When my dad was alive, we’d generally celebrate Father’s Day with beer. At the time I was a home brewer and wrote about beer, so I’d pick something special for a man I considered to be extra-special. When celebrating dear ol’ dad, you want to do something as special as he is. Maybe it’s treating him to a big slab of beef he’d never order on his own, or sharing a worldly approach to meat-free cooking. Should it be extravagant and haute or simple and down-home?

On a hot Alabama day, nothing hits the spot quite like a pint of craft beer. It’s cold, refreshing, and provides the right amount of buzz to make you forget that temperatures are approaching triple digits while humidity is at an all-time high. Thanks to organizations like Free the Hops that worked for years to change our state’s outdated, overly restrictive alcohol legislation, Alabama is now home to a thriving craft beer scene. 

If you wind up at Automatic Seafood and Oysters on Monday, June 13, don’t be surprised if folks start gathering around the television in an anteroom at the Birmingham restaurant, or stare at Twitter on their smartphones. They’ll be watching the feed from the James Beard Awards in Chicago to see if Automatic’s co-owner, Adam Evans, will be named Best Chef in the South during a ceremony conferring the nation’s top culinary awards.

Tim Hontzas has experience contending for a James Beard Award, which many chefs and restaurateurs equate to soccer’s World Cup or college football’s National Championship. But this year’s contest is extra-special for the chef/owner of Johnny’s Restaurant in Homewood, who is a finalist for Best Chef in the South after four consecutive years making the semifinals.

Some say summer launches on Memorial Day. Technically, it starts on the solstice, June 21. But for me, the season commences when classic Alabama-grown summer produce like yellow squash, blueberries, and a rainbow of heirloom tomatoes starts appearing on my dinner plate.

Walk around any pop-up farmer stand or permanent site like the Montgomery Curb Market, and you’ll see the full bounty of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and other plants that Alabama farmers grow. But look closer, and you’ll also find state farmers who raise meat—generally beef, pork, and chicken but also lamb, turkey, and other livestock. Where there’s poultry pecking in pasture, you’ll also find farm eggs.

David Kimani is intrigued by what people order after he parks the Sahani food truck at a Birmingham-area brewery or beer bar and opens for business. Do they stick with something familiar like a Philly cheesesteak or plunge into the Kenyan food that is Sahani’s specialty? And if they go for the latter, is it the grilled lamb called Nyama Choma, or the stewed tripe, Matumbo?

Dozens of breweries across Alabama have taprooms that serve their own products. But a new brewery and bar in Huntsville is a first-of-its-kind in Alabama—a joint effort among five state beer makers that puts collaboration ahead of competition. The Brewers Cooperative recently opened a 40-tap location at the Stovehouse complex in Huntsville. A second, with 20 taps, will follow soon in Guntersville. Currently hiring in advance of its opening, it is in the new City Harbor development that overlooks Lake Guntersville.

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.

ChurchStreet Family Hospitality is excited to introduce A Growers Touch from Australia to the United States of America, through ChurchStreet Wine Bar & Bottle shoppe in Providence – Huntsville, Alabama.

This year, Cinco de Mayo falls on Thirsty Thursday, so the timing couldn’t be better to pay a visit to your favorite Mexican restaurant. Of course, nothing goes better with tacos, enchiladas, nachos, or your order of choice like a margarita. Salty, sour, sweet, and supremely satisfying, it’s hard to beat an ice-cold marg on a hot summer day. Whether you prefer a classic lime margarita on the rocks or a fruit-flavored frozen mashup, Alabama’s plethora of Mexican restaurants and cocktail bars have you covered. Here are 8 of our favorite places to get margaritas in the state. 

After five years in the heart of downtown Birmingham, Pizitz Food Hall has become a mainstay among the weekday lunch crowd, as well as weekenders enjoying a day of activity in the Magic City. The bustling building hosts an array of businesses, ranging from the state’s only Warby Parker outpost to a full bar and an independent movie theater. With 12 food stalls, a full-service restaurant, and another on the way, there’s always something different to taste at Pizitz. Here’s what’s new and coming soon to one of Birmingham’s favorite gathering spots. 

Soul food, the classic Southern cuisine that elevates humble ingredients to gastronomic heights, isn’t the only fare being dished at Black-owned restaurants in south Alabama.  The Jamaican Spot in Loxley fires up the spicy fare of its namesake island nation. Places like Foy Superfoods in Mobile and Sherman’s Smoothie Café in Troy promote health and well-being.

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.