Alabama is blessed with a bevy of great places to eat. We’ve got barbecue joints smoking lip-smacking pork parts, meat ’n three eateries serving plates piled with Southern comfort, classy cafés, bustling bistros and award-winning fine dining restaurants. But we’ve all been told the morning meal is the most important eating we’ll do all day, so we can’t overlook the state’s tall stack of spots delivering delicious breakfasts. Here are a few favorites.

Julwin’s, Fairhope

The list of offerings enticing folks to Fairhope is long. The small town sitting on the edge of Mobile Bay is soaked in charm and natural beauty. But the heaping helpings of breakfast classics found at Julwin’s are alone reason enough to visit.

The downtown eatery is Baldwin County’s oldest restaurant, filling diners’ bellies since 1945. Julwin’s is open for lunch but is beloved for its breakfast menu featuring pancakes as big as your head, airy eggs folded around fresh veggies and cheese in rich omelets, and the best seller, creamy gouda grits topped with grilled Gulf shrimp.

Green Eggs and Ham at Homecoming and Company in Guntersville. (Jennifer Kornegay / Alabama News Center)

Homecoming and Company, Guntersville

Guntersville-area native Jessica Hanners grew up working in her parents’ restaurant but then left for college and culinary school and ended up on the West Coast, cooking in Portland, Oregon, before coming back South and helming Atlanta’s Souper Jenny restaurant group (five restaurants, an urban farm and a food-focused nonprofit) as its executive chef.

In 2018, she was ready to head home and open her own spot, fittingly dubbing the casual café Homecoming and Company, where Hanners is whipping up what she calls “eclectic Southern” cuisine with a focus on fresh and clean. “I’ve always been passionate about farm-to-table, as well as supporting local farmers and producers, so that’s what we do here,” Hanners says.

Almost every item is made from scratch using as many locally sourced ingredients as possible; all eggs are cage-free, and beef is grass-fed. “When people come in and say, ‘Oh, these smashed breakfast potatoes are so good!’ I love to tell them, well, they came from an organic famer just down the road,” she says.

Usual suspects like bacon and grits are elevated with locally sourced pork and non-GMC corn that’s been stone-ground into grits and cornmeal on a 100-year-old stone on nearby Grant Mountain. And more creative fare like buckwheat pancakes sweetened with mashed bananas, a Warm Hug (a biscuit enrobed in chocolate gravy), and Green Eggs and Ham (a bowl of grits, silky collards, country ham and scrambled eggs crowned with a fried onion ring) are always popular.

Shashy’s Bakery & Fine Foods, Montgomery

This capital city favorite in the hip and historic Cloverdale neighborhood serves breakfast standards as good as grandma’s but with a sophisticated slant. Classics like eggs Benedict are dressed up with fried green tomatoes or beef tenderloin. Home fries are crisp and seasoned just right. French toast is dusted with cinnamon sugar. And Shashy’s homemade cheese biscuits are tender and generously studded with cheddar. Bloody Marys and bubbly mimosas wash it all down, and on Saturdays, it’s all on offer until 1:30 p.m.

The Breakfast Gumbo at the Satsuma Chevron is a hearty way to start your day. (Jennifer Kornegay / Alabama News Center)

Satsuma Chevron Breakfast and BBQ, Satsuma

Pump some gas in your car and then head inside this Chevron station in Satsuma to fuel your body for a busy day with the hot breakfast options that draw lines out the door. The crowds come for golden biscuits one of a few ways: smothered in tomato gravy, encasing a fried chicken breast or holding a handful of scrambled organic free-range eggs, crackling bacon and cheese. But most leave with a weighty bowl of hearty breakfast gumbo, a mishmash of multiple good things layered in a bowl: cheese grits, patty sausage, Conecuh sausage, scrambled eggs, bacon and scallions all topped with spicy pepper sauce. The eatery sells close to 1,000 orders of it each day. Calling it gumbo is accurate, but it’s also a nod to owner Chris Beasley’s Louisiana roots. “My parents started this place out of a love of feeding others,” he says. “I’m just continuing that heritage.”

The Waysider, Tuscaloosa

Occupying an old house appropriately painted crimson, The Waysider feels like home to its many regulars, who pack its dining room to dig into generous portions of homestyle breakfasts. Open since 1948, it’s a landmark in the college town and makes its Roll Tide allegiance clear, with photos of iconic moments in the university’s sports history, newspaper headlines declaring U of A victories, autographed images of beloved (winning) coaches and other Alabama memorabilia dominating the décor. No matter who you root for on fall Saturdays, you’ll cheer for pillowy clouds of pale-yellow scrambled eggs, sugar-cured ham fried till the edges crisp and squarish scratch-made biscuits perfect for sopping up salty grits.

The Waysider’s scratch-made biscuits are perfect for sopping up salty grits. (Jennifer Kornegay / Alabama News Center)

Bistro St. Emanuel, Mobile

Arrive prepared to defend your waistline at this new eatery (opened in 2022) that’s the onsite restaurant of Fort Condé Inn, a collection of accommodations (historic cottages as well as rooms in a circa 1836 house) fronting cobblestone streets in one of the oldest areas of downtown Mobile. Bistro St. Emanuel’s indulgent breakfasts are influenced by the waterfront city’s French heritage but take full advantage of Alabama ingredients in dishes including omelets filled with Conecuh sausage and Gulf-caught crab, decadent Bananas Foster French Toast and multiple varieties of eggs Benedict.

East of the Mississippi Diner, Birmingham

Good ol’ Southern cooking is what owner Walter Thomas gives guests at his East of the Mississippi Diner; the almost 20-year-old eatery hosts approximately 200 of them each morning for chicken wings and waffles, smoked-sausage-stuffed biscuits, Julia’s Loaded Hashbrowns (shredded potatoes mixed with onions, peppers, cheese and sugar-cured ham named for Thomas’ daughter) and more.

Thomas points to pancakes as a personal and customer favorite. “I discovered a great recipe and special flour blend in Chicago and started using that, and our pancakes are talked about throughout the city,” he says. The Mississippi omelet (packed with onions, tomatoes, cheese and choice of meat), the name honoring his magnolia state roots, also has big fans, but the salmon patties, grilled till the exteriors are browned and crunchy, are the “No. 1 best seller” every day.