Two Meals and One Garden Visit in Birmingham, AL

Remember that Mrs. HomeFree is an official Marriott affiliate. If you do decide to travel this holiday season, you can click on any of the Marriott ads or hotel links found here and be taken directly to Marriott’s reservation page. Mrs. HomeFree will receive a small commission and it costs you nothing extra.

The dark and the light. The good and the bad. Most things in life have both sides and travel is no exception. Traveling contains an upside and a downside. Many people wonder, for example, if Birmingham, Alabama is safe for tourists. Yes, it is. It is a city with a bit of a hard edge, so there are neighborhoods to be wary of, but the same can be said for many other cities too. I have been quite fortunate that my travel downsides have been minor. Unfortunately for me, the downside on my first visit to Birmingham was the food. Again, this is minor on the grand scale of, “How’s the universe treating you today?” However, I am a foodie, so it was a bummer for me.

We stayed in the Mountain Brook neighborhood of Birmingham. We did not realize when we booked our lodging that this is a very ritzy corner of Birmingham. We were the only ones NOT driving a BMW, an Audi or the like. In fact, our hotel had a courtesy vehicle (you know, for staff to run hotel errands, etc.) that was a Porsche SUV. It’s the kind of neighborhood where all the business exteriors are done in brown and white Tudor-style, even the banks. The Publix was not only Tudor on the outside, but on the inside, it was Greenwise only. For those readers who are unfamiliar, Greenwise is the healthy, organic Publix store brand, and it is very expensive. “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Geez! Social media and my favorite trip planning site were chocked full of restaurant suggestions. We expected to have some great food because of this environment. What we got was wildly overpriced food, mediocre quality, and rude customer service.

Char Bar No. 7

The incredible Grand Bohemian Hotel was our base of operations. There will be a separate post on this property in the future. A five-minute walk from the hotel is Char Bar No. 7, a small regional chain with just five locations. We stood at the hostess stand for over 5 minutes and no one acknowledged us. We finally made our way through the way-too-damn-dark dining room to the bar at the back and put in our order with the surly bartender lady who only grunted at us. Chic people dined all around us and seemed to be having a fine time. Lucky them. My husband headed back to the hotel and I waited for our to-go order. My husband requested a side of fries with his burger ($12.25). Waiting nearly 20 minutes seemed a little long, but I forgave them until the food started to come out of the kitchen piecemeal. My slightly overpriced grilled shrimp tacos with a side of broccoli ($13.99 for two tacos) came out first with his tater tots. Whaaaat?! High five to you if you picked up on the fact that we didn’t order tater tots. I asked the nearly non-verbal bartender lady and she went to the kitchen to check. I was still waiting for his burger too while my taco container sat on the bar cooling off. Eventually, the fries came out and then the burger (separately). I high-tailed it down the street to the hotel. For all our trouble, and the 30-plus-minute wait, the flavors were mediocre.

Slice Pizza

A day or two later we tried Slice Pizza, which is everywhere on local social media. It’s a hometown favorite. I can officially say now that I’ve had it, that I have no idea why. The pizza looked attractive enough.

The sauce, however, was bland. Most importantly, the pizza was not hot. I want my pizza hot out of the oven. This had been sitting somewhere for a long time. This is particularly interesting because when we called, they said it would be 15 minutes. My husband waited in the restaurant for his to-go order so long that he finally started asking staff if his order had been lost. I think it took an hour for him to return to the hotel with our lukewarm pizza. For this unenjoyable experience we paid $17.00. This does NOT include tax and included one very basic pepperoni pizza.

Perhaps, I will have more luck in my culinary endeavors the next time I visit Birmingham. Fortunately for me, where there is dark, there is also light. The light in Birmingham was our activity experience. There was an armload of wonderful things to do, and I will be writing about them in several upcoming posts. Our first activity was a visit to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, which was across the street from our hotel.

Birmingham Botanical Gardens

My mother had a green thumb and could grow anything. I have a black thumb and cannot grow anything. Having said that, I do like to admire colorful flowers because a) they are pretty and b) someone with more talent than I helped them to survive and thrive. These gardens are nearly 68 acres. . . yeah, huge. They are run by the City of Birmingham, and they are free to visit. Say what?! Yes, they are free!

The gardens are separated into various areas such as, The Herb Terrace, The Bog Garden, The Japanese Gardens and the Kaul Wildflower Garden. There is an iris garden, two rose gardens, a rhododendron garden and so much more.

Note to my Meeting Planner Colleagues:

This property also has a building with meeting space! There are over 250 parking spaces to accommodate your largest events too. There are three meeting rooms for small to mid-sized meetings, an auditorium with an adjoining kitchen and prep space, and a lecture hall that seats 300 people. Check them out next time you need a unique venue: Plan Your Event – Birmingham Botanical Gardens (bbgardens.org) I enjoyed hiking through the Bog Garden, which felt like being in the Alabama forest, not the center of a big city. Moss, ferns, footbridges and streams transported me outside of the city without ever needing my car

Cherry Parfait (pink with white edges), Plum Perfect, Hot Cocoa (orange-brown) and Strike It Rich (yellow). These are a few of my favorite roses at the gardens. The names are genius, and the flowers are unique and delicate. The people who breed and create new varieties of roses are truly some of the most creative writers you’ll come across. I never knew that before, but it was fun to discover that little factoid at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

The award for favorite garden area goes to: The Japanese Garden! This area captured the largest portion of our time. While in Alabama, we saw smaller versions of Japanese gardens in a couple of places, including the Monte Sano State Park in Huntsville, but Birmingham’s was more extensive.

We spent a long time crossing the bridges, following the winding boardwalk through the bamboo forest, and making friends with the fat koi and the curious turtles. Again, just like in the Bog Garden, the burbling water will make you forget that you’re within walking distance to a large hotel and a shopping plaza. You would never guess it when you are perched on a rock by a stream.

In ancient Chinese philosophy, the dualism of the yin and the yang is a concept that describes how opposite forces can complement each other. My time in the Japanese garden (and the Birmingham Botanical Gardens as a whole) did lower my blood pressure and remind me to look for and to focus on the positive. Positive: I was experiencing a new city. Positive: My amazing activity for the day had cost me zero dollars. Positive: My husband and I got some great photos. While having an extraordinary meal would have capped off my sightseeing day perfectly, that was not to be and that’s okay. I focused on the light, on the positive. My first activity in Birmingham had been a success and there were many more successes to come.