King’s connects its history with its future as new manager returns to Kinston

Pictured left to right: Owner of Kings Restaurant, Joe Hargitt, General Manager, Ken Meeks, and Kings previous owner, Wilbur King

Wilbur King remembers peeling potatoes on Saturday mornings when he was 12 years old. Ken Meeks remembers visiting King’s Restaurant as a child and riding the pig inside when he was 11.

Today, the two are working alongside owner Joe Hargitt as Meeks takes on the general manager’s role at the Kinston restaurant, bringing experience gained elsewhere back to a place that helped shape his childhood.

For King, the appointment offers an opportunity to build on familiar traditions while learning from someone who has worked in other restaurants.

“He’s been in other places, so he brings things to us that are new to us, not new to the industry, but maybe new to us,” King said.

Longtime customer George Whitfield said the restaurant opened in 1936, the year he was born. His memories of eating there stretch back to childhood.

King’s recollections include a dining room filled during Kinston’s busy tobacco market years. When seats were scarce, customers shared tables with people they did not know.

“If two people were sitting here having lunch, and two other people came in and there was not a seat, they’d sit right down with these people, whether they knew them or not,” King said.

Sunday lunches brought another kind of crowd: churchgoers dressed in hats, fur coats and their Sunday best. King remembers serving a table of three couples when the last beverage slid from his tray onto a woman’s hat and mink coat.

Those stories are part of a history he wishes he had recorded along the way.

“I could write a really interesting book,” King said.

Hargitt became part of that history as a teenager. King said Hargitt began working with him at 17, giving him years to learn the restaurant’s routines and its approach to customers before taking over ownership Jan. 1, 2004.

Hargitt has continued operating the restaurant with help from longtime employees, including kitchen manager Jeff Lushko and takeout manager Edna White Houston, whom he said have each worked with him for almost 30 years.

The previous general manager was already in that role when Hargitt bought the restaurant. Following her departure, he expected to handle those responsibilities himself for a while.

Then Meeks called.

A Kinston native and North Lenoir High School graduate, Meeks left after graduating in 1995 and moved to Greenville, where he played baseball for Whitfield at Pitt Community College. An accident ended his baseball career.

Whitfield remembers calling on Meeks during an 18-inning game against Lenoir Community College. Meeks had spent the game on the bench when his coach sent him to the plate with instructions to win it. According to Whitfield, Meeks delivered the game-winning hit.

For Meeks, the lessons from his former coach extended beyond baseball.

“He taught us how to be responsible adults and, you know, take responsibility for what you do,” Meeks said.

Meeks later moved to Wilmington in 2001 and worked at Carrabba’s Italian Grill, advancing from grill cook to managing partner. After COVID hit, he and his fiancée moved to Louisiana to help open a restaurant with a friend.

Health concerns involving their parents eventually brought them back to Kinston. A call to check on Hargitt led to an opportunity neither had planned.

“It was kind of like a gift that fell in my lap,” Hargitt said. “And I decided not to let it go.”

Meeks joined King’s in July. Hargitt said his responsibilities are expanding as he learns the operation, with ordering, financial oversight and other duties becoming part of that process.

King said having Meeks there gives Hargitt more time to examine parts of the business that can be difficult to address while moving between the kitchen, dining room and office.

“Now there are two instead of one,” King said.

For Meeks, learning the restaurant means understanding the relationships behind it. He said the way King and Hargitt interact with customers stands out.

“They don’t go through a dining room and just walk through it,” Meeks said. “They go to table to table. They know people, they talk to them.”

Meeks wants to build stronger connections with local diners, a task he expects will take sustained work.

“I’m up for the opportunity, as well as the challenge,” Meeks said.

King sees the employees as central to that future. Asked what makes him proud, he pointed to the people who take ownership of their work, whether or not it draws public attention.

“If they’re proud of it, then I think that’s important,” King said.

The connection also runs through generations of customers. King recalled a recent visitor from California who entered with local relatives and immediately recognized him.

“And that’s the man right there,” King recalled the customer saying. “And his picture is on the wall.”

For Meeks, returning to King’s means taking responsibility for a place he knew long before he worked there.

“I feel honored to step into those shoes, honestly,” Meeks said.