The Rocket — Restaurant in Jacksonville

So we arrive at the restsurant, first time ever being here. Walk up to the xou ter and look at the menu. Noticed they served smoked chicken plate. I asked the girl taking our order if it was dark or white meat. She had the look of a deer caught in headlights. She then proceded to tell me it was chicken fingers that i must be wanting. So i pointed to the smoked chicken plate on the menu and showed her and asked again if it was dark or white meat. We kept going in circles with this question with me ending up explaining to her what dark meat and white meat was as fsr as chickens go. I dont like white meat, i like dsrk meat chicken, is why this question was importsnt to know. She was getting frustrated with me and finally turned around and asked another lady in the back who answered very hatefully thst it was dark meat. So i ordered the plate and my wife ordered hers. The smoked chicken was very good, but they cross contaminated the orders. Put her sides on my plate and my sides on her plate. I dont eat pork at all and she ordered the pulled pork plate so my sides were mixed in her pork. After we were done eating we noticed there was no place to dump our tray into a gsrbage can, so we asked the same lady at the front where we were supposed to out our tray. She snapped at us and said to bring it up to the counter where all the other folks stsnding in line were, placing their orders. We had no idea, we'd never been there before. And thought it to be a littlw unsanitary to do that, but oh well. They dont have to worry about us making any mistakes like that again. Good food, bad service =...

Hello! My name is Crystal Cheatham. I live in Nashville, TN. I wanted to share that I have so many wonderful memories of my childhood going to pick Rocket with my great-uncle for all of us family when we would gather at my great-grandmother's house. (I always got excited to flip thru the Inquirer Magazines too....bonus!) Many of us are Nashvillians, and would make the trip to all be together two or three times a year. I am almost 44 now, and most everyone has passed. Only a handful of us left. I have made several 4.5 hour trips several times over the years when I just couldn't wait any longer to taste the BEST food I've ever tasted in my LIFE. -And the warm memories of "the way we were". The world has changed in many ways, unfortunately. Family gatherings aren't priorities like they were in the good ole days. HOWEVER, the Lord blessed us with our family and time spent before it seemed to go out of style.

I'm SURE I'm not the only person with the similar memories that included Rocket. Some of the BEST memories I can replay in my mind anybtime I want.

This was a long story, but an important one, and I just wanted to say THANK YOU. To all who are there now, all who were there back then, and to who created this business and their families. I PRAY Rocket will always be around when I get those "I gotta go home and get me some Rocket." MORE than worth 9 hours of driving to sit down and taste the best times of my life.

God bless, and please don't ever close! Long story is wrapping up now. ❤

In...

ONE VISIT SO MAYBE JUST BAD.....SOMETHING. I remarked on the lack of smoke from the pit when we walked through the parking lot. No good old Hickory+pig aroma either. THAT should have told me to turn around and seek lunch elsewhere.... I visited at lunch with a friend on a Wednesday and waited 30 minutes for 2 orders of a cheeseburger, fries and slaw. Burger was BIG, fries excellent. Slaw was waaayyyyy too sweet. Sugar should not go in slaw. The burger was huge with an enormous slather of mayo, or 'salad dressing' like miracle whip. Too much. Patty was unseasoned and not hot. I had figured that was what took so long- they were cooking giant burgers to order. Nope. If I had to guess, folks that order for 'here' get pushed to the end of the line to speed up GO orders. Dunno. Plenty of happy diners, plenty of business. Maybe they just don't like unfamiliar faces. The two stars for service are for a half hour wait with no explanation. Staff seemed happy and competent. Atmosphere is either 'Retro' or just tired and dirty. Tasty, timely food would have leaned me to 'Retro', but if we're honest it's clear there hasn't been any money spent on the building or decor in 40 years. Usually I'm not a stickler for appearances but when the food is poor what...