LYNCHBURG, Tenn. � Explore Jack Daniel Distillery in tiny Lynchburg and afterward, in the White Rabbit Saloon, you’ll be served a free refreshing drink � of lemonade.
Moore County has been dry since 1909. Thus, while the distillery produces the world’s most popular whiskey, it cannot be served here.
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However, with an abundance of museums, restaurants, antiques and crafts shops and bed and breakfasts, this charming Southern village of 500 can whet your thirst for almost anything else your tourist heart desires.
It’s all about whiskey
About a 90-minute drive and 70 miles southeast of Nashville, Lynchburg capitalizes largely on its famous whiskey factory. Guided tours zip through all day long as nearly a quarter of a million folks take advantage of the free trip. Be prepared to go up 110 stair steps as you gain an abbreviated lesson in the art of whiskey making.
“This is a personalized tour where a person talks to you for 70 minutes about the history of Moore County, Lynchburg, the brand and the man,” said Steve May, director of Lynchburg Homeplace, “as well as being educated about what makes Jack Daniel the No. 1 selling whiskey in the world.”
Guests hop onto a bus for a short ride from the hollow to the rick yard, where they’ll have a group photo taken by the driver. Here the sugar maple stacks, sprayed with whiskey, burn for two hours to make charcoal for the charcoal mellowing area.
Guide Margie Womble shares that each of Jack Daniel Distillery’s 400 full-time employees receives a bottle on the first Friday of each month (they call it “good Friday”).
Next, she walks visitors to the mouth of Cave Spring, where a bronze statue of Daniel, sculpted by Alan LeQuire, stands proud. Then it’s down to Daniel’s old office, where photos of Jack and his nephew Lem Motlow grace the wall. The old wood stove, a roll-top desk and safe appear untouched by the years. Daniel kicked the safe one day, causing an infection in his foot that ultimately led to his death in 1911.
Entering the still house, you’ll probably get your first strong whiff of whiskey aroma as you spy the five 40-foot deep copper stills. In the next room, you may peer into several of the 48 stainless steel fermenters and see the bubbling mash.
March from this room to the mellowing building, where the whiskey seeps through 10 feet of charcoal in 72 vats before bottling. Finally, walk down the hallway of the shadowy barrelhouse, where racks hold more than 6,000 of the 55-gallon white oak barrels containing the concoction that makes Lynchburg internationally famous.
Pork out on the square
While you can’t buy a drink in Lynchburg, you can eat a pig in the form of Tennessee pulled pork after you walk through the screen door into Bar-B-Que Caboose Cafe on the southeast corner of the square.
Ken and Samantha Fly began selling barbecue on the square in 1996 out of a wagon built like a caboose. They moved indoors two years later and now boast their restaurant as “home of the best you ever ate.” Ken points overhead to his proof: more than 10,000 signatures on paper posted to the ceiling.
Pulled pork, red beans and rice and barbecued chicken top the hit list here, while Samantha bakes two popular chocolate chip cookies: the Caboose Cookie and the Cabooze Cookie (flavored with some of “the recipe”).
Railroad lanterns hang in the front window, dozens of autographed photos of country musicians dot the walls, and red-checkered tablecloths create a casual country theme.
“Our motto is if you don’t have fun here, it’s your own fault,” said Ken, who picks and sings with a house band and friends during live shows on Friday nights and a Saturday morning jam session that stretches into the afternoon.
Southern cooking rules
Just a brisk stroll from the square, Miss Mary Bobo’s Boarding House serves fabulous Southern dinners Monday through Saturday. It’s a lunchtime tradition that dates back to 1908, when Miss Mary opened for business in this two-story white frame house.
Meals are served in eight dining rooms, feeding up to 98 guests at once, and the menu always features two meats and six vegetables. Today, the table is spread with iced tea, black-eyed peas, corn, okra, relish, salmon patties, pork loin roast, broccoli casserole, corn bread muffins and Lynchburg candied apples with Jack. Fudge pie with Jack Daniel’s whipping cream polishes off the stomach-stretching event.
Every month, the boarding house entertains eaters from about 30 states and 15 countries. A hostess in each room asks everyone to share their names and hometown. Then the passing of food begins amid friendly conversation.
“The reason I think it works,” said proprietor Lynne Tolley, “is that people come here from, say, Vermont, to tour the distillery but want to eat real Tennessee food.”
A great-grandniece of Jack Daniel, Tolley said Miss Mary ran the place from 1908 until 1983 and died at age 101. She took over in 1983 and says, “I’m gonna live to 101. I’m eating the same food she did.”
Walk with champions
Walk off your dinner around the square and explore the Tennessee Walking Horse Museum that promotes the 68-year history of the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, held every August in nearby Shelbyville. Photos of every national champion from 1939 to 2005 span the walls.
“A lot of people who go to the show don’t know about this place,” said Julia Tiroff, who with husband Ernest oversees the free attraction that draws more than 10,000 visitors a year. “It’s just a little laidback museum that people can come in, relax and go back over the history of the Tennessee Walking Horse. Most of the museum is self explanatory.”
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