Rogerland Restaurant

Is this where the locals eat? You bet. Is this where the Roadfood traveler wants to eat? Maybe, maybe not. Having sampled a good portion of the menu, of which some was tasty, some not so much, I recommend it equivocally.

Other than barbecue, burgers, catfish, and steaks (and breakfast), meals come from a copious buffet. Main-course choices include the likes of meat loaf and baked chicken, both unctuously good; available sides included fried okra, greens, black-eyed peas, green beans, mashed potatoes, and an entire separate salad bar, plus a choice of four different cobblers for dessert. For mopping sopping and crumbling atop vegetables, there are squares of cornbread as well as chewy little dinner rolls.

My beef with Rogerland is that the side dishes are bland. The greens lack porky flavor and need lots of vinegar-pepper juice and hot sauce to come alive; fried okra is soft; cobblers are more sugary than fruity.

Still, it is hard not to like this place. The girls manning the buffet are as charming and helpful as can be; the cuisine is truly local; clientele are salt-of-the-earth. When next I visit Paris, I will return — for barbecue as well as for the buffet.