This cornbread and honey butter recipe from DeSha’s will have you feeling nostalgic
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Cooking with the past
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This cornbread and honey butter recipe from DeSha’s will have you feeling nostalgic
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Lexington loves local restaurants and when we taste dishes we love, we never forget them, even when they leave us.
That’s why we’re exploring some of the recipes that have been the biggest reader favorites over the decades.
Some are from restaurants we recently lost. Others we know only as history, culinary artifacts from popular dining spots long gone. But never quite forgotten.
So we’ve been digging into the Herald-Leader archives, contacting local chefs who ran some of Lexington’s most popular restaurants and reaching out to veteran recipe collectors to pull together a collection to reminisce over.
If you have a favorite you want us to try to find, email me at jpatton1@herald-leader.com.
Our first recipe comes from DeSha’s, a downtown Lexington staple across from Rupp Arena that for decades hosted many a pre- and post-basketball game meal for Wildcat fans and out-of-towners alike.
And one thing was pretty much every table: Their made-from-scratch cornbread and honey butter.
It was so popular that the restaurant actually gave out the recipe at the door.
But maybe you lost your copy. Or never grabbed one because you thought it would always be there.
DeSha’s Lexington history
It was a shock to many, including the owners, when the casual restaurant closed unexpectedly at the end of 2013.
DeSha’s opened in 1985 as the first tenant of the newly created Victorian Square, a block of 16 19th-century downtown buildings consolidated into one “mall” by preservation-minded Lexington businessmen. The restaurant almost didn’t happen: When the H.H. Leet building was being restored, the exterior brick wall collapsed. Twice. But it was rebuilt and the project recovered.
Owner Nick Sanders named the restaurant for his father, Desha N. Sanders Jr., who had been an executive with Jerrico Inc. of Lexington and owned another downtown restaurant in the 1950s.
DeSha’s menu became known for its sandwiches, steaks, chicken salad, Hot Browns and salads. Downtown workers headed over lunch and basketball fans stopped by before tip-off at Rupp for 28 years. But the signature item was the mini loaves of cornbread served with honey butter, which came right after you ordered your entree.
The restaurant closed on Dec. 29, 2013, after a legal battle between the new owners of the buildings, now dubbed The Square, and Nick Sanders, who also owns the Tavern Restaurant Group in Cincinnati. The Webb Companies and Jeffrey R. Anderson Real Estate won, and DeSha’s was evicted. The restaurant space is now an Urban Outfitters.
Ingredients
- 3 cups self-rising cornmeal
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 6 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
- 3 cups sour cream
- 2 2/3 cups cream-style corn
Directions
- Combine ingredients in order listed. Mix well. Pour into a greased 9- by 13-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Makes 12 squares. Serve with honey butter.
- To make honey butter: Mix 1 1/4 cups softened butter and 1/2 cup honey until smooth.
This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
