On Monday, Winston-Salem-based K&W Cafeterias announced that it was closing all of its locations effective immediately.
K&W opened its doors at the North Cherry Street location on May 11, 1935. Before it became K&W, the cafeteria was the Carolinian Coffee Shop, owned and operated by brothers Thomas Kenneth and William Wilson and their brother-in-law T.K. Knight — the rebranding represented their last names.
Over the decades, the restaurant became an institution for thousands of diners throughout the Triad. In its Facebook announcement, the cafeteria thanked every guest who had walked through its doors and enjoyed a meal. Several of them shared their K&W memories.
Lifelong K&W patron Ed Southern says growing up in Winston-Salem, K&W was just a part of life.
"I honestly don't remember a time in my life when I wasn't going to K&W," says Southern. "It seemed like every Sunday after church, we'd be in that long line at the K&W on Coliseum Drive. And ironically, I remember one of my strongest memories is complaining about that — about how long we had to wait — because I was hungry and I was ready to eat!"
Mary Dalton says she remembers the black-eyed peas, hog jowls and greens as being consistently good.
"When I was growing up, we rarely went to restaurants," she says. "Sometimes we'd go to a fish camp, or on Sundays, we would go to K&W, and that was pretty much what we had around here."
Clark Whittington says his K&W memories begin with painful feet.
"My dad always liked to go there after church, and I remember having to wait in line in the church clothes, and oftentimes it was in uncomfortable shoes, because I was growing so fast, those church shoes will always be a little tight," he says. "But then by the time you got up through the line and up to the first server, I just remember there was always a robotic staffer that would say, 'Serve you meat?', and then you'd go down the line and pick all the other stuff."
As a student at Wake Forest University, Rachel Kuhn Steinhelfer frequently visited K&W for lunch with her father. She continued the tradition as a parent and recalls a funny family incident from years ago.
"We went to the K&W in Burlington with my husband's family," she says. "And our children ran in first because we were helping his grandmother in her wheelchair. And we get up there, and my daughter, who was probably six at the time, had ordered three entrees. Everything just looked delightful, you know. So, she was just going in and ordering whatever she saw."
All K&W locations were closed effective December 1, 2025.