Hiking deep into the Alabama woods, the foragers spot orange trumpet-shape mushrooms growing from the damp forest floor near several trees. After confirming the fungi are not a toxic or poisonous look-alike, they start gathering the gourmet goods, which can fetch $30 or more per pound from chefs at high-end restaurants or at nearby farmers markets.
More than two-dozen restaurants in greater Birmingham will donate up to 35 percent of their proceeds on Thursday, April 28, as part of the ongoing Dining Out for Life fundraiser. Part of a national effort to raise money for local service groups helping people with HIV, Birmingham’s Dining Out for Life supports AIDS Alabama, which helps provide housing and other assistance, offers education and outreach programs, and engages in policy advocacy.
Time spent on a relative’s farm in South Carolina started Christian Watson on a culinary journey that’s taken him to top restaurants in Charleston, Birmingham, and Auburn; private yachts on the east and west coasts; and now to the tiny agricultural town of Waverly.
It’s that time of the year again for events that boast delicious food while also offering a chance to soak up some culture, help a good cause, check out some good music, or prove culinary supremacy. From strawberries to tacos, these late April and May food festivals celebrate the diversity of Alabama food and beverages. Here are 8 food-related fêtes set for mid-spring:
Tickets are on sale now for the silver anniversary of Cork and Chefs, where attendees get to sample food and libations served by Birmingham-area restaurants in the atmosphere of an art festival. The 25th celebration of the city’s nationally recognized dining and drink scene is set for Saturday and Sunday, April 23 and 24, in the main casting shed at Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark.
Although it’s only been open roughly three months, Oak House Restaurant is quickly becoming a clubhouse for residents of the Mt Laurel planned community in north Shelby County.
In our household, we love to celebrate Alabama’s strawberry season. I taught my children early in life that one of life’s great joys is eating a fully ripened strawberry that’s been freshly picked nearby. Supermarket strawberries, with their flavorless ghost-white ends and cores, cannot compete. And the longer strawberries must travel from farm to store, the less likely it is they’ll ever properly ripen.
The Grand Bohemian Hotel in Mountain Brook Village is a food lover’s paradise, and not just because its rooftop restaurant, Habitat Feed and Social, dishes delicious, locally-sourced, Southern-inspired food like pork tenderloin with Conecuh sausage stuffing that’s finished with honey from the upscale hotel’s own apiary.
Murder Creek Distillery in Riverview has been on a winding journey since its founding four years ago. When the pandemic hit in 2020, it veered off from making legal commercial moonshine to producing pure-alcohol distillate for hand sanitizer. Then came a surge in demand among home-bound consumers for jars of Murder Creek’s clear and flavored liquor. The company also is celebrating the first anniversary of its second location—a small distillery, tasting room, and bar at Downtown OWA in the resort in Foley run by the Poarch Creek Indians. An instant success, the facility now accounts for some 40 percent of the distillery’s sales.
A salute to women in the craft beer industry is on tap at the third edition of the festival, Pour Us Another: Celebrating Womxn in Craft Beer, set for Sunday, March 27, at Cahaba Brewing in Birmingham. Everything at the free event—the venue, the beer, food-truck fare, crafts, and entertainment—will be made by women or are businesses with female owners. A panel that includes Cahaba Brewing’s co-owner, Allison Hayes, will discuss the roles women can play, and should be playing, in the craft beer industry.