EDIBLE: The new chef-centric contemporary restaurant in King City.

There are dry-climate deserts and food deserts and boring desserts. For years, King City foodies could get all three and little else.

The predictable triolgy of choices that feed into the otherworldly quality of the city food scene includes authentic Mexican, a little old-school Americana or fast food aimed at Highway 101 travelers.

Like one longtime local told me, “If you want Mexican, I got you; otherwise, it’s a pilgrimage north for food.”

No longer. King City now has a restaurant that breaks the tumbleweed jinx. The Cork & Plough (386-9491) represents something contemporary, something youthful, something neither the dusty town nor the surrounding area has seen – even as they are encircled by wine vines and fields of produce that inspired the restaurant’s name. (And inspire so many seasonal restaurants elsewhere.)

I’m talking rotating menus with curry-pickled eggs, smoked salmon toast and quinoa-and-roasted-grape salads. I’m thinking Saturdays that double as special “sliders and schooners” days, with eight different slider options available – like biscuits and gravy, BLT and black-and-bleu – to go with eight rotating tap beers, which include Hermitage Hoptopia, Firestone Union Jack and Old Monterey Lager. (Both the sliders and 12-ounce pours are $3.) I’m eyeing the super-crisp garbanzo chicken strips ($12 with watermelon salad), chef’s gluten-free take on classic fried strips, made with pulverized spicy garbanzo bean snacks popular at local Latino groceries. And the ginger mojitos ($10).

Travis Childers serves as owner-operator and executive chef. When his parents moved to King City four years ago, his visiting interest was piqued by the proliferation of wineries and farms and the absence of a local chef-driven restaurant.

It ultimately inspired him to move from Seattle – where he grew up and later worked as a chef and culinary ops manager before and after stops in Anchorage, Alaska, and in the Hamptons, New York, where he helped Top Chef Season 2 alum Sam Talbot start a restaurant.

Childers graduated from Le Cordon Bleu Scottsdale Culinary at 19 and turned 29 last month, which means he just completed his first decade in the industry. Most of the protein and produce he sources from Paso Robles and Greenfield, respectively, and 80 percent of the wine menu is Monterey County and Paso focused. The menu cites sources like Flora’s Farm, J&R Meats and Phil’s Fish Market.

“Here we could have a much more locally centered menu than Seattle,” he says. “And nobody else in the area was doing something with that kind of focus.”

He’s got a point: You have to travel an hour north or south on 101 to find a similarly progressive spot, which means locals and travelers have a new refuge.

“Locals seem excited to have something new in town, and tourists have become more frequent and always seem pleasantly surprised to find us in little ol’ King City,” he says.

Between a third and a half of the menu (which appears on the blog, www.mcweekly.com/edible) rotates regularly with the availability of things like lavender, zucchini and tomatoes.

“Being in a small town, we want to make sure there are new and interesting things for locals to try,” he says.

His wife Anna Childers curates the wine list. She also trained and set service standards for the staff and masterminded the decor, which features a lot of wood and a chalkboard specials board.

Anna says she wants to bring the spirit of the urban winery where she worked in Seattle to South County.

“I like to surprise and educate people about the varietals they are used to,” she says.

Think atypical flavor-profile Merlots and other non-traditional twists.

“I make sure that I include as many different flavor profiles as possible so I can always direct a guest to the perfect wine for them,” she adds.

C&P opened in February; the Childers married at Scheid Vineyards in April. (Priorities are priorities.)

A limited but quality specialty cocktail list ($10 each) includes seasonal herbs and items like a Santa Lucia Collins (with Hendrick’s gin, lemon, grapes, rosemary and a red wine float) and la sandia (with Patron silver, house watermelon syrup, lime, cucumber, cilantro and chili-lime salt).

The kids’ menu items – like the mini burgers ($9), fettuccine and mac ‘n’ cheese – are named for chef’s nieces, nephews and the mayor’s daughter.

The hours at 200 Broadway St. run 11am-9pm Tuesday-Thursday, until 10pm Friday-Saturday (closed Sunday-Monday). The menu currently features tastes like the summer chop salad with watermelon, cucumber, corn, apple, sheep cheese, chili-lime vinaigrette ($12, $15 with chicken), barbecue salmon sandwich with Carolina slaw, house pickles and chipotle mayonnaise ($15 with fries) and a farmhouse burger with bacon, arugula, house pickles, Provolone ($12 with fries). I like the looks of the Cajun shrimp with pork sausage polenta, spicy tomato and bell pepper sauce ($16) and crunchy peanut butter bon bons ($8).

This would be smart and tasty stuff that’s drawing steady positive feedback. In other words, there’s a new fresh prince in the City of Kings.

QUICKBITES

• My longest running editorial colleage, Kera Abraham, has been the Weekly’s ace environmental reporter and grammar maven for eight years. She leaves to aid Monterey Bay Aquarium’s new science and conservation efforts, which is an inspired match. Check out my favorite food stories from her on the blog.

• In-N-Out in Seaside closed escrow Sept. 1. Construction starts after Labor Day. City officials anticipate completion in 120 days. I anticipate pandemonium.

• Robbie’s Oceanfresh Seafood (212-0231) has left Wharf Marketplace, but you can still get his goods at the end of Wharf II or via the number above.

• District 7 Wines by Scheid are again the official vino of Monterey Jazz Festival Sept. 18-20.

• Monterey County Fair kicked off with a “Farm Fresh Fun” theme Sept. 2. It runs through Monday, Sept. 7. See p. 30.

• Great Bowls of Fire Chili Cook-off and Margarita Competition returns Thursday, Sept. 17 at The River Ranch at Carmel Valley Ranch ($30/member; $35/guest; $40/at the door).

• Joullian Vineyards sold to a surprising new owner for around $10.5 million. Get more on the blog.

• Speaking of major Carmel Valley winery deals, Talbott sold to E. & J. Gallo. More details also appear on the blog.

• Last go for Evenings by the Bay at the Aquarium and new chef Matt Beaudin’s stylish inventions, live music, wine from Estancia and great options at the cafe 6-8pm Saturday-Sunday, Sept. 5-6.

• After three decades, Monterey Bay Greek Festival still kicks in three days of dolma, dancing, baklava. See p. 32.

• Mariachi Festival at Steinbeck Center, which rolls 5-10pm, includes a 5-7pm tequila tasting ($50) with 35 different vendors ($100 entire festival, 775-4721, www.steinbeck.org).

• Jack Galante does Vino for Veterans at his vineyard in Cachagua to raise money to send vets to visit memorials: cigars, gourmet grub, curated wines and… skeet shooting ($500, 624-3800).

• Portuguese poetFernando Pessoa: “Let’s pay attention only to where we are./ There’s enough beauty in being here and not somewhere else.”