Vegetables fresh from the field. BBQ cooked low and slow all day. Biscuits so light you’ll wonder why you ever tried to cut a carb. Kinston’s culinary artists serve up signature Southern tastes with a modern twist.

Chef & the Farmer

Ah lasagna. . . creamy ricotta, mozzarella, and smoked gouda blended with roasted sweet potatoes, layered with pulled pork, and a noodle resembling a saltine cracker. Wait, what?

A Southern girl, I love all those things separately. I’ve yet to meet a pulled pork that I don’t like and sweet potatoes are a staple year-round in our kitchen. But together? In a lasagna? Now that I’ve never tried. I don’t know why it works, but it does. Every savory, sweet bite of it.

My husband and I finally make the pilgrimage to the Chef and the Farmer, the restaurant that helped invent the farm-to-table movement back in 2006 when it first opened. Now celebrating its 15th year, Chef and the Farmer continues to deliver on the unexpected elevation of nearby, seasonal ingredients in every iteration of its constantly evolving menu.

Tonight’s masterpiece is courtesy of Sous Chef Justin Wright. You may remember him from a season or two on PBS’s A Chef’s Life. Justin has been a line cook, a pastry chef, and is now at the helm of Chef and the Farmer while Vivian Howard opens Lenoir, a sister restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina. But don’t worry, he doesn’t want or need to stray too far from his mentor’s approach.

"Vivian’s a big inspiration," he tells me. "We see eye-to-eye on our style of food and locally sourcing vegetables and meats. Most of what I’m doing right now are things that Vivian has done over the years."

In honor of the restaurant’s 15th year, Justin created a menu composed of staff and customer favorites through the years.

"We focused the menu on dishes people enjoy making," he says. "That really shows in the food."

We certainly taste the love in the pork belly skewers, fried okra with ranch ice cream, and a country ham flatbread with peaches, whipped goat cheese, balsamic honey, and mint.

Also on the menu during our visit is a trio of down-home dips Vivian Howard-style: butterbean hummus, caramelized onion dip (leave your mama’s Lipton soup packet at home, y’all. This is out of this world.), and pimento cheese–served with fried Ritz crackers. We try the burger and a side of Boiler Room fries with something called kitchen sink mayo. That ramekin of tangy deliciousness is all but swiped clean by the time we’re done.

You’re definitely not coming to Kinston to eat a salad. You wouldn’t think an epicenter of culinary creativity would be found in an old tobacco town, but here it is. Read on for insight into a few other places that make amateur foodies delight.

Breakfast at Byrd’s Restaurant

It’s Saturday morning, standing room only at Byrd’s. I join the snaking line that leads to the order counter, just one of every walk of life in need of sustenance this morning. Golf shirted middle-aged men in visors, a family with a toddler and a baby, men in construction garb, an elderly couple who clearly have been coming to Byrd’s since it opened.

Behind the tall plexiglass partition, three efficient, capable ladies move in sync as they take orders, fill plates with grits, eggs, hash browns and breakfast meats from bacon to sausage to tenderloin, and wrap "million dollar" biscuit sandwiches into brown paper bags. Two cooks pepper the rhythm of the breakfast rush as they come in and out with steaming trays to refill the service line: link sausages, a vat of red eye gravy, fried eggs. It’s my turn and I answer, "What’ll you have this morning, darlin?" with "A cheese biscuit, please."

"That’s it? You must have known I needed an easy order," she replies. Quicker than I said it, she’s filled it, wrapped it, and handed it over the glass. She’s moved onto joke with one of her regulars before I can even get out a grateful, "Thanks."

I unwrap it and can’t help but take a photo. It’s big, fluffy, and filled with dreamy, melted orange cheese. One bite and my eyes roll back in my head at the perfectly crispy toasted outside and melt-in-your-mouth buttery, biscuit goodness inside. Breakfast, as it’s always meant to have tasted.

This side of the road day-starter is not for anyone on any sort of food-hating diet. Down home cooking, savory, and so worth ignoring whatever health kick someone told you to try. Stop in and have some breakfast. You don’t have to take my word for it, just take one look at the packed parking lot and happy faces coming through the doors.

Coffee at Middle Grounds

Necessary, uplifting, beautiful. Middle Grounds makes coffee an art form. Downtown and right on time while we’re out seeing the sites and taking pictures of Kinston’s prolific public art, Middle Grounds offers up a delicious, heavenly jolt of caffeine. Standing in line, I learn that they have their beans specially roasted and blended in nearby Jacksonville. Their signature beans–Mama’s French Toast and Happy Days–are available for purchase and yes, I bought some to take home. The coffee is that good.

Whether you’re a drip drinker, mocha maven, or cold brew type, this is the shop. The building itself is a cool hang. Exposed brick and Edison bulb light fixtures make for a cool, chill vibe while your senses soak in that first sip. Inside there’s some bar seating, a few tables, and a couch by a console table with board games if you want to sit a spell. Outside, a wrought iron table and chair set make for a great perch on a temperate morning.

King’s Barbecue

King’s has been serving up BBQ and all the fixin’s since 1936 in Kinston. We can taste the family recipes and traditional Southern cooking methods in every morsel of their signature vinegar-based chopped pulled pork. Greens–be they collards or string beans–are briney and savory. None of this barely blanched and verdant business. These are on the stove all day like your grandmama’s mama made them with that distinguishable Eastern North Carolina taste that’s porcine, hearty, and salty. We’re told their BBQ ribs were just voted best in the country on the Drew Barrymore Show’s Battle of the Bites. Fun fact: King’s serves 8,000 pounds of pork, 6,000 pounds of chicken, and 1,500 pounds of collards per week.

Beyond its award-winning meat, we find magically crispy on the outside, perfectly chewy and sweet on the inside hush puppies. We barely sit down before a red basket of these freshly fried beauties is on the table and we have to stop ourselves from eating the entire basket before we get to the main course. Since we can’t make up our minds on which platter to order, we opt for the buffet where we sample it all: hand-chopped pork BBQ, fried chicken, Brunswick stew,collard greens, coleslaw, potato salad, string beans. . .We really don’t have room after tasting a little bit of everything, but we head back for the banana pudding anyway.

Sugar Hill Pizza

We park outside of Sugar Hill Pizza and smell the fragrant, sweet aroma of fresh baked dough before we even open the door. Inside we each order a slice to our liking at the counter–Greek for me, meat-lovers for him–grab our fountain drinks and head to a booth. We settle in and look around at the photo gallery adoring the walls. All depict scenes from town. Blending old and new, we get a window into not just the places, but the people that make up town and how proud they all clearly are of it.

When our giant slices arrive, we take one bite and my husband swears we’re in New York. Thin, flavorful, fresh ingredients and just the right amount of crispy crunch in the crust. This Eastern North Carolina pizza parlor has a seriously delicious pizza game.

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"A Chef’s Life footage courtesy of Markay Media and Deep Run Productions, Inc. ©2021 All Rights Reserved"