Carol’s Homestyle Cooking in Bardwell

WHEN CAROL’S HOMESTYLE COOKING in Bardwell opens at 5 a.m., there’s a slow trickle of customers, mostly ordering to go. Around 7 a.m., the senior citizens start to arrive, and there’s usually a tableful until about 9:30 a.m. When it’s rainy, restaurant owner Carol Wright says, the farmers come in for lunch—but she sees less of them during harvest season. On Sundays, the 68-seat dining room fills up three times between 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. “It’s a madhouse for a while,” Carol says. 

The restaurant, which opened in 2012, has become a beloved gathering spot in Bardwell. “People come in, and they sit with people they don’t even know,” Carol says. “I think there’s lots of friends made here.” 

Carol has worked in restaurants her whole life. She got her first job at 18, cooking at Trail’s End Truck Stop in Arlington, and later managed an Arby’s in Georgia before moving back to Kentucky. These days, Carol has stepped back from early mornings—her daughter Chasity Wright, a Gibson Electric consumer-member, handles opening now—but she still makes all the desserts and cooks lunch twice a week. 

“Why not do something you enjoy?” Carol says. “And people get great satisfaction out of it.”

The menu at Carol’s features “just plain old country food” like baked apples, chicken and dressing, fried chicken, roast beef and baked ham; breakfast options like sausage, bacon, “eggs any way you want,” biscuits and gravy and hash browns; and homemade desserts like peach, blackberry and cherry cobblers, strawberry cake and banana pudding. But the main attraction, Carol says, is the community that gathers every time her doors open.

“They stand behind me,” Carol says. “I’m telling you, it’s great.”

Located at 710 U.S. Highway 51 in Bardwell, Carol’s is open 5 a.m.–1:30 p.m. Sunday–Thursday, closed Friday and Saturday.