Alabama Biscuit Co.

Whole-grain biscuits with an earthy taste and rugged texture might look like health food — and in some sense, they are — but a few bites uncover lardy richness that is a subtle but sure note. Alabama Biscuit Co. sells them by the half-dozen to go and also uses them to envelop sandwich ingredients that range from jelly, honey, or sorghum syrup to goat cheese, roasted pecans, and honey. Nothing on the menu is ordinary. A basic sausage-egg-cheese biscuit  is made of “Thompson Farms pork, Organic farm eggs, and grassfed cheddar.”

In the far-from-ordinary category, I couldn’t resist a sandwich titled “Fried Bologna Biscuit.” In fact, the meat in question is not bologna. It is mortadella. And it is not fried; it is oven-crisped. The slices are paper thin, piled high on the biscuit’s bottom with mustard, a slew of snappy, bright-flavored pickled vegetables, and house-made whole grain mustard. Once the top is put on this effulgent pile, it becomes a very unwieldy sandwich. But such a delicious one!

Alabama Biscuit Co. has the cool, understated feel of a modern coffee house, and in fact, all sorts of caffeinated beverages are available, from simple espresso to sorghum lattes and cold-brew coffee. Interior decor consists of artfully arranged coffee mugs and bags of house-made grain-free granola Beautiful tables are made of wood harvested from a storm-damaged tree. I came across it only because all the parking spaces in front of adjacent Miss Myra’s BBQ were occupied. I entered the lot, drove past the smoke pit, and found a space directly in front of an inviting storefront where the alluring aroma of baked biscuits offered stiff competition for the perfume of pork sizzling over hickory coals.