Big Bad Breakfast coming to Midtown

Photo | facebook.com/bigbadbreakfasthomewood

If you’ve kept up with the career of Chef John Currence — owner of City Grocery in Oxford, Mississippi, author of “Pickles, Pigs and Whiskey: Food From My Three Favorite Food Groups and Then Some,” and the more recent “Big Bad Breakfast: The Most Important Book of the Day” — you will be excited to know the restaurant with the namesake of that last book is coming to Mobile.

The most you’ll get from the new location is a “coming soon” link on the website, but signs are on the window of the building next to the Dew Drop Inn on Old Shell Road. His restaurants appear in Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama, but I’ve only eaten at the Nashville location. I loved every bite.

Without a true Mobile menu posted, I’d expect their usual cocktails, eggs, skillets, biscuits and sides, but if this sounds like a yawn fest, it is anything but. There is nothing normal about this menu. Get ready to see what a New Orleans native and James Beard-nominated chef and author has brought to Ole Miss and then to the greater Southeast. With all that good food at that intersection, we are going to need a parking garage.

Royal Scam knocks it out of the park

I need to say a few lines about the outstanding job the folks at Royal Scam did at a recent joint birthday party for a couple of Lagniappers. The Mardi Gras prix fixe menu included all of our favorites and added a flourless chocolate torte.

If you’ve not been, the current menu is incredible. A must-try is the Hanoi shrimp. The filet is one of the best in the city, and I’m never disappointed in the fresh catch. If they ever have couscous on special, get it. Imbibers should not ignore the special cocktail menu, though I’m bad about getting a neat bourbon and a French press coffee. Thanks, guys, we had a blast.

Foosackly’s reopens on Airport

You could blame the afternoon traffic mess on Airport between Westwood and Seminole on Foosackly’s. It’s not really their fault the traffic hasn’t been flowing, but it is their fault you love them so much. The popular chicken tender peddlers closed for remodeling this past September. But just in time for the last stretch of Mardi Gras, our Midtown spot at 2250 Airport Blvd. is open again.

Enjoy a better drive-thru and now curbside to-go orders. Forget the wait and download the Foo app now. You know you can’t fake the Foo.

Lent is here! 

Don’t read that so excitedly. I’ve almost given up on giving up. There’s an art to it. It needs to be a sacrifice, for sure — just don’t let it be something too inconvenient for your family. For example, if I gave up dining out after Sunday church, my family would disown me. Do you think these kids would appreciate a homemade sandwich after sitting still for so long? Plus, now that football is over, that’s my time to not mess up a kitchen.

A lot of you who participate in abstaining go the route of food and beverage. It’s a common practice to give up drinking. Or ketchup. Or fast food. I’ve done similar things in the past. My boys and girl don’t have to give up what I give up, but I am the grocery-getter, meaning I will more than likely remove that temptation at the source. I just don’t want to put us in a pickle with the nuisance of my commitment, so to speak.

If I gave up sausage (email me your sausage jokes, you immature brats), let’s say, then there’s no jambalaya, gumbo, red beans and rice, bratwurst, chorizo, hot dogs or pizza worth a crap. Plus, our Waffle House visits would look a lot different. My wife doesn’t believe I could make it 40 days, as if my sausage intake is out of control. I probably should give up sausage, but I’m probably not going to. It could tear the family apart, and I’m just not ready to risk it right now.

Chips are out of the question. I’ve done the low-carb keto thing in the past. I craved crunchy snacks the whole time, and carrot sticks and broccoli could not scratch that itch. I’m brave enough to try it, but smart enough to know that I would break my chip fast without intention. In deprivation mode, especially under the influence of a few cocktails, I will eventually eat in my sleep. Chips are the gold mine for the sleep-eater, perhaps second only to cashews.

Before you tell me to put a lock on the pantry and refrigerator, allow me to explain that bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Andy can’t find his phone and keys, but sleepwalker Andy could pick a lock with a bobby pin and a guitar string if it stands in the way of nocturnal food lust. Chips are out.

I need to give up a daytime craving. Gas station food was suggested, but I work next to one and sometimes only have 15 minutes for lunch. Sparkling water is a hot commodity in this house, but it seems too easy. Bread? Nah. Bacon? Forget about it. Social media? I run a business. It’ll also have to be something unaffected by restaurant reviews.

Sorry for dragging you through this, but if I commit on this page, my friends will hold me to it. I’ve decided to give up the one thing I drink nearly every day. It’s my afternoon pick-me-up to which I have been loyal for about four years or so. Just saying it out loud makes me a touch nervous. It’s like saying goodbye to a lover who is going abroad for a month and some change. It will hurt, but I will be strong and true.

I am giving up Diet Dr Pepper.

Adieu, Little Sweet One. I shall see you when the angel rolls the stone away.