Culinary celebration encourages exploration of Birmingham’s best eats

It’s no secret that Birmingham has won wide acclaim as a food town in recent years.

The Magic City was named one of the 50 Best Food Towns in America by the Daily Meal, called a Top Tier Location for Drinking and Dining by Wine Enthusiast and named as one of Zagat’s 30 Most Exciting Food Cities in America 2017.

Other national outlets praising the city’s chefs and eateries recently have included Garden & Gun, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, NPR and Buzzfeed.

But that doesn’t mean that the city’s restaurant owners don’t continue to try to promote themselves locally, especially during the dog-day summer doldrums of August.

A big part of these efforts is the 10th annual Birmingham Restaurant Week, which will be Friday, Aug. 16, through Sunday, Aug. 25.

BRW celebrates the city’s acclaimed culinary scene by offering incentives for Birmingham residents and visitors to eat at their favorite restaurants or try something new, according to a news release from organizers.

Participating restaurants offer special lunch or dinner prix-fixe menus ranging from $10 to $50 per person, making it affordable for diners to try new things.

Some restaurants will host special meals or events, which typically include beer or wine dinners, cocktail pairing events, shrimp boils or even bus tours to participating restaurants.

The event has grown from just 30 local restaurants its first year in 2010 to about 60 restaurants in 2018.

BRW “is dedicated to bringing awareness to the thriving culinary scene in Birmingham,” said Bill Stoeffhaas, co-founder of Birmingham Restaurant Week and partner at Style Advertising. “We’re proud of our community and want to show it off to out-of-town diners and those who may not know much about our city.”

“The culinary scene is a cornerstone of what makes Birmingham so extraordinary,” Stoeffhaas said.

At press time, the following restaurants had signed up to participate in BRW: Ash, Avondale Common House, Bistro 218, Blueprint on 3rd, Brat Brot, Carrigan’s, Carlile’s BBQ, Chez Lulu, El Zun Zun, Fleming’s Steakhouse, Freddy’s Wine Bar, Grille 29, Harvest Restaurant and Bar, Iron City Pizza Company, Little Savannah Restaurant and Bar, Lucky Cat, Perry’s Steakhouse and Grille, Pho Pho Vietnamese & Sushi Bar, Rojo, Saw’s Soul Kitchen, Skycastle, Slice, The Craft  Burger, The Gardens Cafe, The Woolworth and Vino. 

The restaurant scene in Birmingham is already booming, far more so than in 2010 when BRW debuted. But the event, which is always in August, still fills a strong marketing need for eateries of all types, according to organizers.

“With the restaurants and diners coming off summer and the start of the school year being in August, it can be a slow time for restaurants,” Stoeffhaas said. “So this is the perfect time to encourage diners to get back in the restaurants and to their normal dining routines.”

BRW is a way to expose these restaurants to new patrons and promote them to existing customers. And diners tend to eat out multiple times during the promotion, according to a survey of diners conducted by event organizers in spring 2019.

Nearly 86 percent of those customers want to expand their palates and seek out new restaurants to sample during BRW. And about 98 percent of the diners surveyed said they go back to the new restaurants they have tried even after the event has ended.

There is also a public relations benefit for the food and beverage industry in town. BRW gives restaurants the opportunity to show off the ways they help the city, such as mentoring the next generation of local chefs and filling vacant spaces with new businesses, according to the news release.

Food has led the way over the last decade in helping to revitalize areas such as Avondale, Five Points South, Pepper Place in Lakeview and Second Avenue North downtown, according to the BRW website.

“Local food is a tremendous driver in Birmingham’s vibrancy,” said Taylor Clark Jacobson, at REV Birmingham, an organizer of BRW.

The event supports REV Birmingham’s “mission of creating vibrant commercial districts,” Jacobson said.

And Birmingham’s food and beverage scene has much more room to grow, according to Stoeffhaas. “With all the culinary talent here in Birmingham, we foresee the restaurant community continuing to grow and mature for years to come,” he said.

Organizers also have plans for the future of BRW. “Our goal is to begin offering additional services such as workforce development initiatives and marketing support to help develop the next generation of chefs and restaurant entrepreneurs,” Stoeffhaas said.

The event’s charitable initiatives will also expand in the coming years, he said.

Menus, event tickets and more information can be found at bhamrestaurantweek.com.