All Under One Tin Roof

PHOTOS BY TERESA RAFIDI

On weekends, the sleepy community of Ben Wheeler comes to life with big-city daytrippers and Van Zandt County locals who come to enjoy good music, food and, in October, the Feral Hog Festival. Only in Texas, y’all.

Two reasons to make the trip to East Texas are located under one tin roof: KaLynn Johnson’s all-Texas wine and coffee bar, Vintage Cork, and Joe D’Alessandro’s authentic Italian restaurant, Terra Sana Farm + Kitchen. Their seamlessly shared space is a perfect pairing in more ways than one.

The vintage building has been a feed store, an art gallery and a mechanic’s shop. If you’ve snagged a coveted reservation, look for the painted turquoise doors and welcoming front porch.

Inside, a pressed-tin ceiling floats above cozy tables and a long bar with sleek swivel chairs. Twinkle lights hang between whimsical tree trunks that double as support columns. The decorative elements—family photos, memorabilia, art pieces—all tell a story. We sat down with the owners this summer and let them tell theirs.

THE BEGINNING: VINTAGE CORK

“I first visited this place in 2019,” says KaLynn. “My mom and I were eating lunch nearby and saw the sign ‘Wine Bar.’ We couldn’t resist.”

It’s easy to see why then-owners Staci and Amanda Webb hit it off with KaLynn, who exudes a quiet confidence beyond her years. On weekend motorcycle rides with their husbands, the sisters-in-law had fallen in love with Ben Wheeler but couldn’t always be there. They hired her on the spot.

KaLynn’s resume included working in customer service at a local resort and doing every job imaginable at a nearby winery where, while helping in the vineyards and with the bottling process, she became intrigued with the art of making wine. Though an East Texas native, she had spent her high school years outside Lubbock in Terry County, considered “The Grape Capital of Texas.”

There, she says, “I was aware of all the vineyards, but my early experience was working on a friend’s pistachio farm, helping with planting and pruning.” KaLynn embraced her role at Vintage Cork but also enrolled in Texas Tech University’s two-year Viticulture and Enology program to learn more.

At age 22, out of the 40 accepted that year, she was one of the youngest. When the owners were ready to sell in 2022, KaLynn didn’t hesitate.

“I’ve been lucky to have people who’ve recognized my drive and been supportive,” she says. “They were honored that I wanted to keep it going.” Vintage Cork’s weekly selections come from a rotating list of Texas wineries, the largest of which are well-known to local wine aficionados: Kiepersol Winery, Bingham Family Vineyard and Messina Hof Winery.

Flights offer the perfect opportunity to sample bottles from smaller wineries, most of which are located within a 100- mile radius.

“I want people to experience just how great Texas wines are,” says KaLynn, who’s passionate about promoting the state’s wine industry. “If you’re a fan of Pinot Noir from California, I’ll find you something comparable, like a Texasgrown Sangiovese.”

Their G-winery permit also allows Vintage Cork to craft its own wines. Working with Sugar Ridge Winery in Ennis, KaLynn created a signature sangria as well as a crisp Gewürztraminer and is working with White Fox Vineyards in Murchison on a full-bodied Tempranillo.

In addition to wine, Vintage Cork has a full menu of coffee drinks that use their signature “Flying Pig” roasts, created with the help of Coffee City USA in Tyler. The roasts’ logo is a nod to both the community’s Feral Hog Festival and the prized pigs KaLynn showed during high school. A Flying Pig Coffee drive-thru will open this fall in Murchison.

Wanting to offer more than charcuterie boards to her customers, KaLynn began searching for a chef to share her space shortly after taking ownership. That’s when a local minister, one of her coffee bar regulars, put her in touch with Joe D’Alessandro, who had a fledgling restaurant down the road in Edom, but was ready to make a move.

TERRA SANA FARM + KITCHEN: FROM ITALY WITH LOVE

How does a Midwesterner, former wedding deejay and son of Italian immigrants find himself cooking regional Italian cuisine in East Texas?

Clues to Joe D’Alessandro’s journey are found in the grainy blowups of family photos dotting the walls of his restaurant.

On snowy nights in his native Chicago, his extended family shared boisterous dinners around long tables laden with specialties made from passed-down recipes, each dish vying to be the tastiest. At their farm in Puglia on the tip of Italy’s boot, where Joe spent a decade of his boyhood, the family feasted al fresco within reach of olive and fig trees.

It wasn’t until years later, when Joe got married, that he realized the need to document his mother’s recipes.

For Joe and his wife Kelli, their dream was to become organic farmers: “terra sana” is Italian for “healthy earth.” For years in Chicago and Estes Park, Colorado, Joe made his living spinning tunes at weddings while Kelli worked as a graphic designer. But meanwhile, “I would constantly call my mom and ask how to make things,” he says. “That’s how it all started.”

In a corner of the restaurant, there is a picture of Kelli working on their farm, a goal realized in 2021 when the two moved to Ben Wheeler, a place they’d learned about when visiting Texas for a friend’s wedding. They built a faithful following at the Athens and Tyler farmers markets, and then came the day when someone approached them: “We have a kitchen. Want to open a restaurant?”

Was East Texas ready for Pugliese delicacies such as rabbit or octopus? No, laughs Joe, but for everything else, the answer has been a resounding “yes.”

Joe’s projected menu included all his childhood favorites. His uncle predicted their success: “If you’re going to cook your mamma’s meals, people will come.” But four days before the opening, Kelli passed away unexpectedly; life for Joe became a blur. He took months off before returning to the kitchen. “I jumped back into it, but it was hard,” he says. “My head was constantly spinning.”

A saying of his mother’s stuck with him: “When your eyes are afraid, let your hands do the work.” The kitchen became his refuge.

Besides grappling with his loss, he’d become dissatisfied with the facilities that housed his original Edom location. Fortunately, down the road in Ben Wheeler, KaLynn was looking for a chef to share her space.

Was East Texas ready for Pugliese delicacies such as rabbit or octopus? No, laughs Joe, but for everything else, the answer has been a resounding “yes” as Thursday-through-Saturday dinner seatings fill up regularly. Last June, Texas Monthly singled out his lasagna made with housemade ricotta and a Bolognese fashioned using locally grown beef from Happy Cattle Company.

Everything is made from scratch: meatballs, arancini, tomatostudded focaccia. Weekly specials might include farfalle primavera in a pesto sauce, fresh rigatoni tossed with roasted peppers and fennel sausage or buttery chicken saltimbocca topped with prosciutto and sage. And save room for desserts like Nutella cannoli or limoncello tiramisu.

With the success of the restaurant, Joe redirected his focus from growing food to making it. “The farm is more of a garden now,” he says, “but it still produces enough herbs, greens, carrots and certain seasonal vegetables for the restaurant. And there are fig trees.” For the rest, he relies on other local growers, like Growing Branches Farm in Tyler, which supplies their microgreens.

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Joe and KaLynn added staff as their blended businesses grew. “Pretty much everyone here—bartenders, waitstaff, dishwashers— are part of two families, siblings, cousins, friends whose families have known each other for generations,” says KaLynn.

Tifani, KaLynn’s older sister, began working there early on, helping wherever she was needed. Though she didn’t have much cooking experience, she eventually found herself doing kitchen duty, side-by-side with Joe.

“We worked easily together and immediately hit it off as friends,” says Tifani. “That’s how we began and that’s where it stayed for a couple of years. Best friends.”

“He’s in love with you,” KaLynn would eventually tell her, “but he doesn’t know it yet.” As it turned out, she was right, though Joe was the last to know.

It hit him like a lightning bolt. At a staff gathering when he and Tifani were alone, he finally said, “I love you.” She gently answered, “I know.”

Food is an Italian family’s expression of love, says Joe. The two married last November, and Tifani remains by his side in the kitchen. When KaLynn began her partnership with Joe, she had no idea that she was adding an Italian brother-in-law to her big Texas family. Her own wedding is set for November. The reception, of course, will be at “the shop,” as KaLynn calls their shared space. To give Joe and Tifani the night off, the fare will be catered with barbecue and lots of Texas wine, naturally.