
Thanin Viriyaki
Singing Chef Owner Sammy Fox.
Every cuisine has its own sights, sounds, and fragrances that let you know you’re in the right place to eat it — the smoky aroma of barbecue; the snap, crackle, pop of a burger hitting the griddle; the irresistible scent of freshly baked bread wafting from your favorite bakery.
At Madea’s Home Cookin’, a charming soul food restaurant found on a bumpy back road in the south Fort Worth suburb of Everman, you’ll marvel at similar sensory touchstones: the crunch of fried catfish filets which, when bitten into, emit plumes of steam like cigarette smoke; candied yams so irresistibly sweet and savory, you’ll debate whether to mow through them as a starter or save for dessert; smothered pork chops, whose brown, rich gravy, dotted with seasonings, is still bubbling hot when it hits your table.
Born from a fusion of American ingredients and deeply rooted African culinary traditions, soul food has long played an instrumental role in our country’s culinary landscape. Its origins can be traced to the Great Migration, when millions of African Americans migrated north and west, carrying with them dishes like fried chicken, collard greens, and black-eyed peas; these treasures were shared with communities across the nation. As James Beard award-winning food historian Adrian Miller has aptly observed, soul food embodies the essence of an immigrant cuisine and ultimately became a beloved and cherished part of American culinary history.
Or, as Madea’s owner Elbert Penson plainly puts it, soul food is, as the old saying goes, good for the soul.
“There’s so much truth in that,” says Penson, who opened Madea’s with his wife Sarah 21 years ago as a tribute to his mother. “There’s so much passion in soul food — namely because of its origins. This is food that is steeped in hardship — many of the recipes date back to the time of slavery when the people who were making this food had little to make food with. They had little access to food — that’s why so much of soul food revolves around fish and vegetables, which weren’t always easy to find but were a lot easier to find than other types of food. They used their imaginations to stretch what little they had to come up with, dishes that have now become cultural icons.”
Madea’s stands among a small but vibrant group of Fort Worth restaurants dedicated to soul food, or at least its unique expressions of it. Many, like Madea’s, are cherished neighborhood joints, beloved by regulars and locals alike. For these diners, the flavors evoke cherished memories of meals shared at their grandmothers’ tables. For others, Madea’s, Drew’s Place, Nana’s Kitchen, and others are creating new culinary traditions and forging lasting memories for a new generation of diners.
Here, then, in no particular order, are our picks from the city’s best soul food restaurants:
Drew’s Place
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Try this: Fried chicken
Easily the city’s most well-known soul food restaurant, Drew’s Place — named after owner and former Texas Tech football player Andrew Thomas — is quintessential Fort Worth dining, as important and relevant as Angelo’s Barbecue or Fred’s Texas Cafe or Paris Coffee Shop or any of our city’s other longtime dining establishments. Opened by Thomas and his wife Stephanie in 1987, the first incarnation of Drew’s appeared in the south Fort Worth suburb of Forest Hill, not far from where Thomas grew up. But a bigger and better space was to be had in the Como area of Fort Worth, where the couple found, loved, and moved into a 1960s dentist’s office, complete with a lattice roof, rock wall, and other elements of midcentury modern decor, most of which the couple has kept intact. Drew’s boasts a vast menu of soul food staples, from excellent chicken-fried steak to smothered pork chops, all freshly made. But it’s their fried chicken, its meat moist and tender beneath a crackly golden cloak speckled with spices, that has kept people coming back day after day, year after year — it’s the dish that turns first-timers into regulars. For dessert, get a slice of the housemade sweet potato pie, perhaps the restaurant’s second-best dish.
Details: 5701 Curzon Ave.,
Juicy’s Soul Food Cafe
Try this: Beef tips
Opened in 2021 by first-time restaurant owner Carla Hatton (the “Juicy” in Juicy’s), this relative newcomer takes over the space previously occupied by another soul food sensation, the sorely missed Lady & the Pit. Originally opened as a Pizza Inn — its 70s-era brick facade and slim, frosted windows are still intact — the restaurant is large and spacious, big enough for Hatton to put a game room in back. On each table in the dining area, you’ll find a deck of cards — get to shuffling because your food is going to take some time to cook. You are forewarned by a sign at the counter: “Please be patient with us. We don’t serve fast food. We serve fresh food as fast as we can.” Hatton and her friendly crew make everything by hand, down to the cornbread, dinner rolls, and banana pudding. The menu is written on the wall and divided into days, with about seven entrees, including fried pork chops, meatloaf, and turkey wings, available each day. Each entree comes with a choice of three sides — fried okra, green beans, candied yams, fried cabbage, and, among others, the Sunday-only cornbread dressing. We’ve been most impressed with the beef tips, tender chunks of beef served under a blanket of gravy full of warmth and spice, as comforting as your favorite sweater.
Details: 2220 Handley Drive,
Nana’s Kitchen
Try this: Meatloaf
We’ve fawned over this east side mainstay for years now, going back to when we named it one of the city’s best new restaurants of 2020. Since then, owner Toshia “Nana” Ramsey hasn’t skipped a beat — even though her home cooking spot, voted the best soul food restaurant in Texas by listeners of I Heart Radio, has faced a series of seemingly insurmountable challenges, the most recent of which was a fire that caused substantial damage to the restaurant’s storeroom. The Le Cordon Bleu-trained Ramsey will soon return with a vengeance, though, as she’s taken over a space next door that’ll allow her to expand the dining room and serve chicken and waffles, fried pork chops, and smothered turkey wings to bigger crowds. Her signature dish is meatloaf, which may sound a bit humdrum. But in Ramsey’s hands, it’s a beast — a serving big enough for two to three people, each piece wearing a crown of strikingly red tomato sauce, whose bright and zesty flavor could only be made by someone nicknamed “Nana.” Ramsey says her new and improved restaurant will be ready to roll mid-February; till then, she’s open for to-go orders only.
Details: 7403 John T. White Road,
Stormie Monday’s Soul Food Grill
Try this: Chicken spaghetti
This long-running spot on East Berry sets the tone before you even step in. A mural painted on the outside of the building proclaims, “Nothing brings people together like good food.” That’s exactly what you can expect at Stoney Johnson’s charming spot: a family vibe and fantastic food. This place is all about family and friends: While Johnson has his hands tied in the kitchen cooking oxtails, chicken-fried chicken, and a gargantuan baked potato loaded with five proteins (shrimp, chicken, sausage, brisket, and bacon), his kids often pop up to help out front of house, taking orders, visiting with diners, sitting with their friends; everybody here knows everybody here. And everybody here knows you should get the chicken spaghetti, whose creamy, addictively spicy sauce is a well-kept family secret.
Details: 3509 E. Berry St.,
Madea’s Down Home Cookin’
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Try this: Oxtails
Opened 21 years ago in the pindot town of Everman, Madea’s Down Home Cookin’ is the local soul food restaurant by which we judge all other local soul food restaurants. Husband-wife owners Elbert and Sarah Penson have set a skyscraper-high bar few others can match, with their flavorful renditions of chicken and dumplings, beef tips and rice, fried pork chops, pot roast, and many others.
Most of the recipes came from Elbert’s mother, Addie, whose nickname was “Madea,” an abbreviated way of saying, “mother dear,” Elbert says. Addie either developed these recipes herself or inherited them from other family members; Elbert says many of them date back to the era of slavery. All are served in a warm atmosphere that feels like home, no matter where your home may be. Many of the restaurant’s dishes are served cafeteria-style, while others are made to order and may take a bit to cook. Such is the case with the restaurant’s signature item, oxtails. Meat derived from the tails of cattle is pounded until tender, slow-cooked, then marinated for a day or so (Elbert won’t reveal the exact details; it’s such an painstaking process, he says); the result is silk-tender meat, buried in a brown gravy, that easily slides onto your fork and melts in your mouth. Get it with a side of hot water cornbread — cornbread that’s fried rather than baked.
Details: 1019 E. Enon Ave., Everman,
facebook.com/madeasdownhomecookin/
Singing Chef Cafe
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Try this: Peach pork chops
Sammy Fox opened his Forest Hills-area restaurant at what could possibly be the worst time ever: in the middle of the pandemic. But the perpetually optimistic chef — and, yes, singer — did it smartly, offering, at first, to-go only food, helping him find his footing — and audience — in this southeast Fort Worth neighborhood. Now, his restaurant is usually filled from open to close. It’s a one-of-a-kind dining experience. You sit among guitars, photos of musicians and celebrities with whom the singing chef has rubbed shoulders, and, if you’re lucky, Fox’ll hum or sing, happily, skillfully, while he’s cooking your meal.
“I want this to be a unique dining experience,” says Fox, who sings and plays drums in clubs throughout the North Texas area. “You can go to any restaurant and have a good meal. But this is a place you’ll remember.”
Memorable as the setting is, the food is even more so. Fox offers chef-inspired, often-playful renditions of soul food and Southern staples: a po’boy sandwich made with Cap’n Crunch-breaded chicken, a half-pound hamburger made with doughnuts instead of buns, housemade pork rinds. For every whimsical dish, though, there are others that pay homage to his family’s heritage, like his fantastic shrimp jambalaya, or others that push the soul food genre forward, like his must-get peach pork chops, a plate-engulfing pork chop topped with grilled, honey-glazed peaches.
Although somewhat of a newcomer in North Texas, Fox has been cooking for more than a decade. He’s cooked in kitchens across the state and ran a food truck, also called Singing Chef, in Temple. After the food truck was severely damaged in a fire, he headed to Fort Worth, where he opened this glammy soul food spot in the fall of 2021. His restaurant keeps unusual hours — he usually closes around 5, and he’s not open weekends. Evenings and weekends are devoted to his other love: playing music.
Details: 8000 Wichita St.,
Chef’s Corner
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Try this: Shrimp and grits
Mike Douresseaux’s tiny Cajun and soul food spot isn’t hard to find as long as you follow these simple instructions: Walk in and hang a right at the Twinkies. Chef’s Corner, you see, is in a gas station. But don’t let the sights and smells of one thing ruin the sights and smells of another: Douresseaux is cooking some of the best Cajun-inspired soul food in the city. This isn’t our first story on the Beaumont native who has spent 40 of his 56 years working in restaurants, many of them high-end hotel restaurants. Last year, we profiled Douresseaux after his food went viral on TikTok. With just cause: Here’s a guy serving lamb shank with a side of mushroom risotto, salmon glazed with sweet and fiery Thai chile sauce, and herb-grilled steak — out of the back of a gas station.
Other menu items include corn-roasted jalapeno cheese grits with sausage, crawfish, fried catfish filets and jumbo shrimp, a spectacular, showstopper of a gumbo spiked with crab two ways — blue crab and massive snow crab legs — and chicken and waffles drizzled in burnt butter caramel. The Chevron gas station that he works out of has provided Douresseaux a second chance at cooking for a living. He pretty much quit the food business after landing in legal trouble; this tiny gas station kitchen is his comeback. In addition to being a chef, Douresseaux also spent several years as a dietary consultant, having graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in dietary management; his menu includes a handful of veggie and vegan options. Later this year, he’s planning on opening a new restaurant in Dallas.
Details: 5728 E. Berry St.
Other restaurants in the Fort Worth area that serve soul food classics include:
- Belzoni’s Catfish Cafe: Although known primarily for expertly fried catfish, this White Settlement spot serves daily lunch specials that often veer into soul food territory, such as fried pork chops and smothered chicken. 110 N. Jim Wright Freeway, belzoniscatfishcafe.com.
- DJay’s Soul Food: This upbeat joint on the east side is hard to miss, its diner-style, bright red and white facade is so eye-catching. Inside you’ll find soul food essentials, done well and inexpensive. A meat and three side special is less than $20 — a steal once you see the portion sizes. It’s one of the few restaurants in Fort Worth that offers pig’s feet; sides such as lima beans with smoked ham hocks and green beans with smoked turkey are worth the trip. 6700 Brentwood Stair Road
- Mama E’s Bar-B-Q and Homestyle Cooking: Run by Ernestine “Mama” Edmond, one of only a few female pitmasters in Fort Worth, this 20-year-old barbecue joint, located a block east of Interstate 35 in south Fort Worth in an old Kentucky Fried Chicken, offers rotating lunch and dinner specials, including meatloaf, pork chops, and some of the best fried chicken in this area.
- Smoke-a-holics BBQ: “Soul Food Sundays” have become a huge deal at this south side barbecue joint, one of the best in the city. One Sunday a month, give or take, owner Derrick Walker opens on his usual day off to offer a pitmaster’s take on soul food classics, such as smoked meatloaf, garlic butter lamb chops, smoked oxtails, collard greens with smoked turkey, and desserts such as Coca Cola cake and sweet potato pie. Keep an eye on the restaurant’s social media for more info. 1417 Evans Ave., smoke-a-holicsbbq.com
- Taste of Tasby: Tiny spot in the Meadowbrook area offers a huge menu of soul food classics and a wide assortment of desserts. 6541 Meadowbrook Drive