Kindred: 2016 Top Ten Restaurant in the U.S.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Couple meets in Chicago. She’s a sommelier. He’s a cook. They fall in love, move to San Francisco, work at award-winning restaurants (in this case, Delfina and Quince), have a couple of kids, and spend the rest of their lives juggling career and family in the big city.

But the tale of Joe and Katy Kindred has a plot twist: their return to Joe’s childhood home of Davidson, North Carolina (pop. 11,000), to open their dream restaurant. At Kindred, Joe cooks while Katy is sommelier, designer, and more. Most days you’ll find their kids running around the place. They’re not the only fans: Mayor John Woods is a regular, as is artist Tom Clark (“the gnome man”), whose museum formerly occupied the 101-year-old building. On my visits, everyone seemed like a regular. It didn’t take me long to feel like one too.

Imagine a casual Southern restaurant that studied abroad, and you get an idea of Kindred’s charm. College professors linger over drinks in the white-tiled room, while the staff recommends a local dive bar to a visitor (me). Diners sip sweet tea and share crispy oysters and Carolina shrimp rolls. House-made pastas, like the squid-ink conchiglie with blue crab and sea-urchin butter, are the stars of the dinner menu. Then there are the warm milk-bread rolls, which will ruin your meal in the best way possible.

One couple’s vision of a better life has turned into the ultimate small-town restaurant—proof that, in fact, you can go home again.