Briquettes Steakhouse

Briquettes Steakhouse has been grilling steaks over pecan and red oak wood in Mobile since 2013, a detail baked directly into its name. Rather than gas flames or a standard charbroiler, the kitchen uses wood and charcoal briquettes to cook its meats, a method the restaurant credits with giving its steaks, chicken, and seafood a distinct smoky character that separates it from a conventional steakhouse grill setup.

The restaurant’s original Mobile location on Montlimar Drive anchors what has grown into a small, locally run group of Briquettes locations across the Mobile area, including a second Mobile spot on Schillinger Road and a newer location in nearby Saraland. That growth has stayed regional and independently run rather than franchised out to unrelated operators, keeping the wood-fired cooking method and menu consistent across locations.

The menu covers the full range of a casual steakhouse: fresh-cut steaks grilled to order, along with chicken, fish, seafood, pork, salads, soups, and a full list of sides, all built around the same wood and charcoal cooking method rather than treating steak as the only wood-grilled item on the menu. The restaurant emphasizes that its meats are cut fresh before grilling rather than pre-portioned and frozen, and it sources ingredients locally where it can, a detail that matters for a restaurant trying to distinguish itself from national steakhouse chains operating nearby.

Briquettes runs a relaxed, family-friendly atmosphere rather than a formal steakhouse setting, something the restaurant’s own materials point to directly, describing the goal as making a visit feel like an event from the moment guests walk through the door. That casual approach, paired with the wood and charcoal cooking method, has made it a popular weeknight and weekend dinner option for Mobile families who want a real steakhouse experience without the stiffer formality or higher prices of a downtown fine-dining chophouse.

Hours run Monday through Saturday, closed Sundays, with the kitchen open from late morning through the dinner rush and slightly extended hours on Friday and Saturday nights. Separate lunch and dinner menus are available, giving the restaurant flexibility to serve a midday crowd with lighter, faster options alongside its full dinner steak lineup in the evening.

Mobile’s steakhouse scene leans heavily toward national chains, with familiar names anchoring much of the city’s steak dining along its major commercial corridors. Briquettes stands out against that backdrop simply by being genuinely independent and Mobile-grown, expanding carefully within the local area rather than franchising out to unrelated operators or chasing growth outside the region. That kind of controlled, family-driven expansion, from a single Montlimar Drive location to a small handful of Mobile-area restaurants, is relatively rare in the steakhouse category specifically, where national brands tend to dominate.

The wood and charcoal cooking method is central to that independent identity as well. Rather than relying on a standard gas charbroiler, the kind used at most national steakhouse chains, Briquettes built its entire concept and its name around cooking over pecan and red oak wood, a method that takes more attention and skill to run consistently but produces a distinct smoky character that a gas grill cannot replicate. For Mobile diners who want a real steakhouse experience without driving toward a national chain location, Briquettes offers a genuinely local, wood-fired alternative built and run by the same family since it opened.

For anyone seeking a genuinely local steakhouse in Mobile, Briquettes offers a wood-fired alternative to the national chains that dominate much of the city’s steak dining, built and run by a family that has kept its growth close to home since opening its doors. Diners who have tried both the Montlimar and Schillinger Road locations often note that the wood-fired flavor and the relaxed, family-style service carry over consistently between them, a sign of a well-run small restaurant group rather than a single strong flagship propping up weaker satellite locations.