Cox: There's lot to loveat Kin

Windsor is all about family. The spacious Town Green is a place for children to play and for family events to be held. The fanciful storefronts that face the green offer a variety of restaurants, from Southeast Asian to a German-style beer garden.

And, of course, American comfort food. That’s what you find at Kin, right in the middle of McClelland Drive, which fronts the Town Green. It’s named for its appeal to the families who go there and for the all-American atmosphere of the place.

It’s a big restaurant, with several discrete rooms that can be partitioned off or opened up, so groups can have privacy or everyone can eat in a loud mishmash. The food is a lot like the service: nothing fancy, but earnest, likable and as familiar as the last burger joint you ate at.

Probably the most iconic dish on the menu, and one that the kids will love just because of its name, is Frickles ($8.50 ?). To make frickles, a pickled cucumber is sliced into rounds, coated with a beer-flavored batter, and deep fried. Fried pickles. Frickles, get it? It’s hard to understand who would like these sour, soggy, oily things, even if they are dipped into either the ranch or barbecue sauces that come with them. But one can imagine second-graders chanting their name and demanding they be brought to the table.

Much more appealing to all ages are the Chicken Taquitos ($10 ??). Slow-cooked chicken thigh meat is wrapped in corn tortillas to make four slender tubes per order, then topped with a spicy roasted red bell pepper aioli, guacamole, and fresh-made pico de gallo.

The menu changes seasonally, and the current season is perfect for good salads. The menu offers seven different kinds, but our table went for the basic Kin House Salad ($9 ??½). The mixed greens included red and green lettuces, radicchio, plus cucumber slices, little grape tomatoes, marinated kidney and garbanzo beans, red onion, and house-made crostini. The greens were lightly dressed in an Italian vinaigrette.

At least in this part of the world, “American comfort food” includes Fish Tacos ($13.50 ??). Don’t let that big price scare you, because you get four of them, each served on two tortillas. The fish is grilled mahi mahi, and it’s topped with cucumber fennel slaw, guacamole, and pico de gallo. They’re simple but tasty.

The main wine list is short and undistinguished, but the roster of sweet dessert wines shows class. Here’s a 2005 Chateau de Rayne Vigneau Sauternes for $8 a glass, a 2008 Arrowood Late Harvest Riesling from Saralee’s Vineyard for $9, and a 20 Year Tawny Port from Graham’s for $12. The list of beers and ales is better, too. A pint of the very hoppy Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ from Lagunitas Brewing Co. is $4.50, and 22 ounces is $6. Other local craft beers are available.

Kin, which is owned and run by J.C. Adams and Brad Barmore, has a live-fire pizza oven and makes nine different pies, some thick crust, some thin. Our group tried The Purist ($12 ???), Kin’s term for a pizza margherita, here very much in the Naples style of thin crust topped with red sauce, mozzarella, and fresh basil.

If simplicity is not the name of your pizza game, go for the Smokehouse for $16.50, a pie topped with barbecue sauce, mozzarella, smoked cheddar cheese, barbecued chicken thigh, applewood smoked bacon, red onion, diced tomato, and cilantro. These are generous, 14-inch-diameter pizzas.

From among the nine entrées, which range from house-made mac and cheese to a coffee-rubbed ribeye steak, we chose Grandma’s Pot Roast ($21 ??½), a yummy, slow-cooked piece of chuck that was falling apart into its plentiful gravy, surrounded by eggplant, zucchini, carrots, onions, and potatoes.

The fennel Italian sausage in the Shrimp and Sausage Risotto ($19 ??) was the tasty highlight of this dish of overcooked and soggy Arborio rice. Large shrimp had been sautéed in white wine and garlic, with spinach and red bell pepper stirred into the mix.

For dessert, a White Chocolate and Raspberry Bread Pudding ($7 ??½) was chewy, sweet, fruity, and flavorful.

To sum up: Bring the whole family. There’s lots here to love.

Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review for the Sonoma Living section. He can be reached at jeffcox@sonic.net.