Sweet Home, Alabama!

Sweet Home, Alabama!

The denizens of the frozen north, some of whom are family, migrate south for the winter to avoid the ten-foot snowfalls and unreasonably cold weather.  During the deepest, darkest and coldest part of winter, a 30 mile strip of beach in Alabama adjacent to the Florida border, called Orange Beach, serves as home to our frozen friends and family.  For the last four years during January or February, we’ve trekked with the kids to visit our parents during their winter stay.  While it’s not exactly balmy and temperate this time of year, there certainly is no snow and the temperatures are well above freezing!  And best of all, it’s affordable to rent a place right on the beach and you’ll mostly have the beach to yourself.  If you’re a seashell collector, you can join in the competition for the near perfect specimens that wash up during the night and clamor for attention from those who hit the beaches first.

Frankly, in addition to visiting family, the great part of a visit to Orange Beach is to wake up in the morning, walk out into the living room and look out upon the expanses of white sand and rolling waves.  For military buffs like our number two son, the Pensacola air museum and the battleship USS Alabama are only a short drive from the beach.  As for food, while I’ve not tried to find any fine dining during our visits, we have visited a few places that are well worth a stop for the experiential value.

Billy’s Shrimp

Of course, the pole position goes to Billy’s Shrimp.  While not exactly an eating establishment unless you set up your Coleman stove in the parking lot, Billy’s sells shrimp and fish that are fresh caught by the throng of fishing boats clustered around the weathered and decaying dock.  During a visit to Billy’s, you can’t help but feel like an extra during filming of Forrest Gump, with a little sense of Deliverance thrown in for measure.  I’ve never seen anyone playing the banjo, so I keep going back, and they ship shrimp by mail so there is no excuse for not having a freezer full of the best gulf shrimp to be found anywhere.

Ahhhhh, my favorite food stop of all!  Billy’s Shrimp!

I love the shrimp AND the boat they came in on!

Island Time ….

For a sense of island time, LuLu’s is the place to go!  Lucille Buffet, aka Lucy, aka LuLu, aka Jimmy’s sister, owns this seafood café right on the marina.  With great local seafood, prepared Southern style, and live music in the evenings or Jimmy’s tunes from the juke during the day, you just know its gonna be a relaxing and tasty meal.  I highly recommend the gumbo.  Highly.  And the fried green tomatoes.  And if you like oysters, don’t let the chance to have Lulu’s oyster loaf sandwich get away from you.  While oyster loaf may sound pretty much terrible, this sandwich is basically a stack of a dozen or so fried oysters on a poor boy French roll.  So good, you’ll cry.

It’s almost Margaritaville …!

Throw them rolls …

And finally, for pure experience, it’s Home of the Throwed Rolls, aka Lambert’s Café.  Lambert’s is a family run business in its third or fourth generation of the family, and specializes in really gigantic servings of Southern comfort food.  While the food is just OK, the experience is terrific.  To start with, the rolls really are “throwed”!  A server comes from the kitchen wielding a big pan of rolls and starts heaving them towards the tables.  While it seems a bit like trying to catch a fly-ball at a little league baseball game, everyone eventually scores a roll.  The main dishes include a huge selection of sides like cucumber and onions, white beans and ham, cornbread, coleslaw, baked beans, etc.  But wait, there’s more!  Servers come around and offer up helpings of fried okra, sorghum molasses, apple butter, macaroni and tomatoes, potatoes and onions, black-eyed peas and more until eventually you’ve been offered the equivalent of a second meal.  You won’t soon forget your visit to the Home of the Throwed Rolls, and going away hungry does not happen at Lambert’s!  One tip – for main dishes, try the chicken fried steak or the chicken dumplings; those are my favorites.

The not so auspicious beginning of the Throwed Rolls experience …

He’s gonna throw them rolls!!!

Wrapping up …

A few other comments.  My brother in-law, as represented by his sister, says the Waffle House has rockin’ waffles.  Dad says Jessie’s has great whiskey steaks.  I know that Lillian’s has pretty good pizza and Hazel’s has a guy who can flip omelets with the best of them.  Rumor has it that the Floribama is a good bar … need to try that one firsthand next year!

– Chris