The Ultimate Alabama Dining Guide | Listen

Best Chef: Frank Stitt

Chez Fonfon & Bottega, Birmingham

Frank Stitt’s success in Alabama stems from his mother’s kitchen prowess (“She was a phenomenal cook,” he says) and childhood memories of happy, satisfied faces smiling around tables at iconic restaurants like Brennan’s. Blend in a love of French cuisine discovered while cooking and studying philosophy in California and later, working in France, and today, diners enjoy his respectful approach to quality ingredients. With his wife, Pardis, leading front-of-house, there is uncompromising service at the always-packed and continually praised Bottega and Chez Fonfon (and the legendary yet still-shuttered Highlands Bar & Grill). “Every element works together to create the experience,” he says. The herbal notes and luscious texture of dishes like Bottega’s rich yet cloudlike parmesan soufflé don’t hurt either.

Frank Stitt’s Alabama Recommendations

Odette, Florence

With a great cocktail and wine program as well as wonderful, genuine hospitality, it’s a place you want to hang out.

El Barrio, Birmingham

Opened by a group of guys that used to work with us, it features forward-thinking Mexican food and is my go-to for a heart-warming bowl of pozole.

Little Donkey, Birmingham

It’s a Nick Pihakis restaurant, and no matter what he and his team do, they do it right. The flavors of the salsas are outstanding.

Automatic Seafood and Oysters, Birmingham

Chef Adam Evans and his wife, [Suzanne]—with her design sense—have created a vibe that’s exciting and a little sexy. And the fish collars are always delicious.

Helen, Birmingham

Rob McDaniel is a great chef, as you can taste in anything off his menu of wood-smoked and grilled food, but he’s a great person, too, and you feel that in the welcome and comfort of Helen.

Best Mixologist: Nick Wyatt

Ravello, Montgomery

Nic Wyatt’s easy smile and straightforward yet elevated drinks earned him second place in Alabama’s 2024 Best Bartender competition. Favorite childhood flavors inspire his concoctions, like the toffee-toned Mezzanotte (which means “midnight” in Italian) crowning Ravello’s nightcap menu. It’s based on his mom’s baking with a blend of brown butter-washed rum, demerara syrup, black walnut bitters, and orange peel. Yet Wyatt’s ultimate satisfaction comes from creating connections. “When I can change the vibe from everyone sitting at the bar having a one-on-one to the entire bar talking to me but each other, too,” he says, “it feels like my grandmother’s dinner table as a kid. That’s where I learned to love serving and entertaining.”

Nick Wyatt’s Alabama Recommendations

Hilltop Public House, Montgomery

With its small but eclectic wine list, consistent cocktails, and real Montgomery hospitality, it’s like walking into a friend’s house: cozy and never fussy but always fun.

The House of Found Objects, Birmingham

There is a touch or otherworldliness, like maybe you’re in a cocktail bar in a sci-fi movie, and they have some great housemade bottled cocktails.

Automatic Seafood and Oysters, Birmingham

I’m going for anything effervescent here—often an Aperol spritz—to pair with some fresh Gulf oysters.

Best of: Alabama

Best Tried and True Restaurant: The Bright Star, Bessemer

Opened by Greek immigrants in 1907 (part of a wave of Greek-owned restaurants in the state), Alabama’s oldest restaurant owes its longevity to its happy marriage of traditional Greek flavors and Southern comfort foods. Dishes are built on the state’s agricultural bounty, and many highlight fresh Gulf seafood, like Greek-style snapper basted in butter, pan-fried, and finished with a zingy lemon-oregano vinaigrette.

Best: Small-Town Standout: Jesse’s, Magnolia Springs

This spot makes a big splash in its tiny waterside town, pleasing local palates and drawing diners from hours away. They come for buttery, briny farmed Gulf oysters, dry- and wet-aged steaks with enhancements like bone marrow butter, and creamy tasso gratin bursting with sweet blue crab fresh from the sea.

Best Meat ’n Three: Johnny’s Restaurant, Homewood

Johnny’s, in Homewood, achieves magna cum laude status with its twists on the meat ’n three tradition. Chef Timothy Hontzas taps Alabama farmers to build classics of his Greek heritage (keftedes and fasolakia) while enlivening country-cooking standards with Greek ingredients: turnip greens enhanced with toasted fennel seed and meatloaf enriched with ground lamb.

Best Peach Fried Pie: Peach Park, Clanton

Since 1984, this roadside market off I-65 has been selling Chilton County’s famed fruit (from its own and other nearby orchards) and found fried pies to be perfect vehicles for the sweet, tender flesh of summer harvests. Hand-rolled dough, made from a combination of several family recipes, is stuffed to bursting with blushing beauties cooked down into a syrupy filling.

Best New Restaurant: Salud Taqueria, Birmingham

This fast-casual cocktail bar and eatery serves family-recipe specialties from Mexico’s Tabasco and Puebla regions, honoring co-owner Jesús Méndez’s parents’ origin stories. His dad’s suadero tacos—slow-braised beef brisket wrapped in handmade masa tortillas—pair perfectly with a Salud margarita: reposado tequila, housemade pineapple-achiote simple syrup, and bright pops of tart lime and spicy Ancho Reyes. “I’m so fortunate to have my parents teaching me our food and trusting me to share it,” Méndez says.

Best Breakfast: Homecoming and Company, Guntersville

Local pork and non-GMO stone-ground grits from an area mill elevate scratch-made standards like bacon and grits at this eatery housed in a historic building. And creative fare like buckwheat pancakes sweetened with mashed bananas, a Warm Hug (a fluffy biscuit enrobed in chocolate gravy), and Green Eggs and Ham (layers of grits, silky collards, country ham, and scrambled eggs crowned with an onion ring) are evidence of the culinary chops owner Jessica Hanners brought home after years cooking in Atlanta hotspots.

Best Sandwich: The Gobbler, Bates House of Turkey, Greenville

In 2023, Bates Turkey Farm celebrated 100 years of terrific-tasting turkey, all raised free-range, long before that was a buzzword in the food industry. The Gobbler at the farm’s Bates House of Turkey restaurant pulls drivers off I-65 for Thanksgiving in sandwich form served year-round: tender roast turkey, cranberry sauce, cornbread dressing, and gravy stuffed into a Kaiser bun.

Best Gas Station Food: Satsuma Chevron Breakfast and BBQ, Satsuma

Every day, this humble eatery tucked inside a busy Chevron station dishes up loads of its meaty breakfast gumbo—cheese grits, scrambled eggs, patty sausage, bacon, Alabama’s own Conecuh sausage, scallions, and pepper sauce layered in a bowl. Equally worthy are pulled pork and ribs cozied up to mac and cheese and golden squares of slightly sweet cornbread, plus Cajun classics like red beans and rice.

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