At 45 N. Main St. in downtown Three Rivers, Kingbird and The Ordinary offers two distinct dining formats: a weekday restaurant and separately scheduled communal dinners. The business opened in May 2026 and is owned by chef Ken Miller and his wife, Ashley, according to MLive. The restaurant’s website describes it as a family-owned operation.
Weekday service and local ingredients
Kingbird serves dinner Wednesday through Friday, from 5 to 8:30 p.m.; MLive reports that diners can reserve a table or arrive without a reservation. Watershed Voice reports daytime brunch and lunch service from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, with no reservations required. Ashley Miller oversees the front of house while Ken Miller leads the kitchen, according to that outlet.
The weekday menu is made in-house and changes with available ingredients, according to MLive. The restaurant’s website says most ingredients come from independent local farms and producers, with other sourcing focused on the Great Lakes region.
A separate ticketed dinner series
The Ordinary is a reservation-only dinner on select Saturdays, separate from Kingbird’s regular service. MLive reports that guests eat communally at one table, usually about once a month, with 30 to 32 places and a record of selling out. Tickets are $100 per person, including gratuity but not wine; the restaurant offers a cash bar. Watershed Voice reports that dinners begin at 6 p.m.
The November 21, 2026, dinner was planned around a game-and-forest theme, MLive reported. The restaurant posts its event schedule on its website.
The move to Three Rivers
The restaurant opened after Farrand Hall closed in early 2026, where Ken Miller had been executive chef. MLive reported that the Millers had recently settled in the Three Rivers area and stayed rather than relocate after Farrand Hall’s business collapsed. They took over a diner connected to that business and opened their restaurant roughly 30 days after signing the building lease. Watershed Voice also reported that the family remained in the area and opened the restaurant after the diner closed.
Downtown plans and local agriculture
The City of Three Rivers says its adopted Imagine 2040 master plan guides citywide policy and future decisions, including for downtown. That describes the plan’s role but does not specify particular priorities for the downtown business district, according to the City of Three Rivers. The USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture reported $340,210,000 in market value of products sold in St. Joseph County. That figure provides agricultural context, but does not show how common direct-to-consumer farm sales are or identify Kingbird’s suppliers, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.
