Travel: Mobile, Alabama is a southern belle who knows how to part

Mardi Gras is associated with New Orleans but actually started in Mobile.

Stepping into Mobile, Alabama from upstate is disorientating.

Gone are the industrial tower blocks of Birmingham and the flat, dreary stretch of drive-thru restaurants that make up Muscle Shoals (I’m not counting the latter’s FAME recording studio and Muscle Shoals Sound Studios that are both incredibly cool).

No, Mobile looks like it belongs in Louisiana.

The first thing I notice as we drive into the city are the iron balconies jutting from buildings whose faded yellow, blue and red paint peel in tiny patches from the walls.

The patterns on the balcony frames – twisting into vines and flowers in the artistic style best recognised in areas of French colonisation – look like how I always imagined the street style of New Orleans. But I’m not in New Orleans yet; that’s the next stop on our road trip around the Deep South, just two hours’ drive away.

Instead, we’re in a city most revered for oysters, beignets – a type of deep-fried pastry of French origin – and originating one of the world’s most famous carnivals: Mardi Gras.

“We’ve got our own, unique thing going on here and nobody is trying too hard,” Bienville Bites Food Tour guide Chris Andrews, who’s about to take my boyfriend and I round the city’s best food stops, sniggers as he leads us through the streets of Mobile to our first stop, esteemed restaurant Squid Ink, owned by resident celebrity chef Pete Blohme (known as Panini Pete to locals).

Judging by that playful jab, Mardi Gras had made New Orleans into the southern city’s friendly rival. The ancient Catholic carnival dates back to 1703 when Mobile was just a year old. At the time, the city sat 27 miles north of its current location, near a small tribe of native Indians who taught the French settlers who founded Mobile under King Louis XIV’s command (to establish trade routes) about local agriculture.

Once the French learned about growing food and how to sustain a colony, they started building a fort and traded deer skin with Cuba and other West Indies islands. The fort soon evolved into a developed settlement and moved down to Mobile’s current location in 1711 when it became capital of French Louisiana.

Throughout this period, Mardi Gras, which started in Europe and came to America with the French, was celebrated annually by Catholics in Mobile to mark the beginning of Lent and to prepare for the fasting period of Easter.

“Mobile and New Orleans are always compared with each other – sort of like sister cities – but they were founded by the same people. That’s why we have many similarities,” Chris explains. We’ve sat down now on an outside bench at Squid Ink where we tuck into a succulent cheeseburger. “Those Frenchmen founded New Orleans in 1718, so we’ve got a 15-year time difference.”

In 2025, Mobile’s Mardi Gras parades began on February 14 and kept going for three weeks until March 4 (Fat Tuesday and the day before the beginning of Lent). There are 50 Mardi Gras societies involved in the celebrations who each host their own parades and live performances with vibrant floats and costumes.

New Orleans generally starts its parades for Mardi Gras on January 6, the 12th Night, and keeps them going until Fat Tuesday as well. The latter date is officially the last day of the carnival season for both cities.

After finishing our burger, Chris leads us round a few corners to our next stop, Roosters Tacos & Tequila. It’s a Mexican-inspired restaurant with bold red wallpaper and a big salsa station at the counter. We take our seats and dig into the menu’s bestseller – grilled mahi mahi tacos.

“We don’t want to be bigger than New Orleans or outdo them in any way,” Chris continues. “In Mobile, I’d probably say 30-40% of people that participate in Mardi Gras are not Catholic, and it’s a tourist draw as well.”

We finish up and head out to our last stop on the tour, Mo’ Bay Beignet Co., the so-called best beignet café in Mobile. Chris explains on our way that he had wanted to take us for oysters, but we were scheduled to go there for dinner anyway. “Oysters and Mobile are synonymous with each other,” he says. “It goes back even before the French in 1702. The natives that lived in this area, they all ate oysters, and they had a diet that consisted mainly of oysters and corn for about 500 years.”

I’m not mad, though, because the beignets are magnificent. The fluffy doughnut pockets come sprinkled in sugar and paired with two dips, cinnamon and buttercream. I cleaned my plate in minutes. As we thank Chris for his fascinating tour and meander back into town, I stop to peer out at Mobile Bay. Of all the places in Alabama so far, this one makes a lasting impression.

French-style doughnut dusted with sugar.

Factfile

We stayed at The Battle House Renaissance Mobile Hotel & Spa, a stunning central hotel near top attractions like USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park (marriott.com). By day, we explored the History Museum of Mobile, which includes four exhibits: the main museum, Clotilda: The Exhibition, Colonial Fort Condé, and the Phoenix Fire Museum (tickets from $8, historymuseumofmobile.com). For dinner, we enjoyed oysters and seafood at local favourite Wintzell’s Oyster House (wintzellsoysterhouse.com).

Trip to Mobile was part of a 15-day fly/drive tour. Destinations included Nashville, Franklin and Memphis in Tennessee, Muscle Shoals/Florence, Birmingham and Mobile in Alabama, New Orleans in Louisiana, and Jackson and Tupelo in Mississippi. We flew from Edinburgh to Nashville and reached Mobile by rental car. Prices start from £2,299pp including return flights, 15-night hotel stay, car rental and driving instructions. Contact Barrhead Travel USA specialists 0330 094 8364. or visit barrheadtravel.co.uk. Visit www.bienvillebitesfoodtour.com to book a food tour in Mobile. Find attractions at www.mobile.org.