Jerry’s version of chicken-fried steak has a long history, rooted in family.
still fill these roles today. But these women had an unquantifiable impact on our family’s restaurant, creating and shaping the business and recipes we love today.
Our family didn’t just own these businesses — we practically lived in them. So when the kids spent the day in the store, Lucy Mae Theragood kept an eye on us while she went about her job, running the meat market and checking out customers. For years, Lucy Mae hand-sliced and tenderized the beef for the chicken-fried steak served at the restaurant. She was hired at the original store in the late ’60s when she was still in high school.
To this day, many traditions remain, Mama Smith’s broccoli cornbread is still served on Sundays — the savory sweetness of it takes me back to childhood. It sparks vivid memories of sitting around one of the large, round tables with Mama Smith and all my cousins, around half a dozen kids between ages 3 and 12, eating lunch on the weekends: Mama Smith dumping half a cup of sugar into her iced tea, but never stirring it.
My aunt says her favorite memory of the restaurant was the day it opened. “Daddy had a morning shift, and he let us know he didn’t hire anyone for the evening shift,” she tells me, followed by her and her son and my cousin, Johnny Byrd III, letting out a big laugh. Grandaddy didn’t do that on purpose, they say. He forgot. “He said, ‘We’re just going to be real quiet about it and have an opening that no one knows about.
Jerry’s has come a long way in the 50-plus years that it’s been open. The four-burner stove that my grandmother cooked on is now a multiple-griddle operation that employs four or five cooks at any given time, and what was solely a small family business has a full kitchen staff. The restaurant has returned to serving freshly made desserts, with Jeanne Ann still developing different takes on the lemon icebox pie her dad loved .
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
U.S. Justice Department Agrees to Try Sam Bankman-Fried on Original Charges Only for NowJUST IN: U.S. prosecutors said they would agree to try FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried on only the original 8 charges they filed until the Bahamas government okays additional charges brought in February and March of this year. nikhileshde reports
Read more »
Waffle Iron 'Fried' Cheese (Queso Frito) RecipeBreaded, melty cheese is something that crosses cultures—from deep-fried mozzarella sticks to Latin American queso frito. Here, we've taken breaded squares of cheese and 'fried' them in the waffle iron until their outsides turn golden brown and crunchy and their insides are melted and gooey.
Read more »
Sam Bankman-Fried May Face Fewer Counts at Trial This YearFTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried may face substantially fewer counts at a trial later this year following courtroom squabbling over whether some of the charges violate terms of a treaty with the Bahamas.
Read more »
Judge Punts on FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried's Efforts to Dismiss Some ChargesA U.S. judge hearing SBF_FTX's request to drop several criminal charges against him in the FTX_Official saga expressed skepticism of the legal arguments. He hasn't decided, though, on Sam Bankman-Fried's motions. nikhileshde and LizKNapolitano report
Read more »
Prosecutors ask to remove new Bankman-Fried charges from October trialThe founder of the now-bankrupt FTX crypto exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried, arrived at a Manhattan courthouse to make his case to a US judge as to why most of the government's fraud case against him should be dismissed before his October 2 trial
Read more »