By Donna Cornelius
Birmingham is the Magic City. Huntsville’s proud of being the Rocket City. And Union Springs is known as the Bird Dog Field Trial Capital of the World (bet you didn’t know that).
Homewood doesn’t have an official nickname. But if it did, “Culinary City” wouldn’t be a stretch.
Zomato, a restaurant search and discovery service, lists 172 restaurants in Homewood. That’s a pretty impressive number for a city that’s only about 8 square miles with a little more than 26,000 residents. It works out to about one restaurant for every 151 residents.
Here’s a comparison with other Over the Mountain cities, using Zomato’s figures. Vestavia Hills has about 34,000 residents and 144 restaurants, averaging out to one restaurant for every 236 residents. Hoover has 301 restaurants and a population of about 85,000, so that’s one restaurant for every 282 residents. Mountain Brook has about 20,700 residents and 49 restaurants, giving that city one restaurant per 422 residents.
So why is Homewood a hot spot for restaurants? Meredith Drennen, Homewood Chamber of Commerce executive director, said the city’s location is a big factor.
“Our daytime population is over 300,000 people with traffic and employment,” Drennen said. “So, many people have access to Homewood. It’s easy to get to from downtown if you want to have lunch and easy to stop here for dinner on your way home.”
Andrea and David Snyder opened their first Urban Cookhouse restaurant on 18th Street South in Homewood in 2010. The couple still owns that store and others at The Summit, in downtown Birmingham and in Tuscaloosa.
Andrea Snyder agreed with Drennen that Homewood’s daytime population is important.
“Before we opened in Homewood, we looked at demographics,” Snyder said. “The reason Homewood is different is that, during the day, its population goes up, where in cities like Trussville and Gardendale, the population goes down.
“We serve mostly lunch, so that fits. And at night, there are still plenty of folks here with disposable incomes.”
Drennen said Homewood is both “urban and suburban,” attracting a diverse group of potential diners.
“There’s so much demand for food here, and there’s always a market for something different,” she said.
Drennen said the city has three organic business districts: downtown, Edgewood and West Homewood. Each has its own variety of eateries. There’s even a place to get ice cream and other cool treats in each area.
“We were excited to get Scoops downtown,” she said. “There’s Edgewood Creamery in Edgewood and Magic City Sweet Ice in West Homewood, so that gives us a place in each of our organic neighborhoods.”
While downtown Homewood has a heavy concentration of restaurants, Edgewood boasts favorites such as Dreamcakes, Saw’s BBQ, Taco Mama and New York Pizza. Drennen said Shannon Waltchack, a Birmingham commercial real estate company, is redeveloping an old service station into Edgewood Station.
“There’s going to be a gluten-free bakery there and a BarTaco, which has upscale Mexican food,” she said.
The bakery is Mason Dixon Bakery, opened by owners Ashley and Taylor Ramirez in Huntsville in 2013. BarTaco is a national chain with stores in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Another plus for Homewood is that it’s a pedestrian-friendly place.
“All our neighborhoods are very walkable,” Drennen said. “If you go downtown to Jackson’s and there’s a wait, you can walk over to SoHo Social.”
Andrea Snyder said Homewood city officials are helpful to those opening restaurants.
“The city is supportive,” Snyder said. “They make it easy to open a business. We’ve opened businesses in several cities, and Homewood is by far the most business-friendly. They do what they can to help.”
Like Urban Cookhouse, whose Homewood base was so successful that it led to the opening of more stores, other restaurants have started in the city and then expanded. For example, there’s Steel City Pops, which now has locations throughout Alabama and in Kentucky and Texas, and Zoe’s Kitchen, which has grown to more than 200 stores.
“They might be chains now, but they started in Homewood and then ‘graduated,’” Drennen said.
Holler & Dash Biscuit House, Cracker Barrel’s hip, fast-casual restaurant, chose Homewood as its launching pad.
“When looking for the site for our first Holler & Dash, we wanted to find a location that would be a great fit for our brand,” said Mike Chissler, Holler & Dash’s chief operating officer. “We were born in the South and wanted to find a location that would appreciate and support our menu and our hospitality.”
Chissler said the company also was looking for a food-forward place with a strong sense of community and diverse demographic base.
“We found all of this and more in Homewood,” he said. “It was a perfect fit. We loved the community, the downtown location and the welcoming atmosphere from all the folks we came in contact with.”
Dave Horn and Taylor Hughes opened one of downtown Homewood’s newest restaurants, SoHo Social, in February. They have two other eateries, Mudtown and The Ridge, in Vestavia Hills.
“We like doing the neighborhood thing, and Homewood has that sense of community,” Horn said. “It’s more diverse and was an untapped market for us.”
He said the city has given SoHo Social, which has elevated bar food, a warm welcome.
“The reception has been great,” Horn said. “Everything has worked out better than I could hope. You’re never going to please everybody, and I don’t think you want to, but people have loved our food.”
He agreed with Andrea Snyder about the ease of opening a restaurant in Homewood – although he said it wasn’t quite as easy as he thought. Horn said he opened SoHo Social before realizing that city officials first needed to approve his business license.
“We’re right next to City Hall, and the city clerk can pretty much see us through a window,” Horn said, laughing. “They realized that I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to open, and they were super nice, super gracious. They even let us stay open.”
One Homewood restaurant recently earned national attention. Johnny’s Restaurant was hailed by The Wall Street Journal as one of America’s best meat-and-threes, and its chef, Timothy Hontzas, was a James Beard Award semifinalist this year.
While new restaurants continue to open in Homewood, longtime favorites still attract loyal followings. Nabeel’s Café and Market on Oxmoor Road has been owned by the Krontiras family for about 25 years.
“The restaurant scene has changed,” said John Krontiras, who with his wife, Ottavia Krontiras, bought the existing Nabeel’s market and expanded the business to include a popular restaurant. “People became more aware of foods they’d never heard of or tasted. We were able to introduce authentic Greek cuisine. People come from downtown Birmingham, Mountain Brook and Hoover to eat here.”
Last month, Nabeel’s was one of the restaurants that took part in the Homewood Chamber of Commerce’s 16th annual Taste of Homewood.
“We participated in the very first Taste of Homewood – and there were only four restaurants,” Krontiras said.
Drennen said this year, 30 restaurants participated and about 400 tickets were sold.
“It’s a great way to showcase all the great restaurants here, a lot of which are locally owned and operated,” she said. “Other cities have tasting events, but a lot of them include expos from other businesses. We don’t have room for other businesses to have booths.”
