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Check back often for up-to-date news, events and article previews between issues of the monthly Lookout Mountain Mirror.

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“The Highest Flag…Planted During the War”

6/25/2019

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Saturday and Sunday, July 6-7, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park will conduct living history programs at Point Park on Lookout Mountain. Raising the flag on Lookout Mountain’s peak turned out to be one of the most dramatic moments in the struggle for Chattanooga. Like the U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima a few generations later, this became an iconic moment.  A literal race between groups of soldiers began the morning after the Battle of Lookout Mountain to see which would be the first to summit the mountain and plant, their colors. Men of the 8th Kentucky Infantry ultimately won the race to the top. To learn more about these men and this iconic event, please come to these special living history programs.

Demonstrations, each lasting approximately 30 minutes, will include rifle firings that are scheduled at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, and 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m.  and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Admission to Point Park is $7 per adult, ages 16 and over. Youth, ages 15 and under, are free.

For more information about upcoming programs at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, please contact the Lookout Mountain Visitor Center at (423) 821-7786, the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center at (706) 866-9241, or visit the park’s website at www.nps.gov/chch.

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Oehmig Buys Alchemy Spice

6/25/2019

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By Gwin Tugman

Henry Oehmig,
 son of Margy and the late King Oehmig, recently bought local spice business Alchemy Spice Company from Ben Gordon. Before this pusrchase, Henry held executive roles with the Chattanooga software development company Spire Labs and its subsidiary, Peak Financial. Henry has always wanted to own and operate his own company and is very excited about this business venture.

Founded in 2003 by Christian and Jessica Chevalier, Alchemy Spice was sold in 2007 to Warren Stanko, a former employee, and then to Mr. Gordon in 2013. Alchemy Spice Company uses hundreds of different all-natural herbs and spices to create its special seasoning blends. All of Alchemy’s products are free of MSG, synthetics and chemical additives, and all are created and packaged in small batches by hand. While spices in the grocery stores may sit on the shelves for up to five years, Alchemy Spice Company grinds its spices minutes before bottling and mere days before shipping. 

Alchemy Spice Company’s products have a loyal following in Chattanooga, which Henry aims to build upon. The retailers carrying the company’s products in Chattanooga include Whole Foods (as well as Whole Foods stores in North Carolina and Alabama), Earth Fare, Plum Nelly, Food City and other local shops like Olive Chattanooga and Locals Only. All Alchemy products can be purchased on the company website, www.alchemyspicecompany.com, or you can sample them in person at the Chattanooga Market.

Alchemy Spice Company products are used at the 1885 Grill and Cafe on the Corner, as well as other local restaurants. These seasonings appeal to all types of cooking enthusiasts, and blends include everything from a barbecue rub, lemon pepper, or Indian masala blend to herbed pepper and Mexican mole. It also sells individual spices, including lemon zest, fenugreek seed and roasted cocoa nibs, as well as rosemary, sage and thyme.

On a personal note, my son Robert and his wife, Melanie Tugman, recently bought a pour bottle at the Chattanooga Market for making a delicious olive oil and spice blend for dipping French bread. They were so excited to see Henry there, and even more excited that he was so busy!

Henry is focusing on growing the company’s restaurant customer base and expanding the line into retailers across the Southeast. Henry and his wife, Mary, and their children, Hank and Laura, are thrilled about his new business. What an exciting time for the Oehmigs and for the company!

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HES Hosts Drives for Lives Golf Tourney

6/25/2019

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By Taylor Hixson

Hit the green for a good cause on June 25! The Humane Educational Society is hosting the sixth annual Drives for Lives Golf tournament at the Lookout Mountain Club. Proceeds from the Drives for Lives Golf Tournament will help provide shelter, food and medical treatment for homeless, neglected and abused animals in our community.

Golfers can register a team of two or four for the Drives for Lives Golf Tournament at the Humane Educational Society’s website, heschatt.org. Teams of two will be paired with another two-person team. Upon arrival, golfers will be greeted by adoptable dogs from the Humane Educational Society, and these dogs will all benefit from the tournament. At registration, players will receive Humane Educational Society golf balls and complimentary lunch, and they will have the opportunity to purchase skirts and mulligans, as well. Registration begins at 11:30 a.m. at the Lookout Mountain Club.

During lunch, golfers can enjoy a whiskey tasting from Chattanooga Whiskey and purchase a cigar from The Cigar Man. You can bet the two will pair well! A shotgun start will begin at 1 p.m. Complimentary drinks will be served on the course, including beer from Heaven and Ale Brewing Company. The Chef and His Wife will provide afternoon snacks of their famous pimento cheese in all four flavors, original, smoked Gouda, chipotle adobo hot and jalapeno. Golfers will also have the chance to compete at a Closest to the Pin challenge where the winner will receive a night stay at The Moxy Chattanooga.

The top three teams of four will win prizes that include restaurant gift cards, a bottle of Chattanooga Whiskey, cigars from The Cigar Man and more. The Humane Educational Society will host a raffle while the scores are being tallied, where players will have additional chances to win prizes.

“Our Drives for Lives Golf Tournament offers our supporters a fun way to make a difference for shelter pets. Funds raised at events like these help provide more than just food and shelter for our animals,” said executive director Bob Citrullo. The tournament helps to fund the Humane Educational Society’s Special Needs Fund, which is what sets HES apart from other shelters.

“When animals that are injured, sick, or in need of rehabilitation come through our doors, the Special Needs Fund provides both emergency care and long-term rehabilitation for these abandoned, abused, and neglected animals,” continued Citrullo.

The Drives for Lives Golf Tournament offers fun, food, drinks and the opportunity to make a difference in our community. Team registration and sponsorship opportunities can be found at the shelter’s website. Don’t miss this day of fun atop beautiful Lookout Mountain! You may end up taking home a prize and a new family member!

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Don’t Miss Impressionism at the Hunter This Summer

6/17/2019

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By Cara McGowan
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The Hunter’s summer exhibition, William J. Glackens and Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Affinities and Distinctions, opens June 22 and will present more than 20 works by each artist as it explores the influence of Renoir on Glackens’ artistic development, showcasing an array of gorgeous, color-soaked landscapes, figurative works, still lifes and more. The Hunter is the second and final venue for this unique show, so you’ll want to make plans to come - and invite your friends! This beautiful exhibition is not to be missed!

Most people are familiar with French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, but many might know less about William Glackens. Born in Philadelphia in 1870, Glackens was exposed to art at an early age and began his career as a newspaper illustrator. He quickly transitioned to painting and became a founding member of “The Eight,” a group of artists who presented several groundbreaking exhibitions in New York between 1908 and 1917 after their paintings were rejected by the art establishment. These artists, who became known as the “Ashcan School,” often chose more gritty, urban scenes and painted in a style that was more abstract than conventions of the time allowed. Glackens’ early work often exhibited these qualities. However, viewing the modern works of French Impressionists - in particular Renoir - during trips to Europe and from the collection of longtime friend and influential art collector Albert Barnes helped reshape his artistic vision.

Visitors to the exhibition will be able to examine how Renoir’s vibrant color palette and brushstroke technique, among other things, influenced Glackens’ artistic style. In fact, this influence caused some to dub him “the American Renoir.” His response? “Can you think of a better man to follow than Renoir?”

According to Natalie Mault Mead, associate curator at the Hunter, artists finding inspiration in the artwork of their peers and predecessors is a long-standing tradition. In fact, Renoir is also cited as influencing Matisse, Picasso, and other artists whose styles differed vastly from his own. Like those artists, Glackens took inspiration from Renoir and used it to forge his own artistic identity.

“I think Glackens was inspired by Renoir, but wasn’t trying to copy him,” Mead said. “He saw what Renoir was doing and why, and that’s what spoke to Glackens. He was trying to create a modernist style that was uniquely American.”  The Soda Fountain (1935), the last major work Glackens ever completed, embodies this idea. The style and subject matter perfectly capture the American vibrancy and culture of the time, moving away from the very formal quality of traditional art prior to this time.

William J. Glackens and Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Affinities and Distinctions will be on view at the Hunter June 22 through September 22. General admission to the exhibition is $20, and is free to members and youth 17 and under. For more information about membership, please call (423) 752-2045.

William J. Glackens and Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Affinities and Distinctions, organized by NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale and curated by Barbara Buhler Lynes, Ph.D., Sunny Kaufman Senior Curator, is generously sponsored by The Sansom Foundation, Kolter Hospitality/Hyatt Centric and 100 Las Olas, and David and Francie Horvitz Family Foundation, and presented in Chattanooga by Sanofi with support from Elliott Davis and the SunTrust Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau.


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Naughty Cat Café Provides a Fun Place for Adoptable Cats

6/12/2019

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By Taylor Hixson
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Cats are one of America’s most popular companion animals, and we have probably all laughed out loud at a viral cat video. So, it is surprising to learn that cats are more likely to be surrendered to a shelter by their owners than dogs are. Over 3.2 million cats enter shelters in the U.S. every year. This places a large burden on animal shelters across the country that need foster homes to temporarily house homeless cats.

One local couple is helping to provide a safe and fun place for adoptable cats in the area to thrive while they wait for their forever home. Fueling their desire to help cats find their forever homes and educate the public on the importance of spay and neuter, Whitney Sickles and Heath Hanson opened Chattanooga’s first and only cat cafe. The Naughty Cat Café on Tennessee Avenue in St. Elmo houses up to 30 adoptable cats from the Humane Educational Society and Pet Placement Center at any given time.

The pair has plenty of experience in animal husbandry. Together, they have fostered over 80 kittens, keeping them healthy and happy until they found their forever homes. Whitney’s love of cats first began when the couple lived in Amsterdam. While Heath was sailing around the globe as a ship’s captain for Greenpeace, Whitney began volunteering for De Poezenboot (Dutch for “The Catboat”), which is the world’s only floating animal sanctuary. De Poezenboot hosts around 50 stray and abandoned cats, several of which are permanent residents.

Heath’s career with Greenpeace also took the couple to Hawaii, where Whitney followed her passion for helping animals by volunteering for the Hawaii Island Humane Society. Soon hired full-time, she worked in every capacity, from kennel technician, dispatcher and adoption counselor to social media coordinator and development director. When he wasn’t working on a pineapple farm, Heath was a full time foster dad to cats and kittens from the Hawaii Island Humane Society.

After a harrowing experience with a volcanic eruption, the couple decided to leave Hawaii. However, Whitney and Heath were determined to advance their work with cats in need. They continued to foster cats and considered buying a trailer so they could help even more, but instead decided to share their passion with the community. Whitney and Heath began visiting cat cafes around the globe. Each location gave them new ideas on how to create an ideal foster facility for cats and a unique place for customers to gather and relax. From there, the nation’s second largest cat café was born, right here in St. Elmo.

Heath and Whitney’s goal is for Naughty Cat Cafe to be a place the whole family can enjoy, while keeping local shelter cats comfortable and relaxed. “Our rubric for measuring success has always been the number of adoptions and not the bottom line,” said Heath. The couple also wants to use the cat café as an opportunity to educate the community. “This space is not only a foster facility … when you come here, people are having conversations and being introduced to all kinds of new ideas. They’re learning about spay and neuter and appropriate animal husbandry. We’re helping parents understand how to facilitate better interactions with the animal so when they do take the animal home, there is a higher success of it being a quality adoption,” Heath said.

The Naughty Cat Café has more cat adoptions than days in business. “The Cat Cafe has tremendously impacted the number of cats we are able to help by expanding the amount of space we have available to intake cats. Most importantly, they have refocused people’s attention to the advantages of adoption and have overall increased the number of adopted cats. Cats that have been overlooked for long periods of time in our shelter are getting fresh attention and finding their forever homes,” said Kristin Stanford, executive director of Pet Placement Center. The Humane Educational Society has also seen a large increase in adoptions, thanks to the Naughty Cat café. One couple visiting Chattanooga from Missouri happened upon the Naughty Cat Café and fell in love with a cat in the café’s care. The couple used the café’s wifi to book pet-friendly hotels for the rest of their trip and took the lucky cat to its new home after a lovely vacation.

Beyond adoptions, the Naughty Cat Café offers shelter cats an opportunity to become familiarized with life in a home and interaction with people. It’s a calm and quiet place, where cats can just be cats. “I was ecstatic to hear that Chattanooga was getting a cat cafe and even more so when I heard it would be incorporating local shelter cats into the plan! Besides being a great place to hang out and enjoy some time with cats, these lucky cats get to spend their days in a home environment, getting tons of exposure to the public while they wait to be adopted. Naughty Cat Cafe has been an amazing bridge between the community and the Humane Educational Society, and so many cats have found their forever home because of them!” says Humane Educational Society volunteer, Evelyn Greter.  Cats from the Humane Educational Society and Pet Placement Center that get to go to Naughty Café can stay there indefinitely or until they are adopted. 
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Those who want to visit the cats at Naughty Cat Café are encouraged to schedule an appointment. However, walk-ins are welcome. There is a $13 cost for a one-hour visit. Booking includes a complimentary non-alcoholic beverage. In keeping with its mission to improve upon and be an integral part of our community, Naughty Cat Café serves beer, coffee, snacks and more from local Chattanooga companies. Visitors can enjoy Mama Crunk’s Pies, Mad Priest coffee, cupcakes from Cupcake Kitchen, locally brewed beer and more while they relax with the purrrfect cat companion. Go to naughtycatcafe.com for information on daily events like yoga with cats, trivia with cats, live harpist and wine night with cats and more. If you’re looking to adopt, right meow is a great time to check out the Naughty Cat Café!
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Rock City’s Café 7 Adds Pet Menu

6/10/2019

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By Gwin Tugman

Café 7, Rock City’s upscale outdoor restaurant, has always welcomed pets, as does Rock City itself, but there is a really cute, new pet menu that features clever names like Grrrrrilled Cluck Cluck, Two Hot Dawgs, and Tricks for Treats Bacon, each for $5. Puppuccino is only $3, but bowls of fresh water are always free. With a designated area near the bar for pets and their owners, both humans and their best friends can relax and enjoy!

Because Rock City is pet-friendly, the staff has seen its share of unusual pets, which come through regularly. The only stipulation is that pets must be on a leash. Rock City employees have visited with guests that slither, climb and hop through the Enchanted Trail, including baby goats in pajamas, bunnies, pigs, a snake, a small monkey, a rooster, and a parrot dressed in a tux to celebrate its birthday during Shamrock City. (No, you can’t make this kind of stuff up!)

Café 7 overlooks Lover’s Leap and is quite beautiful, as well as very relaxing, and it offers all sorts of entrées, including beef brisket tacos, barbecue, fried green tomato BLT, fried chicken and sweet potato waffles, shrimp and grits, and several salads, plus a kids’ menu. Everything is very reasonably priced. Café 7 also serves beer and wine, plus a variety of soft drinks.

Local folks always want to know if mountain residents can enter Rock City and enjoy the restaurants without paying admission. The answer is no, but residents can get a resident’s pass after paying the price of a one-day admission, and the pass is good for a lifetime! It needs to be renewed every three years, which is a very simple process. There are a few restrictions on the resident pass, but it mainly allows residents to enjoy all that Rock City offers year-round.

Besides the Café 7, Rock City also offers the Big Rock Grill, which is near the entrance to Rock City and features more casual dining with a variety of menu items, including breakfast to-go during the morning hours on the weekends. Rock City also boasts a snack shop that offers pizza and other concession items, so it would be hard not to find something to enjoy!

The Café 7 is open in the summer from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the weekdays and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the weekends.  If you don’t have a resident pass or know someone who doesn’t, this  would make a great birthday or Christmas present - the gift that gives on giving!
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