BRW2012

I love to unwind after a long week with a good beer, but sometimes a glass of wine, a delicious meal and good company are the only way to go. And that was the case on the final Friday of Birmingham Restaurant Week, when my friend Laura joined me for dinner at Vino.

Neighborhood restaurants seem to be the theme of my BRW 2012 experience, and that was again true with Vino. I got there before Laura, took a table on the patio and ordered a glass of wine. Laura walked over from her English Village home (which would have made me jealous if I didn’t also have great restaurantswithin walking distance). Though I arrived only a few minutes before she did, I had already picked out my dishes for the evening. I’d only been to Vino once before, and on that visit I stuck to wine and appetizers. I was eager to dive into the menu.

 

First up: Appetizers. I selected the roasted beet salad from the BRW menu, which was tasty, though I left quite a few beets on the plate. Laura decided to order a course to match each of mine, though she veered away from the special menu. The salmon artichoke skewers were a huge hit with both of us, and I’ll definitely get them again on my next visit. The dish included some of my favorite foods and was served with french fries. How can you beat that?

 

 

The chicken farfella was as beautiful as my server promised, and it made for a filling dish that was also light enough for a summer meal. (I shouldn’t be writing this entry just before dinner time. My stomach is growling just thinking about it.) Laura’s grouper looked great, as well, and I think it’s hard to go wrong with a good piece of fish. Both dishes played to the restaurant’s Mediterranean influences. Now, if only English Village included a view of the sea!

 

 

We discussed sharing my apple fritters, but Laura opted to get her own dessert. And once I tasted the apple fritters and ice cream, I was glad she did! They’re my favorite kind of donut, anyway, but these fritters were especially good and the leftovers made for a great breakfast the next day. Laura’s pot of chocolate was rich and satisfying, she claims, but I was so enamored of my apple fritters that I don’t even recall if I tasted it.

And here’s some great news if you missed this delectable restaurant week deal: Vino is celebrating its one-year anniversary next week, and that means great discounts all week long. The deals begin on Monday, and include half-off appetizers, apple fritters at a discounted price and a $16 pasta dish, the “Vino Bowl,” which includes spinach, chicken and a white wine sauce. A birthday party will be held Sept. 20, with 25 percent of sales during the event going to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Read more about those deals and the celebration on Vino’s Facebook page.

There were several reasons I hadn’t yet tried MetroPrime: I tend to go to the same places over and over (even though I love knowing what the next big thing will be). Parking in Five Points South isn’t always the easiest (although the restaurants nearly all offer valet, so that’s a poor excuse). But the big one was money. I love a good steak, but I’m a journalist. My fine-dining funds are limited.

Even so, MetroPrime Steak House had been on my to-try list since before it opened. I’ve always liked the location, which has in the past housed The Mill, Five Points Grill and several other restaurants. Five Points is an intersection of so many parts of Birmingham culture: food, nightlife, religion and people from many walks of life. It encapsulates many of the things I love about the city.

And so, when I saw that MetroPrime was an option for Birmingham Restaurant Week, I knew it was time I stop making excuses and check it out.

Let me point out right away that my biggest excuse was quickly proven invalid. Yes, MetroPrime is a steak house, so of course there are some pricy dishes on the menu. But did you know they also offer a pub menu? I didn’t, and those dishes are within my price range without a special occasion to justify it. A steak burger for $13? Apalachicola oysters for $11? Yep, I can swing that. (It’s also worth mentioning that I found a parking spot a block away, no valet necessary. Sometimes I realize that my excuses are ridiculous.)

I’ll return for the pub menu, but last week BRW was my mission. I started with the creamy corn bisque, a tasty and comforting bowl of soup that mixed corn with fennel and offered just a hint of bacon to up the savory flavor.

That was followed by the equally comforting, but even tastier, beef tournedos. I wasn’t familiar with this dish, but this is what I learned: small bites of beef piled onto a bed of mashed potatoes is always a good idea. (In fact, when I sat down to write this entry, I remembered that I abandoned my leftovers in the work fridge for more than a week. I’m ashamed of myself.)

The friend with whom I was dining ordered a variety of vegetables, creating her own veggie plate. I was allowed to sneak a few bites of her truffle mashed potatoes (I steadfastly believe everything is better with truffle oil), lavender carrots (I don’t ordinarily like carrots, but these were delicious) and kale (always a winner!). Sure, hers was an unusual spread for a steak house, but it was every bit as delicious as my more-typical red meat.

We finished by splitting my slice of Carnegie Deli New York Cheesecake. It’s been 15 years since I visited that iconic New York eatery, but I remember three important things: 1. The waiter was a jerk. (This is apparently part of the charm? For a girl who was venturing from the South for the first time, it was a shock. It also doesn’t fit with my experience of New Yorkers, who are incredibly helpful unless you’re blocking the sidewalk with a map unfolded before you. Which I would never do.) 2. The sandwiches were so tall that we weren’t sure how to actually eat them. 3. The cheesecake. Oh my word, the cheesecake. It was perhaps the richest, creamiest dessert I’d ever tasted. And though it’s hard to compare the slice I had at MetroPrime to a 15-year-old memory, it certainly lived up to my expectations.

I like to think I’m usually right (I’m an oldest child, after all), but there are occasions on which it’s nice to be proven wrong. And if those occasions involve leaving a restaurant with a full belly, all the better. Whether for a steak, a bite from the pub menu or to check out their brunch, I have no excuse not to return to MetroPrime.

I wrote earlier this week about my past longing for a neighborhood restaurant and bar to hang out in. Ore has filled that need for my side of town, but there are treasures throughout the city. And in recent months, Little Donkey has proved itself as a Homewood hot spot.

My Birmingham Restaurant Week visit marked my third meal at the upscale-casual Mexican restaurant, but it was my first dinner. I had eyed the cocktail menu on previous visits, and my dining companion and I were on a mission to find the city’s best margaritas.

We’re early in our search (this was stop No. 2), but so far Little Donkey leads the pack. My margarita packed in all the flavor and tartness I seek, and since it was sweetened with agave instead of a sugary mix, the finish was clean rather than the super-sweet after taste I hate. My companion ordered a Paloma, which resembles a margarita but features grapefruit juice and a splash of soda water. He enjoyed it but preferred my margarita; the Paloma may be a better choice for someone who wants a lighter-tasting version of a margarita.

The BRW-menu appetizer was a tamal of the day, which featured pork on the day of our visit. The waiter said this was his favorite, and I can understand why. It was delicious and flavorful, a perfect tease for what was to come.

When dinner arrived, we were both impressed by the chef’s ability to balance the spices’ heat (which I’m overly sensitive to) with flavor. And the portions were generous; the wood-oven braised green chicken and rice is really about half a chicken per person, which meant I had plenty leftover for lunch the next day.

We wrapped up the meal with two more tasty cocktails: a Casa Cosmo, which the menu describes as adding “A Mexican touch to Toby Cecchini’s original Cosmopolitan as served at NYC’s Odeon cafe in the late ’80s,” which certainly exceeded a traditional Cosmo, in my opinion; and a Donkey’s Daddy, which may have been the best drink of the night. That concoction combines bourbon, tequila, house-made hibiscus syrup and lime juice. Each ingredient belongs on my list of favorite things to drink (I have hibiscus tea at home all the time!), and we both loved it. Little Donkey impressed me on many fronts during this visit, and I’ll definitely be sure my next meal includes happy hour.

I’ve long dreamed of a walkable neighborhood, where I would have easy access to food, drinks and shopping. But Birmingham is a heavily car-dependent city, and let’s be real: Most areas that are easily walkable are a bit out of my price range. My old house was great in a lot of ways, but to call the area around it walkable would have been a stretch. I did test this out once as I walked from my place to the Mexican restaurant 0.3 miles away (directly across from Walmart). Passing cars honked, and their drivers looked at me as though I was crazy.

It’s not surprising, then, that my roommate and I had our eyes set on Crestline Park for a while. On our first full day in the neighborhood, I realized her car was blocking me and she was napping when I wanted to grab lunch. I started to go on a hunt for her keys, but then I realized: I could walk to lunch!

I’ve known that Ore Drink and Dine needed to become my neighborhood spot, but in the few months we’ve lived in the area, I had only made it to Ore once. I didn’t have a good reason for that, beyond sheer busy-ness. And I took the first step toward rectifying that on the first day of Birmingham Restaurant Week.

What a way to end a long week of work! I drove home, exchanged my heavy work bag for a small purse, my copious notes for some lighter reading material, and then walked to the restaurant. I was dining alone but armed with entertainment options; besides my book and magazine, I chose a seat at the bar where I could watch ESPN and chat with the bartender on duty.

All of that made for great company, but once my food arrived I didn’t need any extra entertainment. Ore’s BRW options include two salad options, three entree choices and peanut-butter cheesecake for dessert. I started my meal with Kiss the Baby salad. Here’s the thing: I’m not much of a salad girl, but this one included many of my favorite ingredients (arugula, blue cheese, pecans, red onions, a light honey dressing), which made for a flavorful but clean dish.

I was off to a good start. I had never had anything but a pleasant experience at Ore, but Executive Chef Jonathan Brennan (who is new to the restaurant) was already exceeding my expectations. And he took it to another level with the grilled Gulf grouper, which pas paired with a tomato-cucumber relish. The first few bites revealed that the fish was perfectly grilled, enhancing its flavor. But as I uncovered the bed of Idaho potatoes and Conecuh sausage hash on which the fish was perched, I picked up my phone and began texting friends to tell them how mind-blowing my meal was. (That’s the downside of dining alone!)

That continued with the peanut-butter cheesecake, a rich, creamy dish topped with chocolate and served with fresh whipped cream. Though the restaurant proved itself as my neighborhood favorite, this meal convinced me that the restaurant is also destination worthy for people from around town.

I left Ore sated but not yet fully satisfied. After all, I have to come back for fried chicken and waffles at brunch!

Let’s talk about beer. (It’s something I do often!) Like many people, I started off easy, with Bud Light. I had no idea what I was doing, but it tasted OK to me. I stuck to Bud Light and Mic Ultra for a long time.

Then one night in April 2007, I wandered into the J Clyde. I was reporting a story about Birmingham’s beloved bars and the newcomers on the scene. The JC had been open for a few weeks, and a friend had told me it must be part of my story.

I had no idea how my tastebuds were going to be rocked.

Although Alabama then had the nation’s most restrictive beer laws, the J Clyde’s owners and staff were passionate about beer and educating people about it. During that visit and my next several, the place was so empty that I’d sit at the bar because I felt badly for the bartender. Though that’s no longer the case (some nights, it’s impossible to find a table!), I’m grateful that my beer education began at that bar.

I quickly learned that, even though the state was then restricted to beer with alcohol by volume of 6 percent or less, there were quite a few craft brews that packed far more flavor than what I was accustomed to. I’ve always been someone who drinks for the flavor more than the buzz, and this was a revelation to me. Beer was so much more than I thought.

Thanks to Free the Hops, a lobbying group that pressed for laws that would open up the beer market to allow for higher-gravity beer, larger container sizes, more local breweries and tap rooms in breweries, Alabama’s beer scene has been revolutionized. Restaurateurs are beginning to carry gourmet beers to complement their gourmet food. (And y’all, we know Birmingham is a food town!) Breweries are bringing new life to neighborhoods and creating one more reason for people to get to know the city.

And this year, Birmingham Restaurant Week introduced Beer Saturdays. Saturday’s event featured Avondale Brewing Company and offered attendees a look at beer’s history and local brews.

The event, held at Dave’s Pub, began with Dave’s employee Mudd offering a lecture about beer’s long history. (A fun tidbit: Did you know there was a time when, in some cultures, a woman was considered married to a man if he offered a sip of his best and she accepted? I would be in big, big trouble!) before Prohibition in 1919, America was home to 2,400 breweries, but the scene took a nosedive when those laws changed. This is also believed to be when the American palette changed, which I’d like to read more about. (If that’s what we have to blame for American macro brews, well.)

Avondale Brewing introduced its beers in summer 2011, and the tap room opened in November. The owners are passionate about the neighborhood (which you can read more about in the September issue of Birmingham magazine). Sure enough, since the brewery opened, the neighborhood has experienced an awful lot of change, with additional retailers, restaurants and pubs moving in.

Brewmaster Craig Shaw explained the brewing process before the gathered “students” began sampling his wares. Salesman Reeves explained the names of Avondale’s beers, all of which honor the neighborhood’s history, before brewer Ben described each beer.

The Streetcar Kolsh is the brewery’s lightest beer, at 4.3 percent ABV, and the hardest to brew because it’s so clean and light that it’s easy to taste any imperfections. Spring Street Saison is unusual because it’s about double the ABV of most beers of its style. Tripels are a bit different in the brewing process because the brewer begins with the high alcohol content and works backward to hide the taste of the alcohol. It’s also traditionally served in a slightly smaller glass.

Avondale’s Vanillaphant Porter uses Madagascar vanilla bean. The No Joka Moka Stout is a brand-new beer, which some of the Avondale staff hasn’t yet tried, and which smells strongly of coffee. The Battlefield IPA is heavily hopped, with dry hops added to the fermenter at the end of the process.

If you missed this week’s event, go ahead and save Aug. 25 for a little beer tasting. The second Beer Saturday, which will take place from 1 to 3 p.m. at Dave’s, will highlight Good People Brewing Company. And if you want to learn more about Avondale’s brews, head over to 41st Street South. The staff is always excited to talk about their craft.

Resources for beer history, pairings and info on styles:
Beer Advocate
The Brewmaster’s Table
The Oxford Companion to Beer
What are your favorite sources for learning more about beer?

I love showing off Birmingham, and I’m not alone. The Birmingham Restaurant Week Preview Party offers a glimpse into some of the city’s awesome venues, and last night’s third-annual event drew hundreds of visitors to Vulcan Park and Museum. It’s got an amazing view, an iron statue and a museum filled with local history. What more could you ask for?

Well, food and drink, of course. And last night, there was plenty of it. My first stop was Avondale Brewing Company’s table, where I grabbed a sample of the Vanillaphant Porter. I’m a regular at the brewery, but it’s also fun to pair my favorite beverages with food that I can’t normally get while I’m in Avondale. I started with sauteed shrimp with Greek feta from Nabeel’s (OK, in part because it was the table closest to the beer. But let’s be real, I also love both shrimp and Mediterranean dishes). While that wasn’t an ideal match, the shrimp was flavorful and will definitely be on my list next time I swing by the Homewood institution.

Maki Fresh’s Blitz Bowl, added to their menu today, was a better match for my beer. The combination of braised brisket, Brussels, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, scallions and miso gravy was a savory, rich treat. The staff also offered samples of the Vulcan Roll, which includes chicken, yellow bell peppers, cream cheese, sundried tomato and a spicy sauce, and lemon ginger bars.

I also stopped by Ted’s Restaurant’s table for a sample of their squash casserole, which my friend Josh declared “just like momma made it.” (I love my mom’s squash casserole, but she uses canned squash. Which I probably shouldn’t tell you. Ted’s was definitely not like my momma made it.) And there were certainly all kinds of cuisines on display; La Paz offered a taste of its Cuban quesadilla, which was a bit spicy for my incredibly delicate sensibilities but was a big hit with my friends.

I cleansed my palate with Good People Brown Ale before heading off to my next destination. And yes, I’ll freely admit I missed a lot of tasty food last night. But there’s so much more to come! I’m looking forward to spending as much time as I can manage at BRW’s participating restaurants during the course of the next 10 days. And of course, I’ll continue to write about them here. I’ve got Ore, Little Donkey, MetroPrime Steakhouse and Vino on my list. What’s on yours?

On a personal note, I’m thrilled that the event benefited Vulcan Park and Museum. If memory serves correctly, when my grandfather and namesake died, the family asked that donations be made to Vulcan in lieu of flowers. I try to spend a few minutes remembering him each time I’m there.

(OK, I admit it. I’m a terrible photographer.)

If you’re not, stay away from Birmingham, Ala. I’ve said for years that I can make anyone a fan of this city, and during my years at Birmingham magazine, I had many opportunities to share the wonderful things about the city. As the city’s restaurant scene gears up for the third-annual Birmingham Restaurant Week (which this year is part of Alabama Restaurant Week), I’ve got ample opportunity to remind folks why I love my city.

Although BRW2012 won’t kick off until a party on Aug. 15, and the restaurant specials won’t begin till Aug. 17, I’ll have a chance this weekend to show my parents why Birmingham is the best. We moved to Florida in 1988, and I returned in 2003. As you can imagine, a lot has changed since they left. The city’s restaurant scene has even changed a lot in the course of BRW’s three years! So every time Mom and Dad are in town, I’m eager to show them my Birmingham.

They’re on my way to my house now, and then we’ll embark on an evening at Avondale Brewing Company (be sure to check out BRW’s beer Saturdays, which are new this year!). We’ll pair that delicious beverage with something tasty from the nearby Saw’s Soul Kitchen. And if I can keep them out long enough, who knows what else could be in store?

Events such as BRW have made my role as a self-appointed Birmingham ambassador even easier and more exciting than when I first returned to the city. I’ll be sharing my enthusiasm throughout BRW as one of the events bloggers. Be sure to check back for where I’ve eaten, whether the menu introduced me to a new dish or I ventured into a new restaurant, and keep tabs on the event’s website for more from my fellow bloggers (and friends!). It promises to be a tasty time.