Sweet Potatoes

By Amber Nimocks,

Published October 27, 2011 at 9:00 AM EDT

Stephanie Tyson left her hometown of Winston-Salem, NC as a young woman with her sights set on Broadway. She didn't make it big on the Great White Way, but in recent years she has gained national renown - as a chef and restaurateur. Tyson and her partner Vivian Joiner are the women behind Sweet Potatoes, a Southern-food restaurant that has helped shore up revitalization efforts in downtown Winston-Salem. Tyson joins host Frank Stasio to talk about starting a restaurant, her journey back home and her new cookbook "Well, Shut My Mouth! The Sweet Potatoes Restaurant Cookbook" (John F. Blair Publisher/2011).

Amber Nimocks

Amber Nimocks came to The State of Things in January 2009. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a survivor of 15 years in the newspaper business. As a reporter and editor, her posts have included such exotic locales as her hometown of Fayetteville, Robeson County, Wilmington, Raleigh and Fort Worth, Texas.

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Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.

See stories by Frank Stasio