The South's Best Restaurant in North Carolina: Kindred

Every meal at Kindred starts with a cluster of milk bread, the restaurant's signature item. The soft, slightly sweet, straight-from-the-oven rolls are Katy and Joe Kindred's first gift to their guests—a gesture that sets the tone for the entire meal.

With just over 12,000 people, the college town of Davidson isn't the typical place you'd find a James Beard Award-semifinalist chef, but this town's charm adds to the double meaning of the restaurant's name.

In a cozy brick building that once housed the town pharmacy, neighbors sip seasonal frozen cocktails and share plates of crispy oysters at the marble soda fountain-inspired bar. Local farmers, many of them Joe's friends, influence the ever-changing menu of house-made pastas that staffers are eager to describe to first-time diners.

In a perfect world, every small town would have a restaurant this special, a place where friends could celebrate a memorable occasion or just a night out with a bottle of wine and a slice of fudgy birthday cake topped with ice cream and sprinkles. Kindred shows us the possibilities.