Birmingham Just Turned 10 Days of Food Into One Giant Citywide Celebration
For 10 days in September, Birmingham, Alabama, made room at the table for far more than dinner. The fourth Southbound Food Festival ran from September 18 through 27, bringing together more than 100 chefs across dinners, market events, restaurant collaborations, and a live-fire tasting. It began with a meal devoted to chicken and the egg and ended with a brunch inspired by Alabama’s juke-joint traditions. Rather than gathering everyone in one venue, Southbound spread the celebration across the city and its surrounding food community.
The scale gave the festival its headline, but the variety gave it a story. A seated dinner at Pepper Place, a women-in-food market takeover, one-night-only restaurant menus and events at Sloss Furnaces offered different ways to experience Southern cooking. Some put chefs in the spotlight; others highlighted farmers, makers, and the traditions behind what appeared on the plate. By the time Funk Brunch closed the festival on September 27, Birmingham had spent 10 days treating food as a reason to get together.
From Chicken and Eggs to Women in Food
Southbound opened September 18 with its Heritage Dinner, “Chicken & the Egg,” on Pepper Place. The multicourse meal asked local and regional chefs to interpret two ingredients with deep roots in Southern cooking. The dinner also honored Atlanta chef Anne Quatrano as the 2026 recipient of the Frank Stitt Award for Industry Excellence. Southbound selected Quatrano for her leadership in Southern cuisine and her longstanding commitment to seasonality, sustainability, and community.
The award added a broader point to an evening centered on ingredients: a memorable meal depends on more than the person cooking it. Southbound describes the Frank Stitt Award as recognition for people who positively influence both their communities and the culinary industry. Its description of the award points to the farmers, producers, servers, sellers, and makers who help food reach the table. Honoring Quatrano at the opening dinner placed that larger food system alongside the celebration of chefs.
The next day, Rooted: Women in Food took over the Market at Pepper Place with female artisans, chef demonstrations, book signings and conversations about culinary influence and tradition. Sandra Gutierrez, speaking about generational recipes and her experience as a woman in hospitality, captured the event’s purpose in a line reported by SoulGrown: “I really believe that it’s through food that we can break barriers, that we can bring people together.” The market setting made that idea tangible, bringing cooks, makers and attendees into the same space. It was a different kind of festival event from a formal dinner, but no less central to Southbound’s program.
Restaurant Kitchens Joined the Celebration
Between the major ticketed events, Southbound’s HOSTED series sent the festival into local restaurants and bars. Those venues welcomed visiting chefs and collaborators for one-night-only offerings, making the 10-day schedule more than a string of large gatherings. One collaboration at Slims brought chef Blake Hartley back into a kitchen with his mentor, chef John Rolen, for the first time in about a decade. The reunion gave diners a meal while giving the chefs a chance to work together again.
“It was just a fantastic full circle moment having him in our kitchen,” Hartley told SoulGrown. He credited Rolen with teaching him about sourcing, appreciating simple ingredients, and staying composed as a chef. “All in all, it was a great night,” Hartley said of their collaboration. “Both of us were very happy with the curated menus.” It is the sort of connection a citywide festival can make visible: not just who cooked dinner, but who helped shape the cook.
Another collaboration moved beyond Birmingham to Lovelight Farm, where chef Rob McDaniel of Bayonet and Helen cooked alongside chef Bill Briand of Little Bird in Fairhope. The dinner doubled as a fundraiser for the Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network, which supports farmers and advocates for a more sustainable, equitable food system. Its menu featured produce grown at the farm, along with grilled yellowfin tuna and local peas and beans. “We have formed a very special connection with Lovelight and what they do, and we want to utilize them as much as we can,” McDaniel told SoulGrown.
Fire, Music and a Final Brunch
Southbound’s last weekend shifted the action to Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark. On September 26, Southern Living’s Food & Fire offered a walk-around tasting built around live-fire cooking, chefs, pitmasters, demonstrations and music. The following day’s Funk Brunch: Juke Jam brought food and live music together for the festival finale. Birmingham’s city event listing described the brunch as a nod to Alabama’s juke-joint spirit, with Alabama-inspired dishes,craft cocktails and a soundtrack rooted in blues, soul and Southern groove.
That ending suited a festival designed to show more than one face of the region’s food culture. Southbound’s organizers say their mission, dating back to the event’s FOOD+Culture beginnings, is to give chefs and neighbors a platform to share food and meaningful conversations. The 2026 schedule puts that mission into practice through an award dinner, a market, restaurant kitchens, a farm, and two big closing events. Ten days of food may be the catchy description, but the fuller picture is a city making space for the people and traditions behind it.
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