![]() “I can still remember the intense flavours of all that super-fresh produce. “My love of food came about as a young kid picking okra, corn and tomatoes in my grandfather’s garden,” says Evans, originally of Muscle Shoals, Alabama. I drive across town to Birmingham’s Lakeview neighbourhood in time for dinner at Automatic Seafood and Oysters, for which owner and executive chef Adam Evans recently picked up a James Beard Award for ‘Best Chef in the South’. “We’ll treat you good in so many different ways, you have to like at least one of ‘em.” For The Seafood Lovers “That’s the thing about Southern hospitality, it’s impossible to resist,” she says, delivering a vast slice to the table. I relent and pick the Lemon Ice Box – a creamy concoction of condensed milk, lemon and eggs that sits under a Graham cracker crust. Fit to burst, she refuses to let me leave until I’ve had a dessert. ![]() Next, comes a Southern classic: snapper throats (the succulent cut of meat from the underside of the fish behind the gills) which is grilled Greek-style with -oregano and olive oil. Twitty brings me a selection from their menu to try, starting first with a bowl of seafood gumbo, then a bright, leafy salad made with briny olives and tart, salty feta cheese. Great cocktails and crispy fish collar at Automatic. “They served Southern dishes with a touch of the Mediterranean, something we still do to this day.” Bright Star’s signature dish of snapper throats served Greek-style.īirmingham’s landmark Alabama Theatre, built in 1927. “At one point, 95% of all the restaurants in and around Birmingham were owned by Greeks,” Twitty explains. Serving Hearty And Honest Foodīonduris arrived to find the city and its suburbs booming with industry and he – like many of his compatriots – quickly saw an opportunity to make money serving weary workers with hearty, honest food. “That’s why he called this place the Bright Star.” Bonduris was one of thousands of Greeks who crossed the Atlantic at the turn of the century and ended up in the Birmingham area – for many, their -exodus was precipitated by the defeat of Greek forces in a war with Turkey, as well as thousands of families losing their livelihoods when the global market for dried seedless grapes disappeared. ![]() “He came in search of a better life and found a safe -haven here,” says server Sonya Twitty in her honey-thick Alabama accent. ![]()
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