Travel Guide: Birmingham
March 19, 2026
You can also view the following travel guide on our destination page for Birmingham.
Summary
Small town feel with internationally-acclaimed food. Come try real southern food in the Deep South!
Food
Simply put: Meat and Three! Meat and Three is an Alabama staple. Wikipedia claims its roots come from Nashville, but Nashville tends to be its own thing; the south (and particularly here in Birmingham) is where you truly find Meat and Three in all its glory. So... what is this? Meat and Three is a concept of a mom and pop shop where you pick a main protein (a.k.a. Meat) and three sides (which often also tend to include meat). It's glorious. And a must try while in Birmingham! You can't go run with any of the places (or so we've been told), but our faves are Johnny's and Niki's West.
Besides Meat and Three, Birmingham is also a great foodie scene. It was recently featured on Eater's best places to travel around the world for food. It's arguably the heart of southern cuisine, and has a ton of great food options. Two of our favorite options are right downtown: Helen and The Essential. Choose Helen for a modern approach on a fine-dining southern meal, but if you want something a bit more farm-to-table we highly recommend The Essential.
The Southside (an aptly named neighborhood directly south of downtown) has a ton of great food options and is the core of the foodie scene in Birmingham. A few places we like here include Chez Fonfon for French food, Bottega for Italian, and OvenBird for wood-fired Southern food.
Overall, tons of great food around Birmingham. Utilize the Michelin guide to find other recs!
Beer
Birmingham has quite a few breweries! Most of them are conveniently clustered in the Southside, so a brewery crawl is definitely possible while here. Despite the large quantity of craft beer available, most of it tends to be average; not any must-go places for beer-lovers.
If we must choose one, our favorite brewery is TrimTab. It's a good spot with a wide variety of options. If you're lucky, they might have a food truck on-site too!
Other options include a taproom for Monday Night Brewing (they tend to be all over the South, but this was the first location outside of their hometown Atlanta), Birmingham District Brewing Company, Good People Brewing, and Avondale Brewing. Again, all in the Southside!
Attractions
If we're being honest, the biggest attraction of Birmingham is simply the food; gotta eat all that Southern delish! There's not much in the area in terms of raw activities to pass your day; our suggestion: simply walk around some of the quaint neighborhoods (i.e. Southside), eat local food, look at local art, etc.
We also encourage learning about some of Birmingham's history, specifically in regards to civil rights; one of the most recommended museums is the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Birmingham was a deeply segregated city, and hence home to several civil rights movements.
For motorsport fans, Talledaga is a short drive out of the city. It's always cool to see legendary venues in person.
Vibe
A liberal hub in the middle of the Deep South. Birmingham is a quaint city that is very approachable: lot's of amazing food, generally great weather, walkable, etc. You feel / recognize that you're in the south here, but it's a unique southern experience. Heck, event the Michelin Guide has visited!
Sweet Home Alabama!
