Best Birminham Experience in One Weekend? (Birmingham, Homewood: 2009, neighborhoods, live)

[dw1045]

Hello!

We are considering a move to Birmingham and will be visiting in a few weekends. What are the places we have to see, restuarants to try, events to attend, etc- that will give the best overall Birmingham experience? What are the local favorites for bars and shops? We want to make sure that we get a well rounded view of what Birmingham is like. Thank you!

[cpg35223]

Oh, cool. Well, the best weekend to visit, IMHO, will be during City Stages June 19, 20, and 21. It's a huge music festival downtown. Just a heck of a lot of fun with something for everybody, and it's a great introduction to the city.

If you like live music, there are any number of venues such as Sloss Furnaces (concerts there), the Five Points South area (some killer restaurants), WorkPlay, Lakeview and Pepper Place. Those are also great places for nightlife.

If you don't have kids, you should really check out the area along Highland Avenue, from near Five Points all the way over into Forest Park off Clairmont Boulevard. Beautiful neighborhoods that are convenient to everything. Plenty of parks, etc.

The Pepper Place on 3rd Avenue, South, and about 27th Street (If I'm off a couple of blocks, please forgive me) has tons and tons of great galleries and interiors stores. Plus there are a lot more things scattered throughout the rest of the city.

If you're contemplating a family in your immediate future, you might want to consider also looking south of Red Mountain in the Homewood and Mountain Brook areas, places that are close in and really true neighborhoods.

While Birmingham is not a tourist town, there are local attractions such as Vulcan, the Botanical Gardens, the Barber Motorcycle Museum, and a really good museum of art downtown. Add the Zoo and the McWane Science Museum for the kiddies, too.

Now, one cautionary note about your visit: Birmingham has lots going on in the Fall, Winter, and Spring. But after City Stages, the place empties out during the summer on weekends. The town will depopulate every weekend for about six weeks or so for the beach or the lake. So if you come after City Stages and it seems kind of dead, you'll know the reason why.

There is a very active arts and performance community here. Hey, it's not a top market, but there's always something going on. Try this web site: activeculture.info: arts and cultural events in Birmingham. Also, when you get here, find a place that's giving away copies of Black & White, which is the bi-weekly entertainment guide. Between those two, you should have the skinny on any number of things.

Cool Restaurants: Highlands (A Beard finalist), Bottega, Chez Fon Fon, Hot & Hot, Little Savannah, Ocean, 21, and about a million others. In the more moderate price ranges, I'd suggest Silvertron, Rojo, the Irondale Cafe, and about a few dozen others. There are really a lot of excellent, locally owned restaurants in this town, which means you won't have to eat at a Chilis or Outback ever again.

As far as bars are concerned, I'm getting too old for that. However, I do know that Esquire has six Birmingham places in its most recent Top 100 American Bars listing: Highlands, Rojo, Garage Cafe, Open Door, Lou's, and Bottletree. Here's the list: Best Bars Complete List - Esquire. At the same time, WorkPlay, Dave's, a couple of places along Cobb Lane, etc. etc., will also do nicely.

Hope you enjoy your visit. Let us know if you have any other questions. And let us know how you liked your visit. We like the feedback.

[Guntersville Boomer]

This thread has some great ideas:

Fun things to do ( 1 2)
Bama Bound

[Southlander]

Here ya go, courtesy of the New York Times:
36 Hours in Birmingham, Ala. - NYTimes.com