The Queen City truck stop

Queen City Truck Stop

There’s a Pilot on one end of town and a Love’s on the other end of Meridian, Mississippi so you might be tempted to ignore the Queen City Truck Stop located at exit 151 on I20/I59. That would be a big mistake on your part. I will admit that the Queen City isn’t all shiny and new like the Love’s. And I don’t recall seeing a driver’s lounge with some ten year old movie playing way too loud, and I don’t think they even have a casino. They don’t have a massive amount of truck parking, although we’ve always managed to find a spot to squeeze into. All in all the Queen City is missing a lot of things that the modern truck stops often offer. But do you know what general manager Faye Ward has made sure they DO have at the Queen City? Excellent Southern cooking. I’m talking about really honestly superb Southern food here. The kind of food you just can’t find at those cookie-cutter chain truck stops.

Stace and I were shut down in Meridian for a couple of days this month so we got to try several different meals. Unlike a lot of places that only have the same menu every day, The Queen City has an extensive menu of specials that change every day in addition to their standard menu.

They have some really down-home side items on the daily specials menu. I remember seeing collard greens, fried okra, fried green tomatoes, cracklin corn bread, poke greens, new peas, pinto beans, black-eyed peas, cooked cabbage, vinegar cucumber and tomato salad, creamed potatoes and peach and apple cobblers. These are the kinds of veggies and sides that you remember the ladies of the church serving up on special occasions if you grew up in the South… or even in the Ozarks like me.

Where the locals hang out

Some of the main courses they had available included BBQ ribs, chicken salad, meat-loaf, turkey and dressing, red beans and rice, Southern-fried chicken, baked ham and fried chicken livers.  One day we tried their Red Beans and Rice with cornbread. I admit that it wasn’t quite as good as ours, but it was the best version I’ve ever had in a restaurant. Their cooked cabbage was every bit as good as what we make at home and we both wished we had ordered an extra helping. Stace tried the turkey and stuffing and we were surprised to find it was actually a piece of real turkey baked in an oven. Most restaurants use some sort of turkey loaf, but theirs was the real deal and it was tender and juicy as well. I had the chicken livers and found them cooked perfectly — most places over-cook livers but these were just right.

Really, I can’t think of anything we have ever ordered there that we didn’t like except the apple cobbler, but then I don’t like apple pie so I’m not surprised that I didn’t like the cobbler. To be honest, I’m not sure why I ordered it, but I guess everything else had been so good over the past two days that I thought if I was ever going to like an apple dessert that was the time and place. Sadly, they don’t appear to work miracles.

Queen City main dining room

As usual we got our orders to go, but the atmosphere of the restaurant is comforting and homey if you prefer to eat in the dining room. It’s not at all fancy-pants or stiff feeling. Most importantly when it comes to a facility in my book is that the place seems to be quite clean. I don’t recall any music playing, but I do remember hearing a lot of laughter from differing parts of the restaurant. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. They also have a smoking section and a non-smoking section so you smokers out there will feel right at home.

While the quality of the food is always going to be my primary criteria for recommending a restaurant, the service is top notch at the Queen City. Tarah waited on me several times and was both friendly and fast. And — in what must put her among the top 5% of all waitresses in all truck stops everywhere — every single order was absolutely correct when I got it back to the truck. If you drop by the Queen City and get Tarah as your waitress, leave her a good tip. She deserves it. Not that she’s the only good waitress they have. We have stopped there several times and I have never had bad service. For that matter, every single employee that I have ever had contact with at the Queen City has been polite and genuinely friendly.

Can’t really think of anything else to say about them except that we always look forward to stopping at the Queen City and if you like Southern cooking you will, too. Oh, and do yourself a favor and order a big old glass of sweet tea. It was fresh and smooth and went down just right with that excellent fried chicken and cornbread.