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Private company

Lambert's Cafe

Logo: throwedrolls.com3

US restaurant chain

Lambert's Cafe is a US restaurant chain with locations in Foley, Alabama; Sikeston, Missouri; and Ozark, Missouri. It was founded in 1942. It is known for throwing hot rolls to the customers.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1942Founded1

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Photo: Infrogmation of New Orleans, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons4

Lambert's Cafe is a US restaurant chain with locations in Foley, Alabama; Sikeston, Missouri; and Ozark, Missouri. It was founded in 1942. It is known for throwing hot rolls to the customers. It features Southern or country cooking (fried chicken, catfish, etc.); a variety of side dishes, called "pass arounds", are brought to the table to accompany each meal. The restaurants have been cited as a prime example of "road food", and diners often arrive via tour bus.2

How it started

History

The cafe was started in Sikeston in 1942 by Earl Lambert, assisted by his wife Agnes, his brother Robert, and Robert's wife Ruby. In 1976 Earl's son Norman "'Ole Norm" Lambert, a former football coach at Sikeston High School, took over management. It was Norman who started the tradition of throwing rolls to customers. In 1981 he explained, "I started throwing rolls about four years ago when we were in our old cafe. It was too crowded one noon for me to serve the rolls to a customer and somebody yelled, 'Throw em.' So I threw them. So, now I do that about every noon meal and during the evenings too. The rolls are fresh, right out of the oven."

From Wikipedia’s article on Lambert's Cafe, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Timeline

  1. 1942Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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    Company websiteLambert's Cafe logo
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