About a year ago, I expressed a little petulant dismay that the first out-of-state restaurant that we featured on this blog was in Jacksonville, Florida, a town that I’d never visited before, in the state that I love to hate. A small part of that pouting came about because I had hoped to have one of my favorite places in Mobile, Alabama be the first out-of-Georgia eatery, or perhaps another great restaurant in that gulf coast town just packed with great restaurants. For many years, I have taken a Saturday in the spring to ride down to Mobile with my good friend Ric, who treks into Alabama twice a month from his place in Columbus to visit his son. Unfortunately, a combination of illness and bad scheduling meant that I didn’t get to go down to Mobile when it was convenient in 2010. So I was really looking forward to getting out of town for a day and making the ungodly trek down I-65, about which more in the next chapter, to this fabulous city, and spend some time catching up with my buddy, of whom I don’t see nearly enough. It’s a haul; sure, I only drive the leg from my place to Columbus and back, but the whole thing is 750 miles in a day. It’s best to break it up with a couple of meals and visiting some good people along the way. Continue reading “The Original Oyster House, Mobile AL”
Category: alabama
Marie’s B-B-Q House, Heflin AL
Because, as I’ve mentioned, I am a little mercenary and wanted specifically to add an extra chapter or two to this blog, I hoped to grab one more small bite to eat before we got back to Atlanta. So on our way into town, I noticed that there was an outpost of a small, somewhat well-known barbecue chain located in St. Clair County, and decided that when we left Birmingham several hours later, we would stop by and have a snack and another entry. It didn’t work out that way; we did indeed pull off at that exit to gas up, but darned if we weren’t all still so stuffed from the sandwiches at Kool Korner that none of us could face the prospect of ordering even a single sandwich. Continue reading “Marie’s B-B-Q House, Heflin AL”
Kool Korner Sandwiches, Birmingham AL
I must admit that within a couple of minutes of entering Kool Korner Sandwiches, I was completely baffled. I had read up on the place, which is in a Publix strip mall in the Vestavia Hills suburb of Birmingham, and followed the reviews and looked over their web site, all of which promised the best and most authentic Cuban sandwiches in the southeast from this brand-spanking new restaurant. Well, I was game. What I did not expect was the sight of all the awards on the wall labeling Kool Korner the home of the best sandwiches in Atlanta for several years. Continue reading “Kool Korner Sandwiches, Birmingham AL”
Pete’s Famous Hot Dogs, Birmingham AL (CLOSED)
So I was sketching out this trip and my daughter requested a hot dog while we were in Birmingham. That suited me just fine; I’m mercenary enough to want to add more chapters to this blog, and we had bypassed Pete’s Famous Hot Dogs, arguably the best-known restaurant in the city, in favor of one of its competitors the last time we visited. Having now tried both, I’m prepared to make an unusual claim: I prefer the dog that George makes at Gus’s to the one that Gus makes at Pete’s. Continue reading “Pete’s Famous Hot Dogs, Birmingham AL (CLOSED)”
Dreamcakes, Birmingham AL
This is Marie, contributing a very small chapter about some very small cakes.
As any reader of this blog knows, desserts are well-nigh irresistible attractions for me. Generally, therefore, I don’t work very hard to locate places that serve chocolates, sweets, cakes and pies because they tend to creep up on me and drag me in all on their own. That’s what happened with Dreamcakes. Continue reading “Dreamcakes, Birmingham AL”
Saw’s BBQ, Birmingham AL
One of the current faves among the restaurant-reviewin’ crowd in Birmingham is Saw’s, a barbecue joint that has moved into the space formerly occupied by the much-loved Broadway Barbecue. It’s in a really nice little strip of shops and restaurants on Oxmoor Road in the Homewood community just south of the city center and Vulcan Park, a strip which, it would transpire, held one or two other surprises for us on our trip to Birmingham this weekend. Continue reading “Saw’s BBQ, Birmingham AL”
Toomer’s Drugs, Auburn AL
In the previous chapter, I mentioned that a long-term goal for us doing this blog is to visit each of the twelve SEC cities, and write up one restaurant from each town. We accomplished this in Auburn on Saturday when we visited Toomer’s Drugs, one of the oldest soda fountains in the southeast. It was opened in 1896 across from what was then called the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama, which is why Bear Bryant typically referred to Bama’s instate rival as “that cow college.” He was probably just jealous that he couldn’t get a lemonade this good in Tuscaloosa. Continue reading “Toomer’s Drugs, Auburn AL”
Marie, Let's Eat! 