Will be in Birmingham late September and I am staying near The Summit. I will have a car so I will be able to drive, but what are some places closes to where I'll be that are worth stopping at. Any other tips for Birmingham is helpful as well.
For retail, Whole Foods is just north of The Summit on Hwy 280 and they have a nice bottle selection as well as growler fills. As for bars and restaurants, Black Market Bar & Grill is just south of The Summit in the Colonnade shopping area. Mellow Mushroom and On Tap are also south on Hwy 280 in the Inverness Corners shopping area. If you don't mind a 10-15min drive, I highly recommend Revolve Kitchen & Brew in the Lee Branch shopping area on Hwy 280. They have a surprisingly good tap list and the food is great too. If you want to venture downtown that opens up a lot of options including 4 breweries and one of the best beer stores in the state, Hop City. As for other tips about Birmingham, traffic on Hwy 280 sucks during rush hours and we have a lot of U-turns to reduce the amount of stop lights so look out for traffic signs for directions.
Have you left yet? Downtown is where all the great beer places are. You can actually pub crawl on Morris Ave and 1st and 2nd Ave North. Then we have a number of breweries also. If you want to stay in the 280 area and Summit, you will have Black Market in Colonade as mentioned, Mud Town and Blackwell's in Cahaba Heights (behind Summit) Village Tavern and Season's 52 in Summit are OK. Try to get to Rogue, Pale Eddies Pour House, Das Haus, Matthew's, Carrington and Paramount.
