Why you should visit Mentone, Alabama
DeSoto Falls and DeSoto State Park make Mentone a great place to visit in Alabama. (Joe Songer)
Mentone may be one of Alabama’s most charming small towns.
The town on top of Lookout Mountain attracts visitors from across the South who fall in love with Mentone’s earthy vibe, funky arts scene and beauty. Even more people visit the area each year to take in popular summer camps.
In fact, if you haven’t made your way to Mentone before, you should put that on your calendar soon. And if you have, even better. You already know that it’s a perfect little town.
Let’s highlight three reasons why Mentone is a great place to spend a weekend.
Wildflower Café is one of the state’s coolest, funkiest restaurants.
To say that people love Wildflower Café is a bit of an understatement.
RELATED: Wildflower Café is a beauty of a mountaintop restaurant
“We get a lot of Huntsville-Atlanta traffic because there are a lot of people traveling back and forth,” owner L.C. Moon told AL.com’s Bob Carlton in 2019. “They see it, and they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s cute; I should stop one day.’ And usually, once they stop, they’re hooked and then they keep coming.”
[vimeo 351266433 w=640 h=360]Wildflower Café’s cuisine is as fresh as the mountain air from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
We can’t blame them for loving the Wildflower Café. It’s in a quirky, 122-year-old house and it has an eclectic atmosphere. You can buy handmade goods from local artists from a little country store while you wait on your table, and there’s often live music.
The food is pretty fantastic, too. The tomato pie is on the state tourism department’s list of 100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama, and it’s the star of the menu. You can order it solo or in your pasta, salad or on top of your burger. And even if you’re full at the end of the meal, take some dessert to-go – it’s all homemade and delicious.
[vimeo 483756456 w=640 h=360]Wildflower Cafe’s Tomato Pie is one of 100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
It’s an outdoors paradise.
If you love the outdoors, then you’ll absolutely adore Mentone and the surrounding areas. No matter what time of the year you visit, you’ll be awestruck by its natural beauty.
The fantastic view of DeSoto Falls in Mentone. (Bob Gathany)
In the autumn, the town is one of the best places in the state to scope out gorgeous leaves. In fact, every fall the town celebrates the lovely foliage with a festival, Colorfest. And in spring, beautiful rhododendrons dot the landscape, and the town celebrates with – you guessed it – another festival.
But that’s not all. Near Mentone, you’ll find DeSoto Falls, one of the state’s tallest and most majestic waterfalls. Best of all, it’s easy to get to – you can just walk on a paved area from a parking lot. The waterfall is a part of DeSoto State Park, and there are plenty of camping, hiking and educational opportunities throughout the park. (And there are more waterfalls, as well.)
It’s the perfect place to get away from it all.
For such a small town (it has a population near 300), Mentone has a lot going on. It has festivals. It has a small downtown shopping area. It has a farmers market. It usually has tourists year-round.
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Despite all that happening, it’s still a great place to get away from it all. It’s one of the few places with little cell service, so you can avoid distractions.
Rent a cabin, turn off your phones (or don’t – it probably won’t matter) and enjoy your time away from the hustle and bustle. You can do that in Mentone’s slow-paced mountain vibe. But don’t just take our word for it. Let’s go back to L.C. Moon, the proprietor of Wildflower Café:
“I don’t know exactly what it is, but there is a vibe in Mentone,” she said in 2019. “There’s nature here, and it’s one of the most beautiful places ever. The rivers that flow through here are very cleansing.”
