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Tara Massouleh
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Tara Massouleh
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Tara Massouleh
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Tara Massouleh
Five years ago, Barry O’Hare and his wife, Lanier, opened Brava Rotisserie Grill off U.S. 280 on Caldwell Mill Road. The fast casual restaurant, inspired by traditional Spanish-style rotisserie houses, quickly became a hit. Shortly after, the O’Hares began looking for ways to expand.
In February 2015, they opened a second location on 20th Street North in downtown Birmingham. The concept at the new location is the same as it was for the first: light, fresh fare with a Spanish flair.
“Its not a lunch that you come in and get loaded down with a lot of carbs and go back to a desk and feel all tired,” Barry O’Hare said. “You can fill up and feel good.”
Brava’s Rotisserie Grill’s menu is true to its namesake. The style of eating represents the food the O’Hares fell in love with while attending Barry O’Hare’s brother’s wedding on Costa Brava in Spain. Many menu items center on their signature rotisserie chicken covered in Spanish dry rub, which revolves all day on a spit just behind the restaurant’s counter.
The chicken is served as part of a white- or dark-meat plate with a Brava salad (lettuce, tomato, roasted red peppers, red onion, Spanish olives, cucumber, feta) and a choice of side for $8 to $9. Sides include coleslaw, grilled vegetables, roasted red potatoes, fruit, wild rice or Brava’s signature fries covered in fresh herbs and Manchego cheese and served with Brava sauce.
“I have no idea why it’s so popular, but people love it,” Barry O’Hare said of the spicy mayonnaise-based Brava sauce. “They eat it with their fingers. They keep asking me to sell it to them, but I don’t.”
In addition to rotisserie chicken and pork, Brava also offers a plethora of wraps and sandwiches featuring the same chicken and pork, as well as fish and steak ($7.50 to $9). They also serve meal-sized salads, including Barry O’Hare’s favorite, the Mediterranean salad (lettuce, tomato, feta, garbanzo beans, olives, red onion, oil and vinegar) topped with a piece of grilled salmon.
Like with the rest of its menu, Brava keeps it simple for dessert. They offer churros, cinnamon-sugar covered Spanish doughnuts, as well as traditional brownies and yellow sheet cake.
Brava’s downtown restaurant is open for lunch on weekdays and does catering. Barry O’Hare said catering has been popular at offices downtown, especially among hospitals with doctors and nurses looking for healthy, light food to keep them going for long hours.
“The market downtown is great,” he said. “Everyone wants to try something new, and everyone wants to eat something healthy. A lot of people don’t want the regular franchised group. They would rather go to a local person.”
Since Brava opened downtown, it already has amassed a loyal following of diners, Barry O’Hare said. Many people who live near the Caldwell Mill location and work downtown eat at Brava twice a day.
For the O’Hares, expansion was always part of the plan. They chose to come downtown not only for those they could serve there, but also for the exposure it would bring to people all over Birmingham and its surrounding communities.
“From the beginning, we wanted to try to create something that we could replicate fairly easily, so we tried it, and so far, so good,” Barry O’Hare said.
So what’s next? Barry O’Hare said he hopes to soon open the downtown location for lunch on weekends and eventually for dinner every night. Long term, he said his dream is to open a Brava in Homewood where he and his family live.