This old house is now a MS Coast restaurant with family recipes cooked the Roberts way

Roberts Place Café is an old family home, divided up into three charming dining rooms.

The Roberts family dedicated one room to their father, Col. Lawrence Roberts, a member of the famed Tuskegee Airman, and another to his wife, Lucimarian.

The first room you walk into, with a few tables and cash register, is a montage to the most well-known member of the family, “Good Morning America’s” Robin Roberts. This café describes itself as a cafe that serves American Southern cuisine in a casual atmosphere, and is really all about is family.

Owner Dorothy Roberts says their motto is “cooking with love and serving with pride,” and it shows. Roberts is bustling with smiles and the aroma of good food coming out of the kitchen.

It’s another tenet Dorothy insists to abide by: pleasant environment, good service and good food is what makes this place work. And much of the good food they serve here are family traditions.

Its all about comfort food, like the Monday special of red beans and rice served with sausage and cornbread. One of the best-selling breakfast selections is called the Nest. It’s a classic combo of two sunny side up eggs and bacon in a nest of hashbrowns made with peppers and onions. Simple but delicious.

Roberts Place breakfast follows suite, with a platter of eggs, grits or hash browns, bacon or sausage. There is also a bacon and eggs sandwich that Lucimarian Roberts loved to serve her children (The Lucimarian). Robin Roberts special, the RRR, is two egg whites scrambled with the same choices of sides. My favorites on the breakfast menu would have to be the sausage biscuit with gravy and the shrimp and grits.

The mainstay on the lunch menu are the burgers, three in all. The Pass burger comes with chips and a dill pickle but is also slathered with Colonel Roberts BBQ Asian-infused sauce. Dorothy told me that Colonel Roberts did not invent the sauce, but he would have approved of it! He had been stationed in Japan and developed a love of Japanese food. There is also a grilled tuna sandwich, tenderloin beef tip sandwich, shrimp and grits and a few salads. There are a few of traditional sandwiches as well, like chicken salad and a classic BLT. If you have a sweet tooth, Roberts has ice cream and a few pastries.

Robert’s Place Café is as homey and pleasant a small cafe as you will find. It really is a family business, and everyone is made to feel at home. The food is simple but good, and worth the drive from anywhere on the Coast.

Robins Nest is located next door, the family gift shop and it is certainly worth a visit too.

If you go

Address: 233 Davis Ave., Pass Christian

Hours: 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Closed Wednesday and Sunday.

This story was originally published June 24, 2022 at 5:50 AM.