It’s rarely a bad time for a cup of gumbo, but somehow a hint of fall weather makes it perfect. If you’re ready to address that craving, here are six fine places to get started in the Mobile area.

Obviously there are scores of places in coastal Alabama where you can satisfy your need without having to personally stir a roux. Got a favorite you’d like to recommend for a possible follow-up? Email it to [email protected].

Now, grab a spoon and let’s get started. In no particular order:

The Lighthouse

This is about as pure a representation of a classic old-school coastal Alabama seafood restaurant as you can find. It doesn’t seem to have a website or even a Facebook page, but it’s been there on Padgett Switch Road outside Bayou La Batre for so long that its location and menu are pretty much embedded in local DNA. The gumbo is medium-dark, stocked with smallish shrimp and rich with the sweetness of crab. In a world where okra is often relegated to token status, this includes a little more. (Don’t worry, they don’t overdo it.) 12395 Padgett Switch Road, Irvington. $6 for a cup.

Big Time Diner

Gumbo might seem like a bit of a departure for a blue-plate café, but Big Time is pretty much guaranteed to come up in any local gumbo conversation. “Leon’s seafood gumbo,” named for chef Leon Pettway, has a reddish cast and you’ll find tomato in it. That’s a point of contention for some, like the question of whether chili should have beans in it. Here, it works. The gumbo is lighter than some but lighter doesn’t mean thinner – it’s as hearty as you could desire. 4936 Cottage Hill Road, Mobile. $5.50 for a cup, $9.25 for a bowl. Yes, that’s a bowl in the photo, don’t judge me.

Felix’s Fish Camp

This is kind of a ringer. The gumbo, made from a recipe used at the long-gone, fondly remembered downtown restaurant Constantine’s, is excellent. But what you want to do is, you want to order the “One, One and One” appetizer. For $9 you get three demi-cups of goodness: One of gumbo, one of crab soup, one of turtle soup. It’s an indulgent treat. 1530 Battleship Parkway, Spanish Fort. The gumbo alone is $8 for the cup, $10 for the bowl.

Wintzell’s Oyster House

This seafood house, whose roots go back to 1938, is a reliable gumbo go-to. The menu says that “with shrimp, crawfish, lump crabmeat, okra, stewed tomatoes and a perfect roux, it’s Alabama’s most award-winning gumbo.” The shrimp are tiny but there are a ton of them, and this seems like a pretty good use for tiny shrimp. The crawfish add a little something extra too. 605 Dauphin St., with locations in west Mobile, Saraland, Greenville, Montgomery and Guntersville. $6.99 for a cup, $8.99 for a bowl.

Boudreaux’s Cajun Grill

This venue, on the bluff in Daphne, regularly rates near the top of online gumbo comparisons. It’s not hard to see why, because they don’t play at this. You get a dark, heavy roux-based dish that doesn’t pull any punches. It’s a meal in a cup. 29249 U.S. 98, Daphne. $6 for a cup, $10 for a bowl.

Debris Po-Boys & Drinks

Though this Dauphin Street eatery is easily the youngest place on this list, serial restaurateur Noell Broughton’s New Orleans tribute holds its own. The sandwiches are awesome, but if you get into the gumbo you might never make it to the rest of the menu. It’s dark with roux, maybe a shade or two lighter than the Boudreaux’s take, but it’s heavy with crab and big, fat shrimp. 276 Dauphin St. $7.99 for a cup, $10.99 for a bowl.