Dixie Detours: Overnight Luxury in Mobile, Alabamatikichris

From our friends’ wedding in Rome (Georgia that is), Kemey and I hit the road to New Orleans, making an overnight pit stop along the way in Mobile, Alabama. We left Rome on Sunday the 16th of February, the day of the NBA All Star Game in New Orleans. Having been advised that any decent accommodation in the city would have been long sold out, we put off any plans to visit NOLA until the next day and decided to break up the driving a bit and spend our evening exploring another city. Mobile proved to be an excellent choice, and our time there yielded an all too short and actually luxurious stay.

A sizeable town with some attractive parts and reasonably vibrant nightlife (though maybe not so much on a Sunday night), Mobile is a rather underrated and often overlooked Gulf Coast town worth visiting on its own merits and served as a fun stopover during our trip. I’m keen to return and see more of the city.

Heading out early for Louisiana, Monday morning’s drive from Mobile to NOLA along US Highway 90 was a scenic one (and a lot less monotonous than the route we would have taken from North Georgia via the Pine Belt of Mississippi), providing options to break at white sand beaches along the coast and to check out the casino and entertainment hub of Biloxi.

Stay

We stayed at the sumptuous Battle House Renaissance Mobile Hotel and Spa and would be delighted to do so again! Established on the site of military headquarters set up by Andrew Jackson during the war of 1812, today the Battle House is a landmark luxury hotel in the heart of downtown and a member of the Historic Hotels of America association. Closed since the 70s, the hotel reopened in 2007 after a $200 million renovation. With its centrepiece domed skylight, its trompe-l’œil plasterwork, and its extra spacious rooms, the Battle House is a lavish beauty of a hotel and without doubt one of the finest I’ve ever come across in the Deep South. There’s a great gym (yes, I actually used it!) with a rooftop pool and heated jacuzzi (I was sure to use it too after my workout) – and a fine restaurant too (more on that in just a sec).

Eat

For our Sunday night dinner, Kemey and I tried local institution Wintzell’s Oyster House in the LODA area of downtown. We both went with the house speciality, fried oysters prepared according to a 75 year old family recipe. The dinner plate ($18.45) came with a salad and choice of sides. I got mine with pretty decent fried okra and some rockin’ collards and washed it all down with a crisp pale ale from Good People Brewing Company up in Birmingham, Alabama.

Breakfast the next day at the Battle House’s Trellis Room restaurant was gorgeous. My Gulf Coast shrimp and crab omelet was a dream of a morning meal. At $12 it was kind of an expensive breakfast, but it was amply portioned with chunky bites of shrimp and crab meat along with plenty of Conecuh sausage, onions and Cheddar and and a side of hashbrowns.

Mardi Gras 2014

Mardis Gras festivities are already underway in Mobile, where the party is much more manageable and family oriented than what’s doing over in New Orleans. Considering paying Mobile a visit to check out a bit of the action? Here are some useful online resources:

Stay tuned for more highlights from my time in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida along with suggestions for planning your own southern sojourn. If y’all ain’t never been to the places mentioned in my Dixie Detours miniseries, I reckon you’re missing out.