In 2011, we moved from Manhattan (and before that, South Philly) to Birmingham, AL, also known as the “Pittsburgh of the South.” We love to eat, and started What to Eat in Birmingham in 2013. Of course, as the name suggests, it does contain food reviews. However, it reads much more like a local travel blog. We were using food as a way to explore our new home, and the blog reflects that.
We are not food critics, and we don’t pretend to be. Rather, we are your average amateur food enthusiasts, affectionately referred to as “foodies.” Our tastes are broad – we enjoy fine dining and food trucks, classic southern soul food and sushi. While we have blogged about nearly everything, but over the years, we gravitated towards our passion: mom and pop, owner-operated places whose food is a direct expression of the chef’s ideas and experiences that otherwise don’t get a ton of attention. Often, this meant places that you might be surprised to find in the Deep South or other varieties of hidden gems. Our favorite blog posts include Blue Pacific, a Thai restaurant in a gas station in a Birmingham suburb; Southern Jamaican Caribbean Restaurant, also in a gas station (notice a theme) on the outskirts of town; the opening of Red Bowl, Birmingham’s only full-service dim sum restaurant complete with little carts and all the typical dim sum treasures; and Travis Burger, the first food truck ever to register in Birmingham in the 1970s, that had never come to the attention of the local media.
Whenever someone starts a blog, they are typically blogging into the abyss for quite a while. We were no exception. It was a few years before we developed a community of followers, and got a little national attention, for which were immensely grateful. We also got to know the food community very well, well enough that we were asked to be scouts and curators for Birmingham’s first and only Food Hall, the Pizitz, which opened in 2017. The blog became a really important part of our lives.
Moving back to the Pittsburgh of the North
Four years into the blog, we made the difficult decision to leave Birmingham for Pittsburgh for a career opportunity (we both have totally unrelated primary avocations). Pittsburgh happens to be Ms. Foodie’s hometown. (Mr. Foodie is from Cleveland.) As a child, she ate out every. single. night. Yep. Which means she has some killer knowledge of ‘80s and ‘90s Pittsburgh restaurants, many of which, yep, are still here, totally unchanged. But the beauty of Pittsburgh is that a restaurant that’s been there for decades or longer is often right next to something new and exciting.
One of the hardest things about leaving Birmingham was leaving the blog and the community it allowed us to tap into. Luckily, we found the perfect person to assume the reigns in Birmingham, who also encouraged us to view our move as a chance to start blogging again in a new city. After all, my ‘80s and ‘90s kid knowledge wouldn’t help us find the best gas station Thai food, would it? With that approach in mind, What to Eat in Pittsburgh was born.
We also want to note that the two “What to Eat” blogs – Birmingham and Pittsburgh – are sister blogs in the truest sense. Our philosophies are united, and blog leadership meets regularly to share ideas provide input on posts. And most importantly, we are thinking about next steps. We would love to see What to Eat in other small-to mid-size cities. To this, we plan on adding contributing authors with diverse perspectives of their local food communities. Community: it’s what we are all about.
Our Philosophy
The purpose of this blog is to talk about our favorite foods at our favorite places in town. Our not-so-secret hidden agenda is to draw attention to amazing, sometimes unexpected, food treasures in our town. We only blog positively – there’s enough negativity in the world that you’ll never find this type of food review here. If we don’t like it, we just don’t write about it.
We also blog completely anonymously. That way, we don’t get special treatment – we want to have the same experience in a restaurant that anyone else would. Being anonymous also minimize awkwardness, which is good for introverts like us. Once in awhile we let people know who we are when we’ve already eaten, paid, decided to blog about a place, and are asking probing questions or taking pictures that might make people curious or nervous. Also, you should know that we always pay for our own food, and are never compensated in any way. These folks have businesses to run, and don’t need to spend money on us. Plus, this approach helps maintain our objectivity. This blog reflects our opinions and tastes — that’s all.
Types of posts
Traditionally, we have focused on posting about our restaurant experiences, or a particular dish at a particular restaurant. However, we also include interviews with owners and chefs at our favorite places, to learn more about why they chose to open a restaurant. These interviews, labeled “the backstory,” are always after the initial blog post.
So, what’s the point of all of this, anyway?
We hope that this blog can be a resource for people moving to Pittsburgh, people who are new to Pittsburgh and trying to explore it, people like Ms. Foodie who are re-discovering their hometown as adults, and people who want to discover some hidden treasures in their own backyard.