knew his dad was getting older, and his nieces and nephews
back in New York didn’t know much about their Uncle Kris.
Waterville was calling him home.
On the East Coast, P.F. Chang’s was developing another
restaurant, Pei Wei, where Kris earned his Chef’s Coat and
could cook any and everything on the menu. Although the
East Coast was closer than Arizona, it still wasn’t close
enough, so he decided to move back home.
In Waterville, opportunity awaited. A woman was selling
her restaurant, The Dinner Bell, and Kris remembered having
breakfast there as a kid. For the past 25 years, Kris had
been helping to establish the high standards of the Marriott
and P.F. Chang’s, but now was his time to envision his own
restaurant concept.
Inspired by his rural upbringing, Kris renovated The
Dinner Bell and called it the The Kountry Kafe, a homestyled,
biscuit and gravy serving, fish-fry Friday’s restaurant.
It was the culmination of his childhood. Their clientele
catered mostly to local farming families, and lunch crowds
flocked to their fresh burgers on homemade buns.
Kris became involved again in Waterville’s community
and renewed his interest in a few of his childhood hobbies
like dirt racing. As a teenager, Kris saved his allowance and
worked to buy his own racecar. Other than food, one of his
greatest loves was the dirt tracks. Even though he wasn’t
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racing like he used to, the social aspect kept him engaged.
His friend Tony Stewart, a well-known driver, was just one
of many friends he met at the dirt races. It was there Kris
met another friend, Kevin, and together they decided to cosponsor
a sprint-car race team. Kevin was originally a welder
but had a family background in the restaurant business, so
before long, Kevin was helping Kris at The Kountry Kafe.
The next three successful years passed quickly, and Kris’s
longing to be home was wearing thin. With each passing
brutal winter, Waterville’s charm faded with the bitter cold.
Kris was used to the warmth of Scottsdale. When Kris was
in Arizona, he had trained and sold barrel-racing horses and
was involved in rodeos. Through rodeoing, he met a friend
named Linda Jett, who happened to be marrying a man from
Vidalia, Georgia.
Linda was engaged to Dr. Ronald Mosley, and Kris flew
down to be in their wedding. Linda quickly introduced Kris
to small-town Georgia. The mild winters and sweltering
summers were as hot as Arizona and much more tolerable
than New York. Vidalia began charming Kris with its
personality. Kris’s cooking talents were not wasted on Linda
either. After every visit to Vidalia, Kris left Linda with a
month’s supply of home-cooked Italian dinners. It wasn’t long
before Linda and Dr. Mosley began begging Kris to open an
Italian restaurant in Vidalia, and their begging paid off.