Jenn Hill Explores This Tiny Texas Town With a 100-Year-Old Family Legacy—and Some Seriously Good Food

Homeworthy is teaming up with one of our favorite Texas tastemakers, Jenn Hill, for a new series that takes you into the heart (or should we say hearts?) of the Lone Star State. Hill, a lifetime Texan, will travel through the small towns of her beloved home state and get to know the longtime residents who help shape these Texas towns. She’ll pop into beautiful homes, delicious restaurants, and charming shops to shine a much-deserved spotlight on these sweet spots. 

In this episode, the first of three, Hill is headed to Marshall, home to about 25,000, that’s just a two and a half hour drive from Dallas. She starts her journey through Marshall at Bear Bottom, the property of Robbie Shoults, whose family has lived on the land for more than a century. Every generation of the Shoults family has made this place their home, and Robbie is hardly an exception. Not only does he run the family smokehouse, Bear Creek, to which Jenn pays a visit later on, but he makes sure everything coming out of his kitchen is worthy of his home’s charm. In fact, Jenn joins Robbie’s mother, Bebe, in the kitchen to find out the secret to her chocolate pie.

Next, Jenn drives to the family’s Bear Creek Smokehouse, where Robbie gladly lifts the curtains on quite literally how the meat is made, and to no one’s surprise, it’s an incredible process. Jenn heads into the pit room, which the Shoultses admit is the heart of the business. 

The journey continues into downtown Marshall, where Jenn visits High Horse restaurant, which lives within Texas’ first department store. It may have been renovated since transforming into a local eatery, but the current interiors definitely reference its history as a 128-year-old hot spot. Jenn doesn’t just order a few menu favorites; she actually cooks alongside chef Donald, preparing blackened redfish with crawfish cream sauce, rice pilaf, and asparagus.

As the hours tick on by, Jenn and Robbie take a break from the activities of the day to marvel at the sun disappearing over the ruggedly beautiful landscape. A stunning vista of a town worthy of a postcard feels like a fitting end to her jam-packed day getting to know what makes this town (plus its traditions and layered history) feel appropriate.