Catching up with family and friends can evoke a certain feeling of comfort that Manchester’s newest eating establishment, Layne’s Reunion, hopes to bring to its customers.

Kendall Layne and his wife Lorie both view the venture as a bit of a homecoming. The two most recently operated Route 55 BBQ in Tullahoma, and after spending a couple years away from the restaurant business, jumped at the chance to open one in Manchester.

“I kept coming back to that this is where I’m from,” explained Kendall. “I grew up here, and all the people in this area are people that I played baseball with when I was growing up and my family was friends with, even second and third generation friends. It kept coming back to me every time that it’s like having a get together, so we’re a reunion.

The couple actually lives in the house that Kendall grew up in. While Lorie’s roots in the area are tied to her grandfather who had a farm on Asbury Road, Kendall explained that he grew up in Manchester and remembers large family gatherings in his youth.

“There would be 200 people at a reunion, and every time one happened, it was like nothing changed… like you had never been apart,” he said. “That was the feel that we wanted this place to have. We want this to be a gathering.”

“I’m big on having get-togethers with friends and family, especially in the time right now where everything’s so hostile, election time especially, everybody kind of forgets their civility a little bit,” Kendall added. “I wanted it to feel like that when you came and sat down, you aren’t worried about your phone, and you can sit down and talk to each other and remember old friends and old times and family.”

The menu at Layne’s Reunion Layne’s Reunion, open Monday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday until 9, features a variety of items like barbecue and sides, burgers, sandwiches, salads and more made with fresh ingredients including house made sauces. It was carefully thought out by the couple, and Lorie noted that the menu really drives home the concept of the restaurant.

“I think when a lot of people see the menu then really get it,” she said. “The kids’ menu is the “Kids’ Table” because every reunion you have, you have a kids’ table, so it was just a play off of things like that to bring back that feeling of a reunion.”

Some of the menu items also serve as nods to family members and friends as well. The “Trenton’s Tall Boy Burger,” a three-smash patty burger with White American and pickles, is named after the couple’s 6’8” tall son Trenton who is a former basketball player at Coffee County Central High School. There’s also an item named in honor of the friend who suggested they put it on the menu.

“Kendall’s good friend that he went to school with, Mitchell, said “You’ve got to have these buffalo chips on the menu” and he kept on talking about these buffalo chips, so we decided to put these buffalo chips with our pulled pork or our beef brisket and make them loaded, so on the menu they’re called Cousin Mitchell’s,” explained Lorie. “It’s just cute little things like that that’s been a lot of fun.”

“Everything on the menu is very deliberate,” added Kendall. “You go to some places, and you can obviously see that something is just on the menu and not very good and something they just put on there to fill a void almost. A chicken strip or a burger; whatever it is, it’s just an afterthought. Everything here has been very well thought out and is very intentional.”

There are other tributes to loved ones as well. The room towards the back of the dining room that can hold large parties is named Rosie’s Table after Lorie’s mother who passed away. It also features curtains and a memorial display on the wall.

Kendall says that they also plan on hanging some old family photos on the walls around the restaurant as well.

Though Kendall has previous experience in restaurants, owning Route 55 BBQ which he took over from a friend who moved out of state and being a partial owner at one time of Whiskey Trail in Tullahoma, he explained that his interest in food first came at an earlier age.

“I lost my mom when I was 16 to cancer, and it was almost like she prepared me to take care of me and my dad,” he said. “She had taught me how to cook, so I had an interest in it even at 12 or 13 years old. I was a baseball player and did stuff outside, but I still enjoyed being with her while she was cooking stuff, and she would always teach me how to do my laundry and how to cook and do those things to be self-sufficient.”

The Laynes, as Kendall explained, have touched just about inch of the space during the remodel process with help from family, friends and crew members from a local construction company.

While many find working with loved ones or spouses to be a daunting task, Kendall says that that’s not the case with he and Lorie.

“If you can’t, you’ve got issues. It’s not them, it’s you,” he emphasized. “I think it’s because we have the same goal. We know that everyone that comes in this door, it’s our job to take care of them, and the little stuff on the side, every once in a while, it’s like “Why are we doing this thing?” but most of the time it always comes back to taking care of that person. We’re making sure they get what they want when they come in.”

In the first week open, Layne’s Reunion served around 1800 people with Kendall noting that the reaction from the community has been supportive.

“With restaurants, you get the occasional smart comment or somebody saying ‘I didn’t like this’ or ‘This wasn’t perfect,’ he explained. “Most of the time you look at it and it’s almost ridiculous when you see those things. But it’s been pretty overwhelming actually the amount of support we’ve gotten.”

Lorie also explained that it has been an enjoyable experience working with all of the restaurant’s staff who she says is the “heart” of the business.

“We laugh and we joke and we have fun,” she said with a smile. “Family comes first, and a lot of their family come in and see them as well and are really excited about them being here. Some of our friends, their children work here. It’s really just a full circle thing, and being in Manchester has meant a lot to both of us because we’ve both been in Tullahoma.”

While both agreed that things turned out exactly how they envisioned them when they first came up with the idea, Kendall also noted that the restaurant will be “a thing of constant growth.”

“I’m not really one of those people who ever feels like something is finished,” he said, noting they hope to start working on the exterior and booking entertainment for the restaurant. “It’s just in a stage of growth pretty much, and sometimes decline if you’re not careful, but there’s always room to be moving something around or changing something or making something better.”

“The bottom line is no matter what’s going on in the kitchen or what didn’t go right, we fix it because that’s what we’re here for,”