Bill-E’s The Restaurant

Bill-E’s The Restaurant sits at 19992 Highway 181 in Fairhope, Alabama, operating under the self-described banner of “Old 27 Grill,” a name that shows up again and again across its burger and hot dog menu and reflects the highway running past the front door. The restaurant’s own tagline sums up the approach: a place where “locals and vacationers alike come to throw their cares and their diets to the wind.”

The burger list alone runs ten deep, starting with the Old 27 and Ole Texas and moving through a Mushroom burger, a Chili Cheese Burger, the Black & Blue, and Bill-E’s Bacon Cheeseburger. A Bill-E’s Blended burger, a Veggie option, the Holy Cow, and a Wagyu burger give the lineup range from everyday to splurge-worthy. Hot dogs get the same treatment, with the Old 27 Dog, a Pimento Cheese Dog, a Beer Bratwurst, a Chili Cheese Dog, and a Mardi Gras Dog all on offer.

Sandwiches move past the grill into smoked and fried territory. A Pork Belly Sandwich, a Pulled Pork Sammich, Comeback Chicken, and Comeback Shrimp share the menu with a Shrimp or Fish Po’Boy, the Dixie Chic Sandwich, and a Country Fried Steak Sandwich, alongside a straightforward BLT for anyone wanting the classic. The Comeback name shows up twice on the menu, once as a sandwich in the Comeback Chicken and Comeback Shrimp, and again in the Comeback Salad listed among the salads below.

Appetizers cover a lot of ground on their own, including Bill-E’s Bacon Taster, Pimento Cheese and house-made chips, Smoked Tuna Dip and house-made chips, Chicken Gizzards, Boiled Peanuts, Fried Green Beans, and a Pork Belly Bites Trio. For lighter appetites, the Comeback Salad and Grilled Wedge Salad anchor the salad section, and a “Hold the Beans” Chili and Shrimp Gumbo cover the soup side.

Plate dinners round out the substantial end of the menu with a Pulled Pork BBQ Plate, a Tender Dinner, a Hamburger Steak Dinner, and a Country Fried Steak Dinner, each built as a full sit-down meal rather than a sandwich. Dessert leans indulgent to match the restaurant’s tagline, with a Hot Chocolate and Caramel Brownie, Fried Fruit Pies, Bill-E’s Chocolate Belly, cheesecakes made by Cotton Blues, and Banana Pudding.

The restaurant organizes its full offerings across a handful of dedicated site sections, including a “Libations” page for the bar menu and a “Beer-Events & Live Music” page that tracks the restaurant’s regular calendar of tastings and performances. Online ordering runs through a ZenPepper system linked directly from the site, and a separate catering page handles private party requests, keeping the burger-and-bacon operation organized despite its sprawling menu.

Bacon is enough of a signature at Bill-E’s that it has its own retail arm, Bill-E’s Bacon, sold in small batches through a dedicated site and shipped nationally via Goldbelly. The restaurant also runs a regular calendar of beer events and live music, and offers full catering for private parties. Bill-E’s is open Monday through Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 10:30 a.m. “until tired,” a closing time that matches the restaurant’s unhurried, come-as-you-are attitude.

The restaurant can be reached at 251.281.2663 for questions on catering, private events, or the current live music schedule, and its physical address at 19992 Highway 181 puts it on one of the main routes into Fairhope from the surrounding Eastern Shore communities. Between the burger list, the hot dog list, the bacon retail arm, and the standing live music calendar, Bill-E’s has built a menu and a business model that stretches well past a typical grill’s usual scope.