Food + Beverage

Feast for the Fourth

Local chefs share crowd-pleasing recipes for your Independence Day table. Article by Elise Newkirk | Photography by Courtesy of Participating Restaurant Partners Nothing says Fourth of July quite like gathering around a table filled with good food, cold drinks, and the people you love most. Whether you're hosting a backyard cookout, heading to the lake, or simply looking for an excuse to spend a little more time outdoors, the holiday has always been about more than fireworks - it's about...

Life + Culture

American Strength Rising

Two Olympians chase history while building lives in Mt. Juliet. Article by Elise Newkirk | Photography by Courtesy of Maddy Otterdahl There’s something uniquely American about watching someone chase greatness in a field most people will never fully understand. In Mt. Juliet, that pursuit now lives quietly among neighborhood walks, bass fishing trips, early morning training sessions, and peaceful backyards tucked against the trees. Long before the world turns its attention toward the 2028...

Life + Culture

A New Mission

Veteran, artist, and Mt. Juliet resident Donovan Chapman continues a life of service through song Article by Elise Newkirk | Photography by Courtesy of Donovan Chapman For Donovan Chapman, service has never been just a chapter of life. It's a calling that has followed him from battlefields overseas to stages in Nashville - and, ultimately, to a quiet corner of Mt. Juliet. The former United States Air Force Pararescueman has spent much of his life answering calls for help. During over a decade...

Home + Design

Not for Sale

A Mount Juliet family protects land passed down through generations Article by Elise Newkirk | Photography by Courtesy of Jeremy Hayes In a town growing as quickly as Mount Juliet, it’s easy to assume progress always comes at the cost of the past. New neighborhoods rise. Businesses expand. Land that once held stories becomes something new. But for Jeremy Hayes, some stories aren’t meant to be replaced. They’re meant to be protected. For families like his, the land isn’t just a backdrop to...

Arts + Culture

A Legacy Built on Song

How Mount Juliet's Chris Blair created a songwriter haven in the heart of Nashville Article by Elise Newkirk | Photography by Courtesy of The Listening Room For more than two decades, The Listening Room Cafe has offered something rare in Music City: a place where the songs - and the stories behind them - take center stage. For founder Chris Blair, the vision was never complicated. “The vision was simple: to create a place where songwriters could share the stories behind the songs and where...

Food + Beverage

Summer Street Corn Dip

A fresh, flavor-packed summer dip perfect for cookouts, porch nights and pool days Article and Photography by Elise Newkirk Every summer seems to have that recipe - the one friends request over and over, the one that disappears first at every gathering, the one people casually hover around with a tortilla chip in hand pretending they’re “just trying one more bite.” For our family this year, it’s Summer Street Corn Dip. I first found the recipe during a late-night Pinterest scroll and...

Arts + Culture

Finding the Funny

How a Mount Juliet comedian finds purpose, perspective, and humor in life’s most unexpected moments Article by Elise Newkirk | Photography by Taylor Brown When Aaron Weber first stepped onto a Nashville stage in 2015, there was no grand plan - just a mic, a room, and the realization that comedy didn’t come with a gatekeeper. “You kind of just have to start doing it,” he says. More than a decade later, Weber is still doing just that - only now, the stakes feel a little different. In the...

Food + Beverage

Rooted Right Here

For decades, Norm’s Amish Market has quietly preserved Mount Juliet’s small-town sense of community. Article by Elise Newkirk | Photography by Courtesy of Norm's Amish Market For several years, drivers along Lebanon Road have slowed down for Norm's Amish Market - sometimes for fresh tomatoes, sometimes for flowers, sometimes simply because it feels like one of the last places in Mount Juliet where life still moves a little slower. What many people don’t realize is that Norm’s isn’t just a...

Entertainment

42nd Phoenix Ball

'A Gilded Affair:' Cumberland University's Annual Charity Event June 6 Article by Joey Clark | Photography by Cumberland University For four-plus decades, one evening has stood as the pinnacle of elegance and impact in Wilson County. On Saturday, June 6, 2026, the Dallas Floyd Phoenix Arena will again transform into a beacon of philanthropy as Cumberland University presents the 42nd Annual Phoenix Ball. This year, the university is honored to have John and Traci Pope as the Ball Chairs, who...

Life + Culture

Her Rodeo

Rooted At Home: Kalsey Kulyk's Life In Music and Motherhood Article by Elise Newkirk | Photography by Rhinstone Republic When Kalsey Kulyk sings about life, she’s not reaching for something imagined - she’s pulling directly from the life she’s living. It’s rooted in wide open spaces, shaped by long roads and real stories, and lately grounded in a place she now calls home: Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Fresh off her latest EP, Her Rodeo , Kulyk is stepping into a season that feels both expansive...