By Ashley Toland Editor

It all started five years ago on the night another one of the historic derelict buildings burned to the ground in downtown Mobile. Rob and I, along with some friends, were drinking a few beers at Heroes and somehow we got to talking about how Mobile really needed an alternative newspaper.

I had just moved back from Austin, and I had really been a fan of their alternative, The Austin Chronicle. I couldn’t believe a city Mobile’s size didn’t already have one. Rob had not long been back from DC, and had a column on one of the glorious, glossy pages of Mobile Bay Monthly, which he enjoyed penning. But we both still thought someone needed to start a paper with more city and political columnists, honest food reviews that wouldn’t always be glowing, coverage of the arts and music scene, and maybe even some sort of gossip column. We just didn’t know who that someone would be.

The conversation ended as the flames shot out of the roof of the building, and we all rushed to Bienville Square, (go-cups in hand, of course – we’re Mobilians), to watch the fire.

And maybe the idea would have subsided along with our hangovers, but I thank Bob Holberg Advertising and some local physicians’ group for that. I had interviewed with both of them, but for some reason they never called me back. It may have had something to do with the fact I was fresh out of college with my communications degree in hand but very little experience.

So one night after preparing yet another resume to yet another job I knew I really didn’t want and probably wouldn’t get, I grabbed a piece of paper, a pen and some Scotch tape and started drawing out a version of the paper Rob and I had talked about at Heroes. The first thing I sketched for some reason was “A Loaded Question.” I was thinking we’ll ask a man-in-the-street question in bars, so the people who answered the question (which didn’t necessarily have to be loaded itself) would be loaded (get it? Huh-huh?).

I literally taped a bunch of pages together and wrote “The Mobile Mirror,” on the front, (That’s what I thought it should be called at first. What can I say I have always been a fan of alliteration). The next day I headed out to Rob’s office at South where he was (and still is) the advisor of the student newspaper. I remember being aggravated with myself because I had forgotten to grab the resume I had put together to stick in the mail.

He went through the sad little taped together mock-up and added some things and I asked him how much he thought it would cost to print it. He said he could find out from Rankin Publishing, who printed The Vanguard. I said I thought I knew someone who could give me the money to start it up, and I was going to meet with him later in the week. Rob would get the Rankin numbers in the mean time.

By the time we were finished talking about it, I was almost late for my happy hour shift at Boo Radley’s. I didn’t have time to run back by the house to get my resume.

Rob got the numbers and then apparently we smoked some crack because we thought we could start the paper up on $5,000. I met with the investor later that week at King Neptune’s in Gulf Shores and made the presentation. A few days later, he asked who he should make the check out to.

I threw the resume away.

I told Rob I had gotten the money. He came over to my apartment later that day and we sat out on my balcony overlooking Dauphin Street. He said I really think we need to be partners on this. I immediately agreed. And a few subsequent (and much larger) investments, Rob’s hatred of the name “Mobile Mirror,” some blood, sweat, tears and five years later, here we are.

Everyone thought we would be out of business in six months. I know that primarily because everyone really seems to enjoy telling me that now. And usually they add they thought Mobile just wouldn’t support something like this, which is unfortunately a popular phrase we like to say about everything. I hear all the time – Mobilians won’t support events; Mobile won’t support local music unless it’s covers of Jimmy Buffett songs (ironically); Mobilians won’t support art unless it’s paintings of magnolias and pelicans.

I just don’t think that’s true anymore. Mobilians just won’t support mediocrity anymore.

I don’t think there is anywhere else we could have started the Mobile Mirror, I mean, Lagniappe, and it would have been successful as it has been.

Why?

First, I am proud of the product we put out every two weeks.

And because it’s our friends who work for us and who own the businesses who support us. And why are they able to support us? Because Mobile has been good them too. Would Noell Broughton and David Rasp and Brad Young and the Walker Brothers and Todd Henson have been as successful in any other city? Maybe so. But there were just so many voids to fill here, and the city was rife with opportunities to seize.

And I kind of feel like we are all paying her back by working together to make her better and better.

And you know what? It’s happening.

So much so, I’m tiring of hearing the dreaded, “It was so cool, you didn’t feel like you were in Mobile.”

With all of the new industry and growth, solid leadership and redevelopment, it’s only going to get better, and our arts, cuisine and music scenes will thrive right along with it.

And I know Lagniappe will be here long after the day when our civic self-loathing finally ends and all you hear is, “Mobile really is so cool.”

Ashley Toland is Lagniappe editor. Contact her at ashleytoland@lagniappemobile.com.

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