Roberson Family Restaurant in Seymour, Tennessee has comfort food
Jeremiah and Maja Roberson ran G&D Deli in South Knoxville for eight years, but they were looking for something more.
“It was a little mom and pop company. My husband and our kids worked there; it was very family oriented,” said Maja Roberson. “It was kind of a hole in the wall, and then we decided to spread our wings.”
The couple had been looking for a larger facility and more of a restaurant environment for their new venture, Roberson Family Restaurant, for some time now.
“The other place was a bit small; we live in Seymour and wanted to be closer to home,” said Roberson. “We found this place on the highway, and it’s generally a bit bigger.”
In the past 15 years, the building at 10211 Chapman Highway had been a barbecue area twice.
“We’ve decided not to go that route,” Roberson said. “This place doesn’t look like it used to; we wanted to go clean and simple. We’ve taken everything that was here before and recreated it in a simple way. Nothing special.”
Robersons’ signature comfort food is served in a family atmosphere.
“We strive that when you come to the restaurant, we want you to feel like family,” Roberson said. “Through the sandwich shop, we got to know our customers’ families and we’ve tried to expand that to this place. The girls who work for me try to make the customers feel at home.”
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Instead of serving breakfast, the Robersons focused on their plates. The deli’s daily specials are now on the menu.
“We try to do as much in-house as possible, including our coleslaw, okra, baked beans, homemade mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese,” said Roberson. “If we can, we use local products and produce.”
Robersons makes their food fresh every day and their burgers are fresh, never frozen. “Sometimes we pay a little extra for ingredients, but we don’t mind because we want the best product,” said Roberson. “It has been like that for us from the start.”
After the pandemic, the Robersons noticed that people were eager to eat out again. “Everyone came out because they were tired of being locked up,” she said. “What I see with the local places is that people like to support them because there are usually chains around.”
Just about everything on the menu sells well, according to Roberson. “Our burgers are very popular and our steamed buns because they aren’t made in many places around,” she said. “The dinner plates are a bit like the Blue Plate special and are also popular.”
In addition to the burgers and steamed sandwiches, hearty entrees are on the menu, such as loaded buffalo chips, boneless wings, and potato skins.
There is a house salad as well as the larger chef, chicken and veggie salads.
Quesadillas are handmade along with subs and sandwiches.
The items on the dinner table include pork chops, steak tips, fried chicken, grilled chicken breast, baked steak, catfish, a vegetable plate, and each meal is served with a choice of two country sides.
The homemade dessert menu is long and includes carrot cake, peanut butter pie, Oreo pie, coconut cream pie, chocolate cake, and peach cobbler.
When the Robersons opened on February 2, there was an overwhelming response from the community.
“It was absolutely insanely busy; we were slammed for the first few months,” said Roberson. “We ran out of food and had to close early due to supplies. We knew we were going to get busy, but we didn’t expect that.”
The restaurant offers food to go and accepts catering orders. Robersons is currently open 11am-8pm Tuesday through Saturday and closed Sunday and Monday.
“We want to do more in the future, but right now we’re dealing with the same staffing issues as everyone else,” said Roberson.