Time machines may not really exist, but Barbara’s Home Cookin’ on Old Hillsboro Road sure does. Clearly, this old school meat and three is not your place for black sea bass, truffle flatbread, or kale salad, but it can more than handle its own in terms of heaping helpings of Southern comfort food with classics like fried chicken, pork chops, mac and cheese, and fresh-baked yeast rolls.
While waiting for your table, take a seat on the front porch and enjoy an iced tea and a hot, buttery yeast roll. But don’t fill up. A peak at the menu on the chalkboard will have you wanting some of everything. Our favorites are the creamy mashed potatoes, the golden fried okra, and the crispy fried chicken and pork chops. Be sure to leave room for the chess pie, and, on the way out, grab a bag of those yeast rolls to go.
Barbara’s was opened in 1997 by Barbara Thomas who rented the 1940’s bungalow to run her restaurant. Along the way friends of friends worked for Barbara and moved in and out of the restaurant. But one stayed. Brenton Wright. Here is the story of Barbara’s according to Brenton:
Barbara Thomas is the lady who started the business roughly 19 years ago. She was born and raised in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and lived most of her adult life in middle Tennessee. She worked as a court reporter for several decades before she decided to give that up due to early signs of arthritis in her hands from countless hours of transcribing court deliberations.
Miss Barbara loved to cook so once she gave up court reporting she decided to prepare meals for several people that she knew as a way of passing time. It wasn’t long before Barbara decided she was going to try her hand at running a restaurant. She started as carry out only and as word got around about her food she started to allow people to dine in and her business grew from there. Fast forward a few years and that is where I come into play.
I started as a dishwasher at Barbara’s 13 years ago when I was 14 years old. Miss Barbara always treated me very well, as if I were her grandson, and over the years she taught me how to cook everything from skillet fried chicken to the yeast rolls that we are most know for. I worked my way up form dishwasher to kitchen manager over the course of a few years and it was about 4 years ago that I had approached Barbara about possibly purchasing the restaurant from her and she was very open to the idea. A lot has transpired over those four years, but as of April, 1, 2017 I am the official owner of the restaurant.
Odette is my mother, the other server that you might have seen on your visits is Norma, she is my grandmother, and the lady who usually works the cash register is Giselle, my Aunt. (My family, myself included, are from South Africa. I’ve been here since I was 9 so I don’t have the same accent that they do.)
1232 Old Hillsboro Road
Franklin, Tennessee 37069
(615) 794-9533