Comments on: Hey Birmingham! We are coming to visit.

Hey Birmingham! We are coming to visit.

Secretariat — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 18:15:52 -0800

Cortex and I want to check out Birmingham and meet some mefites! The plan is that we'll meet up at Trim Tab Brewing, then head to Babalu for tapas.

We've never been to Birmingham! In fact, so far our experience of the South has been limited to North Alabama. We are living in Huntsville, AL for the summer, and google says we are 90 minutes away.

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 21:38:44 -0800

The beer at Trim Tab brewery is very very good. And it's just a couple of blocks from a decent tapas place. We will, of course, end up at The Garage.

By: wearyaswater

wearyaswater — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 05:34:02 -0800

We'll be at sloss fest Saturday and Sunday, so Friday would work best for me. I'm partial to the saws bbq/Avondale brewery route, but I'm good with trimtab too.

By: gregr

gregr — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 07:01:31 -0800

I'm always down for Saw's BBQ. hollyholly & I would be driving up from Tuscaloosa (~45min). We're pretty clear on Friday evening & Saturday/Sunday.

By: isauteikisa

isauteikisa — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 11:47:12 -0800

Damnit guys. The weekend I decide to stay in BHM you all holding a meetup in Huntsville, then the weekend I go to Huntsville you're in my neck of the woods :P

By: Secretariat

Secretariat — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 12:49:21 -0800

Where are you going next, isauteikisa? Just so we can plan to somehow go to the opposite of there.

By: Secretariat

Secretariat — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 06:03:23 -0800

I just found out I have a thing on Friday evening, unfortunately, so I think I will have to set this meetup for Saturday. Sorry, wearyaswater. I'm an intern, so I don't always get that much advance notice on things! Does meeting at 5pm sound good? We'll probably aim to get into town earlier and do some sightseeing- I hear there's a Vulcan.

By: Secretariat

Secretariat — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 10:03:20 -0800

As for locations, Trim Tab sounds good- but is the nearby tapas restaurant Sol y Luna? Google is telling me that it's permanently closed.

By: gregr

gregr — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 14:32:21 -0800

5pm Saturday works for hollyholly & me. BitterOldPunk's suggestion of Babalu Tacos & Tapas sounds great. Trim Tab brewery is excellent also. Saw's BBQ is really tasty too.

By: wearyaswater

wearyaswater — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 15:38:56 -0800

No worries, we'll probably take a break from the festivities and try to have a beer, at least.

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 07:05:51 -0800

Five PM Saturday works for us! Yeah, Babalu is the tapas place in thinking of. It's not going to change your life, but the tamales are good, the redfish tacos are good, pretty much everything I've eaten there has been good. It ain't Saw's, that's for sure. But Trim Tab's beer is so much better than Avondale's. So much better.

By: elizard

elizard — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 09:35:07 -0800

I'm in. You do owe it to yourselves to try Saw's while you're here, though. Their BBQ place in Homewood & their Soul Kitchen location in Avondale are both so, so good.

By: Secretariat

Secretariat — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 13:06:19 -0800

Maybe we'll try to hit Saw's for lunch? It does sound really good. Or else we'll just come back next weekend.

By: gregr

gregr — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 21:51:21 -0800

Alabama has excellent BBQ. I'm partial to original Dreamland & Archibald's in Tuscaloosa.

By: isauteikisa

isauteikisa — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 22:18:59 -0800

Saw's is HIGHLY recommended for lunch.

By: Secretariat

Secretariat — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 11:12:10 -0800

Ahh, Saw's was really good!

By: cortex

cortex — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 14:42:18 -0800

We'll see y'all shortly. I look like me and I'm wearing my red butts lol t-shirt.

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 19:31:49 -0800

That was fun! It was great to meet everybody. Next time we are definitely going to The Garage, though.

By: Rhaomi

Rhaomi — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 21:42:02 -0800

Agreed, this was really great! (And would you believe this was my first MeFi meetup?) I'd love to go again next time you guys are in Birmingham, schedule permitting. The Garage looks super cool. PS: I totally forgot to take any photos! I really hope the candid cortex took turned out semi-decent, instead of catching me with a mouthful of broccolini.

By: cortex

cortex — Sun, 19 Jul 2015 06:41:24 -0800

Thanks everybody for coming out, I had a blast. It was great meeting you all in person. We'll keep IRL posted if we're getting up to other stuff in the area.

By: Secretariat

Secretariat — Sun, 19 Jul 2015 07:56:16 -0800

Yeah, I had a great time! Lovely to meet you all (plus a bonus non-mefite!) hollyholly or someone else- could you remind me what southern food website/group/cookbook we were talking about at the tapas place, regarding vegetables? I'm afraid I already forgot. Something like Southern Life, Southern Way.... If anyone is interested in travelling to distant meetups, you could temporarily extend your search radius for a month or so- we'll be doing another Huntsville meetup one way or another, and we'll probably try to call one in Mobil, AL. (BitterOldPunk, I think your search radius is already embiggened- your comment in the previous Huntsville meetup thread was what reminded us we should visit Birmingham)

By: hollyholly

hollyholly — Sun, 19 Jul 2015 10:18:14 -0800

The Southern Foodways Alliance is what elizard and I were talking about. Also, here's the source recipe for mine and gregr's tomato pie, though our crust is the biscuit from The Joy of Cooking, and we do the goat cheese variation. We had such a good time! Both of us have resolved to make a post on the blue. I also embiggened my meetup radius.

By: cortex

cortex — Sun, 19 Jul 2015 10:26:16 -0800

I added that picture I took!

By: wearyaswater

wearyaswater — Sun, 19 Jul 2015 15:09:37 -0800

Hey - sorry we had to leave early but glad we got to meet everyone. Totally down for more!