Changes are coming to an NC culinary icon as Chef & the Farmer closes to ‘refresh’
Kinston chef Vivian Howard is pressing pause on her acclaimed restaurant Chef & the Farmer.
After this week, the Chef and the Farmer will close for several months, undergoing a conceptual and physical overhaul. Howard said she hopes to unveil the new Chef & the Farmer in the late fall of this year.
Howard announced the restaurant refresh on her social media channels, noting this June marks 16 years since Chef & the Farmer’s opening.
“As with any restaurant that’s older than a decade, it’s time for a refresh, both in what we serve and how we serve it and in the overall look and feel of the place,” Howard said.
The name Chef & the Farmer will remain, but the restaurant looks to be headed for a bit of an identity shift. Howard didn’t mention specific dishes or styles she’s considering, only nodding to the reality that restaurants need to be different today than 16 years ago.
“We plan to open in the late fall a Chef & the Farmer that reflects the restaurant i would open in Eastern North Carolina in 2022,” Howard said in her post.
Inventive cooking with NC ingredients
Howard and her husband, Ben Knight, opened Chef & the Farmer in her hometown of Kinston in 2006. She returned to Lenoir County from New York City to launch the fine-dining restaurant, which would become famous for showcasing traditional Eastern North Carolina ingredients, in inventive ways, with dishes like flash fried collard chips and vinegary blueberry barbecue chicken.
The restaurant and Howard were also launched into the national dining spotlight on the success of her PBS series with Cynthia Hill, “A Chef’s Life,” which won Emmy and Peabody awards.
Chef & the Farmer received its first major review when former New & Observer dining critic Greg Cox stopped in, intending a small feature but giving it a larger shout of praise.
“I realize there’s no way a mere paragraph or two can do the restaurant justice,” Cox wrote in 2009. “Chef & the Farmer is much more than just a stopover. It’s a worthy destination in its own right, well worth the hour and a half drive from the Triangle.”
The Boiler Room
Like most restaurants, Chef & the Farmer closed for months during the COVID pandemic, then reopened slowly, first with takeout and then resuming full service. Howard and Knight also closed their burger and oyster joint The Boiler Room for good in 2020, moving some menu items over to the Chef & the Farmer’s offerings.
Beyond Kinston, the couple’s Wilmington pizzeria Benny’s Big Time and Charleston’s Handy & Hot and fine dining restaurant Lenoir remain open.
In her Instagram message, Howard teased another project will drop this summer, but did not reveal any details.
“Stay tuned,” Howard said.
This story was originally published June 2, 2022 at 2:13 PM.
