Recently in Birmingham, AL Category

Montgomery, Alabama seems to be 10 years behind the rest of the country on restaurants and retailers (we just got our first Target, Best Buy, and PetSmart a few years ago.) While good restaurants spring up periodically, they are usually shut down with a year or two, victims of the "it's too pricey" syndrome this city seems to have. A few manage to hang around (La Jolla, Dawsons, Casa Napoli, The Olive Room, Vintage Year, City Grill) but we consistently lose great restaurants for lack of business (Felix's, Copeland's, Serrano.) We like good food and will even occasionally drive to Birmingham, Atlanta, or (less frequently) Mobile or Pensacola to hit favorite restaurants of ours, but life is changing and I'd rather go around the corner than across state lines to find good food.

Without further ado, 23 21 Restaurants I'd Like To See Come To The Montgomery/Prattville, Alabama Area:

1. Copelands: After a failed attempt on south East Boulevard, perhaps they could be convinced to try again, perhaps on the east side this time. It appears that Copeland's has now pulled of Alabama altogether (Montgomery, Birmingham, and Mobile) and has also left Pensacola. Nearest Copelands is now in Atlanta. Oh yeah, and bring back the Pork LaBoucherie. A guy can wish, right?
2. P.F. Chang's: Excellent, affordable American-Chinese cuisine, nice decor. Good quality Chinese food.
3. Red Robin: This might actually happen as a new RR recently opened in Newnan, GA. Excellent hamburgers and sandwiches, endless fries. We're now have a Red Robin at Eastchase! Note: In my experiences (I've been 10 times sinece they opened) the Montgomery Red Robin has serious problems with consistency of service, food quality and dining experience. You may get lucky, but don't expect your usual Red Robin experience at this location.
4. Bennigan's: Traditional American fare, sandwiches, soups with an Irish flavor. Good neighborhood bar and restaurant. Bankrupt 2008
5. El Chico: American-Mex, but better than any of the flavor-deprived Mexican being served in this town today, nearest ones are in Mobile and Nashville.
6. Other Raving Brands franchises: We already got multiple Moe's (now run by a different company) and (supposedly) a Doc Green's on the way (what happened there?). How about Mama Fu's Noodles, Planet Smoothie, and Shane's Rib Shack, maybe a Boneheads, or a Flying Biscuit?
7. In-And-Out Burger: Excellent West Coast burger chain, always smiling, gracious staff and prompt service of great food. Imagine!
8. Old Chicago: Great pizza and well over 110 beer choices.
9. Baja Fresh: The franchise recently entered and exited the Atlanta market, so Montgomery luring this consistently flavorful and fresh Mex star is probably a long shot.
10. Mimi's Cafe: French-inspired american food. (coming to EastChase in Winter 2008)
11. Noodles & Co.: Various noodle entrees, from Mac and Cheese to Asian noodle dishes. Same idea as Mama Fu's, a noodle house.
12. Houlihan's: Several locations in Atlanta
13. Cozymel's Mexican Restaurant:: Great chicken and carnitas fajitas. Steak fajitas were so-so. Nearest one might be Memphis
14. Bahama Breeze: Island food and drink. Long lines/wait, get there early. Birmingham or Atlanta
15. Abuelo's Mexican Food Embassy: Great Mexican food, all around. Memphis/KC/OKC are the closest ones.
16. Houston's: Up-scale sit-down American dining in a beautiful decor. Several locations in Atlanta.
17. Uno Chicago Grill: Chicagoland dining with new creative twists. Formerly Pizzeria Uno.
18. On the Border: Good chain Mexican. Recently closed in Birmingham.
19. Buca di Beppo: Southern Italian food served family-style in large, delicious portions. So clean they take you on a tour through the kitchen on your way to your seat.
20. Qdoba Mexican Grill: Similar to Moe's and Chipotle, San Francisco-style burritos with tons of flavor and spice.
21. First Watch: A small chain of health-conscious and delicious breakfast treats in a relaxing environment
22. Marie Callendar's: Home-cooked comfort food and great pies.
23. Cheesecake Factory: Great cheesecake (50 different varieties and a highly diverse menu including Asian, Mexican, Italian, American, Cajun, and Spanish choices to meet everyone's needs. Their menu is a small book. The nearest ones are in Birmingham and Atlanta.

Yeah, they are mostly chains. Some people seem to get hung up about that. These are the good chains, not the ones that make you roll your eyes when you see them. If any 4 of these came to town, I'd be much happier about the dining scene in Montgomery.

I figure we could afford to lose some T.G.I.Friday's, Ruby Tuesday, Chili's, Applebee's, and O'Charley's, we'd have room for some new, good restaurants.

Photo Gallery >> Barber Vintage Motorsports Musuem
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Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum (and, in fact, the entire Barber Motorsports Park) is a jewel in the crown of Birmingham, Alabama. It should be on the top of any motorized sports enthusiast's to-do list when visiting Birmingham. They have an excellent collection of motorcycles from all eras and all manufacturers. There are approximately 750+ motorcycles and a approximately 40 or 50 sports and racing cars on display at any given point. They are beautifully restored and displayed open-air in the spacious facility. Northeast Birmingham, approximately 2 miles east of the junction of I-20 and I-459. Follow I-20 past I-459, take the first exit past the junction (Leeds), turn right and the facility is on your right about 1 mile down the road. Admission is $15 for adults, and well worth it.

I've gone to the museum the past two weekends and had a great time. The basement "paddock" area is usually closed to the public, but was open this past weekend, so I got to stroll and shoot some angles you can't normally get.

More photos from Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum

A satellite shot of the facility from Google Maps

<pander>Now, if I can just get someone from Barber to take me behind-the-scenes, or to the warehouse my journey will be complete...</pander>

My collection of things you'll only see in Alabama.

While traveling through Denver recently, I noticed that the Baby Doe's Matchless Mine restaurant overlooking Lo-Do had been demolished (I know this is old news, but I live 1,500 miles away, so I don't get all the breaking new s out of Denver...) I was doing some quick searching on the web and found indications that there used to be Baby Doe's in Kansas City (I'd heard that before) as well as Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia.

I'm particularly interested in the locations in Kansas City, Birmingham, Alabama ("near the Vulcan status on Red Mountain") and Atlanta, Georgia. Does anyone have more specific information about the location of these restaurants? Also interested in knowing when they closed. If anyone has information, stories, photos of these locations of the restaurant, I'd be interested to see/hear about them.

Birmingham Wiki has a link with a little more information: Baby Doe's

Alabama has become a growing powerhouse in automobile manufacturing in recent years, picking up a Mercedes Benz factory in Tuscaloosa, a Honda factory in Lincoln, and Hyundai built their first state-side factory just south of Montgomery a couple years ago. Without delving deep into politics, low operational costs, largely non-union labor, good river, rail, and over-the-road transportation access, low cost of living, and massive incentive packages have made Alabama (and the southern United States) a very attractive place to build a factory. Honda recently announced that it will be building an new exhaust system factory to supply it's main Alabama plant.

A great feature of these factories (along with their local and regional economic impact) is that they are all available for the public to tour them. I've gathered the relevant information about each tour.

This information was gleaned from the manufacturers' websites at the time I wrote this entry. Please verify any information by contacting the factories at their website or by phone before embarking on your trip. You should wear shoes with closed toes and heels as well as long pants (some tours don't allow shorts.)

These tours are great for kids (see "Minimum Age") and adults alike and offer a portal into modern automobile manufacturing processes. The Hyundai plant is a couple years old. The Mercedes-Benz plant recently underwent a multi-year renovation and has resumed tours as of Spring 2007. There is also a large Kia factory currently being built in Georgia at the Alabama-Georgia state line along I-85. I will including relevant information for that factory when it is available.

There is a large, upscale shopping center in Birmingham, Alabama called The Summit. It's very nice, has a wide variety of shops, restaurants, and a multiplex movie theater. Tonight, Saturday night (November 5, 2005), we (and several thousand other potential shoppers) were kept from shopping and dining at The Summit's tenant stores and restaurants by the poor decisions made by the Summit's management.

My wife and I drove up from Montgomery (~100 miles) tonight to have a nice dinner at a restaurant at The Summit (map). At approximately 6:45pm we attempted to turn off of 280 onto Summit Boulevard to enter the shopping facility only to be turned away be a Sheriff's Deputy blocking the entrance. We drove around the back entrance and found another Sheriff's Deputy blocking the only other entrance. After stepping out to talk to the Deputy, we were told that there was a "lighting ceremony" (Christmas lights) with a fireworks show, and the fire marshal had dictated that there be no cars on the road during the fireworks (never mind there was constant out-bound traffic, just the in-bound traffic was stopped.) We parked at the head of the line and waited... and waited... and waited. As we sat in a traffic jam, unable to get in, or turn around and get out, we had plenty of time to think about customer service and what responsibilities a management company has to it's tenants and their customers.

I unfortunately don't have any direct connections with The Summit management or Bayer Properties, but there are a couple questions I'd like answered, for the benefit of all the customers who were turned away, for the tenants who lost significant business during the time those customers were turned away, and for the apartment residents who share Summit Boulevard as the only access to their homes (they were turned away as well.)

1. Who decided to hold the lighting ceremony on a busy Saturday evening in the middle of prime evening shopping and dining time?

2. Once someone found out about the car restriction as apparently imposed by the Fire Marshall, why were customer's turned away instead of canceling the fireworks?

3. How long had The Summit management known about the Fire Marshall's requirements? What was done to notify customers and apartment residents of the lack of access to The Summit and their homes during this time?

4. Who was the intended audience for the lighting ceremony? Was this audience more important than the thousands of potential shoppers and apartment residents you stranded in order to hold your ceremony?

Despite your marketing material's claims of "choice, clarity, and convenience in a shopper-friendly environment", I sincerely doubt your commitment to your tenant's business needs and your customer's convenience. Your tenants should be asking exactly how many of your statistically analyzed "$117 spent per visit" customers you had turned away tonight. I bet answer isn't a pretty one.

After my experience tonight, I will choose not to do business with shops at The Summit on my next trip to Birmingham. This is through no fault of the merchants, but due to the arrogance and lack of respect the management at the Summit paid to your tenant's customers tonight. There are ample alternatives to The Summit in Birmingham and your disgruntled customers will take their business elsewhere if you treat us this way.

If you were stuck in the traffic jams or tuned away, please feel free to comment on this posting. Consider sending a link to this posting to your friends and neighbors who shop at The Summit.

If you shop at The Summit, consider contacting Summit management or Bayer Properties to let them know that you don't appreciate being treated this way.

If you are a resident at Cameron at The Summit and you couldn't get home. please feel free to comment on this posting and pass a link to it to your friends.

If you are a tenant merchant at The Summit, please comment and/or pass a link to this posting to your corporate offices.

If you are the management at The Summit and would like to explain what happened tonight, I'd be glad to give you a platform on which to respond...

[Edit: 11/7/2005]
I talked briefly to the General Manager at The Summit and she blamed the (unnamed) fire marshal for the road blockage and disclaimed any prior knowledge that the roads would be blocked during the lighting show.
[/Edit]

Contact Information for The Summit:

Summit Management
Phone: (205) 967-0111

Bayer Properties Incorporated
Phone: (205) 939-3111

I'll post more contact info as I get it.