The Hummingbird Way
MOBILE ALABAMA
“Biscuit service” could sound about as stuffy as a sweater set or chintz drapes. But as with much of his menu, chef Jim Smith takes the traditional and turns it just so. Far from fussy, four buttermilk biscuits in a cast-iron skillet (no hidden doily) appear with the iconic duo of cane syrup and butter, along with a small dish of smoked sea salt for three-part harmony. An Alabama seafood devotee, Smith adds similar subtle dimensions to Gulf gets: a sash of sauce gribiche on fried soft-shell crab; a Vietnamese-inspired strawberry nuoc cham on a half-shell oyster; a crab cake sprinkled with a confetti of pickled oyster mushroom salad. Opened in 2020, the Hummingbird Way seems right at home in the idyllic Oakleigh Garden Historic District, an enclave of Greek Revivals, Queen Annes, and the like that could feel trapped in time if it weren’t for the community animating its porches and sidewalks, and, now, walking over to this former 1940s grocery store for dinner.—Hannah Hayes
North of Bourbon
LOUISVILLE KENTUCKY
Southerners have long traveled to New Orleans to drink and frolic. Now Louisville is making a play for that business. What began with the Bourbon Trail has morphed into a galaxy of distilleries and bars and outfitters selling a brown-spirits lifestyle that connects these two river towns. North of Bourbon, which opened last December, gets the look right: Backlit bottles of Kentucky’s finest line a bar made of timbers salvaged from an old Maker’s Mark rickhouse. Chef Lawrence Weeks, who has Louisiana roots, gets the food right, too. “This is not a Creole-Cajun theme restaurant,” he says. Instead, Weeks borrows from New Orleans (sweet potato calas), expands to include Cajun Country (gumbo with a dollop of potato salad), and loops in the Mississippi Delta (vinegar-drenched salad greens à la Doe’s Eat Place). North of Bourbon makes a strong case that Louisville and New Orleans (and points in between) share a common palate—and a deep thirst.—John T. Edge
Charolais Steakhouse
HICKORY NORTH CAROLINA
“I’ve got a big budget and a problem with vermouth,” James Vinson says when a crackers. At Charolais, what’s old and true is not just new. Like that Manhattan, what’s old and true is now vogue.—JTE
