Vivian Howard opens a new casual restaurant in Chef & the Farmer space in NC
Quietly last week, Kinston chef Vivian Howard opened her newest North Carolina restaurant, with a menu filled with familiar flavors in a new format.
The Counter @ Chef & the Farmer is the latest evolution of Howard’s famed small town fine dining destination, Chef & the Farmer, which had closed during the pandemic.
Now, as the name suggests, the new counter service restaurant runs a bit counter to everything else Howard has done to this point. The Counter is open for lunch and dinner, from 12 to 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, serving casual dishes, entrees and drinks.
“It’s something we’ve been working towards for more than a year as we evolve from the Chef & the Farmer,” Howard said in a phone interview. “The Counter is a casual expression of my food. I’m really excited about it. There’s less of a service component. It allows me to have a dialed-in simple menu that represents Eastern North Carolina and add a lot of dynamic specials.”
About a year ago, Howard opened The Kitchen Bar, a one-weekend-a-month chef’s table kind of restaurant within the Chef & the Farmer building in downtown Kinston. With it, Howard offered the kind of dining experience many expected when they drove out to Kinston to visit her restaurants.
Before the pandemic, born from the success of her cookbook “Deep Run Roots” and the award-winning PBS documentary series “A Chef’s Life,” Howard was catapulted into the realm of the celebrity chef.
“For years, diners traveled to the Chef & the Farmer after seeing it on the show and thought they would see me toiling on the line,” Howard said. “The reality is I was a distraction in the dining room. I lost sleep over not being able to provide the experience people thought they were getting.”
With The Kitchen Bar, Howard has been preparing and serving monthly tasting menus. She jokes that diners get more time with her than they likely expect.
“It’s like a really intimate dinner party you’d never throw yourself,” Howard said.
Then last week, she walked outside, affixed a sign with operating hours to a window and The Counter was born.
The Counter @ Chef and the Farmer: The menu
The Counter menu includes smashburgers and butterbean burgers, dressed up twice baked potatoes, a bowl of greens dubbed “Viv’s Favorite Salad” and a decadent porchetta sandwich. There will be at least a half-dozen sides and dishes like blueberry barbecue chicken enchiladas and fried collards that likely will be familiar to fans.
The wine list is succinct, essentially a red, white, sparkling, rose and mimosa and beers will be from a different featured brewery each month. Cocktails will be batched and ready to go.
The Counter is built with the bones of its predecessor, decked out with light fixtures from the attic and chairs and tables that have been sanded down, revealing a new life.
“These are pieces of the old Chef & the Farmer and it feels like a gift to be able to give something back to people in a different package,” Howard said. “I’m delighted to be able to do that.”
The next evolution of the restaurant will likely include a small inn. Howard said she expects to start construction next year on five guest rooms upstairs in the downtown Kinston building.
For more details on The Counter @ Chef & the Farmer, visit vivianhoward.com.
