Red Brick Cafe

Tennis skirts, linen and reptiles. That is the atmosphere, what little atmosphere there is, at The Red Brick Café. Situated in a room with checkered tablecloths, The Red Brick churns the tables. Ladies scoot in from tennis, either joining their banker/broker husbands or scatter about among other frat boys or society gulls having lunch.

I am in this category to a degree, so essentially I am making fun of myself. Except that I do try to stay away from the Beltline as much as possible, especially around lunchtime.

The Red Brick is located in the Colonial Bank Center, to the rear of the building on Mobile’s Beltline in between Old Shell Road and Dauphin Street. They moved to this location from Hillcrest Road and Grelot Road when the Colonial Center opened.

Open only for lunch Monday through Friday, the Red Brick menu is fairly standard. The bulk of the menu offers such as items as a tuna melt, ham and cheese, chicken salad, French dip and the like. Stuffed tomatoes with chicken, tuna or shrimp salad, spinach and chef salad are brought into the fold as well. The shrimp salad does have more shrimp than mayo, which is a rare find. There is a slightly inventive “Colonial” salad made with mandarin oranges, roasted almonds and hearts of palm that is pungent when the sweet vinaigrette is chosen.

The Red Brick is “famous” for their club sandwiches. My friend selected the Red Brick Club ($6.50) made with chicken salad, bacon, American cheese, lettuce and tomato on three slices of bread. Like their shrimp salad, the Red Brick does not skimp on the chicken in their salad. But, the sandwich was a bit small. Their chicken salad is made with almonds and sesame seeds that brings a crunch, but otherwise does not add very much to the taste. The salty bacon kicked it up a bit on the taste buds.

The Red Brick food reminds me of grandmother food. Not overly seasoned and a bit timid—trying to please everyone by leaning toward the bland. While this is a nice diversion from what can be wacky and a little too creative at other restaurants of this type, I cannot imagine eating here more than every once in a while. Old-fashioned, that is the description that comes to mind. Good, but not overwhelming.

There are some grilled chicken sandwiches that might possibly be more tantalizing. The Grilled Chicken Pita looks appealing, made with Monterey jack, Colby and served with ranch dressing on the side, along with a Southwestern Wrap that contains the same things found in the pita, only with barbecue sauce.

For some reason I chose the Chicago Melt ($6.50) in which ham, turkey, bacon, American cheese, tomato and lettuce are combined and spread with a spicy mayonnaise. All sandwiches come with a choice of honey wheat berry, French, white, rye, sourdough or Croissant. Our server recommended the sourdough, and I took the suggestion. My sandwich was larger than my friend’s club. Thick slices of ham and turkey, along with the quality bacon made the sandwich. I never tasted the spicy mayonnaise, however. This is a nice, while again rather plain choice.

All sandwiches come with a choice of chips or potato salad. Large cubes of potato are glued together with celery in a mayonnaise/mustard combination. Again, just like grandma’s. But, I like this kind, it is pleasing and comforting. It is also cold—there is nothing worse than room temperature potato salad.

My absolute favorite item from the Red Brick is their broccoli salad. You can order it as an a la carte addition ($1.50) served in a nice size cup, or as a substitute for the potato or chips. Pasta salad, cole slaw, fruit or a cup of soup can also be chosen/substituted as well.

The broccoli salad is out of this world. Prepared broccoli salad is hard to find in Mobile, and can be a pain to make at home. The Red Brick’s is unique and piquant. Slivered almonds and ramen noodles are tossed with the broccoli in a sesame tasting dressing. Not only did I order some, but got a quart to go. To go, it is not cheap, selling for $5 a pound. In addition to the broccoli salad, they also sell all of their salads and sides by the pound.

While I have not tasted it, the Red Brick gumbo is said to be a good choice, with a nice smattering of seafood. They also offer a soup of the day, in addition to several other soups to go, found in a cold case near the front door. The Red Brick jumped on the prepared foods to go trend early on. Their casseroles, such as chicken pot pie, divan, shrimp Creole, shrimp and crab au gratin, vegetable lasagna and spinach Madeline are just a few of the selections. They come in small (from $5 – $6) or large ($9 – $12) sizes and are true to their serving sizes. These are quite affordable and good, especially the chicken pot pie.

I decided to pick up some black bean with ham soup (quart, $7.00) to go. There are around 10 soups sold to go, with about three or four different ones found in the case each day. They range from shrimp bisque ($10.00), Baked Potato ($8.00) and the like. The black bean was slightly salty and full of rich ham flavor. Black beans were plentiful, and the soup had been simmered to a creamy consistency despite the absence of dairy. It was a nice dinner for four with a green salad.

So, I recommend that if you are in the area and hungry, stop in the Red Brick Café. It will satisfy, but not tantalize.

Kinnon Phillips is Lagniappe cuisine editor. Contact him at kphillips@lagniappemobile.com.

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