Cuisine Review

Downtown continues to boom. Another restaurant has recently opened on Royal Street and every time I go in it is packed to the gills.

Serda’s Coffee Company is located on Royal Street just a few doors down from the Municipal parking garage south of Dauphin Street. They serve more than coffee and tea – breakfast, smoothies, paninis and wraps, gelato and a full bar.

The original outpost in Mobile is out in Tillman’s Corner and has done well – the Serda family took a risk and built out a fabulous, uptown space.

Warm yellow walls, booths, tables and a bar provide plenty of seating. There is a spacious back room with table seating as well. While there is plenty of seating, be prepared to wait in line for service at key hours. The line moves fast, but on my most recent visit there were 20 people in line, but don’t let that daunt you.

Bar service has its own register and while I have not been in at night, there has been a cadre of businessmen and women, out of town visitors and tourists and a few off duty Battle House and Riverview staff drinking after work. At breakfast, there is a steady stream.

Serda’s seems to have gotten past the Mobile curse – where everyone packs it in at once, overwhelming the staff, then tapers off quickly. They do need a bit more help, in my opinion, to avoid people walking in and turning around due to the crowds. But as I said, the line moves fast and the food comes out shortly thereafter.

My first trip was for breakfast with a few returns since. They have the usual coffee drinks, teas, iced coffees and the like. I drink non-fat lattes and find theirs as good as anyone else’s. The breakfast food menu is concise.

I selected the capable breakfast bagel ($3.30), toasted with bacon, egg and American cheese. The breakfast burrito ($4.30) contains ham, egg, American cheese, tomato and salsa rolled in a tortilla. They have a BLT, cereals, a toasted bagel, muffins and scones. The muffins and scones are baked daily. I have partnered my breakfast with a small smoothie or have simply had a large smoothie alone.

The smoothies contain real fresh fruit with a small costing $3.75 or a large at $4.25. When I make it a meal, I add one of their supplements – typically a power shake (meal replacement) or pure protein (with 50 grams of why protein). Others available are fat burner, energizer and muscle builder and are all 75 cents extra.

I am stuck on one as my favorite, not veering from this. The Blue Dolphin is a mixture of blueberries, strawberries and banana all of my favorites. The list is exhaustive – a peach with strawberry and touch of banana; the Stingray contains strawberries, oranges and pineapple; Jelly Splash with strawberry and banana with papaya or the Peanut Pleasure that has peanut butter and fresh bananas.

I have to warn you about the peanut pleasure! It is the bomb, and I came back to the office after a run one day extolling its virtues, the wonderful taste and how creamy it was for being so healthy. It was quickly pointed out to me that it contains vanilla ice cream. So I have only indulged one more time and did so for a dessert.

The gelato is flavorful with many offerings – I have tried the blueberry butter cookie, pistachio and nuts and berries. A small is $2.70, medium $3.30 and the large $4. Any flavor of gelato can be made into a shake for $5.50 for a small and $6.30 for large, along with hand packed pints and quarts. The pints and quarts would be great to pick up for a dinner party dessert. The wine list is expansive with reds, whites and champagne by the glass. There are about 50 domestic, imported and microbrew beers, several martinis and top shelf liquors.

Last but not least is the lunch/dinner menu of paninis and wraps. All are served with a choice of one side and a pickle (the potato salad is so good that I cannot even remember what else is there for a side) One can add a cup of soup or side salad for $2. Last week I tasted the brie mushroom soup – rich with an earthy, salty flavor.

Like the smoothie, I got hooked on one wrap every time which is why my review has been stalled. This is the Sante Fe Chicken (half $4.70, whole $6.75) – the half is plenty for a lunchtime appetite. This wrap is complete with fresh chicken breast, jalapeno jack cheese, onion, tomato, ranch dressing with a side of salsa on a tomato basil wrap and is served warm. The paninis are served on the typical ciabatta or foccacia style bread. They have a chicken fajita strip, roast beef (with cheddar, garlic horseradish, purple onion; a reuben; grilled cheese (you can add bacon or tomato) and BLT.

The more creative paninis are found as first a chicken spinach alfredo. This rich sandwich has sliced chicken breast, spinach cheese artichoke sauce, tomato and mushrooms. Or how about the turkey and artichoke that combines turkey with Swiss, horseradish mustard, artichoke hearts, tomato and purple onion.

I tried the muffaletta ($6.75 half, $8 whole) which was OK, but I would recommend others to try. The wraps are many – from the Sweet Turkey with jalapeno jack cheese, bacon, sun dried tomato, spinach and a side of honey mustard to a Tuscan Turkey with spinach, tomato, artichoke hearts, roasted red pepper, onion, basil pesto and mayonnaise. My friend loved the roast beef ($3.20 half, $6 for whole) with cheddar, onion, green pepper, lettuce, tomato, mayo and horseradish sauce on a tomato basil tortilla.

The hours of operation are Monday through Thursday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. There are happy hour specials from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and I had no idea that they have live music on Fridays and Saturdays from 7:30 p.m. to 10. Check out all the info at serdascoffee.com. So at any time, any day (but Sunday) or for any food or drink interest, Serdas is the place to be downtown.

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

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