- Say the word southern lunch and what comes to mind?

Home cooking, comfort food, family.

Well there's a restaurant in Lexington called Southern Lunch, that certainly lives up to the name.

And as producer Teresa Litschke discovered, they've been serving a heapin' helping of each for 100 years.

[light music] - He started with nine bar stools across the street.

He came over here, had 15 bar stools, excuse me, and four booths.

- [Teresa] The restaurant has expanded a few times and now has about 140 seats, all under the watchful eye of Herbert Lohr, grandson of the founder of Southern Lunch.

- Been coming here since I was a little kid.

My dad started me working here when I was 12, 13, and started getting paid.

Been here my whole life.

Nobody else would ever hire me.

- [Teresa] Now you know that's not true, nor is the fact that the name Southern Lunch came from southern cooking alone.

- Southern came from the railway.

Yeah, don't tell them that.

- [Teresa] The Southern Railway ran right beside the original restaurant, and passengers on the train were a constant source of hungry customers.

Today the railroad's gone, but the hungry customers remain for many reasons.

- We love the home cooking.

We love the home cooking, the family atmosphere and the wonderful waitresses.

That's the best part.

They really take care of you.

- [Teresa] And everyone has their favorite dish.

- Well I'm getting fish today.

- We get very large portions.

- I got a Reuben sandwich and lima beans.

- I got the fried chicken livers and then cabbage and lima beans.

And we always come for the lima beans, they're really good.

And she's the lima bean queen.

She loves 'em.

- They got good shrimp, real good shrimp.

I'd just as soon eat shrimp here as I would at a fish place.

- Usually it's some kind of chicken.

- [Allen] Fried chicken.

- [Teresa] Tell me about the fried chicken.

- It's good.

- Why?

- Put the sauce on it.

- [Teresa] What kind of sauce?

That's Herbie's Barbecue Sauce on there.

- It's crunchy but it is also soft in the middle and you can just, a bone in it.

Just everything.

- Our number one deal is fried chicken.

We sell a lot of fried chicken.

We roll out our chicken and dumplings and chicken pies each day.

Everything's made from scratch back there.

Country style steaks to beef.

We sell all those pretty much every day.

We got meatloaf one day, ribs one day, and roast beef two days.

Just lots of different stuff.

- Good food, good price, like mama cooks it.

and he usually pays, so that makes it even better.

- [Teresa] So they do serve a lot of southern favorites and they're consistent about it.

- We don't like change too good.

- No.

- [Teresa] Tell me how it's changed over the years.

- It really hasn't.

It's just as good as it was when I was 15.

- [Teresa] Which is why guests at Southern Lunch are extremely loyal.

- We come near quite a bit, every day for lunch.

- Every day?

- Every day.

- Every day, pretty much my whole life.

- Most of my life.

- [Teresa] The food is one reason for the restaurant's popularity, but Herbert is obviously another.

- He's just outgoing, knows everybody, greets you at the front door.

- He's provided for people that need food as well as people that pay, but we know how good he is to everybody, so we like to support him.

- You know, we've all been a tight knit family.

I got guys back here that's worked for me for 30 to 40 years, a cashier that's worked for me for 40, but she's not here today, and it's just been a family atmosphere, you know.

It's been great.

- [Teresa] and it's what he learned from those who came before that has helped make Southern Lunch a staple for 100 years.

- You know, my grandfather always said, you're here for the, give them the quality and the service and they'll be back.

[acoustic music] - Southern Lunch is at 26 South Railroad Street in Lexington, and they're open Tuesday through Friday from 8:00 a.m.

to 7:00 p.m.

To find out more, give them a call at [336] 248-5276 or check them out on Facebook.