Happy Monday, Birmingham! It’s been a busy week, with lots of amazing new openings and fun happenings in the city. Let’s get you all caught up, including new progress on CityWalk BHAM, Chef Andrew Zimmern’s top picks for local restaurants and more.

Want to know where Andrew Zimmern eats when he comes to Birmingham? Check out his top spots!

It’s no secret that Birmingham is earning its name as a foodie city, and celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern couldn’t agree more. You may recognize Zimmern from Bizarre Foods on The Travel Channel. He made his way to our neck of the woods and had nothing but praise for our food scene:

“It’s [Birmingham is] one of the hottest and tastiest small food cities in the country and makes for a fun food vacation. Over a long weekend, you really get a sense of what a place is about. I love The BHAM!”

-Andrew Zimmern, chef + writer + traveler

Some of his top picks include Miss Myra’s Pit Bar-B-Q, Automatic Seafood, Sam’s Super Samwiches, Trattoria Zaza and more. Check out the article for the full list of shoutouts.

Birmingham ranks on list of unexpected US foodie destinations—see who got a shoutout

In other tasty news, Birmingham made it on popular travel publication Lonely Planet’s list of unexpected US foodie destinations. I mean, Andrew Zimmern said we’re one of the hottest small food cities in the country, so how unexpected can it be?

In any case, Lonely Planet showed some love to local favorites and had one spot that was “the one thing not to miss”: SAW’s Soul Kitchen. We love to love SAW’s—they won a Nowie award for Best BBQ by a landslide.

Other spots that got a shoutout include Hot and Hot Fish Club and El Barrio. For a full list of spots that were worth the mention, check out the article.

5 new Birmingham businesses to check out, including the new location of Alabama’s first pole studio

You know the drill—we love staying on top of new openings here at Bham Now. This week, we had a ton of exciting ones, including a pole dancing studio and a tasty new taco stand.

• PYT Studio in Southside is bringing fun to full-body workouts with their confidence-building pole dancing classes.
• Taco Stand in Oneonta is an independently-owned taqueria selling authentic tacos, tortas, quesadillas and so much more.
• Taylormade Clothing in Helena is opening their brick and mortar location, selling trendy women’s clothing in inclusive sizes. 

Check out the article for a full list of new openings in the Bham area.

CityWalk BHAM laying down turf, portion to be ready before The World Games 2022 [Photos]

CityWalk BHAM is really coming along! We reported earlier this month that construction on the park was well underway, and you can certainly see the progress that has already been made since then. ICYMI, CityWalk BHAM is connecting some of Birmingham’s most popular destinations and will feature space for food trucks, a dog park, a skate park, outdoor spaces for community events and more.

Check out all the pictures our photographer Jacob Blankenship got of the scene.

That’s all we’ve got! Have a wonderful week, Bham.

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