KINSTON

Chef & the Farmer, Howard's local restaurant made famous by the series, opened in 2006 and has gone through many changes. Its newest incarnation is known as The Kitchen Bar. Always the culinary innovator, Chef Howard has crafted another unique dining experience for lovers of upscale Southern food and her fans. It includes a seven course meal, made by the chef herself, and shared with only 16 guests, one weekend a month. At $300 per ticket, it's not cheap. But it's also not an experience you are going to get anywhere else. It's only in Kinston.

Picture this: Tender, pork barbecue painstakingly hand-chopped daily and slathered in our secret family sauce. Oh, and hush puppies, collard green, and coleslaw. For three generations this is what King's Restaurant has been serving up in Lenoir County. The same old fashion flavor perfected in 1936 is what you get today. If the packed parking lot is any indication, visitors can’t get enough. Just make sure you stock up on extra napkins. If your face and hands don’t get messy eating this barbecue, you’re doing it all wrong.

Farm to table begins at the Lenoir County Farmers Market. Located in Downtown along the Neuse River, this market brings in food grown on family farms in and around Kinston. Grab a watermelon. Stock up on some ears of corn. Check out the nuts, poultry, cheeses and meats. Pick up a homemade pie that you really don’t need. Selections change by the season. But if you can grow it on a farm, chances are you can find it here.

Historic Brother’s Farm is located in the community of LaGrange. For almost two centuries, its fertile soils have been producing delicious plums, figs, pears, and forty-seven varieties of vegetables –all grown naturally, without pesticides. If this place sounds familiar, you may remember it from the PBS series “A Chef’s Life.” Owner, Warren Brothers, worked closely with Chef, Vivian Howard, to reinvent area farming and introduce the farm to table movement. Today, Warren and long-time employee Lillie Hardy, hold cooking demonstrations in the farm house on the art of Southern cooking. Visitors can sign up to learn how to make homemade biscuits, fried chicken, and more working one-on-one with Mrs. Lillie. But be forewarned: Eating too many biscuits may make your clothes shrink.

Peace, love, and beer. It’s a phrase the folks at Mother Earth Brewery in Kinston live by. On your visit you can expect to taste their next great artisanal creation --an Alpenglow Hazy IPA, a Belgian-style Weeping Willow Wit, or a Long Weekend India Pale Ale. But what you might not expect, is that behind that flavor is a beer made using only sustainable practices. Because Kinston isn’t just where the folks at Mother Earth brew. It’s where they live.

Vodka, distilled in Kinston, provides distillery tours by appointment. You will enjoy Social House Vodka with friends for a lifetime of memories. With ingredients from North Carolina farmers, distillers break down the corn’s starches, producing fermentable sugar. After blending and filtering, distillers taste the vodka to make sure it’s perfect for you and your friends.

The affordable quick bites of Lovick’s Cafe have been an institution in Lenoir County since 1941. Originally sitting between two tobacco warehouses, Lovick’s was the perfect Kinston restaurant for farmers who were in town selling their crops. And when they stopped, many would order the Doughburger, a product of meat rationing during World War II. This delicious sandwich has stuck around and I think you should eat it at least once in your life. Their other lunch items and breakfast menu are also filled with amazing finds, so you’ll need to come back more than once to this place.

You might not be able to make everyone happy. But pizza can. So when you’re feeling hungry on your visit to Kinston, pull up to Sugar Hill Pizzeria. This little restaurant is a Kinston tradition. One visit and you can see why. This place is slicing up New York-style pies, salads, and legit submarines. Some would say it’s the best pizza in Kinston. They could be right or it could be the Cheerwine talking. You decide.

Glazed donuts. Cake Jars. Cookies from Snickerdoodle to Oatmeal Raisin. New to Lenoir County is a small town bakery where items are grounded in tradition and baked with love. Lifelong LaGrange resident, Brad Mitchell, is the proud owner. He learned to bake from his grandmother and considers each recipe a family heirloom. One look at the menu confirms this: Grandma’s Hershey Bar Cake, Mama’s Carrot Cake, Aunt Debbie’s Amazing Chocolate Pie. Everything made with “extra love” that can't be found in a recipe. So, if you’re ready to give your sweet tooth a one-way ticket to its happy place, pay a visit.

This is an amazing place, clean and busy. The service is quick and friendly. You must ask for anything you need (crispy skins, more sauce, etc) and they definitely bring it to you, so don't be shy. I highly recommend you stop, this place is always packed, come by and enjoy classic American food before it's too late.