American Idyll

When she opened the original six-room guesthouse (in a converted vacation home), the first of Kreis's two sons, Sam, was 4 months old. At the single-seating, fixed-menu dinners, guests ate off of Kreis's wedding china, slept in rooms she decorated (with her mother's help), and ate food she bought and cooked. "At the time, there was no such thing as delivery. I'd drive 30 miles to Knoxville for romaine."