Food

How Adenah Bayoh is positioning Cornbread Farm to Soul for fast-casual expansion

The IHOP franchisee and Cornbread co-founder is on a mission to change the perception of soul food across the country.

Adenah Bayoh, an IHOP franchisee and passionate entrepreneur, co-founded fast casual Cornbread Farm to Soul to put a spotlight on soul food favorites.

Along with the restaurant’s signature cornbread, its menu features chef-partner Elzadie Smith’s scratch-made fried chicken, catfish, yams, baked mac and cheese, collard greens and peach cobbler.

Three locations are currently open in the New York-New Jersey area, and now, the partners are on a mission to expand Cornbread through franchising. But as a Black woman and first-generation immigrant, Bayoh is finding it challenging to attract investors and get financing.

Adenah Bayoh
Adenah Bayoh

Listen as she tells her story of grit, community commitment, and how she and Smith are embracing the fast-casual model to change the perception of soul food across the country.

Subscribe to Menu Feed on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on Spotify.

Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Financing

KFC U.S. same-store sales disappear from Yum Brands’ earnings report

The Bottom Line: The restaurant chain operator has increasingly kept its attention focused on Taco Bell and KFC international. But its most recent report stopped breaking out U.S. same-store sales results.

Operations

The number of independent restaurants declined by 2.3% in 2025

That drop reflected a net loss of about 9,500 restaurant locations due to an increasingly challenging operating environment. Chain restaurants, however, fared a bit better.

Food

Farmer J bucks the bowl trend with chef-driven Fieldtrays

Behind the Menu: The fast-casual British import is generating a following in New York City with curated dishes that customers build into well-balanced, flavorful meals where each component has its own space.

Trending

More from our partners