 A Weekend in … Mobile, Alabama
Mobile (pronounced mo-beel) is the little black dress of cities by the sea. The birthplace of Mardi Gras in North America (New Orleans, eat your heart out) and the first capital of the Louisiana Territory, this city delights in its mélange of savory influences: French personality, Spanish architecture, and a well-mannered antebellum elegance all its own. — Becca Hensley
STAY
Located in the newly revitalized downtown and just steps from the water, the Battle House (pictured on previous page) is a veritable celebration of the past. Its redo has managed to upgrade the hotel to modern standards while incorporating a painstaking replication of the details of its former grandeur. From $149. (251) 415-3086, www.rsabattlehouse.com.
EAT
The cuisine of Mobile stems from its six flags of influence and from its home by the bay. For quintessentially Mobilian fare, try historic Wintzell’s Oyster House (251-432-4605, www.wintzellsoysterhouse.com); we recommend the West Indies Salad (crab, onions, vinegar, and oil) and oysters (which are served in every way imaginable). Indulge in rich brownies at Pollman’s Bake Shop (251-342-8546), pimento cheese at Three Georges (251-433-1689), and giant hamburgers at Callaghan’s Irish Social Club (251-433-9374, www.callaghansirishsocialclub.com). Modern Mobile’s creative cuisine rocks at NoJa (251-433-0377, www.nojamobile.com), in the historic district — we love the chicken awash in pesto, tomatoes, and olives nicoise.
 DRINK
Lounge on leather sofas at chic Martinis Fine Food & Spirits (251-433-9920), and swizzle their specialty: the Elvis Presley Martini, a key-lime-pie-flavored libation rimmed with graham-cracker crumbs. Dive aficionados will love Hayley’s (251-433-4970), a local hangout with the best jukebox in town and with a popular sweet-apple-flavored shot called Old Friend.
SHOP
Mobile’s Antiques at the Loop abounds with high-end treasures for bargain prices; Plantation Antique Galleries (604 Bel Air Boulevard, 251-666-7185) is also a sure bet. Across the bay, spend an afternoon combing the shops in Fairhope, a charming village with a nostalgic Main Street. Finally, take home a box of coveted Heavenly Hash made by the nuns of the Visitation Monastery (251-473-2321, www.visitationmonasterymobile.org).
SEE
Stroll through the Mobile Carnival Museum (251-431-9334, www.mobilecarnivalmuseum.com) for an education in Mardi Gras, wander the beautiful grounds of Bellingrath Gardens and Home (251-973-2217, www.bellingrath.org), and enjoy the Mobile Museum of Art (251-208-5200, www.mobilemuseumofart.com), which is known for its exquisite contemporary crafts collection.
DO
Explore Mobile’s natural side at 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center (251-625-0814, www.outdoor alabama.com), an outdoor recreation and resource center that offers numerous activities. Kayak and canoe enthusiasts can take off from a floating dock to explore 250,000 acres of waterways, wetlands, and delta landscapes.
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The Nightly News
Whether you’re traveling for business or pleasure, chances are you’re going to need a hotel. Here are some juicy industry updates to consider before putting your head down at night. — Jill Becker
Eat and Run
In an effort to accommodate time-strapped business travelers, Sofitel Hotels has introduced a new 30-minute lunch service at each of its 11 North American properties. Don’t be fooled, though, because while the guaranteed half-hour-or-less meals are fast, they’re not fast food. Choices from the four-course menu include mouthwatering morsels like pan-seared diver scallops with a hazelnut crust and grilled beef tenderloin with white-truffle potato mousseline. Maybe now you’ll have time for a quick nap or a scan of your notes before your next meeting. www.sofitel.com
 Dressed for Success
Adding to the growing list of hotels hooking up with major fashion houses — including Bulgari hotels in Bali and Milan, and a Ferragamo in Florence — are three new hotels from Italian designer Missoni, who’s joined forces with Rezidor SAS for a planned 30 Missoni-branded hotels across the globe by 2010. The first property — designed, as they all will be, to reflect “contemporary Italian life and style” and featuring a signature Missoni restaurant, bar, and spa — is scheduled to open this year in, of all places, Kuwait. It will be followed in late 2008 by another Middle East property, in Dubai, and the brand’s first foray into Europe, in Edinburgh, Scotland. www.rezidor.com
In Short Order
Have a long layover in London and want to catch some shut-eye, or need a place to fine-tune those reports? Yotel is your answer. The burgeoning hotel brand just opened two airport properties (inside Terminal 4 at Heathrow and in the South Terminal at Gatwick) that allow guests to check in for an overnight stay or, for those who don’t have or need that much time, for a four-hour block. Even more unusual are Yotel’s rooms, futuristic-looking “cabins” modeled after Japanese capsule hotels. Eminently affordable ($50 for four hours or $110 to $162 per night), the rooms still feature amenities like flat-screen TVs, music stations, rain showers, and free Wi-Fi. www.yotel.com
Expecting the Best
The latest buzzword in the hotel industry? Babymoons, which is code for the vacation packages for expectant couples that are popping up all over the place. Taking advantage of a previously untapped market, babymoons cater to soon-to-be parents with things like pregnancy massages for Mom and golf outings for Dad. Bonus features include cooking classes for making your own baby food, like at the award-winning E’Terra resort in Ontario ($892 to $2,018); maternity photo sessions, available at the Casa Madrona Hotel & Spa in Sausalito, California ($1,300 to $2,700); and at the Arawak Beach Inn in Anguilla, unlimited pickles and ice cream (from $449 to $779). www.babymoonfinder.com
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Crowd Control
Jason Knight, CEO of Wesabe, a money-management website that uses the wisdom of the crowd to help people control their finances, answers the company’s customer-service line every day from noon until four p.m. Pacific time. Callers sometimes hang up as soon as Knight announces himself, though. “I think they’re calling to see if I really pick up the phone,” he says. Well, he does. And he’ll even put a journalist on hold to answer your call. Perhaps it’s this accessibility that helped Wesabe — founded in 2005 by Knight, who’d been a vice president at Asurion Asia Pacific, and by Marc Hedlund, a vice president at a security-software company — nab $700,000 in venture capital from O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures this past January. — Tracy Staton
How is using Wesabe different from using Quicken or Microsoft Money?
My joke about Quicken is, you load up all your data, and it tells you that you’re broke. With us, you load your data, and we immediately suggest tips that are useful to you. We’re not showing you where you are; we’re helping you figure out where to go next.
Have you changed your own financial behavior because of Wesabe?
I pay off my credit cards every month. I was pretty proud of myself. But after using Wesabe for six months, I saw that I was paying $43 a month in bank fees. That’s more than $500 a year. My wife and I consolidated our banking to a single bank. Now our fees are $15 to $20 annually.
How much difference can one small change like that make?
Take that $500 a year and apply compound interest for the next 20 years. If you get rid of things leeching out money, you have a big long-term impact.
What’s your advice for new Wesabe users?
Don’t be shocked or dismayed — guilt doesn’t do you any good. Don’t feel bad about what you’ve done with your money; be proud of how you’ll manage it in the future. You can change, because people do. We’ve seen it.
The How-to Guide to Wesabe
We tested out Knight’s website for ourselves and were pretty impressed.
Here’s a step-by-step look at how it works.
The hardest part of getting started on Wesabe is digging up all your online account passwords. But after that, you just follow the step-by-step instructions to upload your bank and credit card accounts.
Next, tag your transactions with keywords. For this you’ll have to decipher what CEO Jason Knight calls “bank puke,” the gibberish banks use to describe individual transactions (CHECK CRD 02/05 P&R CIT — huh?). Wesabe was able to translate some of my transactions because other members had translated their own deals with the same merchant.
Now, here comes the fun: your tips. They’re directly related to your spending habits and choice of retailers. I got advice for using a cell phone abroad on the cheap, for negotiating a less-expensive cable bill, and for filing for a telephone excise-tax refund. I got so excited about that last one, I immediately e-mailed it to my husband, the family tax man. (Some of the tips are less helpful, even strange — e.g., don’t drain your bath until the water’s cold because the hot water will help heat the room — but you can exclude those by making a favorites list. That way, you can go back to only the ones you like.)
Then, set some goals — here you’ll get even more advice, from other people with similar aims — and keep track of your progress using your transaction tags.
Also, all of your information is private. You share your goals and tips, but no one sees your account information but you. So, you benefit from the crowd without inviting them into your bankbook.
Knight promises more new features, about two or three every month, and, eventually, Wesabe will offer a feature-rich premium membership level for a monthly fee. Until then, it’s all free. Check it out at www.wesabe.com.
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The Best Little Teahouses in America
Sipping tea is often linked with grandeur, but you don’t have to be in the lobby of a formal hotel, gazing into a platter of petits fours, to enjoy high-quality leaves. Here are some of our favorite stylish, chic spots to drink tea. — Kristine Hansen
Bungalow Coffee and Tea
Santa Rosa, California
Naturally, a wine-country beverage stop is not going to compromise on taste and quality, especially this one owned by Jake Whiteley, whose tea knowledge stems from his travels throughout Europe and Asia. Try rare blends like Dragon Phoenix Pearl or book a tea tasting ($20), all the while enjoying the bungalow-like interior with skylights, rotating artwork, and an Arts-and-Crafts aesthetic. 540 Larkfield Center, (707) 546-8223, www.bungalowcoffeeandtea.com
 Janam Indian Tea Shop
Jersey City, New Jersey
Owner Amy Dubin travels straight to the origin to procure a line of single-estate teas from India, and she loves to introduce them to others through events and tastings inside her colorful (fuchsia and turquoise) shop. 353 Grove Street, (201) 432-4832, www.janamtea.com
Mandala Tea Room
Scottsdale, Arizona
Jennifer Miranda likes to preach organic health inside and out — her tearoom is attached to an apothecary shop, which she also owns. All her teas are either biodynamic or certified organic, and she even offers a vegan and organic menu. The tearoom’s interior has relaxing touches of lime green and chocolate brown. A weekend brunch offers Hopi blue-corn griddle cakes, continental-breakfast platters (traditional, macro, and raw), and more. 7027 East Fifth Avenue, (480) 423-3411, www.mandalatea room.com
Sip
San Antonio, Texas
Sporting cherry-red decor and a series of black-and-white photographs hanging on the walls, this corner storefront on Houston Street is great for people-watching while you sip your tea. Pair it with a panini or a pastry, your choice. Cousin restaurant Le Reve took the number-four spot on Gourmet’s list of the top 50 restaurants in 2006, and Sip is just as delicious, inside and out. 160 East Houston Street, (210) 222-0149
Teaism
Washington, D.C.
The Asian-inspired interior of one of the capital’s first teahouses gives rise to a desire to taste the entire continent’s array of choices. Afternoon tea ($20, either Asian or traditional) is served weekdays from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Lafayette location; Japanese bento boxes, breakfast, Asian desserts (including mochi), and more are available at all three locations. (877) 883-2476, www.teaism.com
Teany
New York City
Originally founded by musician Moby and his friend Kelly Tisdale, this lower-level tearoom with walls the color of lime sherbet and white painted bricks serves a whopping 100-plus varieties of tea. (Tisdale runs the place now.) Vegan cakes, sandwiches, English Heinz beans on toast, afternoon tea ($22), and an all-day breakfast are on the café menu. 90 Rivington Street, (212) 475-9190, www.teany.com
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Paper Mates
Despite our increasing dependence on e-mail, text messaging, and other high-tech forms of communication, we like to think that writing by hand never goes out of style. (Who doesn’t love opening the mail to find a calligraphed invitation or a handwritten thank-you note?) But what’s great penmanship without a great pen? — J.B.
Flower power Now that summer is upon us, Cross’s new Century II Botanica, with its flouncy floral theme, is the perfect accessory. Adorned with a garden of blooms, the Botanica comes in three appropriately named colors: Marigold, Bluebell, and Rose. $65. www.cross.com
Tango lessons Also new from Cross is the Townsend Tango. The classic lines and engraving that dance across the cap make the pen ideal for everyday use or for formal affairs, like the signing of your wedding guest book. Available in black or slate lacquer. $100 to $235. www.cross.com
Making a splash Pelikan’s latest special-edition pen, the Niagara Falls, is a fitting tribute to one of the world’s great landmarks. Conceived of metal alloy and resin inlaid with cobalt blue lacquer, it eerily conveys the power and beauty of the mighty waters. $294 to $426. www.pelikan.com
Deco darling Formerly retired but making a comeback this year is Parker’s Duofold Pearl & Black, a marbled masterpiece of pearlescent acrylic accented with 23-karat champagne gold that rekindles the Roaring ’20s. Adding to the extravagance is an 18-karat-gold nib that’s so elegantly etched, you’ll hate putting the cap on. $250 to $500. www.parkerpen.com
Sir Writes-a-Lot Sporting what seems to be the material of the moment, Pentel of America’s just-added Lancelot pens are constructed of lacquer laid over brass with nickel accents. You can even get a fountain pen with an ink bottle rather than the more-common cartridge refills. $25 to $90. www.pentel.com
What’s in a name? The Henry Ford of fountain-pen making, Lewis Edson Waterman, dreamed of one day designing the perfect leakproof pen. Today his company honors his memory with the introduction of the eponymous Edson Diamond Black, a modern writer that’s guaranteed to be leak-free up to 30,000 feet. $550 to $1,000. www.waterman.com
Glass menagerie Akuamarina’s Phoenician is an eye-popping creation crafted in Italy out of Venice’s famed Murano glass. There are six color combinations, each more appealing than the last, making it virtually impossible to choose just one. They’re only $50 apiece, though, so why limit yourself? Ink sold separately. www.forzieri.com
Carving its own niche If you’re going to handcraft a letter or note, why not use a handcrafted pen? Pilot’s new limited-edition Chinkin Series (not shown) features one-of-a-kind instruments — it can take up to three months to make each one — with carvings of elaborate Asian motifs (think dragons, owls, squirrels, and hawks) done by a master artist. From $4,000. www.namiki.com
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