It’s lunchtime on a Friday, and a crowd is gathered in front of Bet-R Grocery’s deli counter. But it’s not sliced ham and turkey that customers are after—it’s plate lunches from the store’s popular hot food line. Through a glass case, they peer at steaming aluminum pans holding scratch cooking from the Deep South canon.
The menu isn’t posted anywhere. Regulars just know what to expect.
Mondays mean red or white beans. Tuesdays feature what head cook Linda Williams-Sparks calls the “gravy” dishes: meatloaf, pork chops and turkey wings. Thursdays yield spaghetti and meatballs, stuffed bell peppers, cabbage rolls and lasagna—entrees with a ground beef throughline. Wednesdays and Fridays are seafood-themed, luring shoppers with the siren song of fried shrimp and crawfish etouffee.
Kizzy Anderson and Linda Williams-Sparks work on Bet-R Grocery’s hot food line.
Fridays are the only day of the week when crawfish cornbread appears, Bet-R’s signature sweet-savory cornbread dressing cooked down with crawfish tails. That may explain why today’s line stretches clear to the dairy section. The seafood specials are joined by three fixed options offered every day: fried catfish, baked chicken and fried chicken.
Customers pick an entree and two side dishes from a roundup that includes macaroni and cheese, peas, green beans, yams, collard greens and corn. Dessert comes in the form of a daily cobbler in rotating flavors that read like a church supper: peach, apple, blackberry and strawberry, plus a pecan version with a pecan pie-like base topped with a biscuit-y crust.
Williams-Sparks has been working at Bet-R since the ’90s, back when hot lunches were ordered to-go from the counter and assembled out of sight. Around 20 years ago, co-owner and manager Cliff Boulden installed the glass case, where patrons can gather, gaze
and watch as their lunch
(or breakfast) is ladled into a clamshell.
“They love it,” says cook Quauna Nash, a four-year employee. “They love coming in and finding these dishes that taste like home.” betrgrocery.com
More hot food lines around town
Hi Nabor
Multiple locations
The weekday lunch specials feature mains like red beans and rice, meatloaf, jambalaya, smothered pork chops and fried catfish with rotating sides. hinabor.com
Matherne’s Market
Multiple locations
Shrimp etouffee, crawfish alfredo, baked or fried catfish and chicken along with side dishes like fried okra, Brussels sprouts and crawfish cornbread give diners plenty to choose from. Specials vary by location. mathernes.com
Ideal Market
Multiple locations
Choose from Latin American favorites at Ideal Market’s sprawling hot food line, including carne asada, barbacoa and pollo asado. Grab accompaniments like yellow rice, yucca, plantains and whole and refried beans. Don’t forget tres leches cake for dessert. idealmarket.com
Rouses Market
Multiple locations
Lunch (and dinner) daily specials include Cajun classics on Mondays, Asian faves on Tuesdays, barbecue on Saturdays and lots of other tasty options. The supermarkets also include salad bars. rouses.com
Calvin’s Bocage Market
7675 Jefferson Highway
Weekday lunch specials include a fried pork chop with rice dressing on Tuesdays and smothered round steak with mashed potatoes on Thursdays. All specials come with two sides, a roll and dessert. calvinsbocage.com
This article was originally published in the November 2024 issue of 225 Magazine.
