What makes a restaurant unforgettable? The food, certainly; but more often, it’s the people. The ones who greet you at the door, who work tirelessly on prep in the kitchen, who stay long after closing and come back the next day to start again. Those are the people Birmingham photographer Mary Fehr wanted to celebrate.

Fehr’s photography has become synonymous with her hometown. Whether she’s capturing a wedding, an artist, or a chef in the kitchen, she has a gift for elevating the everyday, for finding the heart of the people and places that make up the Magic City. Her style blends documentary realism with editorial polish, shaped by a love of art history, sculpture, and painting, and by a deep investment in Birmingham’s creative community. It is, at its core, work about presence and connection.

That sensibility runs through “The Magic Ingredient,” Fehr’s newest exhibition, created for Birmingham Restaurant Week and on display on the second floor of Birmingham City Hall through Aug. 31. Rather than lingering on beautifully plated dishes, the collection turns its attention to the cooks, bakers, bartenders, servers, and owners whose passion has helped shape Birmingham into one of the South’s great food cities.

“Food is such a huge part of Southern culture, and especially Birmingham’s culture,” Fehr said. “When people ask what there is to do here, the answer is always: do you like to eat or drink? Because we have incredible chefs and bartenders. But what excites me most is the story behind the food. Whoever is making it—that’s their heart they’re showing you. It doesn’t have to be perfect or pristine. Mess is human, and that matters to me.”

The moments between the meals

Over the years, Fehr has spent countless hours photographing Birmingham’s restaurant scene, and again and again, she found herself drawn to the moments diners rarely see.

“At the end of the sessions, my favorite images are not just the food-on-the-plate shots,” Fehr said. “The in-between moments, the final touches of the dish, the staff interactions—those are where you really get the feeling of not just how the food looks or what it tastes like, but what it feels like to experience that restaurant.”

Those in-between moments became the foundation of the exhibit. The Magic Ingredient features restaurants and bars that have helped define Birmingham’s culinary landscape, including Last Call Baking Co., Bayonet, Shu Shop, Bottega, Gus’s Hot Dogs, The Essential, Salud, Continental Drift, Juniper, Helen, Tucana Tiki Bar, and Uncle G’s Pizza.

Throughout the collection, Fehr invites viewers behind the dining room doors: a baker shaping dough before sunrise, a kitchen crew pausing between tickets, a bartender preparing for another evening of welcoming guests, an owner smiling quietly inside the business they’ve spent years building. Rather than documenting only the finished meal, the photographs celebrate the work that so often goes unseen.

“I think our connection through our enjoyment of food and the community it builds here is really what sets Birmingham restaurants apart,” Fehr said.

A community that stands together

That sense of community was especially evident during the exhibit’s opening. Just days earlier, Birmingham’s restaurant industry had been shaken by the tragic loss of Bayonet bartender Mona Ables, whose warmth had touched not only her coworkers but countless people throughout the city’s hospitality community.

Speaking during the gallery opening, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin acknowledged the grief shared across the industry. “To the Bayonet and Helen restaurant community, and to everyone who is feeling her loss right now, just know that the city is thinking about you and we stand with you,” he said.

For Fehr, the response reflected exactly what she has always loved about Birmingham’s restaurants. “Just seeing how many people Mona touched—not just in the Bayonet family, but all throughout the service industry here in Birmingham—our hearts go out to all who knew her,” she said.

The gathering became a reminder that Birmingham’s restaurant community extends far beyond any one kitchen; it is a network of friendships, mentorships, late nights, shared victories, and deep care for one another.

A love letter to Birmingham’s restaurant community

For Fehr, “The Magic Ingredient” is ultimately less about food than about the people who make every meal possible. “I want my images to feel both real and artful, grounded and expressive,” she said. “Whether I’m photographing a person, a place, or a story, my goal is always the same: to create photographs that feel alive and true.”

That philosophy is woven through every portrait. Some of the people featured in the exhibition spend their careers tucked behind the bar or behind kitchen doors, content to let their work speak for itself; Fehr’s photographs invite them into the spotlight, revealing the pride, creativity, and humanity behind Birmingham’s celebrated dining scene.

See “The Magic Ingredient” now through August 30th on the second floor of Birmingham City Hall. Birmingham Restaurant Week begins July 30th and runs through August 8th.