Who would've imagined eating cornbread would be a unique adventure?

Keith and Connie Dersham of Michigan discovered how magical it can be while stopping last week in Jefferson to dine at Kitt's Kornbread Sandwich & Pie Bar, a restaurant renown for its homemade cornbread sandwiches.

Courtney Case/News Messenger (ENLARGE)

Kitt's Kornbread Sandwich & Pie Bar co-owners Sarah Williams, seated, and Kitt Williams pose for a photo in their restaurant.

"It's an experience," Dersham described after eating a cornbread sandwich, dubbed "The Texan." The entree, which has chili and cheese sandwiched between golden cornbread, is the only sandwich that must be eaten with a fork.

Bersham, who has had his share of cornbread in his lifetime, was immensely impressed.

"My wife's mother makes a lot of cornbread so I've had something to compare it to and it was good," he said. He found the jalapeno flavored bread to be very delectable.

"I've got no complaints," he said.

The Dershams learned of Jefferson and the restaurant, formerly Jefferson's House of Pies, in a book titled "1,000 Places to See Before You Die." They decided to visit while traveling across Texas from the West to the East.

"We use that book quite a bit. We never would've landed here otherwise, believe me," Dersham said. "It's a bit out of the way."

But the couple are glad they did.

"This is something I've never had before so it's pretty good. I never had it prepared that way and I thought it was tasty," Bersham said.

Gene and Linda Cagle of Denton had the same sentments. They stopped in for a turkey one last Thursday.

"It's really good," they said.

The invention

The "kornbread" sandwiches were invented by Kitt Williams, who co-owns the restaurant with her mother, Sarah Williams. The mother-daughter team, who moved to Jefferson from Dallas, started the restaurant originally out of their Victorian home seven years ago.

Initially, they served a variety of pies and Southern comfort food, mainly chicken and dumplings and cornbread to go along with it.

"Then, we decided we needed to get downtown where the people were," Kitt explained. "And, we moved to Austin Street and that's when we opened Jefferson's House of Pies."

They made sweet pies and savory pies, including pot pies, meat pies and crawfish pies.

"But, once we started doing cornbread, that took up all our time because that got to be such a hit," Sarah said.

The cornbread was originally a recipe given by a friend.

"We knew we needed cornbread to go with the chicken and dumplings. So, a friend of mine gave us a recipe for cornbread she liked and so we started making it," Kitt said.

Kitt was in the kitchen taking the bread out of the oven one day, when she was struck with a bright idea to serve cornbread sandwiches, something she would eat as a child.

"As I was taking it out of the oven one day, it reminded me when I was 8 years old," Kitt said. "I used to make cornbread sandwiches out of her (Sarah's) leftover cornbread."

At the time, young Kitt was tired of bread and desired something different.

"I wanted a snack and I just didn't want bread and I was just sick of bread and I saw the cornbread just sitting there and I thought, 'Hmmm, I wonder if I can make a sandwich.'"

She went with her instincts, slicing it in half, and filling it with ham and cheese.

"I loved it," she said, noting she warmed it in the microwave. "Right away, I thought this was great.

"From then on, every time she had left over cornbread, I decided to make a sandwich."

The fact that the cornbread would crumble in her hand, didn't hinder the taste.

"It made a good sandwich," Kitt said.

She knew if she liked it then, her customers may like it, too. She used her friends as guinea pigs once she decided to include her invention as a small part on the menu. It turned out to be a success.

"They loved it," she said.

After discovering how successful it was, the Williams' totally modified their recipe and perfected the bread to make it crumble-free.

"Now, it's a regular sized sandwich," Kitt said. "We had totally changed the recipe from the beginning and still kept the integrity."

In 2005, they decided to remove their pot pies, crawfish pies and meat pies from the menu to meet the demands of the sandwiches.

"Even though the customers loved it, those were very time consuming to make," Kitt said "It was so popular, we had to spend all our time making cornbread. Now, we never stop."

"We've got the plain, jalapeno and broccoli cornbread and then inside of that we have ham, we have turkey, we do a Texan, which is with chili. We've got one called Redneck that's real popular; it's fried bologna," Kitt said.

The bologna amazingly comes off the grill with smiley face imprints.

"That happens almost everyday that bologna smiles," Kitt said.

"While we're preparing everybody's meals, we're making more and more cornbread because we're the only one's that do it and it's a secret recipe," she continued.

And although people try to get them to reveal it, the Williams' stay mum.

"I say, yeah, you can ask," Sarah said, teasing that she won't tell, however.

The growth

The Williams' business expanded so much that they relocated to their current location, 125 N. Polk St., downtown. They opened in January just in time for the town's annual quilt show.

"We never expected to be this big," Kitt said.

The two are celebrating more good news, recently becoming the new owners of the building they were leasing. They have also decided to franchise their business and are currently looking for buyers.

"Jefferson's kind of a melting pot of people and people from all over the world come here," Kitt said. "So, we really tested it and people said, 'When are you going to come to my town?' Since, we've had so many people asking that, we decided to franchise and we've been working on that."

They hope to have franchises in Dallas, Longview, Tyler, Texarkana and Louisiana.

"It's exciting," Kitt said. "I mean we get people from England, France and China, they've never had cornbread. They don't even know what that is and they love it," she said. "We haven't found anybody that didn't love it."

They hope to capture the attention of talk show mogul Oprah Winfrey and best friend Gail King one day.

"Gail said she'll drive a thousand miles for a good sandwich," Sarah said.

"We're a straight shot from Chicago," Sarah added facetiously.

The two recalled a couple from Chicago that took a side trip to come eat there.

"They were on their way to Los Angeles and heard about us," Kitt said. "I mean this isn't on the way to Los Angeles."

"People come here from long distances because they can't get it anywhere else," her mother said.

Taking risks

The mother and daughter are glad they took a leap of faith to open their business. The two had never operated a restaurant before and Kitt, who makes the 15 plus flavors of pie, never professed to be a cook.

"She never had made pies and yet we decided to open a pie shop," Sarah, 75, said.

Kitt, who has a degree in radio and TV production, tried various recipes, had a lot of trial and error, but never gave up. Her mother, who was an educator for 20 years, stood by her side to make their dream come true. As Sicilians, they always had the entrepreneurial spirit and yearned to own a business just as Sarah's mother and grandmother did.

"It's interesting you can't plan your life because God laughs at our plan," Sarah said. "We did not plan any of this."

"You evolve into something," Kitt added. "I don't like the fact that I don't know something keep me from doing it."

Their customers are glad to have them.

"It's very addictive," Robin Moore, a loyal customer and friend said of the food. "If you don't have a cornbread sandwich one week, it's like you gotta go back.

As for the pies, customers say, "it's like eating a little bit of heaven on a fork," Sarah said.

The restaurant is open for lunch Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Sundays from non to 3 p.m. It is closed on Wednesdays.

Contact Robin Y. Richardson: 903-927-5965 or ryrichardson@marshallnewsmessenger.com.