Photo Tour: Dolly Takes Roadside Stops to a New Level

Back in the day, many roadside stops were small, grubby places. The growth of regional and national c-store chains in recent decades has largely replaced that reality. And now, Dolly Parton is seeking to set a new gold standard in the market, via her recently opened Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop.

Located just off I-65 about an hour’s drive south of Nashville, in Cornersville, Tenn., the 50,000-square-foot facility is decked out in décor, branding and signage bearing Parton’s likeness and includes the following amenities:

• A sit-down restaurant with an adjacent live performance area and a Dolly BBQ space.
• A snack shop/gift shop
• A “Cup of Ambition” coffee shop launched in partnership with Community Coffee (the name is drawn from a line in the theme song to the 1980 movie “9 to 5” that Dolly co-starred in).
• Showers and a lounge for long-distance truckers.
• A “Doggy Parton” dog park.
• 16 fuel pumps for passenger vehicles, 24 Tesla EV charging stations, and three commercial fuel islands for commercial semi-trucks.
• An interactive tour bus exhibit commemorating Parton’s many years traveling to gigs around the country on such vehicles.
• A 40-foot-by 13-foot exterior wall mural by Southern painter Britt Flood depicting several scenes from Middle Tennessee.

“Whether you are hauling loads, hauling the family, or just passing through, we built this place for you,” Parton said during the facility’s recent grand opening. “Good food, real rest, a little music and people who are genuinely glad you stopped in…that’s what the road has always deserved, and that is what you will find here. Welcome home.”

The concept’s founding partners are Parton, her manager, Danny Nozell, and Gregory Sachs, owner of the Tennessean Travel Stop. (The Parton complex was created on the site of one of that chain’s existing locales.) While future locations are planned, no specifics have been revealed.

Said Sachs: “Dolly’s years of life on the road gave her a real understanding of what was missing out there, and she saw the chance to turn ordinary travel stops into a place built on Tennessee hospitality, worth stopping for, not just stopping at.”