FORT WORTH
The Peachtree Cafe comes to Fort Worth from Kansas City, where it’s known for serving that city’s best soul food and comfort food.
But it also moved into the same east Fort Worth neighborhood with Nana’s Kitchen, DJay’s Soul Food and more good restaurants, so now, the Eastchase Parkway area has even more choices.
In Kansas City, the Peachtree restaurants are a local legend. Founder Vera Willis’ fried chicken, catfish, pork chops and peach cobbler have drawn music stars, major league athletes and even Chiefs star Travis Kelce’s chef.
In Fort Worth, a mini-Peachtree is devoutly true to the tradition, serving picture-perfect Southern food cooked to order in a tiny take-out stand at 8651 John T. White Road.
The catfish was the star at a recent lunch. The fillets — fried or baked with generous lemon and butter — are as large as you’d usually find at a better steakhouse, full of the pure flavor you find in genuine Mississippi Delta-style catfish like Willis grew up with in Tallulah, Louisiana, near Vicksburg.
The baked fish alone makes baked fish interesting again. The fried catfish is coated in a soft, light seasoned flour.
A combo plate with a fried catfish fillet, a fried chicken breast, yams and collard greens with peach cobbler at the Peachtree Cafe location in Fort Worth, Texas, seen Aug. 18, 2026. Bud Kennedy bud@star-telegram.com
To show that it is serious about catfish, the Peachtree serves a choice of tartar sauces: the traditional smooth version or an upgraded sauce with green onion that really complements the fried fillet.
Louisiana fried chicken comes with a reputation. The Peachtree’s doesn’t try to out-pepper anyone.
Chicken is floured with paprika and garlic powder, served mild with a choice of cayenne-based seasoning or hot sauce on the side. It’s a similar flavor to the mild version at the Memphis-based Gus’s chain, but made fresh.
If it all sounds good, there are combination plates with two or three helpings of chicken, catfish, meat loaf and/or a pork chop for about $14-$23.
The full platters cost about $15 up to about $19 for a seafood combo or a pork chop dinner.
Peach cobbler is one of the most popular dishes at PeachTree in Kansas City. Tammy Ljungblad Kansas City Star archives
A vegetable plate is about $10. For example, collards are seasoned with smoked turkey, not pork or sugar like at some restaurants. The yams are fresh and come with plenty of sweet syrup.
Peachtree is known for Willis’ peach cobbler, and the Fort Worth location does not disappoint in any way.
The cobbler is spiced with the cinnamon and nutmeg flavors missing in food-service cobblers, and the peaches still have snap.
The restaurant is tiny, with four tables. If you want to dine in. But all the dinners are meticulously packed to go, complete with spices and sauces.
The Peachtree is open from lunch until 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, so I can imagine some large chicken orders going out for Cowboys games; 817-583-6062, instagram.com/peachtreeoftexas/.
PeachTree Cafeteria owner Vera Willis built her Kansas City restaurant on her mother’s Southern soul food recipes, wishing to replicate the exact warm atmosphere of her childhood home. Rachel Schlueter Kansas City Star archives
This story was originally published August 19, 2026 at 4:37 AM.
Dining and Cooking