Home of the throwed roll
There are certain places you travel that leave a lasting smile on your face.
Lambert’s Café’ in Sikeston, MO is one of those places.
During our winter/Christmas break from school in December of 1991, my soon-to-be fiancée and I drove to a little town called Metropolis, IL to visit her college roommate. We stayed with her parents, some wonderful people named Toby and Judy Davis. They were incredibly hospitable and we enjoyed visiting in their home in the quaint little town of Metropolis. (Side note, Superman is from Metropolis, so this town in Illinois embraces that with statues and gift shops).
The highlight
By far, at least to me, was the trip we took from Metropolis to Sikeston, MO – a drive of about 2 hours – and we ate, NO, we EXPERIENCED a meal at Lambert’s Café.
This place was so homey and comfortable. Every greeted us warmly. We enjoyed looking at the thousands and thousands of business cards that were stapled to the wall in the waiting area.
After we were seated, nice young men or women would come around to your table with an appetizer.
You would take a napkin from the middle of the table and place it in front of you. They would then scoop a huge pile of fried okra onto your napkin! We placed our order then ate the okra like popcorn.
Truly, My dream job
After we had been seated for a few minutes, a man with clear, plastic gloves entered the room pushing a cart of mushroom-shaped dinner rolls. Gigantic, mushroom-shaped, hot-from-the-oven dinner rolls.
What we soon realized was that you were to hold your hand up high, and that man would toss or throw a roll in your direction! Immediately, our entire table broke out in smile.
How fun! Can I move to Sikeston and get paid to throw rolls at people?
Not only was it fun, but the rolls were delicious!
The meal, the service and the volume of food were all outstanding and exceeded our expectations.
Here is a excerpt from a Chicago Sun article from 2004:
The original Lambert’s Cafe is at the junction of Interstate 55 and I-57 at Sikeston in rural Missouri. Every day a server walks through the restaurant pushing a cart of 72 hot rolls. If you request a roll, he will throw one at you. No one screams. No one ducks. Everyone is happy. That’s why Lambert’s Cafe is America’s “Only Home of Throwed Rolls.”…….
…….Lambert’s manager Jerry Johnson figures his restaurant throws 580 dozen rolls a day. The rolls are thrown between 10:30 a.m. and 9 p.m. All roll throwers wear vinyl gloves. Customers do not wear catcher’s mitts.
“People are surprised when they first come in,” Johnson says during a lunch break on a winter afternoon. “Sometimes they’re offended until they figure out what’s going on. They think we’re being rude.”
Chicago Sun, 2004
JoAnne and I, not yet married, promised each other that one day we would return.
Our first time back
We made our return in 2005, 14 years after the first trip.
On this trip, Levi, our middle child was 3 years old and Maxwell, our oldest, was 5.
I don’t know if it was the position of Levi and Max at our table or what, but they boys had 2 very different experiences.
Max sat at the very end. Even at that age, he was serious about food. So when the fried okra arrived, he got started and never really lifted his head to notice the rolls flying through the air!
Levi, on the other hand, was situated right in the middle of our table and facing the door that the “roll-man” would push his cart through when entering the room.
It only took one time for us to show Levi what to do!
After that, EVERY. TIME. that guy walked into the room, Levi raised his hand and here came a roll! Rolls were coming into our table like hand-grenades. By the time the meal was over, we had a pile the size of a bedroom pillow Levi had eaten about 2 rolls, total. The rest was just him playing one-way catch with a stranger.
JoAnne and I noticed that Max had not paid any attention (its still remarkable to us that he wouldn’t notice the bouncing bread throughout our dinner). So, we got his attention and told him to stand up in his seat and wave his hand at the nice man across the room.
The hot, buttered, enormous roll was thrown perfectly – to someone who was ready. Unfortunately, Max wasn’t ready. That roll hit him squarely between the eyes and it split in two and never slowed down until both pieces hit the back of our booth.
He turned to us, butter smeared across his face, and stoically said, “That man just threw a roll at me.”
We said, “Max, that’s his job! He’s supposed to do that!”
With that, Max turned to him and the nice man was waiting at the same place in order to give Max a second chance.
He caught the second on and we went home that night with one leftover porkchop, a huge cinnamon roll we bought in the gift shop and a bag of dented dinner rolls big enough to require its own seat belt.
Our 3rd Visit
We returned for a 3rd time in June of 2013, this time with Max, age 14, Levi age 12, Emma age 10 and Audrey age 8.
Our experience that time was the same as the previous visits. Pure joy.
Why is throwing food so much fun?
It is because we are told our whole like that throwing food is a terrible thing?
Is it because playing catch with any item is fun?
Or is it because when a family enjoys time together, anything like a throwed roll just enhances an already happy time?
I am not sure which one it is either, but I do know that I am looking forward to going back.
