It’s no secret that this has been a tough year for Gulf Coast seafood restaurants. Thanks to the BP oil spill, tourism has been down and many locals have worried about contamination. So when your Well-Fed Reporter encountered a 15-minute lunch wait at a certain Causeway restaurant on an otherwise unremarkable weekday, he was pretty sure he was onto... Full story »

A friend of mine said something awfully profound the other day. He said there are two seasons in our part of the world. There is football season and not football season. Other regions in this great nation may celebrate the turning of the leaves in the fall or the first robin in the spring. But we here in the... Full story »

In the rush to put the last-minute touches on your tailgating soiree, let’s not forget one very important aspect. Food safety. Here are a few tips provided by the experts over at the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service to keep your party from turning into something ugly. These are good ideas whether you are cooking in the parking lot of... Full story »

The Stool Pigeon understands. He knows that if you wander into a place with dozens of active beer taps, plus another 100 or more brews available in bottles, and begin working your way through the menu, there might come a point in the night where you want to ingest something solid to cut down on the sloshing. And if... Full story »

Make no mistake, your Well-Fed Reporter is most certainly not a tee-totaler. Hardly. So when he was invited recently by the Stool Pigeon, his counterpart in the drinking realm, to experience one of the city’s top outlets for craft and high-gravity beers, he jumped at the chance. The Pigeon muttered something about it being beer week or something, to... Full story »

A lunchtime chat with the Press-Register's food editor. Full story »

By DAVID HOLLOWAY Food Editor  It may be difficult to understand, but in parts of the world where there are more than two seasons, they actually celebrate the end of summer on Labor Day.  No, really.  It may be a tad difficult for us to understand such a notion, what with a good four weeks of hard summer left... Full story »

Back when your Well-Fed Reporter was just a fine-dining pup, he learned right quick-like that eating out is about more than just the food.  He found out that stuff like atmosphere, familiarity, service and comfort often can count as much toward the total experience as the texture of the chateaubriand or the size of the wine cellar. When he... Full story »

As one might imagine, your Well-Fed Reporter rarely has any trouble rounding up dining companions. Despite the old saying, there is such a thing as a free lunch, and his colleagues are well aware of his penchant for picking up the check. So when word leaked out that he was planning a trip to Daphne for some good, authentic... Full story »

The Banana Docks Café, located at 36 Hillcrest Road in the western sections of Mobile, serves up a fine array of burgers, steaks, seafood, pasta and just about any other comestible you can think of.  Full story »

It doesn’t take the Stool Pigeon long to spot a pattern, and one he’s noticed lately comes in the form of a straightforward question: “I’m new in town. Where’s a nice place where I can hear some piano music?” Talking about drinks tends to make one thirsty. Talking about piano bars ... well, let’s say that it’s no surprise... Full story »

 Your working boy will not be among the throng of folks who will go to Gulf Shores Sunday for the free Jimmy Buffett beach concert.  It’s not because I have some sort of aversion to his music; quite the contrary, in fact. My first Buffett concert was in about 1975 in an era before parrotheads and that song about... Full story »

The artwalk has energized the downtown arts scene.  Full story »