Where to eat along Alabama's Gulf Coast
Dining along the Gulf Coast means terrific seafood, fresh shrimp, oysters, ahi tuna, softshell crab and grouper. Here are some choices:
Family-friendly: LuLu’s at Homeport Marina, Orange Beach. Jimmy Buffett’s sister’s place along the Intercoastal Waterway features batter-fried seafood and a signature “Cheeseburger in Paradise;” lulusathomeport.com.
Upscale: Cobalt, Gulf Shores, a new restaurant in Orange Beach with an impressive wine list in a spacious, well-appointed dining room. Try the pistachio and wasabi encrusted tuna; cobaltrestaurant.net.
Worth the drive: Tin Top Restaurant & Oyster Bar, in Bon Secour, Ala., where Bob and Patty Hallmark direct a symphony of baked oysters, boiled shrimp, fish and gumbo. Don’t miss the sauteed crab claws in alfredo sauce. Skip the printed menu and concentrate on the blackboard’s nightly specials; tintoprestaurant.com.
Breakfast: Duck’s Diner, Orange Beach. Fluffy biscuits and gravy under a portrait of Alabama’s patron saint, Bear Bryant; (251) 948-9191.
For carousing, there is but one choice: the Flora-Bama Lounge, Perdido Key. What can you say about a rambling wooden beachfront roadhouse that has been repeatedly demolished by hurricanes and rebuilt in ever-tackier ways to the delight of its oddball clientele of bikers, beach bums, Crimson Tide football fans and tourists? Every Fourth of July, thousands descend on the Flora-Bama, which straddles the state line, for the annual Mullet Toss, a rowdy beach party where contestants heave frozen fish for distance from Florida to Alabama. Not exactly family-friendly, the Flora-Bama operates nearly 24/7. Hundreds of bras and bikini tops hanging from rafters above its music stage attest to the exuberance of some patrons’ music appreciation; florabama.com.
— Dan Vukelich