ADRIAN — Homestyle comfort food, cooked in small batches from fresh ingredients, is the focus of Knights in Shining Aprons on North Main Street.

“We really try to only do foods that we like and feel good about,” said Jennifer Knight, who opened the restaurant in March 2023 with her husband, Deven.

The menu is anchored by a rotating dinner entree — typically one per day — and a variety of everyday items like sandwiches, salads, bowls, and baked goods. Meals can be eaten in the dining room or picked up to go, at the counter or at the drive-through window. Hours are Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The restaurant stems from the Knights’ love of cooking and entertaining. Deven smokes meat as a hobby; Jen likes baking, canning and gardening. Over the last two decades, the garden at their Raisin Township home has grown from a small 8-by-10 plot to the point where most of their property is filled with vegetables, berries and herbs.

“I’d say 75 percent of the yard is edible,” Jen said.

Starting a restaurant, coffee shop or bakery was something the Knights had talked about for the entirety of their life together. 

“We always cooked a lot of family meals,” Deven said. “We love to cook and host.”

As more friends, neighbors and co-workers started to enjoy the food they shared, Jen said, they started to wonder: “How can we do this for more people?”

Jen initially tried marketing food that she made at home, but the restrictions of Michigan’s cottage food law proved difficult to navigate: she could sell jam but not salsa; apple pie but not lemon meringue pie. 

When they were spending more time at home during COVID-19, the Knights’ food interests expanded. They started experimenting with homemade pasta, sausages and sauerkraut. And the idea of opening their own restaurant started to seem more feasible.

They decided on the name after a comment from the younger of their two daughters. They’d been sitting at the dining room table talking about ideas, and because they didn’t know what direction the business might go in, they didn’t want something too specific that would put them in a box.

“Izzy just walked down the hallway and said ‘Why don’t you just name it Knights in Shining Aprons and be done with it?’ And then she got something out of the refrigerator and went back to her room,” Deven said.

“And we just sat there and looked at each other.”

They found a location in North Town Commons, 1325 N. Main St., the former site of Senorita’s Mexican Food. One of the site’s advantages was the fact that it has a drive-through window: with the pandemic and its restaurant shutdowns fresh in their minds, that made the idea of opening a restaurant feel a little less uncertain.

They opened to the public in March, for counter and drive-through pickup only — the dining room would come later. Their first daily special was a meatloaf dinner, which was also the first meal Jen made for Deven when they were dating.

In addition to meatloaf, their most popular dishes include smoky pork bowls, chicken alfredo, and lasagna. Chicken shawarma is growing in popularity.

A few Indian dishes, like butter chicken and butter paneer, also appear in the rotation, courtesy of recipes shared by family friend Vijay Caplon. 

The butter chicken is one of Deven’s favorite meals to make.

“The transformation of the food is amazing,” he said. “We start with two big pans of onions and just cook those down over an hour and a half, and it becomes that amazing sauce.”

In addition to the daily dinner specials — which are posted weekly on their website and Facebook page — some items are always available, such as grab-and-go salads, a variety of sandwiches, honey butter rolls, and desserts.

The Knights try to keep prices reasonable: Most dinners are $15, including sales tax.

For the Knights, it’s important that their food doesn’t feel mass-produced.

“Small-batch to me means I’m not a manufacturer, so I made today’s chili, and then tomorrow’s chili is going to taste slightly different,” Jen said. That’s because even when the recipe stays the same, the nature of working with fresh ingredients is that little things will change from batch to batch.

It’s important to the Knights that they can give people the feeling that comes from eating a wholesome meal prepared with care.

“I think it all comes back to taking care of people,” Deven said.

“I like to feed people and see them make a memory about food,” said Jen.

Knights in Shining Aprons is at 1325 N. Main St., Suite F, Adrian.  For information, call 517-920-4289 or go to knightsinshiningaprons.com.