Category Archives: Travelogue

Bettola’s Lewis involved in new Aspen concept restaurant

Posted on June 20, 2012 | Leave a comment

chefs-club interior. courtesy of their websiteLast week the St. Regis Aspen opened a new concept restaurant. Why should this culinary event in Colorado mean something to Birmingham residents? It matters because James Lewis, the chef at Bettola in Pepper Place, will be among the first of the chefs to be involved in the project.

The 2011 winner of Food & Wine magazine’s New Chef award is one of four past recipients chosen to collaborate on the initial menu offerings for the new Chefs Club by Food & Wine. Lewis will join George Mendes of ALDEA in New York City; Alex Seidel of Fruition in Denver, CO; and Susan Zemanick of Gautreau’s Restaurant in New Orleans, LA. Plans call for the chefs to make appearances at the restaurant during their involvement and work with Food & Wine editors to determine and/or create the restaurant’s wine and cocktail offerings. Plans also call for the venue’s artwork to be changed out twice a year to showcase local artists.

Photo: Interior of the restaurant. Courtesy of its website.

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Travelogue: Kyle shares photos from her Moveable Type visit

Posted on December 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

Moveable Type visits Birmingham. acnatta/FlickrDecember 1 brought Kyle Durrie and her successful Kickstarter project,  Moveable Type, to the Magic City. According to the post she recently shared about both of her stops in Alabama, her visit to Birmingham was most likely the first stop she reserved on her current nationwide tour. Durrie owns Power and Light Letterpress and Design in Portland, OR.

Her 1982 Chevy step van is a mobile print shop, including “a sign press from the mid 20th century, and an 1873 Golding Official No. 3 tabletop platen press.” There was a fairly large crowd out at Railroad Park at night after workshops were held at Woodlawn High School, the result of Cory Bordonaro‘s reaching out to Kyle (and her relationship with the Desert Island Supply Co.).

She’s gotten a great deal of coverage during the trip so far – including this post over on Pebbles & Buttons in advance of her visit to Nova Scotia.

You can follow Kyle’s journey by either visiting the project’s website or following its Twitter account. You can also help Kyle in her cross-country effort by making a non tax deductible contribution via PayPal.

Photo: Moveable Type visits Birmingham. acnatta/Flickr

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Posted in Art, Travelogue

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Travelogue: Lou’s Pub makes Esquire’s list of best bars

Posted on May 31, 2011 | Leave a comment

Lou's Pub & Package Store logoReaders of the current edition of Esquire Magazine may have recognized the name of a local watering hole included in a very prestigious list of bars. Lou’s Pub not only made the latest installment of the magazine’s list of “The Best Bars in America” (PDF) it did so as the only representative from the state of Alabama.

It’s the second time that the bar has been included on the list – the first being in 2007 (when mental_floss‘ Neely Harris (formerly of mental_floss; now of ESPN The Magazine) wrote this piece for the magazine). It’s one of several bars that can claim that designation in Birmingham over the last few years – a list that includes Rojo, The Garage, The Bottletree, and Highlands Bar & Grill.

The full list is also available as well as an interactive map including bars previously on the list on the magazine’s website.

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Travelogue: Design*Sponge shares a guide to the city

Posted on May 24, 2011 | Leave a comment

Design*Sponge logoDesign*Sponge is a home and product website based out of Brooklyn, updated daily and run by Grace Booney. Considering the site averages 250,000 page views daily, a mention can potentially reach a rather large audience.

Today’s installment of their weekly City Guide column happens to be focused on Birmingham, AL and was contributed by Oxmoor House‘s Rachel West. It includes several popular spots for area residents. They’ve also been kind enough to include a link to Alabama Possible’s curated list of ways to help our region recover from the April 27 tornadoes.

It looks like a pretty exhaustive list, though we’re sure you may have some other suggestions – especially as some people have already added theirs to the mix on the post’s comments section. They’d probably be happy to hear from y’all too…

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Good news, Birmingham

Posted on February 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

If you haven’t had an opportunity to check out national traditional media outlets in recent weeks, you’ve missed several chances to watch or listen to some pieces looking at some of the great things taking place in Birmingham, AL.

A couple of weeks ago, Deontée Gordon, senior account executive for Infomedia, showed folks from CNN three of his favorite places as part of the network’s “My City, My Secret” series (that’s the video clip available to your left).

This weekend, people probably experienced another “driveway moment” as NPR’s State of the Re:Union played excerpts of their recent visit to Alabama’s Magic City as part of an upcoming episode during both episodes of Weekend Edition. The segments took a closer look at Red Mountain Park, soon to be one of the region’s largest parks, and at the good work being done by our friends at Scrollworks.

Incidentally the episode highlighting Birmingham, AL is one of five being prepared for the 2011 Spring season and currently previewed on their website. Videos of the segments shared this weekend have also been posted on the site.

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Good thing we saved the fire station in July…

Posted on January 3, 2011 | 3 comments

Surveying Engine No. 22No, there’s nothing new to report about the status of the former Fire Engine No. 22. located at the edge of the city’s Forest Park and Highland Park neighborhoods. We haven’t heard much about the structure since the approval of its sale to developers who want to open a Walgreens location on the site by the Birmingham City Council.

The agreement moved forward with the provision that if the structure, included on the National Register of Historic Places, could not be saved and used in the project, it would be abandoned.

One of the reasons that the proposed agreement was considered a success was because of a compromise reached due to an agreement between several national drug store chains and the National Trust for Historic Preservation dating from 2000. The fight to save the building was led by local groups including I Believe in Birmingham. Continue reading →

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Posted in The City, Travelogue

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Learn more about the Other Birmingham

Posted on January 3, 2011 | 3 comments

screenshot from "The Other Birmingham"A couple of years ago there were a couple of incidents involving folks from Birmingham, AL and the city we’re named after, Birmingham, UK, confusing the skylines of the two cities separated by the Atlantic Ocean.

There’s an online resource that should help keep that from happening again.

The Other Birmingham was created by Fiona Cullinan, who originally created the piece for her travel journalism blog as a one-off. She has since maintained the site, enabling her to accept additional submissions about similarities between the two cities as well as suggestions about what else should be covered. There’s been a lot looked at already, including that growing list of similarities…

By the way, there are several cities named Birmingham in the United States. They’re considerably smaller, like Birmingham, MO (population 214 according to the 2000 Census) and Birmingham, MI (pop. 19,291) to not even in existence anymore (e.g., Birmingham, KY).

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