Eric Barton

1 week ago | theadventuristmagazine.com | Eric Barton

By Eric Barton | May 3, 2025I was at Saw’s one night talking to tableful of food writers about how Birmingham became such a dandy of a food town when a lady at the next table asked if she could interrupt. “It’s not just that folks here like to eat. It’s the dang chefs.”The kind lady with a stuffed tater in front of her was right. Birmingham became a food town because a small handful of chefs decided to drag the city’s palate forward, one steak tartare or wood-roasted oyster at a time.

1 week ago | theadventuristmagazine.com | Eric Barton

By Eric Barton | May 2, 2025I don’t usually order a martini with an anchovy garnish, but I also don’t usually eat steak in a banyan-shaded courtyard that feels like a Fellini dream set in Little River. Sunny’s Steakhouse, if you haven’t been yet, is not really a steakhouse, or at least not the kind where men in ties try to one-up each other on who’s got the rarer cut of wagyu. Sunny’s is more beautiful, more celebratory, and, somehow, more serious about food.

2 weeks ago | theadventuristmagazine.com | Eric Barton

By Eric Barton | May 1, 2025 Photos by Elizabeth Velásquez35 NE 26th St | Website | InstagramIn Miami, seven years is basically a lifetime for a restaurant. It’s the same amount of time it takes for a startup to burn through its venture capital and for an entire block to become condo towers. But at dōma, a place that opened before Wynwood got its Warby Parker and oat milk soft serve, seven years means it’s time to change things up.

2 weeks ago | theadventuristmagazine.com | Eric Barton

By Eric Barton | May 1, 2025Jacob M. Stull, executive chef and co-founder of Rêve, didn’t come to Birmingham, AL, to play it safe. When his pop-up evolved into the city’s first-ever tasting menu restaurant this spring—now operating out of the Pizitz Food Hall—it marked a turning point for a city that’s long punched above its weight in Southern dining. And yet, the idea that Birmingham deserved a dedicated, fine-dining tasting experience had somehow remained unrealized.

2 weeks ago | theadventuristmagazine.com | Eric Barton

FLORIDABy Eric Barton | April 28, 2025 We crossed onto the island over the Middle Bridge, palm trees blurring as I leaned back in a Volvo S90—the kind of car that suggests its owner has a Peloton and firm opinions about Scandinavian upholstery. The windows were down, the air salt-sweet and thick, and I let the breeze rearrange my hair into something that said: I’ve come to Palm Beach to work, and by work, I mean to eat well, swim often, and maybe—finally—start that novel.