The Birmingham Times
The Southbound Food Festival in Birmingham will conclude this weekend with the festival’s cornerstone, Food & Fire on Sat. Sept. 27, a daytime tasting event that celebrates the barbecue community, live-fire cooking, and Southern tailgate culture. Regional and national chefs and pitmasters will put an open-fire spin on signature bites and tailgate classics.
Food & Fire will feature the Southern Living Tailgate Stage presented by Hellmann’s and The Coca Cola Music Stage with musical acts The Heavy Heavy and Southern Avenue. The Avadian Credit Union Tailgate Lounge will feature a large screen for viewing SEC football games as well as the Hop City Craft Beer+Wine Garden, with dozens of Alabama breweries and wineries.
“I go to lots of festivals, and Food & Fire has become one of the best food events of its kind in the country,” said Sid Evans, editor-in-chief of Southern Living magazine. “It’s highly curated, it’s in a great location, and it has this wonderful mix of chefs, bands, cooking demos and football that you could only find on a fall Saturday in Birmingham, Alabama.”
“The shared experience of tasting new and unfamiliar foods with friends and strangers is fun and exciting,” said Leigh Sloss-Corra, vice president of the Southbound Food Festival.
John Litzinger, assistant manager at Son of a Butcher, a family-owned butcher shop in Birmingham, said, “We really want to be a community-driven environment, we really want to bring something to the surrounding Birmingham community.”
Litzinger also highlighted the festival’s significance for chefs, stating, “For me I think South Bound Food Festival is just a really incredible opportunity for a lot of chefs like local and somewhat outside of Alabama, to showcase their skills and whatnot and we just like to be really involved in community-driven events.”
This year marks the third annual event, which lasted Sept. 19-28. Litzinger expressed excitement about the opportunity to connect with a broader audience, saying, “For us it’s a cool way to get outside of the shop, kind of meet maybe a broader range of people that we wouldn’t meet and show them the kind of cool and creative things that we have going here.”
Keri Lane, marketing director for the Southbound Food Festival, noted the diverse talent being showcased, saying, “They are over the top showcasing not only the amazing chef talent we have, but bringing in guest chefs from all over and creating specialty things happening in their restaurant.”
Sloss-Corra said, “Birmingham is a city, an area with incredible chefs that started right here that are growing right out of this place and South Bound is an opportunity to discover and share the incredible wealth of amazing food we have right here.”
The festival will conclude with a brunch on September 28.
WVTM-13 contributed to this post.
