A first generation American, Kris’s father
Jim was a legacy dairy farmer following in his
Swiss father’s footsteps. At the age of eighteen,
Jim had taken a loan from a neighbor to buy his
own farm. He quickly established the Eisenhut
name as prominent in the dairy farming
community. Jim’s farm in East Hill, also known
as Eisenhut Hill, was picturesque with waves of
green pastureland interspersed with patches of
forest. Photographs of the Eisenhut farm were
even used in the background of the movie One
Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Before Kris Eisenhut ever imagined
owning a restaurant, he was milking cows,
putting out hay for horses, and farming the land
in Waterville, New York. Kris grew up in upstate
New York’s vast dairy farm and rural countryside,
which is not what comes to mind when most
people think of New York. Only having been to
New York City twice, Kris was more accustomed
to 5 o’clock mornings and round the clock farming than city life.
Kris’s mother Carol was a full-time nurse and mother with cooking skills unrivaled.
Together, Carol and Jim raised their children in a farming community, so Kris, his two
brothers, and sister had lots of farm friends to keep them entertained after long hours of
work. Some of Kris’s friends' families owned restaurants, so Kris flittered around gleaning the
essentials of the food industry. On Sundays, he often cooked and sold BBQ chicken on the side
Hometown Living At Its Best 59