Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson

If you didn?t get to your grandmother?s house on Sunday for dinner, then make your way to Mrs. Robinson?s Grill one day this week for lunch.

It?s the next best thing.

Megan and Brad Robinson opened the restaurant the first of April on South Green Street in Tupelo next to the railroad tracks. A plate lunch is served every day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

?We?d been catering out of our house for a while,? said Megan Robinson, 32. ?We did a lot of casseroles, a lot of pharmaceutical lunches. That?s how we kind of got our name out there.?

When Rob Lesley decided to move his barbecue restaurant, Romie?s BBQ, from Green Street to Troy Street, he let Megan and Brad know.

?We wanted to move out of our house and get our license and get legal,? she said. ?Brad and I both love to cook, so it just felt like the right spot to be in.?

Robinson does most of the cooking at the restaurant, along with her aunts ? her mother?s sisters ? Anne Carnathan, who works full time, and Joan Coker, who helps out when needed.

?All of my family cooks,? said Megan Robinson, who is not affiliated with either Rita Robinson or Billie Robison, two other Tupelo caterers.?I learned mostly from my mother, and my aunts taught her.?

All the food prepared at the restaurant ? meats, vegetables, casseroles, cornbread, side dishes, desserts, even salad dressings ? are homemade. There are no industrial cans of anything sitting on the shelves in the kitchen.

Last Thursday, Carnathan made some dough, rolled it out thinly, and cut it into strips for chicken and dumplings. Coker was busy turning fried green tomatoes in an electric skillet. Robinson stirred a big pot of green beans seasoned with hamhocks and checked on two big pans of peach cobbler bubbling in the oven. The lunch offerings were rounded out with spaghetti, fried okra, salad, whole kernel corn and strawberry crunch.

?Whatever we feel like cooking, that?s what we have,? Robinson said. ?Brad does all the grilling outside, so we have to arrange our menu around his schedule.?

Brad Robinson is the captain at Fire Station No. 2 in Tupelo.

Menu changes daily

Last Tuesday, the menu featured pork chops, Chicken Ro-tel, roasted potatoes, macaroni and cheese, cabbage, lima beans, deviled eggs and strawberry cobbler.

Wednesday, patrons had a choice of grilled chicken, meatloaf, purple-hull peas, creamed corn, early peas, mashed pots and blueberry crumble.

Friday was hamburger steaks, chicken and dressing, roasted potatoes, sweet potato casserole, early peas, deviled eggs, salad, lemon crunch and brownies with icing.

A meat, two sides, bread and a drink costs $7.50. Desserts are extra.

?Our lunch special changes every day and it changes weekly,? Megan Robinson said. ?We also have a lighter lunch available. Some days it?s chicken salad, some days a grilled chicken salad or maybe pimiento cheese. It?s served with chips, a side item or a pasta salad, and a drink for $5.99.?

The restaurant serves 40 to 50 customers a day, she said, including attorneys, bankers, police officers, firefighters, factory workers and hospital employees.

?We give a 30 percent discount to police, firefighters and paramedics, so they?re good customers,? she said. ?On days when it?s messy outside, we have a lot of carry-out orders.?

When the Robinsons took over the restaurant, they painted the walls, redid the bathroom, added a couple of tables to the dining room, expanded the kitchen and put in a door that leads to the patio. They can seat 30 in the restaurant and 16 outside.

?There?s no way to judge how many customers we?re going to have or how much food to make,? Megan Robinson said. ?One day we might only have 20 people and have leftovers. And another day, we might run out of something. But that hardly ever happens.?

Working out kinks

Carnathan, the aunt who works full time, had retired last year from Lane. Her niece talked her into coming and helping out in the restaurant for three to four hours a day.

?I?ve really enjoyed this,? she said. ?It makes me think of cooking at home with my family. And we make mistakes here. I was making peach cobbler once in a big, old aluminum pan and when I took it out of the oven it just doubled in half. There was peach cobbler all over this floor and I was straddling it.?

Her sister, hearing the story being retold, began to laugh.

?I wished I?d had me a camera,? Coker said. And then she began to tell tales on her niece, Megan.

?You should have known her growing up,? Coker said. ?She was Miss Prissy. You never would have thought she?d end up in a hot kitchen.?

While Brad Robinson doesn?t stand over a hot stove in the kitchen, he does stand over a hot grill, preparing pork chops, chicken, hamburger steaks and smoked pork tenderloin for the restaurant.

?I?ve been into grilling my whole life,? he said. ?I told my mother to teach me how to cook so I didn?t have to get married.?

The Robinsons close the restaurant after lunch and on weekends so they can continue their catering business and their casseroles-to-go, which include Chicken Ro-tel, poppyseed chicken, lasagna, baked spaghetti, chicken and dressing, chicken potpie, macaroni and cheese and green bean casserole.

?In the fall, we?ll have a lot of tailgating stuff that people can call and order,? he said. ?We think that will work well. It?s still a learning experience for us. We?re working the kinks out every day.?

Source: http://www.mrsrobinsonsgrill.com/?p=70

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