At 6’5” and 350 pounds, Roosevelt Patterson is definitely intimidating – until he smiles, anyway, and turns the trick bookcase around to allow guests inside. He is the face, the voice, the literal gatekeeper to one of Mobile’s coolest bars, Las Floriditas. And no one gets in without his approval.

“Nobody won’t ever do it like I do,” Patterson says of his job. “It’s all about the love at the door.”

He was personally selected for the job by Bob Baumhower, the Miami Dolphins nose tackle-turned-restaurateur who owns Las Floriditas.

“He does a really good job with his role,” Baumhower says of his friend and fellow former University of Alabama football player. “He loves people. He can put on a show. He’s just a natural for it.”

Get to know Patterson and learn his story here.