Noell Broughton and Mark Strickland are at it again. The longtime friends — best friends since the fifth grade, as they tell it — opened Grace Restaurant and Rooftop Bar at 555 Dauphin Street at the end of October, adding another room to downtown Mobile’s crowded dining scene. The setting alone guarantees attention: the old Catholic Services building, in the heart of Dauphin Street’s Entertainment District, now holds a downstairs dining room with a prominent bar and, above it, a rooftop bar with TVs, seating areas and small tables for outdoor dining.
Grace wears its atmosphere lightly — casual rather than formal, busy with office holiday parties and birthday groups, with old friends running into each other at the door. Lois White-Spunner, a fixture of the local restaurant world, greets guests and shows off the upstairs bar, while bartender Steve holds down the ground floor.
Shareables and a fresh catch
The kitchen, overseen by Strickland — who also runs the kitchen at Debris, another favorite on Mobile’s food circuit — leans toward small plates and shareables to start. The menu’s opening acts read like a tour of Gulf Coast indulgence: pan-seared diver scallops with roasted tomato couscous, citrus beurre blanc and balsamic reduction; veal and goat cheese stuffed mushrooms under smoked Gouda mornay; and a lump crabmeat and fried green tomato Napoleon with champagne cream.
Dinner splits into lighter fare — a solid salad lineup — and larger plates, with a fresh catch from the grill offered with a choice of sauces and add-ons, plus a full run of sides and desserts.
Lunch deserves its own mention. A recent midday visit turned up a creamy corn and roasted tomato rosemary chowder and a grilled snapper sandwich with house-made tartar sauce — built, importantly, on a Leidenheimer bun. Leidenheimer bread, shipped in from the legendary New Orleans bakery, is what sets Strickland’s sandwiches and po’ boys apart, and it arrives fresh enough to prove it. The blue cheese mashed potatoes are the kind of side people come back for.
Mobile’s restaurant family tree
Grace’s opening week had the feel of a homecoming: restaurateur Wendell Quimby — whose buildings and properties house several of the city’s eateries — was in town checking on his holdings, and the dining room filled with familiar faces from across Mobile’s hospitality world. That network is no accident. Broughton has spent years building restaurants and entertainment venues downtown, and Strickland’s dual role at Grace and Debris is part of a web of shared kitchens and shared staff that makes Mobile’s dining scene feel like one extended family with multiple dining rooms.
The rooftop adds another dimension to the Entertainment District, where rooftop seating has become one of downtown’s most competitive amenities. Grace’s upstairs space catches the parade routes and the sunset crowd, with enough TVs to keep the sports faithful happy and enough small tables to make it a real dining option rather than just a bar.
What to order, and when
First-timers would do well to build a meal from the shareable starters — the scallops and the crabmeat Napoleon are the sort of dishes that turn a first visit into a regular habit — then add a fresh catch from the grill. At lunch, the snapper sandwich on Leidenheimer bread is the move, with whatever soup the kitchen has on that day.
Downtown Mobile has no shortage of places to spend an evening, but Grace’s combination — a serious downstairs kitchen, a real rooftop above it, and two old friends running the operation — fills a niche the street has been missing. Go for the rooftop on a pretty evening; stay for the stuffed mushrooms.