By Donna Cornelius
Journal features writer
A new Cahaba Heights restaurant owes its existence to a well-known Birmingham chef—and, in a way, to his two grandmothers.
George McMillan III, who just last month opened FoodBar in the Heights Village, said his passion for food is rooted in his childhood.
“Both my grandmothers were accomplished cooks,” he said. “My grandmother Louise Dial was a gourmet cook, and my grandmother Jean McMillan was a quintessential, classical Southern cook.”
The 39-year-old chef also credited his “extended family members” Clara Frisco and David Apperson as big influences.
“When I was a child, they’d let me sit in a chair by the stove and stir the pot,” McMillan said. “Later on, I started cooking breakfast for the family on the weekends.”
At FoodBar, McMillan is combining his culinary heritage and his own creativity to produce dishes that are foodie-friendly yet approachable. “Not pretentious, just delicious” is the way he describes his new eatery.
“We emphasize flavor, seasonality and presentation,” he said. “This is a fine dining, white-tablecloth restaurant—without the white tablecloths. You can come as you.”
While customers can arrive in clothes that are ordinary, the food is anything but. The menu will change to take advantage of seasonal fare, but diners are likely to be offered concoctions like McMillan’s Seared Hudson Valley Foie Gras for a starter, Rabbit Two Ways as a main course and Lavender Pound Cake for dessert.
“This is a restaurant with a seasonal, farm-fresh focus,” McMillan said.
After graduating from Mountain Brook High School, McMillan enrolled at Auburn University, where he intended to study wildlife sciences.
The self-described avid outdoorsman soon switched gears, returning to Birmingham to attend Culinard, Virginia College’s culinary school.
“I did an apprenticeship program—about 6,000 hours of work and school,” he said. “I worked at Arman’s at Park Lane, the old Cobb Lane restaurant and at Hot and Hot Fish Club.”
At Hot and Hot, Chef Chris Hastings’ award-winning restaurant, “I learned my craft. I learned what it takes to run a kitchen,” McMillan said.
He also worked as a private chef for a couple of years, he said.
“That’s a really cool gig, but there aren’t many of those positions, so the chefs who get them are fortunate,” he said.
McMillan’s ultimate goal was to own a restaurant, he said. And in 2000, McMillan and partner Daniel Briggs opened Daniel George, a popular Mountain Brook restaurant.
“I sold out to my partner after 11 years,” McMillan said.
After that, the chef got out of the commercial kitchen and into the classroom, teaching at Culinard for about a year and a half. He tried to teach his students practical lessons as well as cooking techniques, he said.
“I encouraged them to have a solid work ethic and tried to prepare them for what’s to come—the long, hard hours and minimal pay. They may have to work under people they may not like. They see the rock star chefs on Food Network and have lofty aspirations.
“I tried to tell them that it’s hard out there. I advised them to get in a kitchen somewhere and find an atmosphere they could thrive and grow in.”
McMillan said that during his stint in education, he always knew he’d open another restaurant. He found capable staff members among his former students.
“We have seven cooks in the kitchen, and six of the seven are Culinard graduates,” he said. The other is a graduate of Jefferson State Community College’s culinary arts program, he added.
As the guy running the kitchen, McMillan said he sometimes behaves more like Gordon Ramsay, the Scottish chef known for his colorful language, than like Julia Child, who likely would have quit cooking with butter before she screamed bad words on TV.
Hopefully, McMillan’s employees don’t see much of his Gordon Ramsay side.
“I’ve been pleased with my cooks,” he said. “They’re doing what they want to be doing.”
One of the dishes McMillan said he’s most excited to be serving is his Lacquered Pork Roast, with house kimchee, sticky rice and Butter Bibb lettuce.
“It’s different than anything around town,” he said. “It’s a lettuce wrap that you build yourself.”
The dish is a variation of one McMillan had at a New York restaurant owned by David Chang, founder of the trendy Momofuku restaurant group and winner of three James Beard awards, McMillan said.
His Crispy Kale Salad, with pickled onion, a farm egg and sherry buttermilk dressing, was inspired by a recipe that a former employee came up with, he said.
“He’s now head chef and owner of his own restaurant in New York City,” McMillan said. “I had this and fell in love with it.”
While chefs typically use others’ recipes as springboards for their own creations, the most talented put something of themselves on a plate, too. McMillan is no exception.
His Breakfast for Dinner starter “is something we’d have at home on Sunday nights,” he said.
The FoodBar version consists of stoneground grits, pork belly and a quail egg in the hole (served in a slice of bread).
As one might imagine given the restaurant’s name, drinks aren’t run of the mill.
Bar manager Zak Kittle “is as passionate about the cocktail ingredients as I am about my food ingredients,” McMillan said.
You can get a bourbon and Coke and other standards at FoodBar. But for the more adventurous, the drinks menu includes specialty cocktails like the Johnny Cab with brandy, pineapple balsamic shrub, basil and brown sugar as well as the Fish House Punch, with light and dark rum, peach brandy, cognac, lemon and sugar.
Carefully-chosen wines and crafts beers are also offered.
When he started looking for a location for his new restaurant, McMillan said, he wanted “something relatively turnkey.”
He found what he was looking for in the former home of Suburban Grill. He also liked the proximity of Heights Village to U.S. 280, The Summit and nearby suburban areas, he said.
While he found the building’s established kitchen readily usable, McMillan did make some changes to the dining area.
“My brother-in-law, Will Sims, was deconstructing an old bar on his property in Selma,” McMillan said. “He had used some of the old wood and tin from the barn in his home, and I loved what he’d done. So we used wood from the barn for walls and tabletops and tin on the bar.”
Ellis Hopson covered the concrete floors with coffee-colored epoxy, McMillan said. Ivy Schuster and Rebecca Hatcher of Hatcher Designs handled the decorating, giving the place a cool, minimalist vibe.
While FoodBar has been open only for a short while, it’s already attracting a variety of diners, McMillan said.
“Foodies always have their ears to the ground when a new restaurant opens, and we have neighbors coming in, too,” he said. “We’re being challenged, and I think we’re passing the test.”
FoodBar is open Tuesday-Saturday from 5-10 p.m. It’s at 3156 Heights Village in Vestavia Hills. Reservations are not required. For more information, check out the restaurant’s Facebook page or visit www.foodbarbham.com.
