Panini Pete’s

Panini Pete’s has become one of Fairhope’s most recognized breakfast and lunch spots, built around chef Pete Blohme’s take on Southern-meets-New Orleans comfort food. The restaurant’s muffaletta panini earned a spot on “100 Things to Eat in Alabama Before You Die,” a distinction from the Alabama Department of Tourism that put the sandwich shop on the state’s culinary map.

The recognition hasn’t stopped at the state line. Guy Fieri featured the restaurant on Food Network, saying, “You can tell when somebody has a passion for food,” and Rick Bragg wrote about the homemade beignets and cafe au lait for Southern Living. Both mentions point to the same two items that anchor the breakfast menu: pillowy, made-to-order beignets dusted in powdered sugar and a proper New Orleans-style cafe au lait to go with them.

Breakfast runs deep beyond the beignets. Breakfast Bowls include The Classic, a Fried Spam Bowl, an Egg White Bowl, a Low Carb Bowl, and a Vegan Scramble, while the frittata section offers Classic, Italian, and Eastern Shore versions. Pete’s Monte Cristo, Classic French Toast, Avocado Toast, and a Steak-n-Egg Wrap round out the sandwich side, and the beignets themselves show up reworked into a Chicken and Beignets plate and Banana Nut Beignets.

Lunch shifts the focus to the panini press. The namesake Muffaletta Panini layers Italian meats and olive salad the traditional way, while the House Roasted Turkey, Seared Tuna, Rosemary Chicken, and Pop’s Mozzarella & Tomato paninis fill out the rest of the pressed sandwich list, alongside a Grilled Chicken Banh Mi that pulls from a different tradition entirely. Burgers get their own section too, with the Black & Bleu, the French Quarter, a Beer Cheese & Bacon burger, and La Grande Fromage all built on the same griddle.

Salads round out lunch for lighter appetites, including a Fresh Garden Salad, a Grilled Chicken Salad, Pete’s Signature Salad, a Roasted Turkey Salad, and a Seared Tuna Salad, backed up by a rotating soup the menu simply calls “Pete’s fresh side of the day.” The drink menu leans into fresh juice and smoothie blends with names like The Breville Yell, For Pete’s Sake, Strawberry Fields, and Green Machine, alongside coffee drinks, beer, wine, and cocktails that include a Mimosa, a Bloody Mary, and both a classic and strawberry Margarita.

The breakfast sandwich list extends further than the headliners, with an Egg White Avocado Wrap, a Classic Breakfast Panino, an Italian Breakfast Panino, a Beignet Chicken Slider, and a Beignet Bacon, Egg & Cheese Slider giving the beignet treatment to savory combinations as well as sweet ones. The burger section also includes a straightforward Basic Burger and a Panini Burger pressed the same way as the lunch sandwiches, and the smoothie and juice lists round out with Pineapple Princess and In The Nick Of Time alongside the flavors already mentioned.

A dedicated kids menu covers grilled mozzarella cheese, a grilled peanut butter and jelly, turkey and mozzarella with honey mustard, grilled chicken tenders, and a kids burger, making the restaurant workable for families as well as the beignet-and-coffee crowd that built its reputation. Panini Pete’s is part of the P.P. Hospitality Group, the same ownership group behind Sunset Pointe on the other side of town, and both restaurants share Chef Blohme’s Raw Ingredients Podcast as a way of extending the kitchen’s voice beyond the dining room.

The “100 Things to Eat in Alabama Before You Die” list that includes the muffaletta panini is maintained by the Alabama Department of Tourism as a statewide guide to the dishes worth a special trip, and Panini Pete’s remains one of the relatively small number of Fairhope restaurants to earn a spot on it. Gift cards and a branded merchandise store are both available directly through the restaurant’s website, letting regulars carry the beignet-and-panino habit home between visits.