During our trip to the Alabama Gulf Coast, my wife wasn't too enamored with the breakfast being served at our hotel. There was a coffee shop just down the road in another hotel - Southern Grind Coffee House. When we got in there around 9 a.m., the place was packed, the line to order at the counter was at least 10 people deep and we decided to cut our losses and try to find something else. As we were leaving, we saw a sign in the place that said, "Visit our location at The Wharf". We had checked out The Wharf at Orange Beach - an entertainment/restaurant/ retail/residential living destination on the north side of Orange Beach - a day or two prior and we decided to head out that way to have some coffee and get my wife something to eat at Southern Grind.
The Wharf at Orange Beach development first opened its 222-acre facility in 2006. It was billed as the premier travel destination along the Gulf Coast when it opened. In addition to shops, an event center, restaurants, condos and a marina, The Wharf also had a 10,000 seat amphitheater that hosted Hank Williams, Jr. as its first performer in May of 2006.
The development company that owned The Wharf was also working on similar destination venues when the bottom fell out of the real estate and financial market in 2008. The company was forced to declare bankruptcy in 2010 and the amphitheater, inter-coastal marina and over 150 acres of undeveloped land was purchased by a Birmingham, AL bank in foreclosure later that year. Art Favre, the owner of Baton Rouge, LA-based Performance Contractors - a leading industrial contracting company that builds facilities for energy and manufacturing companies - purchased the retail/restaurant part of The Wharf in 2011. Months later, Favre - who owned a vacation home in Orange Beach since 1993 - bought the remaining part of the complex from the Birmingham bank.
(If the name Favre is somewhat familiar, it's because Art Favre is the uncle to former NFL quarterback and Pro Football Hall of Fame member Brett Favre. Art Favre is also well-known as a frequent contributor to Republican Party candidates around the nation. In 2020 alone, Favre and his company contributed over $550,000 to political action committees, as well as candidates in states such as Florida, Iowa, Arizona, Montana, California, as well as national candidates.)
The retail end of The Wharf had been in disrepair since the property had fallen into bankruptcy. To his credit, Favre's local company spruced up the property and sought out retailers and restaurants to come back to his "new" venture. That's when Jimmy McPhillips decided to take a chance at owning his own restaurant.
McPhillips, a native of Pennsylvania, developed a passion for cooking as a youngster. He learned how to cook from his mother and he ended up working for a small family-run seafood market/restaurant outside of Philadelphia in his mid-teens. When the owners put the business up for sale, McPhillips didn't have enough money to buy the place. That's when he decided he needed to get a real job to be able to make money for his dream of running a restaurant at some point.
After 25 years of doing what he really didn't want to do, he saw an opportunity to open his own coffee shop in The Wharf. Along with his sister Carol, and his wife Jamie, McPhillips came up with a concept that eventually became a coffee shop, a bakery, a gelato shop, a restaurant, a gift shop, an art gallery and a home furnishings store all under one roof. Jamie McPhillips had a background in interior design and helped decorate the coffee shop with pieces of artwork they had both made over the years and kept around their home.
Pictured at right - Jimmy and Jamie McPhillips. Photo courtesy The Wharf.com
The art gallery/gift shop came about almost by accident. On opening day in 2012, a customer came into the coffee shop and saw a tray Jimmy McPhillips had made that he was using as a top-shelf decoration. The customer asked McPhillips if he could buy the tray. Somewhat taken aback, McPhillips gave him a price and the customer bought it on the spot. The McPhillips then realized they had something more than just a coffee shop/restaurant/bakery.
After five years of steady growth, the McPhillips opened a second location of Southern Grind in the Hotel Indigo along Perdido Beach Blvd. in Orange Beach. Many of their employees that were with them from Day 1 at The Wharf are still part of the Southern Grind family today.
We pulled up in front of Southern Grind at The Wharf around 9:20 that morning. (see map) They had a number of tables out in front of the place, but with the windy and somewhat cool weather (with occasional passing showers coming off the Gulf) the aqua-blue umbrellas were down and no one was seated outside. Any other day, we would have considered sitting out in on the patio.
The well-lit restaurant featured a combination of artwork by the McPhillips, home decor items, knick-knacks, and clothing wear on display on the walls of the dining area. The dining area was situated amongst the items for sale with tables and chairs as well as armchairs with coffee tables for people to linger for awhile while enjoying their coffee. The most notable paint colors at Southern Grind were sort of a blue/green and an aqua-blue tint.
Much of the displays were unique including an old boat holding bags, housewares, and home decor items. Southern Grind had a decided nautical theme to it and a handful of items made from driftwood by Jimmy McPhillips were on display or for sale.
Southern Grind featured counter service where disposable menus were available for those standing in line. The menu featured a full selection of coffee and espresso drinks, as well as smoothies and frappe drinks. Breakfast items ranged from handheld sandwiches and biscuits, to omelets, waffles, French toast, and egg scramble combinations. After 11 a.m. during the week (12 noon on the weekend), Southern Grind features sandwiches, burgers and wraps, along with paninis, salads and soups for lunch and dinner.
The line was about four deep when my wife and I walked in and it was moving along nicely. I wasn't all that hungry, but when we're on vacation and going and doing and seeing, it's usually a good rule of thumb to eat something in the morning because we not be near a restaurant during the noon hours. My wife has learned to have a good breakfast when she's on vacation as it may be 2 p.m. - or later - before she has her next meal.
After getting a 12-ounce orange juice and a quad-espresso (I like to get jacked up early in the day), I ended up getting the croissant sandwich. It featured two eggs made omelet-style on a toasted croissant topped with your choice of cheese (I got Swiss) and a choice of bacon, sausage patty, or ham. (I got sausage.) The croissant was fresh and light (I don't know if they made them in-house, but many of the items at Southern Grind are made fresh from scratch in-house), and the combination of the omelet-style eggs, sausage and Swiss cheese was a great taste combination. This thing was huge, too! I ate about 3/4's of the sandwich before putting it down to nibble on and pick at while my wife finished her breakfast. For $4.99, I thought it was a very good deal.
My wife ordered a regular coffee and an orange juice, then for her breakfast she got one of the "Quiche-of-the-Day" selections - a veggie quiche consisting of spinach, asparagus and artichoke hearts. (The other quiche that day was a ham and Swiss cheese quiche that came about *this* close to getting.) Along with the quiche came a side of fresh fruit. My wife thought the quiche was exceptional, fluffy, tasty and filling. The fruit was also very fresh, too. The blueberries had that perfect combination of sweet and tart.
Before we left, my wife decided that she needed to buy a Southern Grind shirt because she loved the place so much. In fact, of all the places that we went to along the Alabama Gulf Coast, she fondly remembers Southern Grind the most. I thought my croissant sandwich was very good and an excellent value. My wife was very impressed with her vegetable quiche and ate every bite of the slice she got. I thought my espresso - four shots that rung me up like a fire bell - was very good, as well. I think my wife would have liked to have gone back to Southern Grind to have breakfast while we were there, but we had other places we wanted to try. In hindsight, we should have gone back - it was that good.
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