Grab a fork and dig in
It’s said that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. The city of Birmingham, Ala., would attest to the fact that good food is also a good way to revive the heart of a declining downtown.
In the early 1980s, downtown’s fine-dining option was a lone Chinese restaurant. Then, Cullman, Ala., native Frank Stitt came to town and opened his Highlands Bar and Grill. Food critics loved what they ate there, and soon, Birmingham was getting serious culinary cred.
In the 30-some years since, Stitt has opened three other restaurants while his proteges have spun off and opened restaurants downtown too. And so, downtown Birmingham’s rebound is built on a foundation of stone-ground baked grits, grilled pork belly and beef cheek risotto.
“We have many, many really high-end restaurants,” said Dilcy Hilley, vice president, marketing and communications for the Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau. “There must be 20 high-end, chef-owned, white-linen-tablecloth restaurants in downtown, which is a lot.”
Other developments have followed the food. Old buildings have become big-city-style loft apartments, a good fit for the medical students and professionals who make Birmingham, a regional health care center, home.
“Those lofts are essentially 100 percent occupied, and there are a lot of them,” said Hilley. To meet downtown residents’ needs, little grocery stores, bars and other shops have opened. “It’s been a domino effect,” she said.
Private investment has been joined by public improvements in recent years. In April, the minor league Birmingham Barons played their first game in their new home, Regions Field, a downtown ballpark that replaced their stadium 15 miles away in Hoover.
Developers see opportunity around the park; already, a brewery and more apartments are opening around it.
Railroad Park, a 19-acre downtown green space that celebrates the city’s industrial past, has become the city’s recreation room since it opened a few years ago.
All this, coupled with its art museum, civil rights museum and science center, makes Birmingham more vivacious, a good thing for groups who meet downtown at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex.
“We’ve done some things right, finally,” said Hilley. “There has been a lot of disappointment in downtown, and it is so encouraging to see life breathed into it again.
“Birmingham has certainly had its challenges in civil rights and in the political realm. As the older generation has come to terms with the past and has accepted our place in history, that has given us a better self-image, and people are more encouraged about what the city can become.”
205-458-8000
birminghamal.org
Fired up in Overland Park
Cities that are suburbs don’t always have distinctive downtowns. That is not the case for Overland Park, Kan., 15 minutes from Kansas City, and two miles over the Kansas stateline.
The coming $430 million Prairiefire retail, residential and entertainment district promises to light up Overland Park.
This fall, the first pieces of Prairiefire, an REI outdoor outfitter and a Fresh Market grocery, will open. Those openings will pale in comparison to the opening next spring of the Museum of Prairiefire. Through a collaboration with the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Overland Park museum will display rotating exhibits from that esteemed New York museum. It will be the first venue beyond New York to continually display traveling exhibits from the American Museum of Natural History.
“Every six months there will be something new from New York, and Prairiefire will be the only place in the world that is doing that,” said Liron BenDor, vice president of marketing for the Overland Park CVB.
Prairiefire is expected to be the go-to leisure destination for groups meeting at the Overland Park Convention Center, four miles away, or for teams competing in tournaments at the Overland Park soccer complex, two miles away.
“It is such an amazing project, not only for Overland Park, but for the Midwest,” said BenDor.
“When the Museum of Prairiefire opens in spring 2014, hundreds of thousands of people will find in Overland Park something that today only exists in New York City,” said Overland Park Mayor Carl Gerlach.
In addition to the museum, which will also have exhibits on Kansas and will serve as an offsite venue, national restaurant and entertainment chains will open next spring in the $430 million mixed-use development.
Among them are Gene Simmons’ Rock and Brews restaurant, CoCoBolo’s Wood Fired Grill and Cantina, Pinstripes Bowling/ Bocce/Bistro, Wasabi Sushi Bar and Cinetopia, a movie theater chain out of Portland, Ore., that is “like sitting in a fancy hotel, watching a movie,” said BenDor. Pinstripes will be a natural for team building, with its bowling alleys, bocce courts, restaurant and bar.
Prairiefire is being completed in phases, and the second phase does include a 90-room boutique hotel.
“This will only change Overland Park for the better,” said BenDor.
913-491-0123
www.visitoverlandpark.com
