From Django to Kennett Square

The couple built Django, and inspired a movement of independent young restaurateurs along the way, with a government loan of $45,000 and nothing but mountain bikes for collateral.

Their success and sale of that bistro would help pay the $250,000 it took to gut a vacant shoe store and transform it into the food lover's oasis of Talula's Table. But it wouldn't be easy.

The inevitable construction delays had dragged on and on. Sikora got permission from Django's current owners simply to work in someone else's kitchen 38 miles from Center City while the grocery was being built. But then Sikora lost that line-cook job.

The Django nest egg began to drain. Olexy and Sikora maxed out credit cards. And Olexy, one of the region's most passionate and knowledgeable cheese people, began to look for work at local supermarkets. To her chagrin, she couldn't land an assistant's job behind the cheese counter at the Whole Foods in Devon.

"The girl who interviewed me had never even worked in cheese," Olexy says. "She'd just moved over from fish."

Olexy elevated the cheese course to performance art during her days at Django, and she has collected well over 120 artisan cheeses for sale at Talula's. Our plates this night brimmed with little tastes of 10 champions from a recent American competition. From Capriole's mushroomy Old Kentucky Tomme to the creamy Green Hill from Georgia's Sweet Grass Dairy, the fenugreek-scented Fenacho from Tumalo Farms in Oregon, and a cave-aged Marisa from Carr Valley Wisconsin, Olexy narrated the details of each with breathless enthusiasm.

By the time I polished off dessert, a striped frozen terrine of concord grape sorbet and goat's milk gelato, it was hard to believe we'd spent nearly four hours at Talula's Table.

It was 11 p.m. and I could have kept eating.

As if they'd read my mind, the servers handed each guest bags of leftover brioche and a tiny gift-wrapped box as they guided us toward the door. I peeked inside to find a fresh green fig, plucked from just behind Olexy and Sikora's Chester County home. It was a sweet memento of their pastoral new life. A home-grown gesture of "good-bye."

Talula's Table was ready, at last, to close for the night.

Talula's Table

102 W. State St., Kennett Square, 610-444-8255; www.talulastable.com

Aimee Olexy and Bryan Sikora, the original owners of Django, have traded their Center City BYOB for a gourmet market in the heart of horse country. The store features stellar artisan cheeses, fabulous baked goods, and standout prepared foods, from awesome lobster pot pies to Sikora's homemade sausages. The private tasting dinners served at the market's farm table, though, are among the region's most special dining experiences.

Note: Talula's farm table dinner is not formally rated because it has not been visited multiple times.

Market open daily, 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Farm table dinners available for 8-12 people almost any night with a required reservation (reserve about two months in advance for a weekend, one month ahead for weekdays).

All major cards.

Street parking only.