Evans earns James Beard Foundation Award

Local Birmingham chef Adam Evans of Automatic Seafood & Oysters was recently named Best Chef: South by the James Beard Foundation. This comes just three years after he and his wife, Suzanne Humphries Evans, opened the restaurant in 2019.

The restaurant, named for the building’s past life as an Automatic Sprinkler Corporation manufacturing facility, is located in the Lakeview neighborhood. Working directly with local vendors, markets, and fisheries, Chef Evans’ menu features simple, high-quality seafood dishes, primarily sourced from the Gulf, which he combines with bold flavors and classic technique. The space at Automatic lends itself to a coastal setting — not speaking directly to one specific body of water or region, but drawing inspiration from all shorelines. Previously, the Muscle Shoals native made his mark on Atlanta’s culinary landscape through his signature seafood dishes at The Optimist. In 2015, Adam opened Atlanta’s Brezza Cucina with Chef Jonathan Waxman, and in 2017 he returned home to Birmingham with the goal of opening his dream restaurant with his wife, interior designer Suzanne Humphries Evans.

– Submitted by Halle Lipov, Sprouthouse Agency.