Real homecookin' to eat in or take out lightens holiday load
New Kirbyville restaurant tastes like grandma cooked it

Paul must be the only one piddl'n at Piddl'n Paul's, the newest restaurant on U.S. Highway 96 north of Kirbyville. The rest of the staff are hustl'n.

It a family enterprise for Mitchell Cook, son of DARE officer Wanda Brister and Kirbyville Police Chief Paul Brister, the piddler.

The restaurant has only been open a couple of months, but already has a following for the Angus steaks and their signature dish, the pecan-crusted chicken fried steak.

Proud mama Wanda Brister demonstrated how the beef cutlets are double-dipped in pecan coating and buttermilk batter. They sink when dropped in the frying oil, but rise golden brown to the top when done.

The flour all over her apron? Fake. Dusted on for effect. Brister is supervised in her endeavors by the real kitchen staff, led by Melissa Billingsley.

Billinglsey learned to cook from her grandmother and knows from experience how to choreograph the kitchen and wait staff, many of whom are part-time high school students.

The restaurant serves a lunch buffet from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. daily. Each day the theme changes- barbecue on Monday, Italian on Wednesday, and Mexican on Thursday. The rest of the week is variations on home cooking favorites like fried chicken or liver and onions with plenty of vegetables and fresh hot bread.

The evening menu is everything from burgers to steaks to "chicken fried anything." Billingsley said the pecan-crusting has proved so popular that the cooks will prepare chicken strips, fried chicken or pork chops in the batter.

"It's good on any kind of meat," Billinglsey said.

Cook said he has been working in restaurants ever since he was 16, has worked in every restaurant in Jasper, Logan's in Beaumont, and managed Elijah's in Kirbyville for nine years.

"I took the best ideas from all of them, did some research and added some of my own, and that's our menu," Cook said.

"I wanted to do things like the Angus steaks. They cost a little more, but they are worth it," he said. "We hear it from the customers all the time, that they are glad they don't have to drive to Beaumont for a steak like this."

Newsboy photos/ Sharon Kerr WANDA BRISTER and husband Paul are helping get Piddl'n Paul's off to running start in Kirbyville.

Monday - Thursday the restaurant is open until 9 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays until 10 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The restaurant seats about 140 including the party room. They also do catering and take out, and for large groups, delivery.

"We've gotten off to a very good start," Cook says, "with a lot of support from the community."

Piddl'n Pauls Pecan Chicken Fried Buttermilk batter:

2 cups buttermilk
2 cups water
6 eggs
Whisk together
Flour Batter:
4 cups flour
1 cup pecans, chopped fine
Mix together.

Batter steps: dip meat in flour mix, to milk mix, to flour mix, pat while covered with four mix. Put in hot deep fry oil until floats and golden brown.

You can use any kind of meat you would like, (cutlets, chicken, pork chops)