When the siblings picked up summer jobs back in the 1980s working concessions at East Tennessee’s then newest attraction, they had no idea they’d found their lifelong vocations. “I guess they just loved us, and we made a great big hit, I reckon,” Fine says, “and we hope we can make Dollywood a better place because we are here.”
Nowadays, if guests should be lucky enough to find Self watering the flowers with her landscaping team, Russell serving soft serve and fries from her food stand, or Fine keeping the facilities tidy as she works house and grounds, they can rest assured they’ll be taken care of. From their reassuring East Tennessean accents, with staccato swings and high pitches akin to Dolly’s own, to their dedication to get up as early as four in the morning to start the day, the sisters embody a core truth about the park that hasn’t changed since its opening day: As Russell puts it, “When you’re treated good, then you will treat other people good as well.” —Kat Chen
Texas: Tootsie Tomanetz
Pitmasters tend the flames of Texas barbecue with heart, soul, and a whole lot of dedication—and the smoky, juicy meat, like that of Tootsie Tomanetz at Snow’s BBQ, draws diners across state lines.
On Saturdays thick plumes of smoke rise from the pits at Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, Texas (population: 1,319; just under an hour away from Austin by car), carrying the scent of post oak over a line of hungry barbecue devotees waiting in camp chairs that they set up before the sun even rose. Coals crackle, flames lick meat, and at the center of the pit stands Tootsie Tomanetz, 91 years old with tree-trunk arms and the nimble grace of a woman half her age. With her snow-white hair swept back, she’s flipping briskets, gauging heat by feel, and conducting a symphony of fire and smoke with six decades of practiced care.
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But her path began somewhat by accident back in 1966, when she stepped in to help a short-handed crew at City Market in nearby Luling, Texas. One day turned into a decade, then a lifetime. When Snow’s BBQ opened in 2003, its owner, Kerry Bexley, asked his longtime friend Tomanetz to run the pits. “The TLC she gives the meat, that’s the key,” Bexley says. Her methods—slow, deliberate cooking; seasoning meat only with salt and pepper; mopping the chicken with a special sauce—almost stand in for that true Texan attitude: bold, straightforward, no-nonsense. These days Tomanetz’s methods are the secret sauce behind the fare at Snow’s BBQ. She arrives at the pit around 6:30 or 7:30 a.m. each day, after others have tended the pit overnight, stoking the fire and keeping an eye on the meat that cooks for upwards of 12 hours. When it’s her turn, she applies the finishing touches, coaxing the final product to that perfect balance of juicy interior and crusted bark.