Soul food restaurant Cornbread opens in West Mifflin Walmart
If you have a craving for soul food, you can now find Cornbread, a new farm- to- table, fast- casual restaurant offering fried or baked chicken, ribs and catfish, in the Walmart in West Mifflin.
Two additional spots are set to open soon at other Walmarts in the Pittsburgh region.
Adenah Bayoh and her business partner, Elzadie “Zadie” Smith, opened the first Cornbread in Maplewood, N. J., in 2017. In addition to main dishes, it offers sides such as candied yams, collard greens, string beans, mac and cheese, and its namesake cornbread.
The West Mifflin location at 2351 Century Drive opened over the weekend. Cornbread will open in Walmart locations in Tarentum and Greensburg before the end of the year.
Ms. Bayoh’s journey to opening this restaurant is the American Dream narrative: She was a refugee from Liberia when she was a teenager, went to high school in Newark, N. J., put herself through college, and opened her first IHOP when she was 27.
Today, she owns IHOPs in Newark, Paterson, and Irvington, N. J. In 2010, her Irvington location was the fastest growing in the Northeast, according to her website. She has also spearheaded mixed- used development in Irvington.
Ms. Bayoh’s focus for Cornbread has been promoting a familyfriendly restaurant with a focus on customers’ health, fair treatment of employees and responsible sourcing, according to the Cornbread site. Ms. Smith spearheads menu and recipe development. The team intends to franchise the restaurant.
Cornbread touts wellness in several forms, from the founders’ emphasis on getting up early and working out — “I’ve recently found a new love in CrossFit,” says Ms. Smith — to an emphasis on giving back to the community through initiatives such as sponsoring daily free breakfast programs for kids under 12 and free meals for veterans, both in Irvington, N. J.
The West Mifflin location, open 11 a. m. to 11 p. m., replaced a McDonald’s.