A place at her table.

Singing with the Indigo Girls may keep Emily Saliers busy, but she still finds time even to bus tables at her hometown restaurant, Watershed

When Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls indulges her passion for cooking, she's a purist. She eschews the convenience of appliances like the Cuisinart, preferring to chop, grate, and slice all the ingredients by hand. "I love the alchemy of food," says Saliers, who grows animated at the mere mention of Julia Child. "It is definitely an art."

And now the long-out folk-rock star has a canvas. About a year ago Saliers, her lover, Leslie Sweben, and two friends opened Watershed, a restaurant, wine bar, and boutique in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur. Among high ceilings, a pine bar, and big glass doors left over from the site's beginnings as a gas station, Watershed's customers peruse 350 wine varieties and dig into entrees like bucatini with sausage and roasted peppers. There's a fair share of designer beers too.

Saliers and Sweben, who have been together five years, opened the restaurant with another couple, Ross Jones and Susan Owens, after the four decided "to do something different," says Owens, who owns an environmentally themed gift shop nearby; Sweben, for one, says she wanted to get out of teaching. And Saliers's impetus? "I'm a hedonist," she admits.

The four often travel together sampling fine food and wines in famed restaurants such as the French Laundry in Napa, Calif., the Gramercy Tavern in New York, and Matsuhisa in Los Angeles. "There's nothing like sharing a meal with friends," Saliers says.

Starting a business with buddies is tricky, but Watershed, which was financed by Saliers, just celebrated its first birthday, and chef Scott Peacock has landed some great reviews. He's also partnering with legendary Southern chef Edna Lewis for an upcoming cookbook, and the juicy fried chicken he makes as a weekly special at Watershed has attracted the attention of Food & Wine magazine.

The singer has some pull too, of course. "I have some PR connections," Saliers says in her understated manner. "That's one thing I could bring to the business." She also boasts hometown status in Atlanta and shares Southern celebrity cachet with fellow musicians Michael Stipe and Elton John. While it's true Stipe and Saliers are friends, Sweben is cool about revealing whether Watershed attracts such patrons. "I haven't seen them here," she says.

Maybe that's because her girlfriend downplays celebrity herself. Saliers, who says she eats at the restaurant about three times a week, also buses tables and tends bar. She's equally low-key in describing the gay and straight clientele. "We get a lot of people from the neighborhood--young professionals, retired couples," says the singer, who put her beer-slinging duties on hold in February, when she began an acoustic tour to support the Indigo Girls' latest CD, Come On Now Social.

When she isn't performing on the road or cleaning up at Watershed, Saliers loves to invite friends over for dinner, serving wines from her cellar and cooking dishes such as Sweben's favorite, wild mushroom risotto. "These parties sometimes last eight or ten hours," she marvels. "I just love to cook, especially when someone else does the dishes."

Stukin also writes for Harper's Bazaar and Us.