Second Street Lunch

My mother is from this town and when we would visit my grandmother this place was a favorite. The ladies working there took your order and then made your food. The tickets were handwritten and left in your table. I always ordered the pizza burger and the hamburger all the way, that’s with slaw and chili. My husband teases me about the flatest burgers in the world coming from this place. The hotdogs I remember being florescent pink. My kids loved them. I used to get a sundrop in a glass bottle from the fridge. Crinkle fries. Yum.
Yes, the owner was gruff. He went to school with my mother. He was always kind to us. Haven’t been in a long time. Fond memories.

if you want an old fashioned way to go about how your meal is fixed, then this is a place for you. I’ve been going here since I was a kid. the service is awesome and so is the food. the only thing I’ve found to be an issue is their prices.

The worst Carolina BBQ sandwich & slaw I’ve ever had. It was eatable but not impressed. Staff stood around talking till finally I had to ask them to clear & clean the only available table so we could sit & order.
This is a very small restaurant yet we stood in a line 5 people deep for 20+ minutes while the staff ignored the fact that we all needed to pay for our meals so we could leave.
The fries were good though & our waitress was nice but over all the service was AWFUL! Good menu choices & cheap but not worth the hassle of poor service. I won’t return to this establishment.

We stopped for a quick lunch on our trip back to Washington. When you can get a double cheeseburger for $ 2.90 what’s to complain about? We don’t see menus with $ 1.00 and $ 2.00 items — EVER. It was a quirky fun experience and the food was decent — the waitstaff friendly even though a sign in the restaurant says «The customer is always wrong». It was an interesting diversion on a very long trip.

You can’t get a better burger, and it’s so cheap. The waitress was really helpful. A gem in what seems to almost be a ghost town. I will drive down from Richmond to eat there again and to pick up BBQ sauce.

The place stays packed, so that speaks for something– but not for me. I’ve been twice and left smelling like I had indeed been dunked in the deep fryer. The food was mostly brought-​in, warned over Sysco products, or at least tasted like it. While I didn’t catch his name, I believe it was the owner of the joint that was manning the cash register the last time I was there. I ordered pickles on my burger and the waitress came back with a paper boat of pickle chips– ah, oh well, I though, I can always add them myself. But then being charged a dollar for them? Not what I had in mind. My co-​worker was paying for his meal after me and asked for change out of a $ 20 bill. The owner/​cashier got sarcastic and asked what made him think he was a bank… that believe it or not, he had to go to the bank when HE needed change. So after explaining that the change was to properly tip his waitstaff, his entire attitude change.
And THAT is why I refuse to go there again. Sub-​par, mediocre at BEST food and a rather estranged attitude when it comes to the management. When I want a good burger or a decent hot dog, I’ll go to Cook Out or Browning’s Grill.
PASS.

So I’m in Roanoke Rapids, NC this past weekend and I have a hankering for burger that’s different from what I get up in VA. I was definitely in the right place for something completely different from the norm. My cousin just moved into this town and she didn’t know any place either so thanks to Unilocal,I found this joint, hidden in a little corner, packed with locals.
Atmosphere was like a super small mom & pop burger joint with very little seating area. The service here was great. The waitress super nice and she knew we were new to the area and would be slow ordering but she was patient with a smile.
I had the double cheeseburger with bacon lettuce tomato with ketchup. These burger was ultra thin. It’s one of those styles were the meat is in a ball and when it hits the grill, they squash it down into a super thin slice. It was fantastic. Lots of flavor, a little crunch on the edge, and very juicy. I could have 3 more of these babies and add like 5 patties to each bun.
The price was excellent, coming from a guy who’s using to paying the ridiculous prices here in NoVA. it was $ 2.99 and each extra pattie was an extra dollar. They were out of onion rings but the fries were great.
Overall, this was a great place to get a burger and I would have loved to get the other stuff they had there like hotdogs, etc. I took a star off cause the buns weren’t anything to write home about and the fries might have been from Food Lions, not sure what the waitress meant. Overall, fantastic cheap eats that makes you wonder why you even bother with McD. Also, they only take cash, no credit cards allowed.

My husband’s childhood favorite place.
Very thin hamburger patties with homemade (?) chili and homemade (?) coleslaw and yellow mustard.
Very very very very very cheap.