ANNOUNCER: The following program was produced in the Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross WSU Production Studio in University Park, Pennsylvania.

[whimsical music] TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI (VOICEOVER): Food, a basic necessity.

We all need nutrients to survive and thrive.

Whether your meals come from the field, the fridge, the treasured family recipe, or the takeout menu, something special happens when we come together to share a meal and a common bond.

Culinary Connections is where we celebrate the people and places that use food to connect with the world around them.

Today, we explore the very vibrant and collaborative food scene in Kane, Pennsylvania.

MICHAEL BECHAKAS: Yo, you got your pizza shop.

You got your fine dining you got us.

So there is a lot of variety in Kane.

It's a great community in Kane.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI (VOICEOVER): And later, Chef Chris from Table 105 shows us his version of a spinach, walnut pesto salmon with a mushroom risotto.

I'm Tamra Fatemi-Badi and welcome to Culinary Connections.

ANNOUNCER: Culinary Connections is made possible in part by The Rockwell Foundation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Supporting the arts, science, technology, and education, and a proud supporter of local programs on WPSU.

The Allegheny National Forest Visitors Bureau.

The DuBois Area Endowment for WPSU.

And by viewers like you.

[sentimental music] TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI (VOICEOVER): Kane, Pennsylvania is located in McKean County, which is less than 40 miles from the New York border.

Nestled in the scenic Allegheny National Forest, Kane is a charming, small town known for its history and outdoor activities.

In the early 20th century, this town was booming thanks to the logging industry.

And now, in the 21st century, there's a different industry booming, the food service industry.

[upbeat music] EMILY SHAW: I think that it really comes down to people like options.

It's great to have a small town where one or two options, but why not have more?

MARY BERNHARD: The restaurant business is competitive by nature.

But in Kane, we help each other out.

We don't want anybody to fail.

We support each other.

We know that people will come to Kane if there is a booming Main Street.

They're going to come and eat.

And they're going to pick one weekend and the other one the next weekend.

And we don't want empty buildings on Main Street.

We want them to be full, and thriving, and people everywhere.

It's exciting.

EMILY SHAW: Everyone wants to try something different.

And I think that locals and even tourists, they like having the variety on a continuous level.

And I think that's really what it comes down to is people just can't get out enough.

So we like bringing all the choices that they can have here in our little small town.

And it's great for tourism.

MICHAEL BECHAKAS: And that's the good thing.

There's not a lot of overlapping.

You got your pizza shop, you got your fine dining, you got us, you got Grandma Bair's down there, you got a couple bars that do their wings.

So there is a lot of variety in Kane.

[lively music] Hello.

I'm Michael Bechakas, owner of the Texas Hot Lunch in Kane, Pennsylvania.

The building was originally located uptown.

It was rolled down on logs.

And then from there, it was established in this spot as the Texas Hot Lunch, owned by a couple of Greek fellas back in 1914.

In 1914, my grandpa had a confectionery kitchen right next door in a Four Sons location.

He was the muscle behind the Texas Hot Lunch for those two Greek brothers every time they had a problem.

And when they decided to retire, they sold it to him.

He had first dibs on it.

In 1928, my grandfather and his brother-in-law purchased this piece of property with a recipe for the Texas sauce.

Our Texas hot sauce is basically-- different parts of the country call it different things.

We call them Texas Hots here.

Our sauce is more of a smoother sauce.

It's not as much meat-based as people are used to, but it's a great sauce with a lot of spices and flavor to it.

And then in the '60s, at one point in time, my father, John, came into the business also.

So him and my uncle ran it up until 1988.

And my dad took it over.

And all four of us boys ended up working here.

[mid-tempo music] He bought the building next door, expanded a restaurant over there, and he named it after us four kids.

I don't know why, but he decided to.

So that's the Four Sons on that side.

We're a staple in the food scene, I feel, in Kane, being here since 1914 and being in a family since '28.

We're a location and you got people who come home, visit their parents, and they literally they stop in here.

They're like, we haven't even seen our parents yet, we stopped to get hot dogs first.

That's their first thing they want to do.

And they'll take the hot dogs home with them.

And it's great.

And you hear a lot of stories about how people, they're always like, my grandparents used to bring me here when I was a little kid.

These are 40-, 50-year-old men telling me this story.

And I love hearing things like that.

Nothing is original.

But when we rebuilt the place back in the early '90s, we made sure to keep the booths basically the exact same way they were.

They're still very uncomfortable, but it's just something that has to be here.

We had to maintain that aspect.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI (VOICEOVER): If Texas Hots are not your thing, you can take a three-minute walk for a different kind of comfort food, pizza.

[upbeat music] MARY BERNHARD: Hi, I'm Mary Bernhard.

I'm the owner of Pepe's Pizzeria & Bistro of Kane, PA.

I serve homemade bread.

It's pretty much the most popular thing.

It makes everything so good.

We have subs and wheeler's.

Our salads come with bread.

And our hand-tossed pizza is really popular.

And we make homemade soup.

It's the best soup you've ever had.

It's so good.

I was a housewife.

And I just needed to get out of the house.

So I came here and Alice was here.

Alice has been here for 20 years.

She hired me to be a waitress.

And I got talked into buying it.

My husband helped me and encouraged me to do it.

And I bought it in 2016.

It opened in 1987, and it was across the street.

I actually worked there.

I cooked over there when I was 15 for a couple of years.

Some Italian people from Sicily came here and opened it up.

All the recipes are from their grandparents.

They are old recipes from Italy.

There.

Now, I'm going to make some bread.

[sentimental music] My family helps me a lot around here.

My husband is retired and he comes in at 4:00 in the morning.

He usually makes the bread, the dough, and all the sauces for me.

I've taught him really well.

But he does that so I don't have to come in here so early.

I come in like a princess around 10 o'clock, and then start my day.

And my sons, if anything comes up, they will come in here in a pinch and help me do anything.

My daughter-in-law works a lot of hours to help me.

My son, Richie, wants to buy this place in probably five years, roughly, when we're both ready.

He welds right now.

And he travels a lot.

And I don't think he wants to travel forever.

And he's really good here.

He'll have so much more ambition, being younger.

And he'll just make it more fresh.

I love serving the people.

I think that's my gift, as a server.

And that's what I still do here is wait tables.

That's my job that I prefer.

I know what all my customers like already.

I don't even have to write it down.

I know everybody in town.

I've lived here all my life, so they're friends and family, and they know my parents and all my aunts and uncles.

And it's just, that's why I like to do it.

[serene music] MICHAEL BECHAKAS: The food scene in Kane has really evolved in the last 10 years.

We have Table 105 that came to town, and it truly is a destination.

A lot of fine meals.

We've been here forever.

It's always changing.

There's always people with their ideas, which is great.

Competition is always good.

We've had Burger King in Kane twice.

And we're still here and they're not.

And we're proud of that.

MARY BERNHARD: When I don't eat here at Pepe's I get a lot of takeout from Texas Hot.

I get delivery from Roma's because I don't feel like leaving the house.

And I go to West Side for their chicken wings.

They have great chicken wings.

We eat breakfast a lot on the weekends, and we go to Grandma Bair's EMILY SHAW: Oh, we do a little bit of everything.

Actually, last night, we just had Pepe's Pizza, because our youngest son wanted Pepe's and we love their pizza.

We love Texas Hots.

We go there probably once a week.

The people here that own restaurants work really, really hard to give everyone the food that we all want.

And so I always try and make it a point to visit those places whenever I can.

MARY BERNHARD: Restaurants run out of things.

We have no problem running down the street and asking for boxes, or cheese, or napkins even.

Everybody's happy to help each other out that way.

When COVID hit, I delivered because I had to.

The government wouldn't let us have anybody in here.

And I asked Bobby at Roma's how to deliver, because I've never did it.

And she's been my friend all my life.

And she told me how to do it and gave me pointers.

And I promised her, I will not do this when this is over.

I'm not gonna do this, because that's her thing.

EMILY SHAW: That's just how people are here.

And I feel like it's even more tight-knit in the food community, because people understand how hard it is to run these types of businesses.

[mid-tempo trendy music] My name is Emily Shaw.

And we are sitting at Table 105 in Kane, Pennsylvania.

And I am owner-manager with Riki Tanaka.

And we bought this place about six and a half years ago.

And here we are.

Riki and I, we have done extensive traveling all over and we're foodies.

We love to go out and try new foods, new cuisines.

So we really wanted to bring a little bit of everything that we love into this menu, with a focus on farm to table.

We really wanted to utilize everything here in Kane that's local, not only to support local business, but to give a little bit of a taste of Kane in everything in our menu.

We bought the building, it was really nothing.

It was a blank canvas.

Some of the walls and stuff we've changed around here.

But for the most part, there was nothing here for many, many years.

It was kind of one of those hidden treasures that everyone kind of forgot about.

So we wanted to add a little bit of the Allegheny National Forest.

And that's actually black cherry.

Kane is the black cherry capital of the world.

We wanted a conversation piece in here.

And we wanted big city vibes, but we wanted to really hone in on all the details that makes Kane, Kane.

So that was our vision for that wall, and bring a little bit of what people come to Kane to enjoy in our restaurant.

My favorite design feature of Table 105 is our custom 18-foot black cherry table that we have.

It was designed from the same tree that showcases our wood puck wall.

You would be surprised at how many people come into a restaurant and might not be from the area, might come in by themselves.

But when you give them a place to gather around, they meet other people.

So we named it Table 105.

We actually designed the table first.

And the second part of the naming was because of our address.

It's 105 North Fraley Street in Kane, Pennsylvania.

I love my customers.

I love creating food and watching people get excited about it.

I really, really loved that.

And I feel like Riki's the same way.

Riki really loves food.

And he loves providing that excitement to people.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Riki Tanaka, welcome to the Culinary Connections kitchen.

Thanks for having us, Tamra.

I hear that you have traveled the world in search of great food.

So tell me a little bit about what you've found where and why it was special to you.

So I have a love of traveling through my mum.

And she would always take us to wonderful places.

And she was a big foodie herself.

So since then, I've obviously become an adult and traveled on my own.

And we have carried on that tradition of finding great restaurants, great food in all sorts of different countries.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Well, I know you're going to make great food for us today.

So who have you brought with you?

And what is he going to make?

So this is our executive chef, Chris Dax, at Table 105.

And he's going to be making a salmon dish that he's going to walk through.

But in essence, it's our spinach, walnut pesto with a mushroom risotto and a kale, apple, cranberry salad.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Sounds amazing.

Let's get going.

RIKI TANAKA: Sounds good.

All right.

Come on in, Chris.

OK, thank you.

All right, how are we going to get started?

We're going to start with the salmon.

OK. CHRIS DAX: This is a Bay of Fundy salmon.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Great.

So we're seasoning it up?

And seasoning it, salt and pepper.

There we go.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Great.

Get that into our pan.

Oh, great sizzle.

We love to hear the sizzle.

[sizzling] CHRIS DAX: Then next we'll get started with our parcooked risotto bass.

OK. What kind of rice is this?

Arborio.

OK. Then we have our cream made from cremini mushrooms with oyster mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, and cremini mushrooms chopped up into it.

And you add that into reconstitute.

[sizzling intensifies] TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Nice.

So when you say that the Arborio rice has been parboiled, how long would that have taken?

About 15, 20 minutes.

It's almost completely cooked.

It's just enough so when you put your cream in and reconstitute it, it doesn't take a long time, but it picks up the flavor and gets to the consistency you want.

Once it gets a little warm, then we'll put a little Parmesan cheese in it.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Nice.

You can never have too much Parmesan cheese.

CHRIS DAX: No.

No way.

I agree, I don't think you can have too much cheese in anything really.

Yeah, exactly.

Oh.

OK. CHRIS DAX: Should be good to flip our salmon.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: When you have a really beautiful piece of salmon, you don't need to do a whole lot to it, carries itself.

CHRIS DAX: Yeah, salt and pepper.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Yeah.

CHRIS DAX: Let the flavor of the salmon speaks for itself.

You were telling me a little bit earlier about how you made this mushroom cream sauce.

So you said you actually cooked the mushrooms and then you-- Yeah, I sauteed on the mushrooms.

I added in some Pinot grigio and some garlic.

And then puree it, add a little bit of heavy cream, and add some of the other three mushrooms I mentioned sauteed up a little, just a little bit.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Yeah.

CHRIS DAX: All right.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Oh, it looks great and it smells even better.

All right, that should be good.

Salmon is just about there.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Yeah.

That salmon cooked up really quickly.

CHRIS DAX: Yes.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Beautiful.

CHRIS DAX: The nice thing about salmon, it doesn't take a real long time to cook.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Right, right.

I guess that's good when you're in a restaurant kitchen and everything's moving really fast.

This is a pretty easy one to do.

Yes.

You want to have everything time effective.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Of course.

So, exactly how did you get into cooking?

Where did you start?

Actually when I was 40, I decided I wanted to go to culinary school.

I wanted to do something with the rest of my working career that I enjoyed doing.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Right.

So I went to culinary school at Mercyhurst Northeast, which is up near Erie, Pennsylvania.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: OK. That looks amazing.

CHRIS DAX: Thank you.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: All right, and what is going to go with this?

CHRIS DAX: All right.

Besides the mushroom risotto and the salmon, we have a cranberry, apple, kale salad with a honey mustard vinaigrette that I made up this morning.

The spinach, walnut pesto, which is spinach, toasted walnuts, garlic, Parmesan, salt and pepper, and oil.

Very simple, but very flavorful.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: And you also kind of pulverize that somehow?

CHRIS DAX: Yes.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: OK.

I noticed you've got an interesting tool there you use for plating.

Yes, that's to mold the risotto just to have it.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Great.

Here, I'll take that for you.

Thank you.

Put this over here.

Mold our risotto in.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Oh, I see, yeah.

Kind of keep it where you want it to be.

CHRIS DAX: Yes.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Beautiful.

Look at all that cheese.

I love it.

CHRIS DAX: And then some of our-- Beautiful salad.

Yeah, it's so shimmering.

CHRIS DAX: --salad around the outer edge.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: While you're working on that, why don't we bring Riki back in?

OK. TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: And Riki, you can tell me a little bit about this dish.

What was the inspiration for this?

So this is actually a Chef Chris creation.

All I'm good for, really, is to find the best quality food that we can.

OK.

So that salmon is brought in whole every Tuesday.

It's from the Bay of Fundy.

Our staff breaks the salmon down, along with all of our other proteins that we get in.

We don't buy anything frozen.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Great.

RIKI TANAKA: The microgreens over there are actually locally sourced in Kane.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Nice.

RIKI TANAKA: So yeah, we try to get the best ingredients that we possibly can being in McKean County.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI: Yeah, and we know from being up there and checking out the Kane food scene that all of your restaurants work together and support each other.

It's just a really nice community there.

It's a great community in Kane.

If anyone's looking for something to do, a good weekend trip, I'd highly recommend coming up to Kane.

We got some great places to stay.

A lot of great restaurants.

And a real variety of restaurants.

A real variety of restaurants.

We've got restaurants that have been around for a hundred years.

We got new restaurants.

We've got some great pizza restaurants.

Doing some real great things.

Oh, that is a beautiful dish.

Look at the color in there.

Wow.

Let's give this a try.

RIKI TANAKA: Let's try this.

All right, it looks beautiful.

I want to be sure I get some of that pesto and that risotto.

Whoa, and a big mushroom.

All right.

Mm.

Mm, it's delicious.

Perfect.

And pink.

Very perfect.

Well done.

Wow.

The taste, the pesto really, really brings out the flavor of the salmon.

And that risotto is so creamy and perfect.

The mushroom flavor is amazing.

Thank you both for being here.

We really appreciate you coming in.

Everything's beautiful.

Can't wait to come up and try the restaurant.

Thank you.

We look forward to seeing you.

[upbeat music] MICHAEL BECHAKAS: Our Texas Hot sauce, you can put it on anything.

But mostly it goes on our hot dogs, hamburgers.

People like it on their grilled cheese.

And some people even like it on their omelets.

I've seen people put the sauce on just about anything, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes.

They'll try just about anything.

But I'm just an ordinary guy, give me a cheeseburger with extra onions and a lot of sauce and I'm happy.

The recipe it's been a secret for a long time.

People have claimed to duplicate it.

But a funny story with that is my grandpa, who lived to 106, he always said he never lied.

But when all these Greeks came over from Greece, and he would try to help everyone out, so he'd give them the recipe, but he never gave them the complete recipe.

So he always left a couple ingredients out.

So we had the proprietary one.

And they had one that was a little different.

But they always said, oh, yeah, we have the same recipe.

And it never was.

RICHIE BERNHARD: Here at Pepe's, we're really proud of our homemade pizza dough.

And I'm going to run you through how to make a pizza.

I'm going to pat it down, get all the air out of it.

Then I'm just going to toss it until it gets to the right size.

Just kind of looking to see about what size is.

You want to about fill up that whole tray right there.

You just lay it down, make sure there's no air underneath of it.

Pull the air out of it.

Start in the middle with your sauce and work your way out with it.

You do about an inch to the edge.

The cheese right in the middle, then I spread it out from there.

The last thing you got to do, you got to take it like this and get some air up under it so it slides off the tray.

You just throw it in the oven.

And watch it till it's cooked.

TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI (VOICEOVER): In Kane, PA, the food isn't just a meal, it's community.

From fine dining to secret recipes passed down through generations, every bite tells a story, connecting the past to the present and bringing people together.

[sentimental music] I'm Tamra Fatemi-Badi.

Thanks for watching Culinary Connections.

[mid-tempo italian music] On the next episode-- OWNER: Food is our love language.

Whether you're here for the first time off the interstate, whether you're a relative that I haven't seen for a while, because we've been up here for years now, sit down, let's eat.

We were children driving through Brockway.

I feel that people have genuinely come to know us, that our hearts are in it.

PATRONS: Cheers!

[light cheering] CHEF: The sauce, I would say, that is something that we've held extremely strongly to tradition, making sure we roast the pork and beef bones, making sure we use fresh produce, making sure we use fresh, vine-ripe tomatoes from California.

And really, the sauce touches almost everything that we serve here.

OWNER: And it simmers all morning into the afternoon.

As you can imagine, it's like wine.

You never serve it before its time.

It has to be perfect.

ANNOUNCER: Culinary Connections was made possible in part by The Rockwell Foundation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Supporting the arts, science, technology, and education, and a proud supporter of local programs on WPSU.

[upbeat music] TAMRA FATEMI-BARDI (VOICEOVER): More episodes of Culinary Connections and a full menu of local programs are available at video.wpsu.org or on the PBS app.

And to experience a whole world of international cuisine, check out World Kitchen at wpsu.org/worldkitchen.

[theme music]