One Day, One Place: Tasty bite of Deep South in Birmingham (2024)

Birmingham takes mealtime seriously.

The former steel town’s restaurants have won national acclaim, winning James Beard Awards and profiles in food magazines. The city pioneered New Southern cuisine, a modern take on traditional ingredients and flavors that has spread across the region like kudzu.

While there are plenty of other reasons to visit — last month the city dedicated a National Park Service civil rights monument — it’s easy to plan a day just devoted to food.

Wherever you go, try to chat up the folks around you. You’re in the South, and the normal do-not-talk-to-strangers rules do not apply. Conversations may be as memorable as your entree, and that’s saying a lot.

Morning

The historic downtown Tutwiler Hotel puts you within a few miles of all your meals. Start your dining adventure a few blocks away at the city’s newest culinary gem, the Pizitz Food Hall, a 1923 flagship department store building shuttered for decades and reopened just a few months ago. The developers relied on a pair of local food bloggers to select its dining spots, so order without fear. Locals are abuzz about Ghion Cultural Hall, the state’s first Ethiopian restaurant, but you’ll want to try Alabama Biscuit Co., which uses locally sourced sprouted spelt flour. Toppings range from almond butter to farm eggs to goat cheese.

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Midday

Aim your visit for a Saturday, so you can explore the Market at Pepper Place, where the city comes out every weekend to shop, people-watch and graze. The former Dr Pepper bottling plant schedules open-air culinary demonstrations from local and visiting celebrity chefs.

Slip away from the couples and stroller-pushing families and seek out vendors such as Petals From the Past, which sells heirloom fruit, like pears, persimmons, apples and muscadines. Then mosey over to Dayspring Dairy, specializing in sheep’s milk cheeses. You’ll want to pick up a jar of bourbon caramel dulce de leche spread as a gift. But above all, leave room for pie. The rural storefront Pie Lab sets up temporary shop here every week, and always sells out. There are no wrong choices from this James Beard Award winner, but it’s hard to turn down a slice of coconut chess.

Afternoon

OK, that was a lot of calories. It’s time to head to the bike-share rack and grab a Zyp bike to pedal to Avondale. (It’s just a mile, but every bit helps.) The commercial district, centered on 41st Street South, is Alabama’s answer to Brooklyn, but with more sweet tea and less attitude.

You’re heading to Saw’s Soul Kitchen, a barbecue purveyor famous for “Pork n’ Greens,” a symphony of collard greens and pulled meat over cheese grits, topped with fried onion strings. (Believe it or not, Saw’s co-owner once worked for locally based Cooking Light magazine.) Or order a smoked chicken sandwich slathered with white sauce. The spicy mayonnaise-based condiment is the state’s contribution to national barbecue culture. Get it to go, and head next door to Avondale Brewery’s beer garden, where you can wash it down with a pint of Vanillaphant porter, named for Miss Fancy, a beer-swilling elephant who once lived at the Birmingham Zoo.

Evening

This will take some planning. You made reservations weeks ago, right? Your goal is Highlands Bar and Grill, the city’s culinary granddaddy. It has been nominated nine times for the James Beard most outstanding restaurant award. And earlier this month, it once again lost. Maybe 10 will be the charm.

The owner, Alabama native Frank Stitt, started his career at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, then worked in Provence before opening shop here in 1982. He made his name with the then-radical idea of using refined European cooking techniques to prepare down-home cuisine, calling his stone-ground baked grits Southern polenta, and offering entrees like beef cheeks and dumplings, and squab with grits and red-eye gravy. Today his influence radiates across the city, with former line chefs and waiters opening their own dining spots and food trucks.

If you can’t snag a seat at Highlands, try Hot and Hot Fish Club, run by Stitt protege Chris Hastings. Back in 2012, he shared the front page of the Birmingham News with Alabama native Octavia Spencer. The night before, she had won an Oscar for “The Help,” and he had beaten the Iron Chef. If it’s in season, you must order the tomato salad, a tower of thick beefsteak slices tossed with balsamic vinaigrette and layered with field peas, corn and okra, all topped with a slice of bacon. “This is the South,” Hastings tells customers. “We put bacon on everything.”

If you go