06/04/2026
Welcome to Throwback Thursday - The Rogerson Restaurant
📍 Ben Mottern and Ted Smith came to Twin Falls from Boise following WWII. They operated the “S and M” Café for a year before leasing space in the Rogerson Hotel from the Hoops family. In 1947, the Rogerson Restaurant opened. It was designed as a “scratch” restaurant, with all food being prepared on the premises.
🥩 Every day all meat entrees such as steaks and roasts were cut and trimmed, and all hamburger was ground by the executive chef from hindquarters of beef delivered early each day.
🥗 A salad chef prepared a variety of green, potato and Jello salads for lunch and dinner, and French fries were made fresh from whole Idaho potatoes.
🍞🥧 Bread and pastries were baked every morning by the pastry chef and her assistant. On an average day, the restaurant would serve 25 pies of eight different types, two large cakes and over 100 eight-inch oatmeal cookies – a Rogerson specialty.
When the restaurant first opened in 1947, the average lunch price was $1 and dinner $1.75 including beverage and dessert. The Rogerson averaged over 500 customers a day, and the restaurant eventually employed almost 100 people.
Smith and Mottern continued management of the Rogerson Restaurant until 1976 when the Rogerson Hotel did not renew their lease. The restaurant closed two years later.
🍴 I’m sure many of you have fond memories of enjoying a meal at the Rogerson Restaurant. Did you enjoy the pie? 🥧
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Photos courtesy of Jim Mottern.
