Deli on Main

I recently ran across my 4th grade class photo, when I lived in the country outside the tiny village of Shiloh, Ohio.  Two of my classmates were Amish kids then.  So I grew up eating Amish noodles and homemade Amish breads as a kid.

The Deli on Main, at 234 North Main in downtown Kernersville, takes me back to those days.  It's run by a lady named Jo, who's always super busy, but never to busy to pop her head out of the kitchen and say "Hi."  Deli on Main functions mostly as a great little sandwich shop.  They carry Troyer deli meats and cheeses, which you can have fresh on a sandwich or have sliced to take home.  In addition Jo makes a wide assortment of cakes, pies and desserts.  The carrot cake is amazing, as are the other desserts I've tried.  I usually opt for the Sub Club sandwich myself, stacked with turkey, ham, bacon and the fixings, so I rarely have room for dessert.  Jo also does deli trays and other items for meetings, parties or events.

Deli on Main also has many flavors of ice cream cones available, as well as Amish noodles, Amish Wedding brand pickles, relishes and condiments, and spices.  You can find them on Instagram at @DelionMain or at DeliOnMain.biz.  Up by the cash register you'll see a couple of photos of Amish horse and buggies.  I took those in 2010 while visiting Silver Creek in Ohio's Amish country.

Why Am I Writing This Blog?

My name is Steve Emig, and I've lived a pretty weird life.  I'm the guy who rides his bike on the wall over a young woman's head at 1:01 in the video above.  That young woman is my sister, Cheri, who is now a teacher in Greensboro.  This video, The Ultimate Weekend, is a BMX freestyle video I shot, produced, financed, and edited myself in 1990.  I was one of the first three BMX riders to self-produce a full length video, pioneering a huge trend in the action sports world.  I've done a lot of other creative things in my life. 

Fate brought me to Kernersville, North Carolina several years ago.  I started blogging soon after, and I've recently self-published a little booklet, known as a zine, about how creative scenes form, grow, and in some cases turn into new businesses and even entire new industries.  It's called "Let's Make a Scene."  I've been a part of many creative scenes, and I'm working on writing a full length book on the subject.  As I got going on that, I realized I needed to look into the scene of shops and creative people here in Kernersville.  That's what this blog is about, to give a web presence to the downtown Kernersville scene, as well as the creative people here.  Enjoy.

If you're interested in "Let's Make a Scene," email me at stevenemig13@gmail.com .

Korner's Folly

Without a doubt, the most famous house in Kernersville is Korner's Folly.  Painter and designer Jule Korner began construction on the house in 1878 as a way to show off his interior design talents.  He designed, built, redesigned, and rebuilt the house for two years.  One of his neighbors said it would be "Jule Korner's Folly."  Korner liked that name, and had it set in tile on the front porch.  The name stuck.  The 6,000 square foot, 22 room house was continually redesigned and rebuilt until Jule's death in 1924.  It's one of the oddest houses in The South.

Now I happened to move to San Jose, California in the 1980's, and my first job there was at a Pizza Hut, just down the street from the infamous Winchester Mystery House.  So I chuckle when I refer to Korner's Folly as the strangest house anywhere.  But it's definitely the strangest house in this region.  The painting above is on Railroad Street, feet from the Bull Durham painting in the last post.

Korner's Folly has been renovated over the last couple of years, repairing the front after a truck hit it, and doing other necessary maintenance.  It's a few blocks south of downtown on Main street.  They hold several events there each year, and tours are available and the gift shop is open most of the time.
Check out the Korner's Folly website for more details.

Art and Design Goes Way Back in Kernersville

Kernersville born Jule Korner, a painter and designer, got the job of painting ads for Bull Durham Tobacco all over the South. This tribute to his work is on Railroad Street, just east of Main street.  In the 1870's Jule made a great deal of money hand painting these advertising signs throughout the South. 

George Washington Was Here

Long before it was called Kernersville, the crossroads of Main and Mountain Streets was the home of Dobson's Tavern and known as Dobson's Crossroads.  On the morning of June 2, 1791, George Washington left Salem (Old Salem near downtown Winston-Salem) and stopped for breakfast at Dobson's Tavern.  The photo above is of the small monument commemorating this event, just north of Mountain on Main.  Yes, they actually built a monument to a tavern.  That's something you don't see often.

Downtown Kernersville North Carolina

This is downtown Kernersville, North Carolina, the corners of Main and Mountain Street, looking north on Main.  This small town of roughly 23,000 people sits at the center of an area in central North Carolina known as the Piedmont Triad, not to be confused with the Raleigh Research Triangle comprising Raleigh, Durham, and Cary.  The Piedmont Triad is home to about 1.6 million people, centered in the three largest cities of Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and Highpoint.  Kernersville sits right in the center of those three cities, and is known as the Heart of the Triad.  Like so many other small towns across the country, the main shopping area now consisting of Wal-Mart, Target, Lowes Home Improvement and grocery stores has shifted from the old downtown, pictured above, to about a mile south on Main Street, just South of Interstate Business 40. A handful of the older stores remain downtown, and a group of newer boutique, consignment, and other shops have settled downtown.  In this blog I'll write about these individual shops, along with some of the creative people of the Kernersville area.  For more basic info on Kernersville, check out these websites:

Town of Kernersville (official website)
Kernersville on Wikipedia