Destinations

The Reinvention of Birmingham, Alabama

No longer just a stop on the Civil Rights Trail, Alabama's biggest city makes you want to stay (and eat) awhile.
Pizitz building in Birmingham Alabama
Jenny Adams

From a blanket on the grass at Birmingham’s Railroad Park, you can hear the crowd as the bat cracks against a ball inside Regions Field. You can crack a can of Snake Handler, local Good People Brewing’s citrusy double IPA, on the patio adjacent the stadium. Or join the ticket holders queuing just seven blocks away on Third Avenue North, bathed in the soft, neon glow of the massive Alabama and Lyric theater marquees, waiting to see Graham Nash or Gov't Mule.

We aren’t looking at Alabama’s biggest city through rose-colored glasses. Birmingham has arrived. Again. It’s a destination—for historic architecture, old theaters, James Beard award-winning Southern food. And yet, just under a decade ago, it wouldn’t be mentioned in the same sentence as other thriving food-and-culture centers of the South: Nashville, New Orleans, Charleston, Atlanta. You might have passed through the city to visit the Civil Rights Institute, a benchmark along the Alabama Civil Rights Trail. Or maybe you were checking in on a friend or child at Samford University. But you weren’t planning a vacation here.

The ‘Hardest Hit’ City in America

Before it became a violent backdrop for boycotts, police brutality, and riots during the Civil Rights movement, Birmingham began her days as a renowned steel town. This “Pittsburgh of the South” rose quickly in the late 1800s and early 1900s as one of the only places on earth where iron ore, limestone, and coal were discovered within miles. Seams of red hematite iron lent the town’s Red Mountain its moniker, and when it rains hard here, the groundwater still bleeds a furious, brick hue.

All the money bore beautiful cast-iron buildings, Victorian red-brick factories, and Craftsman homes. President Roosevelt declared Birmingham “the hardest hit in America” when one-third of its citizens went on relief during the Depression. Decades later, the city made national headlines yet again. On September 15, 1963, four girls—ages 11 and 14—were murdered in the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing. That same year, the lunch counter sit-ins put a national spotlight on police brutality.

Alabama Theater.

Getty

“I remember hearing the infamous church bombing at 16th Street Baptist Church from my Sunday School classroom at First United Methodist. I was 15 years old. It sounded like the world ending,” says Tom Cosby, who worked for Birmingham’s Chamber of Commerce for 35 years before retiring in 2013. He transitioned into a role as one of the city’s most avid historic preservationists and today is an active fundraiser. Cosby has helped raise $11 million to restore the Lyric Theater and $15 million for the city’s 56-foot-tall Roman god of fire, Vulcan—the world’s largest cast-iron statue—among other causes. A lifelong native and one of her most passionate citizens, Cosby has a contagious enthusiasm for Birmingham’s potential.

“We had beautiful department stores downtown,” Cosby recalls. “People would window shop in droves. There once were 26 theaters, with the Alabama Theater and the Lyric being two of the most elegant. Birmingham was widely considered one of the top theater towns in America. Unfortunately, there was also serious racial injustice, and it understandably caused a lot of heartache.”

For downtown, things were taking a serious downturn. “People fled,” continues Cosby. “They left for the suburbs, which happened in a lot of American cities.” People questioned if Birmingham’s original heart could recover during the 1980s and ‘90s. The city’s central tracks were a particular blight, with no street lights and a growing drug problem.

Today, that once seedy stretch displays an entirely a different landscape. “There were a lot of dominoes that fell the right way to enable Birmingham’s rebirth, but I think Railroad Park was probably the single most important one,” Cosby says of the now 19-acre green space. “So much of what Birmingham has to offer travelers now started because of that park.”

Regions Field and adjoining Railroad Park are hallmarks of a new Birmingham.

Getty

Restoration Everywhere

That park is truly something. It beat out Manhattan’s High Line for the ULI Open Urban Space Award in 2012, and it features a large lake, a stream system, native plants, a birch grove, a skate park, a bike share and—perhaps what Birmingham most desperately needed—a turning point for a vibrant, community-driven future. The $23 million required to create it was a mix of private and public funding—and it was raised in only three years. Sixty-four million was invested to build the adjoining Regions Field, designed by HKS of Dallas (known for the Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas). This relocated the Double-A Birmingham Barons from the suburbs back to downtown.

The vacant and deteriorating 1914 Lyric Theater drew the attention of civic activists next, Tom Cosby among them. Another private-public fundraising campaign resulted in $12 million, and the former vaudeville house—once host to Mae West and the Marx Brothers—reopened in 2016, breathing fresh life into the old Theater District. “EverGreene Architectural Arts was hired to restore it,” says Glenny Brock, current outreach coordinator for both the Lyric and the Alabama. “EverGreene has restored more than 200 old theaters, and the Lyric had serious, decorative plaster work. It was apparently in better shape than almost any theater they had ever redone, largely thanks to the fact that it was reinforced with horsehair when it was built. We often repeat the statement that, ‘This place has good bones.’”

The gilded, ultra-ornate theater, with a massive, original mural depicting Apollo and the Muses above the proscenium, also has shocking acoustics. As a vaudeville theater, stage acts performed with vast movement and no microphones. National acts today are still crystal clear—and they’re rapidly selling out the place. Rock and indie bands like Drive-by Truckers have packed the Lyric of late, while the Alabama had a full house for Willie Nelson and the Dalai Lama (not on the same night, though—can you imagine that ticket?).

“Cities across America once had beautiful movie palaces, vaudeville theaters, and opera houses,” continues Brock. “Hundreds, if not thousands, of those sites are now parking decks. I think Birmingham is unusual, because we saved not only the Alabama and the Lyric … the Carver will reopen this year, too.”

The Carver Theater for the Performing Arts and Jazz Hall of Fame—Birmingham’s only remaining black theater­—is two blocks over. It will debut in 2019 as a performance space, as well as reopen the adjoining museum for the state’s jazz history. The museum houses instruments and personal effects from the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and W. C. Handy, and operates a center for continuing education—not only in jazz, but also in civil rights.

“The Lyric and the Carver are significant,” Brock says, “because they allow for our ongoing conversation about race and history. During the old theater days, black audiences saw performances in black theaters. White audiences in white theaters. Except for the Lyric. From its opening night in 1914, it was the only one where black and white audiences saw the same show together—although they were segregated. It’s an incredible, now-living piece of American history.”

The nearly century-old Pizitz building now houses a bustling food hall.

Courtesy The Pizitz

Restoration efforts don’t only extend to theaters here. Artists and entrepreneurs alike have taken advantage of one of Birmingham’s greatest assets: an abundance of available space. “Since we haven’t grown with the speed of Nashville or Houston, we don’t have that outward sprawl,” says Cosby. “We can be ‘in-fill’ oriented. You can put your business in a historic factory here, and you don’t have to be a billionaire’s daughter to do it.”

Entrepreneurs have turned formerly shuttered spaces into quirky coffee shops like Urban Standard; the vintage antique emporium What’s On Second; and boutique hotels like the Elyton, which opened in 2017 in the gorgeous, terra cotta-façade Empire building.

The Pizitz Building is another restored terra-cotta masterpiece. Owned and operated as a high-end department from the 1920s through the 1980s, the 200,000-square-foot landmark building sat glaringly empty until Bayer Properties bought it for $1.6 million in the late ‘90s. Painstakingly restored, the main-level reopened as a food hall in 2017. You can dine on everything from liver mousse to homemade pimento cheese at Busy Corner Cheese & Provisions, try Ethiopia’s “teff” flatbreads at Ghion Cultural Hall, or slurp barbeque-chicken ramen at Ichicoro IMOTO. This August, a cinema will open in the basement with two screens for independent movies.

“We have this saying that Birmingham is not Mars,” says David Silverstein, principal with Bayer Properties. “Meaning: things that work in other cities will also work here. I think, because of the past, this city can tend to doubt itself.”

From Charleston to Birmingham: James Beard winner Rodney Scott’s BBQ will arrive here in early 2019.

Photo by Andrew Cebulka

Hard to Doubt a Winner

One thing Birmingham has never doubted is its culinary skill. From collard greens and peach cobbler at Niki’s West (open since 1957) to prime rib at John’s Restaurant (now John’s City Diner) since ’44––food has long been part of the conversation here. Today, that conversation has only gotten louder.

“The city caught my attention because of how pleasant it is,” says Rodney Scott, the James Beard Best Chef Southeast 2018 for his Rodney Scott’s BBQ in Charleston. He’s set to open his next, identical concept in Birmingham first-quarter 2019. “It’s a big city, but it feels like a small town,” he says. “It doesn’t feel like New York or Chicago, but it’s just as important a food city in my opinion.”

Media agrees. In 2017 Food & Wine magazine announced it would relocate to Birmingham, joining fellow Time Inc. pubs Southern Living and Cooking Light here. “This was less about cutting costs and more about maximizing the facilities we have in Birmingham,” editor in chief Hunter Lewis told The New York Times. “Also thinking about the consumer first—there are sophisticated food eaters and wine drinkers everywhere now, in cities big and small.”

Case in point: At the annual James Beard Awards—the Oscars for American chefs—you’ll always find one, if not several, Birmingham-based nominees. Chef Frank Stitt, an 11-time nominee, is by far the most famous. His Highlands Bar and Grill took home Most Outstanding Restaurant in America in 2018. He also owns the Italian-focused Bottega and the French bistro, Chez Fonfon, all three just steps from each other in the Five Points area.

Shall we namecheck a few more? Chris Hastings of the Hot and Hot Fish Club and Ovenbird took home Best Chef Southeast in 2012. Nick Pihakis has been nominated for Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q, and chef Timothy Hontzas has two consecutive Best Chef South semifinalist nods for his low-key, meat-and-three joint, Johnny’s.

James Lewis—a semifinalist for Best Chef South in 2011 and 2012—has been serving hand-crafted pizzas and pastas since 2006 at Bettola. His mozzarella comes next-day from Naples, Italy, but his vegetables come from Alabama growers. Bettola’s location in the Pepper Place District—a 350,000-square-foot series of warehouses—is particularly notable. These factories along the tracks once shipped out Dr. Pepper and now contain restaurants, coffee houses, and galleries; meanwhile, the Pepper Place Farmers Market hosts 110 Alabama growers, live music, and crowds numbering 10,000 on weekends.

Bold-faced names in warehouses serving up farm-fresh meals—this is a trend Birmingham is more than willing to get behind. It’s just another example of the city’s bounty, be it produce or property, that’s making chefs decamp here, and visitors want to be here.

It’s a quick stroll from Pepper Place to the tropical, Havana-styled Queen’s Park for an after-dinner drink. Owner/Manager Laura Newman gave up the Big Apple for the Magic City in 2017 and just opened Queen's Park this month. She brought her vision to life in an empty space dating back to 1924. Crystal chandeliers cast light on original fixtures, exposed brick walls, spooling greenery and her quirky drinks like the Midnight Breakfast––Tito’s vodka, vanilla and cereal milk. Nearby, Kristen Hall, executive pastry chef and co-owner of The Essential, offers up fresh pastas daily in a repurposed 1887 building on a cobblestone avenue in the Loft District.

“These old downtown, historic spaces are there for the taking,” advises Cosby. “We have more of them left than any other city down South. It’s incredible to see young people in particular moving in to shake things up. Birmingham is big enough on a worldwide stage that it matters. But, it’s small enough that a regular person can make a difference.”


Birmingham at a crossroads.

Jenny Adams

A Cheat Sheet to Birmingham, Alabama

Still Hungry? Eat Here

Urban Standard The loft space, fluffy biscuits, artisanal coffee, and speedy Wi-Fi make this an inviting communal space, and the eclectic menagerie of antique lamps, old iron tables, and vintage bookshelves are also available for purchase.
The Rougaroux New Orleans’ Cajun and Creole classics by a chef formerly of Commander’s Palace are served in this funky shotgun-style home decorated with inviting kitsch.
The Essential We love the vintage touches, busy wallpaper, and the chef’s adept use of pastry in savory dishes.
Chef Fonfon At Frank Stitt’s bustling French bistro, it’s worth the wait for balanced classic cocktails and perfected takes French culinary staples—from chicken liver mousse to coq au vin to the croque madame.

Where to Drink

Queen’s Park Old Havana hotel vibe with ultra-creative plays on libations—the cocktail list is devised by internationally recognized bar talent Laura Newman.
The Garages Part junk shop, part antique store, with more outdoor garden space than indoor bar footage, this is a dive-y institution for a cold beer in nice weather.
Back Forty Salvaged wood tables, murals by local artists, iron trusses, concrete floors, and rollup doors give this downtown microbrewery a perfect, steel-city feel.

Where to Play

Railroad Park There’s an outdoor skating rink in winter, a food truck festival in fall, an outdoor symphony concert in summer, and free weeknight exercise and healthy cooking classes—among the dozens of reasons to visit this 19-acre downtown green space.
Vulcan Trail Birmingham is the end of the Appalachian Mountain range. Hiking options abound in this region and this mile-long trail scales the ridge of Red Mountain, giving way to views of the Antebellum Arlington Home, the Vulcan statue, and the downtown skyline.
The Lyric Theater Stunningly restored, with cherub reliefs and gilded boxes overhanging a stage blessed with optimal acoustics. Seeing a show here is beyond memorable.

Where to Stay

The Elyton This four-diamond boutique property is housed in a turn-of-the-century terra-cotta façade building and features 111 chic guestrooms with six opulent suites.
The Grand Bohemian Located in the suburb of Mountain Brook (10 minutes' drive from downtown), this hotel has a swimming pool, a rooftop cocktail bar, farm-to-table dining, and an on-property spa.

The Next Neighborhood to Visit: Avondale

In the 1920s, this ‘hood was actually home to a tiny zoo and a locally loved pachyderm named Miss Fancy. Today it’s one of the more up-and-coming districts. The long-empty, historic storefronts are now almost entirely filled, featuring the Rosegolden floral design shop, the music venue/cocktail bar Saturn, Domestique Satellite coffee, MAKEbhm—an artist collective that offers workshops in ceramics, woodworking, screen printing and metal work—and Avondale Common House and Distillery.