I've spent two of the past three weeks in Birmingham, so I want to talk about Birmingham. Everyone outside of work who knew that I was going seemed to think I was going to hate Birmingham. I love to travel, and I love everywhere I go, so I found this sort of puzzling. When I'd ask why, they'd just roll their eyes and point out that it's Deep South.
Somehow this introvert has no trouble making company friends in another state, so my social life on business trips has been amazing. Evidently downtown Birmingham has really been coming back to life recently, and everyone is really excited to see what its future holds. My Birmingham buddies are hip people in their 30s-60s who know of all these great places I never would have found on my own. Here are my favorites.
Hop City
This beer and wine store had dozens and dozens of great things on tap, and their site says they carry over 1900 beers. It was tempting to get a growler of Kentucky Bourbon Barrel to bring back to my room, but I thought I should take it easy while out with my boss. I had a coffee stout and a Scottish ale at the bar.
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| Hop City - Source |
Evidently this place has some sort of points system where you earn a point for every new beer you try. It's a chain bar, but it carries 500 beers (50 on tap) from 40 countries, so of course it makes my list of awesome places in Birmingham.
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| World of Beer - Source |
The J. Clyde is a cute little tavern that faces a cobblestone alley - definitely not anything I would have stumbled across while driving around looking for somewhere to eat. I was warned that the beer was great but that the food was iffy. Our veggie and hummus appetizer was great, and my burger and sweet potato fries weren't bad. J. Clyde isn't someplace I would go for food, but I wouldn't mind eating there if I found myself drinking there again. They had lots of Alabama beer on draft along with some other great American and foreign beers. I tried Good People Coffee Oatmeal Stout for the first time here.
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| The J. Clyde - Source |
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| The J. Clyde - Source |
This is a neat little bar and game room downtown that opened earlier this year. I don't play pool, and luckily we left Paramount for World of Beer before anybody I was with could start shooting pool. The food there is actually really amazing. We had the mozzarella balls appetizer, and I had the grilled cheese for dinner. Both were excellent. The beer selection isn't outrageous, but given the quality of the selection , the good food, and the game room, Paramount is still a pretty great place.
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| Paramount in Birmingham - Source |
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| Paramount in Birmingham - Source |
This one isn't a bar or restaurant, but it makes my list because I love beer. The lady who took me here just told me that she wanted to take me shopping my first night so that I had supplies on my trip. I was surprised in the best way when we finally arrived at a liquor store with aisles of great beer. One of these days I'm going to have to drive instead of fly to Birmingham so that I can go on a shopping spree at The Package Store. It's so sad going somewhere with great beer and not being able to bring any home.
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| Source |
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| Good People Coffee Oatmeal Stout - Source |
A few nights, of course, I couldn't be bothered to deal with rain and traffic, so I just brought a book down to the hotel bar and enjoyed my dinner and drinks with Dean Koontz and Catherine Coulter. One night a really interesting older fellow asked about my book and became my dinner companion. We bonded over our love of watches and travel and went on to discuss finance and consulting. It was great. Anyway, the hotel's beer selection is limited, but they do keep one local beer on tap and a few in cans.
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