There’s just one thing better than a good hotdog…and that’s two of them. I stumbled across Tania Olbeter the other day while driving through Columbus. After having a couple of her Nathan’s all-beef franks, I knew the second time wouldn’t be by accident. Her hog dogs are that good!

Tania, whose business is called “Break Out the Buns,” sets up shop almost every Monday through Friday in the corner of the parking lot of O’Reilly’s Auto Parts on West Mills Street in Columbus. You can’t miss her. A large “hot dogs” banner catches your attention and a bright umbrella is your beacon to pull on over. And in the few minutes I was there to grab a couple of dogs and a few photos…a number of folks were driving in as well.

Tania says she’s there most days from 11 until 2 unless it’s a bad rainstorm. Her hot dogs are worth the drive. You can get them with any (or all) of more than a dozen toppings. She also has sodas and chips. And if you like, you could just stay in your car and eat them drive-in style.

Tania’s cart hitches up behind her car and she can bring it to your place for a catered event. You can find Break Out the Buns and Tania on Facebook, Instagram, and by emailing her at info@breakoutthebuns.com.

Everyone loves a good hotdog…and these are great! You're going to find me there again and again.











Click on each photo to see the full-size image.

​When I caught up with Bear Tyler this afternoon he was slinging boiled peanuts. I didn’t get a chance to witness any barbering going on, but I’m guessing there’s a chair in the back of his classic 1966 food-truck “conversion.” It’s a site to see as well as the good-looking and mighty-good tasting peanuts coming out of the serving window. Check out the “salty dog platter” which is made up of several kinds of pickled peppers and a heaping pile of boiled peanuts.
 
Bear founded Bullhded Peanut Company in 1971 with hard work and grit and that’s what he still throws in the mix today. And yes, that’s the spelling of Bullhded. You’ll have to ask Bear why. 

It was exactly one year ago today when I posted my first “real” story as Foothills Faces. That was the story about Martha’s Amish Bakery and it was a perfect choice for my start. So today is my lucky day that the first anniversary of this blog and donut day at the bakery ended up being the same!
 
By the time you read this, the donuts might be gone. It’s a sellout every Saturday and Saturday is the only day they make their incredible melt-in-your-mouth treats.
 
Even though the bakery had been going since 2014, the name change just happened about the same time I went in looking for my first story. While I don’t necessarily plan to revisit each of my past stories as this next year progresses, I wanted to stop by the bakery just to check in. My sharing their story helped get flour sack full of new blog followers.

You’ve probably seen Tyrone Perry’s bright red coffee trailer parked somewhere on the side of the road. He’s become a familiar site in the foothills. I’ve enjoyed a cup of Tyrone’s coffee at the Farmer’s Market in Columbus, another cup somewhere in Landrum a year ago, and for this story I found him at Toby Wolter’s “details – luxury home furnishings” business on Ashville Highway between Tryon and Landrum. Toby invited Tyrone to set up Java Up at his shop’s location and it has worked out well for both businesses. It’s a generous offer for Tyrone who had to rent space when he first opened up his coffee window. 
 
Tyrone developed his love of coffee while serving in the Navy, which is where he headed after graduating from high school. He served nine years in the service including three years in Europe where he honed his coffee tastes. After his military career Tyrone landed with the Ralph Lauren Company and that led him to the foothills where he became the manager of the store in Gaffney. Tyrone decided fifteen years with the Ralph Lauren group was enough and finally found a way to drink on the job when he became the manager of Openroad Coffee Roastery in Columbus for a year. And that helped set up the move into being his own boss.

Maybe Tyrone will have his own fixed coffee shop at some point, but for now he’s playing it smart. It helps being able to scout out locations (location, location, location), keep overhead down by operating out of a food trailer, and not having to worry about employees. That could all happen one day, but for now Tyrone’s working hard to make his Java Up business a success. And it’s happening. He’s at the Asheville Highway “details” location on Fridays and has a regular stream of customers, many being local artists who come together at 10 o’clock for a meet and greet at Toby’s shop just feet away. On Mondays through Thursdays Tyrone and his mobile coffee can be found at Sherman College of Chiropractic in Spartanburg helping fuel and sometimes caffeinate students, faculty, and staff. Most Saturdays during the season you’ll find him at the Farmer’s Market in Columbus, and the rest of the time he can be anywhere. In fact, businesses occasionally bring him on site as a special perk for their employees. Yes, Tyrone hires out for special events of all types.

Java Up has been his business since August 2015. Tyrone cooks up a variety of coffee drinks including lattes, espressos, and other coffee specialties. He also can whip up a smoothie, serve killer lemonade, brew a cup of tea, and open up a bottle of some specialty waters and other drinks. All the coffee drinks are freshly ground each day. He does have a few packaged snacks if you need a little bit of sustenance. 
 
All of Tyrone’s coffee comes from Leopard Forest Coffee Company out of Travelers Rest. He says they are great roasters and has worked with them since he got started on his own. Tyrone sells their coffee both as whole bean and ground. 
 
Tyrone is taking it one day at a time. One day he might add another coffee truck or a coffee trailer; he might even open is own shop. But for now managing this and being a husband and father is more than a full-time job. Tyrone and his wife are parents to eight children. They homeschool their kids and his wife, Angela, runs most of that and also has a couple businesses of her own. That will have to be a story in itself.

​Tyrone does have advice for others looking to start their own business and that begins with doing your research. He is thankful for the help he got from the local SCORE organization, which provides free mentoring from working and retired business professionals. 

Stan Yoder and I have something in common—we both love coffee. For me, I just enjoy it. But for Stan, it’s an obsession and a passion and you can tell that the second you step inside Openroad Coffee Roastery. And for Stan Yoder, it’s also an art. 
 
There’s are a lot of reasons the parking lot is almost always full. The great coffee, amazing treats, and incredibly friendly staff are just some of them. The atmosphere is another. Stan says that at Openroad, like most shops, customers can come in and be social and meet new people or old friends or find solitude in the midst of chaos – everyone finds a warm welcome and feels at home. Stan says that people create atmosphere and that’s definitely true inside this place. There’s no pressure to buy anything, but who can resist the coffee and the fresh baked goods prepared onsite daily beginning at 3 AM when the bakers arrive. And if you’re lucky, you’ll drive up and smell the beans roasting at the far end of the shop. Stan’s dad, Andy, does the roasting honors.

As a teenager and young man, Stan always enjoyed going into coffee shops. He loved the atmosphere and the diversity of the people who frequented the shops. The good feelings he got from the atmosphere and the taste of great coffee always remained in the back of his mind. His dream was to open a shop of his own.
 
Stan moved to this area in 1993 and worked in construction. He kept that vision of owning a coffee shop on the back burner as he figured out how to move the idea to the front. In 2000 he took the first big step and opened a small coffee shop in Landrum called Inside Out Coffee Bar. It was his start in the business and the learning curve was steep. Stan didn’t even have a set cost for the coffee or the other items he sold. There was a small box on the counter and people could put in any amount they wanted. “Sometimes they might put in 20 bucks and other times leave nothing.” That was part of the experience and he learned from it, but it wasn’t paying the bills. He went back to doing construction, but his goal was definitely headed toward coffee. Stan met his wife Julia at his Landrum shop. She was a customer at the time. 

It was nine years before Stan opened his new coffee shop, Openroad. He originally began in a location on US 176 as you leave Tryon and head toward Saluda. That building was already in use by a church ministry as a thrift shop and Stan and Julia were just occupying a small corner as you entered. They built the business and continued the process of learning everything they could about coffee and baking. They worked on recipes (some liked the fabulous “Baked Oats” came from Stan and others like the scone recipe came from a customer). He learned the ins and outs of brewing coffee, of roasting beans, and of building a base of loyal customers. Stan says that connecting with customers and making those relationships is an important part of the business. In 2014 Stan made the decision to find a bigger location and took a huge gamble with a former office building. The move proved to be extremely advantageous and their business has grown exponentially. 

Stan is happy to point out that while the coffee comes from various countries (Honduras, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, and Peru for examples), the ingredients for his baked goods come from local sources. Fresh eggs from Thunder Ridge Farm and Bradley Farms, milk from Mills River Creamery, and kale grown hydroponically by Bill Barker are some examples. It might cost more, Stan says, but you can taste the difference. There’s a difference about everything at Openroad. 

Stan looks back on his successful shop and offers some words of wisdom to others looking at starting up a business, “You start where you can, not always where you want to be. You need to care about the product and all the details. You need to give it your all.” 
 
For Stan Yoder, this trip has been a journey and not always an easy road. But that “road” is open, running smoothly, and waiting for your visit. 

​Most sixteen year olds are thinking about a weekend date or what to wear on Monday. But when Michaila Cowles was sixteen she was thinking business and she was not thinking small!
 
It doesn’t take long chatting with Michaila to know that she is goal and career driven. At 23 years old she’s already made a success of Huckleberry’s, a casual-dining restaurant, in downtown Tryon.
 
Michaila and her family moved to Polk County from New England for a lot of reasons and like a lot of area transplants…escaping the long and cold winters of New England and those occasional “nor’easters”  was one deciding factor. She entered Polk County High and graduated early at age 16. Michaila always knew she wanted to cook and even as a young girl was experimenting in her grandmother’s kitchen. She remembers one time choosing special spices based on the “pretty” color of the jar tops and enjoyed concocting a meatloaf and cinnamon dish that to this day she does NOT serve in her restaurant. That was Michaila’s start in the food business and she’s never looked back.

​One of Huckleberry’s unique touches is the placement of a spiral-bound notebook on each table. Each notebook, complete with attached ballpoint pen, is meant for customers to fill in the “life” of that table. It’s a great way to spend wait time reading comments from others and adding your own. Michaila saves all the filled notebooks. This author is thinking there’s a book coming out of those notebooks one day!

It was my lucky day to start my Foothills Faces journey at a bakery. I got to combine several of my favorite things in one short visit: meeting nice people, taking photos, and eating!
 
​Martha’s Amish Bakery and Sandwich Shoppe has been around since 2014. You might have visited before when it was known as Cool Mama’s Bakery.  
 
The mama is Martha Graber and her daughter, Freida Graber, own and run the bakery. They’re also the bakery chefs, the wait staff, and the dishwashers and handle all of that with precision and grace. Martha’s Amish Bakery is filled with wonderful smells of fresh-baked goods including muffins, scones, cinnamon rolls, and an amazing variety of breads. The coffee is good, too. It’s all good!
 
It was a busy morning with a steady stream of customers when I visited today. Some enjoyed their treats in the shop and others grabbed it to go. I’m thinking those taking it to go opened up their treats before making it out of the parking lot.
 
The bakery itself offers a warm and comfortable seating area surrounded with Amish-inspired décor. It’s the kind of place you’d feel welcome sitting around for ten minutes or an hour.
 
Martha said they started cooking and selling baked goods at the Saturday morning Columbus Farmer’s Market back in 2004 when they moved to Polk County. As the demand for their treats got to be too much for their home, they knew it was time to find a permanent place. Martha says, “It has been a process to get to this point. We’re really excited to be here and see the business grow.”
 
Martha and Freida moved to Polk County from Guthrie, Kentucky where Martha’s parents founded the first Amish community in that state back in 1958. There’s a large community of Amish living in Kentucky now but I can tell you for sure…I’m glad these two moved to Polk County.