A Real Taste of the South

What’s the recipe for the perfect trip in 2024? Follow your stomach through Alabama unwrapping culinary and cultural treats along the way.  Fire it up with smoky BBQ or drop a line and catch your own seafood, from soul food to slow-cooked, Southern dishes are on the menu.

2024 is the Year of Alabama Food, and rightly so.  Alabama become one of the nation’s hottest culinary destinations.  Why?  In short, because Alabamians care about food.  From the farmers to the chefs.  They care about hospitality, and they show that care in the meals they create and the foods they raise.  The dishes served are meant to bring comfort, but don’t mistake “comfort food” for unsophisticated cuisine.  In fact, Alabama is raising the bar on down home Southern fare and foodies are taking notice.  With culinary hotspots: award-winning restaurants and chefs; and a bounty of fresh ingredients coming from nearby gardens, fields, farms and waters, Alabama is ready to tantalize your taste buds and fill your belly.

As you journey through Alabama, you will find just about everything from laid-back BBQ masters to fresh-from-the sea platters as you visit a region of the USA known for its hospitality, history and food.

North Alabama

We begin our journey in the Hit Recording Capital of the World,” Muscle Shoals, Alabama.  You can visit the actual studios where the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Rod Stewart and countless others came to record some of their biggest hit songs.  While in the area visit Trowbridge’s Ice Cream and Sandwich Shop in downtown Florence.  It opened in 1918 and is still operated by the same family.  Another favorite eating place in the area is The Rattlesnake Saloon, a one-of-a-kind restaurant located in a natural cliff overhang in the woods outside of Tuscumbia.

From the Shoals area, travel east to Huntsville, known as Rocket City USA.  Along the way, you will find Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ restaurant in Decatur where Alabama BBQ white sauce became famous.

Once you have reached Huntsville, you are where they engineered the rockets that sent a man to the moon, where Space Camp is held and where you will find the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, the world’s largest space museum.  You’ll also find many great restaurants where the food is “out of this world.”

Central Alabama

Your journey now takes you south to the center of Alabama where the largest metropolitan area is located.  The Birmingham city center has five entertainment districts that include top restaurants and Birmingham’s Civil Rights District, a U.S. National Monument area protected because of its importance to history.

Be sure to visit the 16^th Street Baptist Church, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, and the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame as you enjoy the great food in “The Dinner Table of the South.” It is home to soul lifting meat-and-three restaurants, the nearly year-round market at Pepper Place and James Beard Award-nominated restaurants like Highland Bar and Grill, Chez Fonfon, and Bottega.  The Golden Rule is all about barbeque.  Literally.  This is the oldest running restaurant in the state and the 16^th oldest in the nation.  Thirsting for more?  Stop by and see what’s on tap at one of the many craft breweries celebrating the art of beer.

South Alabama

Continue south for 90 minutes and you will find yourself in Montgomery, Alabama’s capital.  It is highly walkable to numerous museums full of southern history.  Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Hank Williams, and F. Scott Fitzgerald all made history in Montgomery.  Central and Ravello Ristorante are both known for fine dining in the city’s downtown area while Brenda’s BBQ Pit in west Montgomery is part of the Civil Rights history.  Brenda’s namesake and founder secretly tutored neighborhood residents to pass the literacy test, which was required for them to register to vote. When you stop by, ask about the photo of her on the front lines of the Selma to Montgomery March. Or drop into Chris’s Famous Hotdogs, serving Montgomery since 1917.  Chris’s was known for being a place that welcomed all, even during the tumultuous civil rights era.  Several U.S. presidents, celebrities, countless sports stars, and every Alabama governor since they opened have patronized this iconic Montgomery establishment.

Coastal Alabama

Now head on down to Alabama’s coastal region where you’ll find the city of Mobile.

Mobile is Alabama’s oldest city and a historic port.  Amid boulevards lined with historic homes and balconies laced with ornate ironwork, you will discover many great restaurants like The Hummingbird Way Oyster Bar, where chef Jim Smith grills up oysters with a delicious fusion of bacon, fennel, and windowsill herbs.  And visit Wintzell’s Oyster House for a hearty bowl of seafood gumbo, where they’ve been patiently stirring the roux since 1938.

Mobile is the birthplace of Mardi Gras in the United States.  It is a 300-year-old tradition, originally brought over by the French, and it is celebrated with dazzling masquerade balls, numerous vibrant parades, and a year-round museum.  Mobile is also where Africatown is located, the community build by those smuggled into the USA on America’s las slave ship.

Along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, you will find the resort cities of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.  This is the place to be if you are looking for sugary, white sand beaches, sunshine, and great food.  Hit up places like Lulu’s, the Hangout, and Tacky Jack’s if you want to enjoy live music with your meal. Dubbed the Red Snapper Capital of the World, Orange Beach is the place to go to land a fish, including grouper and amberjack. If you catch a big one, many of the local restaurants will cook it for your dinner.

You won’t want to skip a meal when there are so many dishes to try.  Hungry for more?  Visit Alabama.travel/experience-alabama/food-and-drink to find out what’s cooking this year. 

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