Heading south out of Memphis last Saturday morning, our goal was a late breakfast or brunch at the original of the now multi-location chain of Big Bad Breakfast. We headed for Oxford, Mississippi, where, unfortunately, we discovered that it was graduation weekend at U-Miss, and on arrival at the restaurant, found there was a minimum of a three hour wait for a table. Amazingly, people were actually waiting. We wandered through the farmer’s market nearby, ate a couple of hand-pies (pecan and strawberry), and I bought some interesting sounding dried chilies, along with having a great discussion with the purveyor on making a fermented dried chili hot sauce out of them. I’ll let you know….
Our planned next stop had been Tupelo, Mississippi. But having now realized as well that this was Mothers’ Day weekend, we did a bit of online sleuthing and realized that everywhere we’d planned to go over the weekend was either closed or booked up. We decided to re-route to Birmingham, figuring the next big city would have more stuff open. Enroute, we did need to pass through Tupelo, and headed that way first.
One of our planned barbecue places in Tupelo was Clay’s House of Pig, more commonly known as C.H.O.P., 205 S Veterans Memorial Blvd. We headed there, only to discover that despite it being only 11 a.m., they were already out of almost everything they’re famous for. We had to settle for a combo plate of the only things they had left, brisket and pulled pork, neither of which was all that interesting, the former very fatty, the latter very dry. Good bread and butter pickles, not so good the “corn ribs”, which were just dried out grilled strips off of corn cobs. At the same time, it’s hard to judge the place since basically we were just getting the leftovers before they closed up for the day.
Disappointed, and a little hungry, and having missed breakfast (we hadn’t even had coffee yet, and it was nearly noon), we did a search for the best Biscuits in the area, which brought up Butterbean Biscuits and Coffee, 1103 W. Jackson Street, Tupelo. Arriving, we found that the dining area was closed, and they only had a drive through take out window. While standing outside discussing what to do, we were interrupted by a holler from Sarah, the manager, who told us we were welcome to to walk up to the window, and we could use the couple of tables and chairs out front of the building. She offered us a free biscuit to try. Damn. That was a good biscuit – buttery and warm. So we ordered a couple of breakfast biscuits to share – one chicken, one pork, and were served up two sides of her homemade jams that she’d just finished making – one peach, one pineapple-pepper. Damn. Good jams. We thanked her, headed out, and the next day found out that Butterbean closed up permanently after lunch on Saturday – we had some of, if not the, last biscuits the place served. A shame because I’d have driven there just for those biscuits and jams. [Followup – Sarah didn’t know they were closing – the owners “surprised” all the employees by shutting the place down after lunchtime.]
We relaxed a bit in the hotel when we finally got to Birmingham, and then headed for an early dinner at a place that a friend of mine who lives there recommended, SOCU, 1821 2nd Ave N Suite 176 (it’s an anchor restaurant in Pizitz food hall). I’m guessing my friend must have had a preview dinner or known the owners, because we were literally there on the second night they were open. And they were a mess – the kitchen lacking communication or any sort of coordination – the cooks were just cooking things in whatever order they felt like – some things coming up rapidly, some being shoved to the back of the line, and no one firing one table at a time. So people were getting things at random times rather than all together as a table. Plus they were cutting a lot of corners, like pasta being completely precooked and just left sitting in bins and pans to be reheated when ordered. Not exactly confidence inspiring.
Still, they managed to turn out some decent food, though there’s definite room for improvement, when it arrived, and I’d have high hopes for them once they get their act together. We had some seafood pastas, some smothered pork chops, some grilled oysters, and, the best, which we didn’t actually order, but was an extra plate that one cook had prepared having forgotten that they’d already prepared it, and given to us by the manager when she realized we’d waited 45 minutes for our oysters – the fried lobster deviled eggs. Give the place a month or so and then go check it out.
Next day started out with a couple of hours wandering the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, 2612 Lane Park Rd in the Mountain Brook section in the southeast of the city. It was just a pleasant interlude and a nice walk. It’s not well maintained, except in a central garden area, the rest is pretty much left as a natural woods with semi-maintained pathways.
Lunch, Mothers’ Day, was at another place my friend had recommended, Watkin’s Branch Bourbon & Brasserie, 2708 Culver Road, right there in the Mountain Brook area, a few blocks from the gardens. Here we were greeted by a wall of bourbon and other whiskeys. And, a brunch menu that included some quite good crabcake and fried green tomato benedicts, omelettes, truffled fries, and more fried green tomatoes. We also decided to sample a quirky sounding whiskey, Skrewball Peanut Butter Whisky, which tastes like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. We tried one shot solo and one mixed with Chambord liqueur, which made it taste like a PBJ sandwich.
The afternoon, or a good part of it, was spent wandering the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, 6030 Barber Motorsports Pkwy, in nearby Leeds, Alabama, and watching people race on the track outside. World’s largest collection of motorcycles, plus a good number of racecars and other vehicles. Despite that my relationship to motorcycles is limited to either “ooh, that’s pretty” or not, it was actually rather fascinating to see both the history and variety of them.
Mid-afternoon munchies had us head for a stop on the way back to the hotel at Rodney Scott’s BBQ, 3719 3rd Ave S, in the city, to continue both our second lunch tradition and the barbecue tour – one of the few places open on Mothers’ Day. They do “whole hog” barbecue, and we arrived just in time to see them putting “Charlene”, the hog for the next day’s batch, into the smoker. We then dined on “Gertrude”, the hog that headed in there the day before. Big ribs that were smoky, meaty, and delicious, and then whole hog pulled pork (basically, other than a couple of cuts like the ribs, they chop everything else together), along with quite good coleslaw and cornbread. It was all good enough we almost went back to try more with an order of their smoked chicken which had come highly recommended, but decided we’d be overdoing it for the day. (Whole hog photo from my brother Jeff.)
And, we finished off our weekend in Birmingham at a branch of Mellow Mushroom, 1200 20th St S, a chain of pizzerias that seems to be in and around the campus of every town in the region. We went veggie, with a trio of mushrooms plus spinach on a quite good pizza, along with some salads.
Next… headed for Nashville.
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