UNION, Ky. — In a tiny building off Old Union Road, you can get a taste of the French countryside — at Modicum, an intimate 16-seat restaurant serving one seasonal menu each night in Union, Kentucky.
The restaurant's name reflects exactly what chef and owners Romain and Marilyn Heuze are trying to create.
"It's a, it's a Latin word, but also has some meaning in English. In English it means a little bit of something that's very good and very special and also a treasure," Romain Heuze said.
WATCH: Two veterans bring a new fine dining destination to Northern Kentucky
The couple arrived in Union three years ago after spending 12 years in California — but their connection started overseas. Romain spent 10 years in the French Marines.
"I did several missions in Africa until 2009 when I went to Afghanistan with the US troops," Romain said.
That's where he and Marilyn met, as she was on a 10-month deployment with the U.S. Marines.
"You know, it was the last thing on my mind, you know, to, to meet my future spouse there," Marilyn Heuze said.
"It's gonna sound cheesy, but, uh, it's kind of the whole thing like the whole love at first, at first sight thing. I mean, you don't believe it until, until it happened to you, and it did happen to me," Romain said.
He put a lot of effort into making sure they could see each other.
"Usually, our mission of rotation, we're working for like five days out there and the weekend to recover and getting ready for the next one... but sometimes there is some convoys that were going between my camp and hers, and I was volunteering to take a spot for someone. Guys were really like happy to, to take a break. No IED today, you know, you know, no roadside bomb. So I was getting into that; I tried to see her for maybe an hour and then coming back. It lasted like six months," Romain said.
Once they both got out of the military and decided to get married, they wanted to do more with something they both learned from their grandparents.
"Cooking with them, tasting, you know, since he was little, you know, his grandmother would always be feeding him as she cooked, and she was the best cook ever," Marilyn said.
While working in the oil and gas industry in Southern California, Romain helped design menus for wineries in the valley. They did some catering, and Marilyn made the pastries.
The decision to move three years ago, to give their five children a different life in the countryside, is a dream realized at Modicum.
"We had to do a lot of work ourselves. We, we had to wear a lot of hats, you know, different hats, you know, we, we're brick masons all of a sudden," Marilyn said.
They fixed up the building and created the kitchen. The next step is creating closer relationships with farms in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio, creating an ecosystem of better produce so they can potentially expand their offerings.
"No third party company is going to establish that relationship with those producers and bring the special plant, the special vegetable for us," Romain said.
They are growing the network, hoping their diners feel more than a little special.
"That's what we're trying to do just to elevate what we have already here," Romain said.
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