Restaurants

The dining scene in Birmingham constantly catches first-time visitors off guard. It’s not just the meat ‘n’ three style endemic to the South that catches peoples’ attention or the surprisingly pervasive Greek influence found in local fare—from hot dog and hamburger joints to barbecue and white-linen establishments. It’s more the scope and variety of locally owned restaurants that seems to receive steady media attention in magazines such as Bon Apetit, Food & Wine, Esquire, The New York Times, and of course, locally produced Southern Living. In fact, I worked for years at a local magazine that primarily focused on the higher-end Over the Mountain audience and don’t recall us ever needing to cover anything other than independent restaurants for that monthly column. In a city of Birmingham’s moderate size, that’s remarkable.

As many residents—and many in the food-writing business in New York or at Southern Living here in town—will attest, chef and restaurateur Frank Stitt, has been the figure who has most shaped the city’s dining habits. No less than The New York Times has credited the third-generation Alabamian with turning Birmingham into a “sophisticated, easygoing showplace of enticing, southern-accented cooking.” Having trained with Alice Waters of the renowned Chez Panisse back in the 1970s, Stitt opened the near legendary Highland’s Bar & Grill in 1982 to meld French technique and approach with local seasonal Southern flavors. Stitt has gone on to win numerous local and national gastronomic awards. Owner of Highland’s Bar & Grill and Bottega, as well as his newest restaurant, Chez FonFon, a casual French bistro, Stitt was using local ingredients before local was cool.

By taking the kind of humble ingredients most Alabamians took for granted when their grandparents cooked, Stitt and others such as Chris Hastings of Hot & Hot Seafood and Chris Dupont of Cafe Dupont have helped secure Birmingham’s reputation as the little restaurant town that could. Accordingly, folks from nearby cities often make culinary pilgrimages to town just to visit their favorite chef and perhaps try a new dish. And the local scene has blossomed with new restaurants, urban farms, local purveyors, and new farmers’ markets like the Pepper Place Saturday Market (www.pepperplace market.com) springing up all over the city. It’s encouraging news for the farm-to-table movement and for those looking for some delicious organic tomatoes!

Overview

A quick word about the way people in Birmingham (and the state, in general) tend to think about eating. We grow veggies in our suburban back yards. We expect a variety of good produce choices, at home and dining out. It’s a contrast to what many modern Americans are used to. My wife and I, both Birmingham natives, spent a few years in the Midwest, and at one memorable dinner served a vegetarian shepherd’s pie to a good friend from the area. He seemed to enjoy it and inquired about the ingredients. “Eggplant, mashed potatoes, mushrooms, garlic, onion, celery, bell pepper, English peas . . . ” we said before he interrupted. “English peas, what are those?” he asked. We explained they were the little green peas you dreaded facing back in your elementary school cafeteria. “Oh, well, why don’t you just call them peas?” he asked incredulously. “Well, let’s see, there are English peas, black-eyed peas, field peas, butter peas, crowder peas, purple hulls, snow peas, snap peas, and so on,” we rattled off. You have to differentiate somehow!

Finally, detailing every restaurant in the area worth of inclusion would turn this chapter into the start of a new book of its own (and produce its own chapter on barbecue!); therefore this section aims to provide an overview of many of Birmingham’s most notable independent restaurants. It’s an overview of the region’s diversity, both in styles of restaurants and geographic location, though the best concentration of dining options is largely found near the center core and Over the Mountain areas. Restaurants are divided by genres and listed within that by geography. Birmingham is a medium-size town spread out over a wide geographic area, but don’t worry: The restaurants listed here are well worth the drive. For fun, see Alabama Tourism’s “100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama Before You Die’’ for a wide assortment of fine and casual dining ideas (www.800alabama.com/yof/topDishes).