Looking for Top-Tier Drinking & Dining? Try Birmingham, Alabama | Wine Enthusiast
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Looking for Top-Tier Drinking & Dining? Try Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham, Alabama, once a center of iron and steel production, was dubbed “The Magic City” for its explosive growth at the turn of the 20th century. It later became a center of the Civil Rights Movement, which the impressive Birmingham Civil Rights Institute commemorates. An energetic food-and-drink scene in the city exudes a feeling that its most magical days are to come.

Eat

The Highlands Bar and Grill in Birmingham
The Highlands Bar & Grill / Photo courtesy The Highlands Bar & Grill

Highlands Bar & Grill

Highlands owner Frank Stitt is the most influential chef in the city. Stitt’s kitchens have spawned a legion of culinary talent that includes Chris Hastings, owner and executive chef of the ever-popular Hot and Hot Fish Club and Ovenbird. Stitt, after gaining experience working alongside food legends like Alice Waters and Richard Olney, opened Highlands in 1982. Later restaurants Bottega and Chez Fonfon were instant favorites as well. The extensive, ever-changing wine list has something for everyone.

Gallen and Garden in Birmingham
Lamb sugo with strachetti pasta, braised kale and shaved Parmesan at Galley and Garden / Photo courtesy Gallery and Garden

Galley and Garden

Nearby Huntsville restaurateur James Boyce’s first Birmingham eatery, Galley and Garden, is in a restored home built in 1908. His New American cuisine belies both Southern and European influences. In that vein, the braised short rib has roasted Provençal tomato, portobello mushroom, arugula and stone-ground grits, while black grouper from the Gulf comes with herb gnocchi, puttanesca sauce and a crab salad. With more than 500 labels and 20-plus wines by the glass, the selection is one of the most extensive in the city. The wine list also includes many back-vintage options hard to find elsewhere.

Pizitz Food Hall in Birmingham
Pizitz Food Hall / Photo courtesy Pizitz Food Hall

Pizitz Food Hall

Much of what makes Birmingham an exciting food city is on display here. The food hall debuted last year at the site of an iconic department store from 1923. There are a dozen food stalls that encompass Israeli, Japanese, Indian and Hawaiian cuisine, as well as two proper restaurants, the Ethiopean Ghion Cultural Hall and Fero. The Louis is a buzzing bar at the center of the complex that’s open late and serves snacks from Fero’s kitchen.

Birmingham Facts

Birmingham was the first city in the U.S. to celebrate Veteran’s Day, and today hosts the country’s largest celebration.
The Barber Vintage Motorsport Museum, located at the Barber Motorsports Park, is the largest motorcycle museum in the world.
Musicians from Birmingham include Gucci Mane, Sun Ra, Emmylou Harris and folk singer Odetta.
Birmingham’s Rickwood Field, opened in 1910, is the oldest professional baseball stadium in the country.

Drink

The Atomic Bar and Lounge

Rachael Roberts and Faizal Valli’s exuberant bar, recently nominated for a 2018 James Beard award for Outstanding Bar Program, is a riot of midcentury “Atomic Age” design. It sports personal touches like high-school trophies and a wall-sized mural of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album cover, with the heads replaced with Birmingham luminaries. It has the spirit of a dive bar, but it offers world-class cocktails like “The Legendary Sex Panther,” made with Bourbon, chicory liqueur, Cynar and bitters (it also comes with a temporary tattoo of a panther). There’s also a “menu” of full-body adult costumes, so you can be a dolphin, turtle, hot dog or Elvis while you drink.

Beers on tap at The J. Clyde in Birmingham
The J. Clyde / Photo courtesy The J. Clyde

The J. Clyde

While many of Birmingham’s craft breweries have their own tasting rooms, the best place to taste many of them in one place is at The J. Clyde. There are over 50 beers on tap, with over a dozen dedicated to brews from Alabama. There’s also an extensive cider and mead list, as well as a handful of well-chosen wines. Spirits offered include rye-based Stills Crossroads Moonshine and floral 27 Springs Gin from local High Ridge Distillery—the first legal Alabama distillery since the state instituted its own Prohibition in 1915.

The Collins in Birmingham
The Collins / Photo courtesy The Collins

The Collins

Many modern cocktail bars do a “bartender’s choice,” where your preferences are designed into a custom cocktail. At The Collins, it’s the only way cocktails are offered. There’s also a huge beer list and a small food menu with riffs on favorites like chicken and waffles (organic chicken confit and bacon-Bourbon syrup), pigs in a blanket (pork belly in puff pastry) and grilled cheese (three-cheese with tomato-onion jam).

There are more than a dozen wineries in Alabama. Take time to check out the Alabama Wine Trail.

Recipe: Alabama White Sauce

Alabama barbecue isn’t as strictly defined as other regional styles. It’s usually smoked over hickory wood in an open pit , with options you’d generally expect like brisket, pulled pork, ribs, sausage, turkey and chicken. These are often served with tomato- or mustard-based sauces, or sometimes, none at all.

One thing Alabama can call its own is “white sauce,” which originated in the 1920s with Bob Gibson in the northern town of Decatur. It typically goes with chicken, though it’s tasty on other meat, too. It can be used as a marinade or as condiment (or ideally, both).

  • ½ cup white or cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1½ teaspoons fresh-ground black pepper
  • 1½ teaspoons prepared horseradish
  • 1½ cups mayonnaise *
  • Roast chicken

*Duke’s mayonnaise, from South Carolina and available nationally, is especially rich and thick. It’s perfect for Alabama white sauce.

In large bowl, whisk vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper until salt and sugar dissolve. Add horseradish and mayonnaise, and whisk until smooth. Refrigerate from 2 hours to 5 days. Serve as sauce with roast chicken. Makes 2 cups.