Throw Me A Roll
Ever since we started RVing, people have told us about Lambert’s Cafe, a small restaurant chain that built a name for itself by serving huge portions of good food, and throwing dinner rolls at their customers.
Yes, you read that right. At Lambert’s, they don’t serve you rolls, they throw them at you! Company legend says the restaurant’s tradition of “throwed rolls” began in 1976, when founder Norman Lambert couldn’t get across the busy restaurant fast enough to deliver warm rolls to a table, and a customer asked him just to throw one. Norman threw the roll, the customer caught it, and history was made.
There are three Lambert’s locations – the original restaurant in Sikeston, Missouri; another in Ozark, Missouri; and the third is in Foley, Alabama. Yesterday afternoon our friends Tom and Karen Weigman came by to visit, and Tom suggested we have a late lunch/early dinner together. I mentioned that we had never been to Lambert’s and Tom said it was a favorite of theirs. So off we went to Lambert’s!
We knew that Lambert’s specializes in country cooking, that the food portions were substantial, and that besides your 
main course, somebody is always coming by offering free “pass-arounds,” which are down home fare like fried potatoes and onions, macaroni and tomatoes, black-eyed peas, fried okra, and hot rolls with sorghum. Many people we know have told us that they usually fill up on the pass-arounds, and end up taking much of their entrée home to finish the next day, giving them two meals for the price of one.
Karen and I ordered fried chicken, Miss Terry had chicken livers, and 
Tom opted for the meat loaf. And, of course, a nice young man came by and threw fresh hot rolls at us. Indeed, the portions were beyond generous, and even without the pass-arounds I don’t 
think any of us would have been able to clean up our plates. This photo was taken after we finished our meals, and there was more left on our plates than you get served in most restaurants.
So what did I think of Lambert’s? Well, you get a lot to eat, but it’s not the cheapest meal in town. My fried chicken was very good, but Miss Terry’s is better, and I don’t think it holds a candle to the broasted chicken at one of our favorite southern restaurants, Golden Girls, in Clinton, Tennessee. If we were having dinner with somebody else and they suggested Lambert’s, I wouldn’t hesitate to go again, but there are quite a few other nearby restaurants that I’d choose first.
Still, I’m glad we went. We had a wonderful time visiting with Tom and Karen, who are a fun couple we look forward to spending more time with. And, I caught a throwed roll, and how many times does a guy get to do that?
Terry and I will be on the road the next couple of days, headed for Elkhart, Indiana to meet the fellow who is buying our bus conversion and complete the sale. The weather forecasts are calling for nighttime temperatures in the 20s in northern Indiana, so you know that we won’t be spending one minute more there than we have to.
Thought For The Day – You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
