Birmingham Restaurant Week to feature new BRUNCH event

Birmingham foodies are gearing up for the seventh annual Birmingham Restaurant Week. This year’s 10-day event, put on by REV Birmingham, is expected to include 70 Birmingham-area restaurants featuring everything from steak dinners to gourmet sandwiches. With fine dining options like Ocean, Highlands Bar & Grill, Galley & Garden, Bottega and Perry’s Steakhouse, and more casual options like Wooden Goat, Slice, OvenBird, Rojo, Dreamland and Cantina, this year’s Birmingham Restaurant Week is expected to be the largest in its history.  

From Aug. 12-21, two- to three-course lunch and dinner prix-fixe meals will be available at participating BRW restaurants for $5, $10, $15, $20 or $30. Several menus will include beer or wine flights and other drink specials. 

This year’s Birmingham Restaurant Week comes off the success of last year’s event, where more than 18,000 BRW meals were sold from 60 participating restaurants to reach a combined total receipt sale exceeding $2.6 million. 

BRW was conceived in 2009 when REV district manager James Little attended Atlanta Restaurant Week and set forth to bring something similar to Birmingham. After partnering with Style Advertising and securing sponsors like Regions Bank and Fox 6, the first Birmingham Restaurant Week was born in 2010. 

Little said it’s been amazing to see how much the event has grown from being an idea mentioned over dinner into a major part of Birmingham’s culture. 

“It unites our city’s diverse culinary scene and gives Birmingham foodies a chance to visit places they have never tried or revisit some of their favorites,” he said. “It has been an honor to be part of the culinary revolution taking place here in Birmingham over the past seven years.” 

This year’s festivities will kick off with a ballpark-themed Preview Party held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 3, at Regions Field. During the evening, attendees will sample dishes from participating BRW restaurants, and all proceeds will be donated to the Urban Food Project, an initiative working to provide access, availability and affordability of healthy foods to residents throughout the city through various food vendors. Since 2010, more than $30,000 has been donated to local nonprofits through Preview Party donations.  

A second Birmingham Restaurant Week event will be held at 5:30 p.m. at Wine Loft downtown on Wednesday, Aug. 17. The Wine-o-ology event will feature a wine flight tasting, food from BRW restaurants and live music. Tickets for both events can be purchased online at bhamrestaurantweek.com. 

In addition to its two signature events, this year Birmingham Restaurant Week will introduce a new event to celebrate the growing brunch scene in Birmingham. BRUNCH will be held at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 21, in Woodlawn’s SocialVenture and will serve as a cap to the week of festivities. During the event, attendees will sample brunch dishes and drinks, while enjoying live music and a local culinary vendor area.  

Every Friday leading up to the weeklong event, BRW will sponsor giveaways via the Birmingham Restaurant Week Facebook page. The ongoing “Free Food Friday” contest gives participants the chance to win gift cards to BRW restaurants. Birmingham Restaurant Week menus from each participating restaurant will be released on July 29. 

More information about Birmingham Restaurant Week 2016 can be found online at bhamrestaurantweek.com. Birmingham Restaurant Week is also on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.