Have you ever sipped a cocktail that transports you to another place? Maybe a piña colada that lands you on a beach or a Sazerac that takes you to the streets of New Orleans? Well, a new canned cocktail lined from Drifter Craft Cocktails does just that—and they've tapped a well-known Birmingham bartender to contribute.
Condé Nast Traveler has released their annual list of best places to travel in the upcoming year, and Birmingham tops the list of 22 destinations. Included in the food travel category, Birmingham sits alongside Serbia and Trøndelag County, Norway. Some of the other destinations on the list—broken into categories of Arts & Culture, History, Transportation, Sustainability, and Outdoors & Beach—include Charleston, South Carolina; London; Querétaro, Mexico; The Great Lakes; and Singapore.
There's always good reason to shop small, but especially this year—in the midst of labor shortages and shipping delays—it's an even better time to support your favorite local businesses. In Alabama, there are countless makers and artisans selling handmade items and handcrafted wares that make for meaningful gifts. We sat down and thought about what local gifts we love to give and receive. It was hard to narrow it down to just a few, but here are our favorite Alabama-made products, handpicked by the staff and contributors of SoulGrown.
Criss Smiley is the kind of guy who will do anything to make his community happy—including bringing raw steaks out to customers' cars so they could still choose their speciality cut when the restaurant's interior was closed during the 2020 lockdown. His corner shop in Pelham, Smiley Brothers Specialty Foods, offers butcher-cut meat, an extensive cheese and wine selection, and other gourmet foods like crackers, jellies, and sauces. But these aren't your run-of-the-mill condiments. The team makes several of the items in house, including tomato jam, pickles, salad dressings (they sell their ranch by the bottle), fermented hot sauce, and pimento cheese made with peppers grown just for Smiley Brothers.
If a greased pig chase and a frog jumping contest sounds like you're idea of a good time, then you've come to the right place. Each September, the small town of Eva in North Alabama comes together for a week of old-fashioned fun and games at Eva Frontier Days. The family-friendly festival, September 17-25 this year, includes the aforementioned greased pig chase and frog jumping contest, as well as a parade, hayrides, showings of antique tractors, and a rodeo.
After a 2020 hiatus, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival announced its 50th season earlier this month. What started in a high school auditorium in Anniston in 1972 has grown into a leader in the performing arts with a $21.5 million performing arts complex in Montgomery, a designation as the State Theatre of Alabama, and a loyal following.
In a nondescript warehouse on 3rd Avenue North in Birmingham, strips of LED lights hang from the ceiling, glowing pink and purple. Music plays in a room behind a large glass window. I step inside the room and it smells like...lettuce? Yes, that's right—this isn't the city's newest club or trendy restaurant, it's an urban hydroponic farm growing greens and herbs for consumer sales and restaurant distribution.
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