Bob Carlton

4 weeks ago | al.com | Lawrence Specker |Amber Sutton |Bob Carlton |Mary Colurso

We’ve all heard this question before: “Well, where should I eat tonight?”And as people who (at least sometimes) write about food, we hear it even more. So those of us here at AL.com who write about food decided to put together some (there are obviously many more amazing places to eat across Alabama!) of our picks. Some are obvious, some are not, and we couldn’t list all of our recommendations -- there just isn’t enough time in the day for that.

1 month ago | al.com | Bob Carlton

The Alabama and Auburn men’s basketball teams aren’t the only ones from the Yellowhammer State moving on to the Sweet 16. In another March Madness-inspired bracket challenge, Helen, the steak-focused Birmingham restaurant revered for its dry-aged ribeyes and Kansas City strips, has advanced to the second round of Garden & Gun magazine’s South’s Best Steak House showdown. Call it the “Meat 16,” if you will.

1 month ago | al.com | Bob Carlton

Huge news for fans of Alabama’s legendary Archibald’s Bar-B-Q. The revered rib joint, which the late George and Betty Archibald started in Northport in 1962, will open its first Birmingham location – and the first outside the Tuscaloosa area – in late April or early May. Archibald & Woodrow’s BBQ will move into the former Rib-It-Up space at 830 First Ave. North in downtown Birmingham, Archibald’s owner Woodrow Washington III tells AL.com.

1 month ago | al.com | Bob Carlton

On those days when the folks at Alabama Sunshine are making their XXX Black Label hot sauce, the fumes from those fiery red habanero peppers can get so intense that they have to fling open the doors and crank up the fans to keep from coughing and wheezing. “Those are pretty strong peppers,” says Charlotte Smith, who, as the matriarch of the Alabama Sunshine family, is fondly known as “Mama Sunshine” around the western Alabama town of Fayette, the hometown of Alabama Sunshine.

1 month ago | al.com | Bob Carlton

For decades, Nadia Bajalieh worked alongside first her husband and later her three sons in the family’s various Birmingham restaurants, from Sol’s Sandwich Shop & Deli to Slice Pizza & Brew. They didn’t know what to do without her. “She was the rock within our businesses,” Chris Bajalieh, Nadia’s middle son, says. “She raised us to be strong and to work together and to work hard and to give back to the community and be involved in the community through the restaurants.