Mattress storein Mobile, AL

Brianna Burrell, Miss Alabama 2023, is an avid cook who’s quick to praise the food in her hometown of Mobile.

“It’s amazing to have such fresh cuisine, when they literally catch it in the back of the restaurant and put it straight to your plate,” Burrell, 25, said in an interview with AL.com.

READ: Miss Alabama 2023, the state’s third Black woman crowned: ‘I’m proud to represent the South’

We asked the new Miss Alabama to name some of her favorite restaurants in the Mobile area, and it’s no surprise that most of them specialize in seafood. Here’s what she said:

Where: 263 St. Francis St. Mobile.

Menu includes: Seafood omelets, alligator sausage and pancakes, breakfast tacos, French toast, biscuits and sausage gravy, shrimp and smoked gouda cheese grits.

Miss Alabama says: “Bob’s Downtown, the most amazing breakfast you can ever imagine.”

Where: 455 Dauphin St., Mobile.

Menu includes: Chargrilled oysters, shrimp and grits, crab and shrimp dip, Oceans (made with salmon, shrimp, scallops, crawfish gravy).

Miss Alabama says: “(Erica Barrett is) a hometown chef who was emphasized on the Food Network. Her establishment is delicious. She also has an establishment in Birmingham and in Atlanta. It’s always amazing to see her spread that Mobile cuisine to other places.”

Where: 104 N. Section St., Fairhope.

Menu includes: Fried calamari, crab meat pie, escargot, snow crab legs, BBQ shrimp, blue crab claws, gumbo made with oysters, shrimp, crab and crawfish.

Miss Alabama says: “I love Tamara’s in downtown Fairhope.”

Where: 203 Dauphin St., Mobile.

Menu includes: Redfish, shrimp and grits, Chesapeake Bay scallops, pickled shrimp, fried catfish, fried oyster Benedict.

Where: 102 Dauphin St., Mobile.

Menu includes: Seafood pasta, shrimp scampi, fried calamari, tuna poke bowl, fresh fish sandwich, shrimp po’ boy.

Miss Alabama says: “I love The Noble South, Squid Ink — all of these are seafood places. So if you don’t like seafood, I’m sorry, but they do have other options. But I am a seafood girl. I could eat it every day.”

READ MORE: Squid Ink happens: Downtown Mobile gets new flavors

More on Mobile food:

Summer is officially here, and it’s hot, y’all. It’s already downright stifling hot in Alabama, and that’s all anyone seems to want to talk about. Wherever you go, folks are commenting about how hot it is. There’s only one thing to do about it: Cool off from the inside out by eating something nice and cold and comforting, like ice cream.

Down in Mobile, where we’re absolutely sweltering, there’s a diverse array of places to beat the heat with a tasty frozen treat. Here are five of al.com’s picks for the best ice cream in the city.

As we eat our way through the summer, we’ve already brought you our choices for the best barbecue, pizza and burgers. Here’s the scoop on ice cream in Birmingham and Huntsville.

5. Peppermint Gelato & Café

5951 Old Shell Road, facebook.com/peppermintmobile

Located in a cozy house across from the University of South Alabama’s Mitchell Center, Peppermint is a new addition to the ice cream scene in Mobile. Its menu is simple: You choose from 12 daily flavors of gelato (pistachio, raspberry white chocolate and peach cobbler were recent offerings), and you decide whether you want one, two or three scoops. The friendly staff is happy to give samples. There’s also a case filled with fresh pastries like baklava, walnut cupcakes and brightly colored macarons, Turkish coffee and an assortment of teas. You can take your selections outside to the covered porch, or enjoy them in the serene inside dining room, where you might linger over a chess match. Proprietor Mahin Ghavamian, whose family has operated the nearby Food Pak International market since 1991, named Peppermint after her adorable granddaughter, Pepper.

Order this: Sample what looks good and order at least two scoops of two different flavors of gelato.

4. Sno DASH

3240 Dauphin St., facebook.com/SnoDashMobile

Lan Nguyen opened Mobile’s first rolled ice cream shop in 2017, with plans to offer several locations. But today, Sno DASH – named for Nguyen’s son, Dash – and its sister business, DASH Poke Co., operate in one spot in a busy strip mall on Dauphin Street near I-65. Watching the rolled ice cream being made on an ice-cold plate is a mesmerizing process that’s part of the fun of getting a frozen treat here. The thin slices of ice cream, expertly rolled and stacked in a cup, can be blended and topped with cookies (like Oreos and Nutter Butters), cotton dandy, Nutella, cheesecake, fresh fruit, candy bars (Snickers, Reese’s and more) and cereal (Fruity Pebbles, Cocoa Puffs, etc.) – in other words, all the good stuff, in seemingly endless combinations. Sno DASH also offers soft-serve ice cream and ultra cheesecake milkshakes as well as a variety of shaved ice.

Order this: S’mores, with graham crackers mixed into rolled ice cream topped with more graham crackers, a Hershey’s chocolate miniature, toasted marshmallows and chocolate syrup. It’s like camping, only much cooler.

3. Jefe Paletas

5301 Cottage Hill Road, facebook.com/JefePaletas

Fabian Leon, who grew up working in his parents’ Mexican restaurants in Mobile, opened Jefe Paletas (“popsicle boss”) almost two years ago. Specializing in artisanal popsicles, this colorful spot has since built a cult following. Available in 40-some-odd flavors, the popsicles are either cream-based (such as Mexican cinnamon chocolate with Nutella filling, arroz con leche and others) or water-based (think strawberry basil, watermelon mint and many more). In addition to popsicles, Jefe Paletas offers homemade ice cream and sorbet as well as savory snacks like chicharrónes and esquite. One of the most popular items, the sweet-spicy mangonada, is also available in other fruit flavors like strawberry, watermelon and lime. Don’t miss the creative crepe combinations, which typically sell out on the weekends.

Order this: Jefe Strawberrynada with strawberry sorbet, bits of fruit, lime juice, chimoy and tajin topped with “a little extra”: an assortment of gummy candies and a popsicle of your choice. There’s a lot going on in this one.

2. TraePay’s Café

3295 Bel Air Mall, Unit B, facebook.com/TraePaysCafe

TraePay’s isn’t an ice cream shop as such, but stay with me for a minute. Named for owner Crista McCants’s sons (whose likenesses are featured in the logo), TraePay’s is a success story that started with a food truck and evolved into a brick-and-mortar restaurant at the Dillard’s end of Bel Air Mall. They referred to themselves as “gluttony corner” on Facebook, and it’s the delicious truth. Specializing in all kinds of unapologetic junk food – nachos, fries and tater tots topped with pretty much anything you could want, sno-ball-flavored pickles, pickled eggs, grape salad and deep-fried candy bars are among the offerings – TraePay’s also has an amazing assortment of New Orleans-style sno-ball flavors as well as gigantic sno-bowls that combine finely shaved ice with fruit, cheesecake bites, syrups, whipped cream and much more.

Order this: The Strawberry Crunch Sensation is a bestseller for a reason: It’s a strawberry and wedding cake sno-ball topped with diced fresh strawberries, strawberry shortcake ice cream pieces, drizzled with sweet cream.

1. Cammie’s Old Dutch Ice Cream Shoppe

2511 Old Shell Road, cammiesolddutch.com

Twenty-five years ago, Cammie Wayne bought the former Widemire’s Old Dutch Ice Cream Shoppe from Edwin Widemire, who’d been her boss at her first job when she was 16 years old. She has reigned as queen of the ice cream scene in Mobile ever since, making 700 gallons a week with the help of her husband, Larry Wayne, at their creamery on Halls Mill Road, where she has opened a second location. But that original, cheery yellow building at the corner of Old Shell Road and Florida Street in Midtown, a former Texaco station before Widemire opened his ice cream shop in 1969, has become a Mobile icon. Cammie offers some 47 flavors in the shop (Creole Praline is the most popular) and supplies 25 other shops and restaurants as well as 25 local grocery stores with her products.

Order this: The Banana Split is a classic on Cammie’s menu, and on Sundays she sells 60 to 100 of them.

MORE: Ice cream from Cammie’s is the best thing I ate last week

More on Mobile food:

The MOB Music Festival returns to downtown Mobile July 14-16 for its sixth year, and for listeners the concept could hardly be more appealing: Three days of free music in Cathedral Square, showcasing home-grown talent.

As always it’s the brainchild of Kalenski Adams, better known as DJ Dirty Dan. And he’s clear on the concept.

“MOB Music Fest is about celebrating performing arts, all genres of music,” he said. “The goal is to really spotlight local and regional artists who are pursuing their career in music. The reason this platform was even created, was really to give people an opportunity to show who they are as they build their career.”

“I hear from artists all the time, MOB Music Fest got me more gigs, MOB Music Fest got me more exposure, MOB Music Fest was my first platform that really gave me a big stage,” Adams said.

The kickoff of this year’s festival overlaps with Mobile’s monthly downtown art walk, which runs from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, July 14. The opening night of the festival runs from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and will put a special focus on the 50th anniversary of hip-hop as an art form. (Aug. 12, 1973, when DJ Kool Herc showed up at a back-to-school jam in the Bronx with two turntables for breakbeat mixing, is one of several significant dates in the establishment of the genre.)

Most anniversary celebrations have focused on artists, Adams said, but MOB Music Fest is “all about the DJs.” The Friday night lineup includes some live entertainment, but it’s dominated by DJs. They’ll be presenting a musical “time capsule,” Adams said

On Saturday, festival hours are 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. DJ Dan will host a lineup that includes hip-hop, country, pop, dance, R&B, rock and funk acts. It’s also a lineup that showcases the work of Opportunity 4 Entertainers & Performing Arts, a related nonprofit that conducts educational sessions and talent shows at area schools. From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., some of the student standouts from those shows will take the stage.

On Sunday, music runs from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. with host Chante Chante. “R&B, we got gospel, we got funk, we got a little rock, we got some Southern soul and blues,” said Adams.

“This is a free music festival just to celebrate performing arts,” said Adams. “We want people to come down and have a good time at a summer festival. We look at ourselves as a summer festival that’s all about community, it’s all about celebrating performing arts, we just want to have fun in the city of Mobile just to get the community involved.”

The Temple Downtown will serve as a rain location for the event if needed, Adams said. For full festival information, visit www.mobmusicfest.com.

The lineup includes the following artists. For updates, including additional acts, visit the festival’s social media channels: facebook.com/mobmusicfest, twitter.com/mobmusicfest or instagram.com/mobmusicfest.

Friday, July 14 – DJ Loot, Neezy Nee, DJ Rodski, Disrupshun Service Organization, DJ K-Rock, Napalm Nash, Dee Jay Queazy, Tempo Tai, DJ Tech, DJ No Sweat.

Saturday, July 15 – DJ Kix, Young Educated Steppers, Emilee Andrews, Ti Ti Da Babygoat, Taliegh Taylor, Mahree 4x, DJ Black, Dazzling All Stars, Prancing Golden Queenz, The Shimmering Starz, The Fabulous Dancing Dolls, Lani Blu, Multi Funk Band, Coataliya, Run the Lion.

Sunday, July 15 – DJ Tev, Artrina Denise, Kiy, Imtru, DJ Smooth, The Serfas Club, MJ Gill, Doc Masta & Friends.

Whether you like a savory breakfast with eggs and bacon or something sweeter, like pancakes or French toast or waffles, you don’t have to go far to find it in Mobile. Most coffee shops offer treats to go along with your morning Joe. And while there are plenty of chain restaurants that know how to do breakfast – from Waffle House to Cracker Barrel and from Ruby Slipper to Brick and Spoon to Maple Street Biscuit to Big Bad Breakfast – we like to keep it local whenever possible.

All summer, AL.com has been bringing you Alabama’s best foods: barbecue, pizza, burgers, hot dogs, meat and threes, ice cream and doughnuts. This week, we’ve been on a quest to find the best breakfasts in Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile and statewide (coming tomorrow).

My mission was to take you along to the best breakfast restaurants in the Mobile area. I’ve tried to serve you a variety, from a gas station to a beautifully restored bistro. Wake up, everybody, because it’s time to eat.

5. SATSUMA CHEVRON BREAKFAST AND BBQ

6105 Hwy. 43, Satsuma, facebook.com/satsumachevron

Just off I-65, north of Mobile but still in Mobile County, you’ll find a Chevron gas station that serves a delicious breakfast in a spotless setting. Starting at 2:30 a.m. daily, breakfast is displayed near the register – fluffy biscuits, strips of bacon, Conecuh sausage links, scrambled eggs, grits, hashbrown patties and much more. If you’re on the go, take it with you. If you have a few minutes, there are tables for you to sit down and eat. And if you can’t make up your mind what to eat, just order the ever-popular breakfast gumbo (see below).

Order this: World Famous Breakfast Gumbo was created years ago by owner Bill Beasley, who grew up in Louisiana. It’s a bowl of cheese grits topped with scrambled eggs, Applewood-smoked bacon, Conecuh sausage, diced sausage patties and sliced green onions.

READ: Why customers love breakfast gumbo at this gas station

4. BOB’S DOWNTOWN DINER

263 St. Francis St., Mobile, bobsdowntown.com

I love a funky diner, and that’s just what you’ll find at Bob’s, located “at the corner of Fat Street and Happy Avenue,” as chef/owner Tony Sawyer likes to say. Bob’s is actually at the corner of St. Francis and North Jackson streets, just slightly off the beaten path in downtown Mobile. Diners sit at the bar or around the walls of the restaurant, looking out the windows at the goings-on; when the weather is nice, there’s alfresco seating on the sidewalk out front. Bob’s offers breakfast and lunch only, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., seven days a week. Open since 2014, Bob’s has a loyal following – so much so that many of the items on the menu are named for customers.

Order this: Mrs. Ann’s Breakfast, which is low on carbs and big on taste, comes with grilled fish, two eggs however you want them, bacon and sliced tomatoes and avocados.

3. RISE BREAKFAST & BAKERY

10198 U.S. Hwy. 31, Spanish Fort, facebook.com/halfbaked251

When you enter this takeout-only establishment in an unlikely location on Highway 32 in Spanish Fort, just north of Highway 181 and just north of the Eastern Shore Centre, the affable owner, Tony Luna, also known as “Taco Tony,” will greet you from behind the cash register. If it’s your first visit, he’ll ask you to choose a sticker to place anywhere you want because it shows him how many people have walked in the door in the past year and two months since he opened. Also, after growing up too fast in northern California, he has now given himself permission to be a big kid. RISE serves breakfast and lunch daily. Breakfast favorites include burritos, bowls, quesadillas, Tony’s own variations of eggs Benedict, a decadent Bananas Foster French Toast and more.

Order this: Bubba Gump bowl, with scrambled eggs, shrimp and Conecuh sausage over Gouda grits topped with Creole cream sauce and green onions.

2. SPOT OF TEA

310 Dauphin St., Mobile. spotoftea.com

Spot of Tea, which is directly across from Cathedral Square in downtown Mobile, has evolved over the years since Tony Moore opened a quaint tea room in 1994, with his mother, Ruby Moore, as hostess. It’s become a booming spot for brunch, which is offered daily starting at 8 a.m. Expect a long line on weekends. The restaurant has a large dining room as well as tables on the sidewalk and even on the other side of Dauphin Street. Brunch specialties include Blackened Shrimp and Cheese Grits with Andouille, Seafood Eggs Benedict, Sunny Avocado Toast and a Monte Christo Sandwich; lunch offerings include a variety of sandwiches, salads and soups. If your server asks if you’d like strawberry sweet tea, yes, you would.

Order this: Eggs Cathedral, named for the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception just across the street, is the most popular item on the menu at Spot of Tea: grilled English muffins topped with crab cakes, scrambled eggs and a seafood sauce with blackened grouper, crawfish and jumbo shrimp, served with crispy cubed hashbrowns.

1. BISTRO SAINT EMANUEL

165 Saint Emanuel St., Mobile, fortcondeinn.com/bistrosaintemanuel

This elegant restaurant is in historic Fort Conde Village, which sat vacant and boarded up for decades. Now it’s a thriving community anchored by the Conde-Charlotte House museum and the Fort Conde Inn, which once offered its guests breakfast in the dining room. When the inn ran out of room, its owners opened Bistro Saint Emanuel, which serves brunch Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and Friday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The restaurant also serves dinner. Be sure to make a reservation, even for brunch, because seating is limited. The renovation is remarkable, with great attention to detail. It’s a lovely spot for savoring brunch and a cocktail.

Order this: The cleverly named A la Bamian omelette is filled with jumbo lump crab, diced Conecuh sausage, bell pepper, onion and Cheddar cheese along with a side of breakfast potatoes. Pair it with a bloody Mary.

More Mobile area food stories:

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Mobile’s best burgers

Mobile’s best ice cream

Mobile’s best hot dogs

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More music concerts from traveling performers. A “drastically improved” experience for Mardi Gras ball attendees. The return of the Mobile Mysticks hockey?

The ideas, while preliminary, are slowly starting to surface as momentum builds for a complete overhaul to the 59-year-old Mobile Civic Center.

But the looming question remains over a project that is its early stages of development: What could Mobile taxpayers get for a potential $202 million revitalization to the deteriorating Civic Center?

Related content: What can you do with this old Arena? One Alabama city facing massive question

That answer could come from the firm awarded with a facilities management contract. Two companies are vying for that contract including longtime Civic Center facilities manager ASM Global. The other is OVG. Both firms will be interviewed by city officials next month, and the contract carries the potential of unlocking the details of what a future renovated Civic Center looks like for Mobile.

The firm that wins that contract will also be charged with managing the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center and the Saenger Theatre.

“It’s important we do this now,” said James DeLapp, executive director of public works with the City of Mobile, who is administering the overall project. “We want to select the firm and the company that will have input into the design and finality of that. They will also put an investment into this project as well, so it’s important to get them involved early into that.”

At least one Mobile city council member believes it’s much too early to start planning for a future Civic Center or even alerting Mardi Gras groups about its potential closure in future years while construction is underway.

“I think we are premature,” said Councilman Joel Daves, who has long chaired the council’s finance committee. “I think we have to know a lot more about how much it will cost to build it, where the money comes from to build it and what it looks like on an operating basis.”

He added, “It’s very early in determining whether it’s a done deal or not.”

The questions about the future of a renovated Civic Center surfaced Tuesday, while City Council members debated a $945,259 contract with Volkert Inc., to oversee the professional program management services during the duration of the construction project, expected to last until January 2027.

The council is expected to vote on that contract next week, though a dispute arose over whether there should be language added to the 47-page agreement with Volkert requiring the city to include opportunities for smaller firms labeled as disadvantage business enterprise (DBE). The city has a goal of 15% DBE involvement on larger contracts.

DeLapp said the city is committed at least $30 million in DBE contracts for the overall design and construction of the Civic Center, but Councilman William Carroll said the 15% rule should be followed with the Volkert contract.

“There is a way to do that, but it’s not placed in the proposal,” Carroll said.

DeLapp said there are no subcontractors within the Volkert contract, and that the DBE requirement should not apply to their work.

“That’s a professional services (contract) and is very specialized,” said DeLapp. “The large contracts with multiple (subcontractors), there will always be a DBE. If there is not an opportunity to do that, then we’ll have to go with what’s best for the city.”

Once the Volkert contract is secure, DeLapp said the following dominos could fall in the evolution of a project that represents the largest investment in a sports and entertainment venue in Mobile in recent memory.

The city has already earmarked approximately $29 million for the construction of a parking deck on the Civic Center site. The parking garage will be owned by the city and used for both Civic Center activities, and for an on-site office building that is under construction for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Daves said that only $4 million has been committed for the Civic Center project itself. Of that, approximately $1 million will go toward the Volkert contract for project management and $3 million toward design work. The council authorized a contract with Goodwyn Mills Cawood for the partial design of the Mobile Civic Center in early June.

“I’m committed to $4 million, but I don’t want us to get to the point where, all of a sudden, we’re $16 million in and we don’t know how much it will cost or look like on an operating basis going forward,” Daves said.

The city’s administration appears to be moving forward with putting together the overall project.

DeLapp provided the following notable timetables and details about the project to the media on Tuesday: