Checkerboard Restaurant

Just picture this!  Roasted turkey, dressing, candied yams, fried green tomatoes, lima beans and cornbread!  Think you’re at your grandma’s for Thanksgiving?  Nope, it’s Checkerboard Restaurant any day of the week.  After retiring from teaching and coaching, and owning his own janitorial business, Robert Frazier was offered the chance to go into the restaurant business.  So in 2007, he jumped in with both feet and thought he had made the biggest mistake of his life!  But after three years of struggling, people began to warm up to Checkerboard’s kind of country/soul food, and since then has been a tremendous success. 

“When customers come in who have been friends for years and years, I realize why my job is so enjoyable.  I’m not working, I’m just visiting!  I see people I haven’t seen since high school and college.  It’s a great job,” Frazier shares.

Checkerboard has the facilities to host large gatherings:  class reunions, club meetings, church meetings, and other things of that nature.  They have a room in the back that comfortably seats 125 people.  Tour buses arrive all the time to eat and truckers stop, stay at the hotel and eat breakfast and lunch at the restaurant.

“EMBDC helps promote my business, not only to local residents, but also to people who are just passing through or coming to visit.  They do a good job in relation to promoting local business.  That’s why I’m a member.  They take care of the businesses already established while seeking new commerce for Meridian,” he adds.

Good food, combined with good service, has been the key to Checkerboard’s success.  Frazier says, “If you treat people the way they want to be treated and consistently give them good food, they will come back to see you.” 

What’s for lunch?  Today’s menu offers many choices, including fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, assorted vegetables, salads and desserts.  Peach cobbler, anyone?  Checkerboard Restaurant; all-you-can-eat Southern comfort food in a comfortable atmosphere. 

Checkerboard Restaurant
2223 S Frontage Rd.