Bush Brother's Visitor Center- Chestnut Hill, Tennessee

Not too far from Gatlinburg and Knoxville Tennessee is the Bush Brothers and Company Visitor Center!

This is one of those places I have been meaning to visit for some time, but I just got around to it.  I think it is about a half an hour away from the the areas I mentioned, so it is not too far off the beaten path but it is far enough away to make the drive interesting!

We drove from Sevierville, and we enjoyed the drive taking mostly scenic country roads.

First off, I like what Bush's has done.  They have taken a product that everyone uses and marketed it in a very smart way.  Everyone loves their commercials!

AND, the company is OVER a hundred years old!  You don't keep a company going by slacking off.  You have to have a good product AND you have to establish brand trust.

So, Bush's has a great, well established product that has kept the company going for a CENTURY- and they have a good sense of humor.

I wasn't sure what to expect at the visitor center and general store.

A friendly employee from Bush Brothers asked if we had been there before, and told us a bit about the center.  A movie about the company was getting started in the theater, so she directed us there.

The movie was about the beans and the canning process.  This was a very interesting film!  As a frequent consumer of Bush's Beans I was reassured that the beans in the can are cooked in a very careful way.  There is a ton of quality control going on too.  From a safety and quality stand point, eating their beans is a safe bet!

The movie mentioned that the company once did a survey and found that 98% of people buying their beans expect the piece of bacon to be in the can, but 96% do not eat the bacon.  Think about that for a while.

They showed a second movie staring Jay and the talking dog Duke! 

After the films ended, we walked through the museum area.  This was very nicely done.  You could step on a scale showing your weight in beans.  They also had various canning and bean related items.  Some props used by Duke in advertising are around the place too.

The company has a good amount of pride in their product and in the fact that this is a family business.  The old family home is preserved on the property and other items from the family were in a display case.

After checking out the museum, the good people at Bush Brothers take a souvenir photo of you.

They have a small photo booth where they take a picture.  You can choose one of four backgrounds to be edited in, and then they print a copy for you!  I thought this was great and its free!  They said that it is a way to thank people for stopping by! 

They have a nice general store too.  You can buy a plush Duke doll, T-shirts, cook books and beans.

A great gift item is a Bush Brother's t-shirt in a can!

We both noticed that EVERYONE at the museum and store were friendly.  We were thanked by just about everyone for stopping by.

We loved this place.  We loved the friendly staff.  We loved the fact that a company thanks you for stopping by their visitor center, and for using their product.  we loved their awareness of tradition, and the fact that they wanted to stress how hard they work to make a quality product.  We loved our free souvenir photo.  We love Duke.  Jay is OK too.

I am going to rank this tourist stop as a "MUST" for any road tripper.  If you are in Kentucky, or any state neighboring Tennessee, you can do this and the Smokies pretty easily in a weekend trip.

Oh, they have a nice cafe too!  Look for a mention of that in the next few days!

http://www.bushbeans.com/en_US/about_us/visitor_center/index.jsp



http://www.bushbeans.com/en_US/index.jsp