What to Eat in Birmingham

Since we moved to Southside about a year ago, we have been absolutely DYING for great new places to open in our part of town. That might account for why we blogged about Everest Sushi five times in the past month… but who’s counting.

So when we heard that Birmingham Breadworks was moving to the neighborhood, we literally ran down there (just a mile and a half from our house!) to check out their Saturday brunch offerings.

The shop is located in a old Antique store on 7th Avenue South.

The space has been beautifully renovated to show off the building’s loft-like bones:

Birmingham Breadworks has a pretty wide variety of offerings. Bread is artfully displayed along the wall, and the hand-written menu is posted above a window through which you can see the baking operation:

We didn’t get there until about 11:30am, and sadly they had run out of everything chocolate (my favorite), and their best seller, monkey bread.Despite that minor inconvenience, we were able to find three great pastries to sample.

First, the cinnamon roll. This is a pastry cinnamon roll-not ooey gooey, but rather, light and flaky. According to one of the workers behind the counter, made from the same dough as the monkey bread. Sweet and delicious. Shown here with a piping hot cup o coffee.

Now a close up and cross section:

From sweet to savory. Proscittio and cheese filled pastry, served cold (I asked and they said either heated or cold was perfectly acceptable). Rich and delicious, a perfect accompaniment to the sweets. First an aerial view, then cross section:

Now for my personal favorite: the apple turnover. Slightly cinnamon-y and very sweet apples in a moist, chewy center of a delicious sugar-glazed pastry. Worth every calorie. Aerial and cross section:

As we ran back home, we contemplated this fantastic addition to the Southside and downtown food scenes. This is a great place for all the urban-dwelling Birminghamsters and their suburban counterparts working in the city to pick up pastries for the office and baguettes for dinner, and for everyone to enjoy an indulgent urban breakfast or brunch on the weekend.