Best known as the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken, the tiny town of Corbin, Kentucky, is serving up a new story today, one that stars sixth-generation farmer and restaurateur Kristin Smith. Her Wrigley Taproom & Eatery, which recently celebrated 10 years, has struck a balance that honors local heritage and Smith’s globally informed palate, appealing to diners from the meat-and-potatoes crowd in southeast Kentucky to guests at James Beard events.
It just took circling the globe to get here. Raised by her grandparents, who owned the 120-acre Faulkner Bent Farm, Smith says, “I thought if I wanted to make anything of myself, I had to leave.” Driven by a lifelong curiosity, she wanted to get as far away as possible after college.
After immersing herself in the flavors of Thailand and China and discovering Northern California’s farmers markets during graduate school, Smith returned when her grandfather’s stomach cancer forced a choice: Take over the family farm or watch it be sold. She became the first family member to ever live on the farm and at first experimented with running a CSA and selling cattle, before leading efforts to launch Corbin’s first farmers market.
When selling farm-raised meat at premium prices proved challenging, Smith pivoted to prepared food. Soon she was “cranking out 100 biscuits” before dawn on Saturdays and serving brisket tacos on Tuesdays—both selling out without fail.
Then came the chance to open a restaurant downtown, which was two-thirds vacant at the time. “The whisper of a new restaurant in a small town is some juicy, exciting stuff,” Smith says. That didn’t stop a chorus of “it won’t work,” though, she recalls.
But there was an awakening, Smith says, among others who were also returning home. Her own homecoming was about embracing her culture. “I was honestly tired of code switching my accent—of being embarrassed of being Appalachian—and it really made me realize how important my culture was,” she says, noting, “I’m not the only one that felt that.”
The restaurant wasn’t just about making a living, says Smith, but “to break stereotypes.” And on tables built with wood from her farm’s barns, where there was a seat for everyone, she served food from her heart—and diners responded.
The Wrigley has become an integral part of the community, with Smith and her wife at its heart. When floods devastated Appalachia in 2022, they immediately joined relief efforts. And in the harrowing repeat of those floods in 2025, “I immediately was like, how big of a batch of chicken and dumplings can I make?” she says. This time, the floods even surged to her beloved farm.
But not even natural disaster can shake Smith of her sense of community. “Where we live, it’s not ever been easy. We’ve always been fighting something.”Whether that’s mountaintop removal or stigmas, she says “it keeps us together because it’s worse alone.”
And in today’s divided country, Smith keeps things in perspective. “We have a lot of things not in common, but more importantly, we love where we live,” she says. “There’s something special about this terrain and the people that live in these mountains and hollers.”
