How does a former Liberian refugee from New Jersey end up at a Walmart in Hempfield?

With the help of prayer, some venture capital and a business partner who grew up eating soul food in Tifton, Ga.

Adenah Bayoh and Elzadie “Zadie” Smith opened the first Cornbread restaurant in Maplewood, N.J., in 2017. Two years later, they have three Walmart-based restaurants in the Pittsburgh area — West Mifflin, Tarentum and Hempfield.

On Monday, the co-founders attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the restaurant at the Greengate Walmart. Welcoming them were officials from the county, township, the Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce, Walmart — and a growing crowd of curious shoppers.

“I have a passion for soul food, but it’s hard to find places with good soul food,” said Rondorian Cartnail, who ordered whiting (fish), cornbread and candied yams. A Frederick, Md., native who now lives in Mt. Pleasant, he learned about the restaurant a few weeks ago while shopping at the Hempfield Walmart.

Cornbread, described as a “fast casual” farm-to-table soul food restaurant, occupies the space McDonald’s vacated more than a year ago.

After opening a stand-alone restaurant in New Jersey, Bayoh, 40, said a business consultant “called a guy, who called a guy,” who put her in touch with Walmart. The founders then set their sights on Pittsburgh, which Bayoh praised for its “robust” food scene.

“I’ve spent a lot of time here and I really like what’s happening here,” she said. “Pittsburgh is always very welcoming, and we wanted to position Cornbread in a market where the community was ready for it.”

Cornbread’s menu, developed by Smith, includes fried, baked and barbecue chicken, catfish, whiting, collard greens, cabbage, macaroni and cheese and yams. The cornbread has a vegan option, and the collard greens, cabbage and string beans are all “vegan qualified,” Smith said.

“We grew up eating collard greens and cabbage, seasoned with meats including fatback, ham hocks, neck bones and other juices from pork and other meat products. The collard greens and cabbage that we serve here at Cornbread are free of all those ingredients,” she said.

Although she lives in Summit, N.J., Smith learned to cook soul food from her parents while growing up in Georgia.

“As a kid, I would cook for my siblings and force them to eat it,” she said.

A former refugee of the Liberian civil war, Bayoh immigrated to the United States at 13 and attended a public high school in Newark, N.J. She put herself through college and earned a degree in business management before beginning a career in banking and real estate development.

At 27, she became one of the youngest IHOP franchisees in the country. Although the four Cornbread restaurants are company owned, franchise opportunities will be available in 2020, she said.

“We wanted to create Cornbread almost as an homage to all of the people that worked in the field, that had no other option but to cook this food,” Bayoh said. “I always think back to all of the people that had no choice but to cook and eat this food and never really had an opportunity to put it on the market and sell it.”

Bayoh defines soul food as “real cooking. Soul food is cooking from your heart. It’s putting meaningful food in your body. When you’re cooking soul food, you have to put your soul in it.”

In his opening prayer, Deacon G. Winston Smith, husband of Zadie Smith, said locating restaurants in Walmart stores was not part of the original plan for Cornbread. “Lord, it was part of your strategic plan. You are the greatest strategic planner, period,” he said.

Critical to the chain’s success so far has been the involvement of Essence Ventures, which provided growth capital, Chief Financial Officer Eda Henries said.

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