The house-made sweet potato rolls, deep-fried orbs sparked with coriander, chili pepper, cilantro, garlic and cumin, are a valiant effort but the results on three visits, while well flavored, were gummy.

Time is too precious, we have decided, to spend it cooking turkey and dressing, baking potato rolls and pies and looking in all the cupboards for the cranberry grinder.

I did enjoy Mr. Alpert's mini-burgers ($10.50), a set of three on soft potato rolls.

They are clearly made from fresh ground beef and are served on tasty potato rolls.

The hot piece of battered fish on a potato roll is delicious, even if Mr. Treacher never lived in New Jersey.

There is also a chunky seafood sausage, the chef's version of wurst, topped with American caviar on a potato roll and served with cabbage salad ($13.50).

Mr. Larsson's restaurant is Scandinavian, but his sausages are American, served on fresh potato rolls with assorted toppings like hot dogs, though derived from the European tradition of creative sausage making.

"The potato roll is an unfamiliar taste," she says.

The potato rolls come from Grandmother Moore, on my mother's side of the family, and after her death, all the women in the clan strove mightily to resurrect them.

These sandwiches are usually served on a better-quality roll, such as baguettes or corn-dusted potato rolls.