{"id":289816,"date":"2026-05-12T17:17:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/289816\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T17:17:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:17:20","slug":"samuel-j-jackson-made-surprise-visit-to-d-fw-restaurant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/289816\/","title":{"rendered":"Samuel J. Jackson made surprise visit to D-FW restaurant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday was a “pleasant surprise,” when\u00a0Frisco King actor Samuel L. Jackson<\/a> stopped in for a midday meal at\u00a0Madea’s Down Home Cooking in Dallas-Fort Worth, said owner Elbert Penson.<\/p>\n

The restaurant is in the small town of Everman, south of Fort Worth. Penson isn’t sure how Jackson found out about his 23-year-old restaurant, but his staff was thrilled to feed him collard greens, broccoli-rice casserole and fried catfish.<\/p>\n

“It was a very exciting moment,” said Michael Sherrod, who runs operations for the restaurant. He was on-site when Jackson came in with a table of about 10 guests.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t realize he was here until he tapped me on the shoulder and complimented us on the food,” Sherrod said.<\/p>\n

The restaurant was created for Penson’s\u00a0mother, Madea. After she passed, Penson\u00a0said he opened Madea’s “as a source of healing,” to remember the Sunday afternoon family get-togethers he cherished throughout his life.<\/p>\n

“In the African American community, Sunday was a holiday. That was the only time most of our dads were not at work,” the owner said. “We’d do church and come home and eat at the same table. There was a lot of love, a lot of joy on Sunday.”<\/p>\n

Madea’s is open six days a week \u2014 including Sundays \u2014 and is known in its community for three things: oxtails, cornbread and fruit punch flavored Kool-Aid. The recipes come from Penson’s\u00a0mother and grandmother, and other popular items include meatloaf, chicken fried steak and scratch-made desserts.<\/p>\n

Frisco King film crews have reportedly been working in Fort Worth, Keller and\u00a0Southlake.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jackson’s visit to Madea’s confirmed to Penson that his idea of the family gathering “still works,” he said. His restaurant is laid out like a home, where different rooms offer a feeling of those Sunday get-togethers. One of the rooms is the Obama Room, where the restaurant displays pictures of presidents and civil rights leaders.<\/p>\n

“For Mr. Jackson to come in and see that, it’s a real big deal to us,” Penson\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

“The whole idea is not just the food: The food is great, but we’re designed to make you feel like you’re home.”<\/p>\n

Madea’s Down Home Cooking is at 1019 W. Enon Ave., Everman. Closed Mondays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday was a “pleasant surprise,” when\u00a0Frisco King actor Samuel L. Jackson stopped in for a midday meal at\u00a0Madea’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[98510,116,118,117,91555,88643,89307,95927,90394,95703],"class_list":["post-289816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-arts-entertainment-tv","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-tp-celebrities","tag-tp-fort-worth","tag-tp-restaurants","tag-tp-seafood","tag-tp-taylor-sheridan","tag-tp-tv-personalities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}