Mobileâs best meat-and-threes: Our top 5
The fabled meat and three: A magical place where you can load up with so much comfort food well in under an hour that you actually feel good about going back to work. Maybe a little sleepy, but good.
Mobile offers its share of fine selections, as well as a good number of meat-and-three-adjacent venues. The famed Dew Drop Inn, Dick Russell’s and others are better known for other things, but if a slab of gravy-laden protein surrounded by hearty sides is what you want, they can fix you up.
For this, we’re focusing on the places that really zero in on giving you that pleasant dilemma of deciding whether things like banana pudding and loaded hash brown casserole are vegetables. Eat your truth.
READ: Huntsville’s best meat-and-three: Our top 5
Birmingham’s best meat-and-three: Our top 5
Mama’s on Dauphin provides downtown Mobile’s population with a handy meat-and-three fix.Lawrence Specker | [email protected]
5. Mama’s on Dauphin
220 Dauphin St.; www.mamasondauphin.com
The food is more than good enough to guarantee Mama’s a spot on the list, but its location is another big factor: For anyone working downtown, Mama’s has been the place that has kept home cooking within walking distance. Locals know which specials come on which days, and it’s not a surprise to find yourself waiting for a table if you arrive after the lunch rush starts.
Order this: Depends on the day. Is in Monday? Get the meatloaf. Favor pork chops? Go on a Wednesday to get them fried, or on a Thursday to get them smothered.
A chocolate Shake with a Fried Fish blue plate dinner at the Big Time Diner.G.M. Andrews, Press-Register
4. Big Time Diner
4936 Cottage Hill Road; www.bigtimediner.com
Big Time Diner does stretch the concept more than any other place on this list; it’s built on the template of a classic ‘50s-’60s full service diner than a down-home café. It’s got a full menu of seafood dinners, burgers, shakes, malts and more. But you can’t go wrong with the Blue-Plate Special, which can be a meat-and-two, a meat-and-three or a meat-and-four. It doesn’t hurt that Big Time Diner has a reputation for attentive, friendly service.
Order this: Fried fish (or grilled fish, if you’re trying to be good) is a nice option. Don’t overlook the onion rings.
Cozy Brown’s (and Son) Kitchen, a Prichard Institution, has a new home at 4395 St. Stephen’s Home.Lawrence Specker | [email protected]
3. Cozy Brown’s Kitchen
4395 St. Stephens Road
Cozy Brown has been a Prichard institution for years, both for his food and for the Christian spirit and that led him to forgive a man who robbed and shot him a few years back. In 2021 the SEC Network series “True South” put the spotlight on Cozy Brown’s Kitchen. Since then, Brown has moved his operation from its familiar spot on Wasson Ave. to a new site just a little farther out into Eight Mile on St. Stephens Road. It’s a newer, more visible building with an open interior that provides for more dine-in seating. The menu includes seafood plates and more, but you’ll find plenty of options on the cafeteria-style serving line.
Order this: On a recent visit, the standout treats were the candied yams – which were, indeed, candy – and the peach cobbler, which was magnificent.
Mary’s Southern Cooking is a cafeteria-style soul food restaurant at 3011 SpringHill Ave. in Mobile, Ala.(Bob Carlton/[email protected])
2. Mary’s Southern Cooking
3011 Spring Hill Ave.; maryssoutherncookingmobile.com
It’s no surprise to see city officials who’ve found it worth their time to voyage from downtown out Spring Hill Avenue for lunch at Mary’s. You might not know who you’ll see, but you’ll know why they’re there, and why it was worth braving Crighton traffic and the challenge of parking in this establishment’s rather tight lot. It is all about what’s on that cafeteria-style steam table, and it is the real deal.
Order this: They go deep on the daily specials at Mary’s: Liver & Onion on Tuesday, turkey necks on Wednesday, smothered pork chops on Thursday, Oxtails on Friday. Let yourself go.
A cornucopia of fare a Cheryl’s Cafe in Spanish Fort.John David Mercer/Press-Register
1. Cheryl’s Cafe
6580-D Spanish Fort Blvd.; www.cherylscafespanishfort.com; daily specials at www.facebook.com/cherylscafe.
Earlier this year I interviewed “Panini Pete” Blohme and partner Nick DiMario about the effort to get the new Ed’s Seafood Shed established on the hill in Spanish Fort, and they said they were eager to finish the preparations and finally get the place open because “we’ve been eating at Cheryl’s way too much.” No wonder. First off, it’s right across the street. More importantly, it comes really close to the nostalgic ideal of a meat-and-three. You get the red-and-white-checked tablecloths. You get the chalkboard menu. You get waitresses welcoming regulars by name, and telling they saved them a portion of this or that favorite item because they knew they were coming.
Order this: Dessert. At some places you can talk yourself out of the banana pudding or a slice of pie and that is, as they say, a choice. Do that here and you have messed up – so consider the daily selection of homemade treats and dive in.
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