reward that you get in the end.

And it's always a surprise when you pull back the blankets, and that's the moment of truth, you know?

Yeah, so.

- [Julia] So why Sawtooth?

Why here?

- Well, I love Sawtooth because it's an anchor to the community.

We serve all people, all ages of people and all abilities of people.

In our class today there's somebody who's never even done this before and she's just hanging right with us who've been doing it for years.

- [Julia] Now This may look like a cooking class, but here they are molding metals for sculpture and jewelry art.

[metal clanking] Classes from youth to adults are held in ceramics, glass, drawing, fibers, metals, painting, printmaking and wood.

[machine whirring] With the resurgence of interest in learning to make objects for yourself, the maker craft art movement at Sawtooth is an integral part of Winston-Salem's vibrant art scene.

Although most artists take their crafts home, some of their work and that of regional artists is displayed at the highly regarded Sawtooth Gallery and Gift Shop.

- [Meghan] With the popularity of the maker craft movement, Sawtooth is a great place to learn a new craft, a new skill, and find the inner artist in you.

[relaxing music] - [Deborah] The Sawtooth School for Visual Art is at 251 North Spruce Street in Winston-Salem.

For a class schedule and other information give them a call at [336] 723-7395 or go online to sawtooth.org.

Here at the High Point Museum you can take a look back at the past with amazing exhibits, both inside and out, like these cabins built in the early 1800s.

And did you know that right here in the Triad is a working mill that is older than the United States itself.

John and Teresa Litschke tell us the amazing story of one of the last operational mills that's located right here in Guilford County.

[lighthearted piano music] ♪ - The Old Mill of Guilford is one of the oldest running mills in the country.

It is a water-powered mill.

It was built in 1767.

During the revolutionary war, General Cornwallis took the mill over to feed his troops.

And he was on his way down to fight in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.

[gunshot echoes] - [Teresa] Located in Oak Ridge, just northwest of Greensboro, this historic landmark has been producing all natural stone-ground whole grain foods for over 250 years.

- Go back to the basics of how we used to do things.

We grind our grain here and then we sell to the public.

We also take local people that come in and bring their eggs, and we sell local sausage and things like that.

So it's just basically a step back in time and doing business the way it used to be done.

- [Teresa] There's no one that knows the old ways better than Annie Laura Purdue.

She's been the Miller for over 14 years.

[soothing acoustic music] ♪ - I'm gonna adjust the millstones in order to determine what fineness or coarseness I need in my corn meal.

[soothing acoustic music] This is a blend that our customers like.

Once we mix it all together, it has a little bit more texture to it, and people that buy our cornmeal generally like it better that way.

Well, I've been using these products for 50 years myself.

That's how I first came to this mill as a young wife back in the sixties.

And everything was handmade then, hand packed, bags were hand stamped and that's all I've ever used.

That's all I've ever used.

- You know, if you look at history in general, a lot of the history's being kind of taken away from us.

And if you look at mills, more specifically, the mills are really changing into one, either museums, or two, the kudzu or the natural environment is taking them over.

And we're still a commercial mill, so it's very important for us to maintain the integrity and the history of the mill so that people can understand really where we've come from and how we used to do things in the past and see it today and how it affects how we do things today.

- [Teresa] Visitors can stop in at the mill store for all of their whole grain and other fine foods, as well as crafts from North Carolina.

- I prefer the yellow because I think the yellow grits have more of the corn flavor, which I like.

And thus far the white don't have enough corn flavor for me.

- So we offer a variety of flour, cornmeal, grits, and polenta.

And we offer a variety of pancake mixes: sweet potato, buckwheat, apple cinnamon, ginger.

We have scone mixes.

We have about seven different muffin mixes: sweet potato, bran, oat bran, cranberry orange.

Pea mixes, biscuit, hushpuppy, gingerbread.

- Well, we like the gingerbread.

Their gingerbread's awesome here.

- The products are outstanding, the people are friendly.

Just walking around the grounds and looking in the building is utterly fascinating.

- [Teresa] The Old Mill of Guilford is a popular tourist attraction that's open seven days a week, with interesting front porch discussions usually underway about the good old days.

- This is such a heart place.

Business is so driven right now for monetary success and for society now that people need to realize that this is like home.

Take a step back and just appreciate how things once were and how people worked so hard for something that they loved.

[instrumental music] - [Deborah] The Old Mill of Guilford is at 1340 North Carolina Highway 68 in Oak Ridge and it's open daily from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

To order your flour, grits and other goodies give them a call at [336] 643-4783, or visit them online at oldmillofguilford.com.

Play ball!

This is Truist Point Stadium, home of the High Point Rockers, in downtown High Point.

And it's a great place to watch the ball game or get a hot dog and a beer.

but have you tried eggs and beer?

Rob Holiday visits a Triad brewery that does just that.

- We're here to serve you the best possible food and beer that we can and experience that you can have.

Bright Penny is a brewery with great food and a very laid back atmosphere in downtown Mebane.

- It's a nice place to come, the kids are entertained.

Nice for the parents, the dads, to watch sports.

- And mommies.

- And mommies, yep.

- Bright penny is known for a handful of things.

Obviously our beer.

We have 16 taps going pretty much at all times.

All of it is brewed right next door.

- They have something for everyone: amber ales, and they have a really good one; but they also have IPAs for the people that like those; or an American logger.

They have sour beers and ciders.

- We try to follow the demand.

We'll throw some beers out, try some new things and see, let our customers really decide what is gonna be core.

- [Rob] Right now, eight beers are mainstays on the menu.

Cans and growlers are available on site, but most beer here flows through the tap.

Both the regulars and the rotating beers feature memorable names.

Just one way Bright Penny Brewing works to create a memorable experience that's hardly limited to what's on tap.

- It really is just a good time even if you're not even into to beer, just come out, have fun, friends.

- There's definitely a lot more than beer.

They got delicious pizza.

I just really enjoyed the food for sure.

And the beer was good too, though.

- [Rob] When Bright Penny opened in 2019, its owners wanted to focus on beer but also have the menu revolve around another item in particular.

- The biggest thing is our pizzas.

So we have Neapolitan style pizzas.

We have a pretty good variation on that as well.

More craft style, I guess, to kind of match the beer as much as we possibly can.

We have a sweet and salty pizza.

We use garlic oil and prosciutto, sliced figs and goat cheese, and then we finish it with fresh arugula and balsamic glaze.

There are some customizations that you can make, but for standard pizzas on the menu, we have about 20 pizzas on there.

We have a handful of smaller bites.

We get a lot of call for our bruschetta and caprese.

It's a really fresh light meal.

Our buffalo dip is probably one of the biggest sellers that we have.

- [Rob] But there's one appetizer at Bright Penny Brewing that's come to shine brighter than all the others.

- The main thing we're known for now food wise is our grandma's deviled eggs.

People travel for those now.

- The deviled eggs were very good.

- The deviled eggs are to die for.

- The eggs are really good.

You can do a flight, and on the flight you can choose up to three, I believe.

They're really good.

- We've had probably 10 or so special eggs that come and go.

But nine standard that kind of stick with us.

- [Rob] Each of the grandma's eggs is named for the grandmother of someone on the Bright Penny staff, including Lorraine, Madge and Harriet, not to mention... - Doreen's is dill relish, dill weed, and paprika, which is the pretty typical Easter egg, Thanksgiving.

We also do Gertie's, which is just bacon with local micro greens.

We do an Italian one with pizza sauce, pepperoni, capers.

It's a pretty good variety of egg toppings.

Grandma's eggs definitely started out as somewhat of a joke.

Brainstorming meetings, kind of throw things at the wall and see what sticks, and we gave it a shot.

First night we sold out so we tried it again second day to see if it was a fluke.

Sure enough, it wasn't.

We sold out again.

And from there, it kind of just grew.

- [Rob] Much like the community Bright Penny Brewing calls home.

Located in a place that was a Purina feed mill decades ago, Bright Penny is carrying on the tradition of providing nourishment to Mebane and beyond.

- We tried to bring it back to life and it seems to be a staple in Mebane now.

Mebane is growing and growing, faster and faster.

We're really happy to be a part of that.

The community has been really accepting of us and what we try to do.

[upbeat music] - [Deborah] Bright Penny Brewing Company is at 107 North 7th Street in Mebane and they're open daily.

To find out more, check them out online at brightpennybrewing.com.

We are at Furniture Land South, a colossal showroom for consumers looking for furnishings.

And it's one of more than a hundred places to find furniture in the High Point area.

If you're in this region, be sure to check it out.

Just look for the highboy behind me.

And to help you navigate those more than 100 shops, be sure to take advantage of their concierge service at the High Point Visitor's Center.

That's it for tonight's show.

We've had a great time just checking out High Point.

Definitely visit whenever you have a chance, and if you've missed anything in tonight's show, remember, you can always watch this again online at pbsnc.org.

Have a great "North Carolina Weekend" everyone.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ - [Narrator] 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.

[piano outro]