The supermarket’s hot food line is one of Baton Rouge’s best-kept secrets – [225]
from Maggie Hayne Richardson
Photography by Colin Ritchie
It’s lunch time Friday and a crowd has gathered outside the Bet-R Grocery deli. But customers aren’t looking for sliced ham and turkey, but lunch from the store’s popular hot food line. Through a glass case, they peer into steaming aluminum pans that hold cooking from the Deep South.
The menu is not posted anywhere. Regulars just know what to expect.
Monday means red or white beans. Tuesdays feature what chef Linda Williams-Sparks calls “gravy” dishes: roulade, pork chops and turkey wings. Thursday offers spaghetti and meatballs, stuffed peppers, cabbage rolls and lasagna – starters with ground beef. Wednesdays and Fridays are seafood-themed, luring shoppers with the siren song of fried shrimp and crab etouffee.
Kizzy Anderson and Linda Williams-Sparks work the hot food line at Bet-R Grocery.
Fridays are the only day of the week when crab cornbread comes out, Bet-R’s signature sweet and salty cornbread dressing made with crab tails. That might explain why today’s line extends to the dairy section. The seafood specials join three prix fixe options offered daily: fried catfish, grilled chicken and fried chicken.
Customers choose an entree and two sides from a set that includes macaroni and cheese, peas, green beans, yams, greens and corn. Dessert comes in the form of an everyday cobbler with alternating flavors that read like church supper: peach, apple, blackberry and strawberry, plus a pecan version with a pecan pie-like base topped with a biscuit crust.
Williams-Sparks has worked at Bet-R since the 1990s, when hot lunches were ordered to go from the counter and assembled out of sight. About 20 years ago, co-owner and manager Cliff Bouldon installed the glass display case where customers can gather, watch and watch as their lunch (or breakfast) are put into shells.
“They love it,” says chef Quauna Nash, a four-year employee. “They love coming in and finding these meals that taste like home.” betrgrocery.com
Weekday lunch specials include staples like red beans and rice, pizza, jambalaya, braised pork chops and fried catfish with rotating sides. hinabor.com
Matherne Market
Multiple locations
Shrimp Etouffee, Crab Alfredo, Baked or Fried Catfish and Chicken along with sides like Fried Okra, Brussels Sprouts and Crab Cornbread give diners plenty of choices. Special offers vary by location. mathernes.com
Perfect market
Multiple locations
Choose from Latin American favorites in Ideal Market’s extensive hot food line, including carne asada, barbacoa and pollo asado. Get side dishes like yellow rice, yucca, plantains, and whole and refried beans. Don’t forget the tres leches cake for dessert. idealmarket.com
Ruse market
Multiple locations
Daily lunch (and dinner) specials include Cajun classics on Mondays, Asian favorites on Tuesdays, barbecue on Saturdays, and many other delicious options. Supermarkets also include salad bars. rouses.com
Calvin’s Bocage Market
7675 Jefferson Highway
Weekday lunch specials include fried pork chop with rice dressing on Tuesdays and braised round steak with mashed potatoes on Thursdays. All specialties come with two sides, a roll and a dessert. calvinsbocage.com
This article was originally published in the November 2024 issue 225 Magazine.
By james art 
