On the Road with Mark Bradley — Sweet Home Alabama: Hospitality Southern Style (Part 1)

We all know there is no place like home for the holidays, but when you travel around this country as much as I do, you’ll find that there is a unique year-round way of life that is only found south of the Mason-Dixon line — namely, Southern Hospitality.

The pace of life is slower there and folks find the time to take a genuine interest in their guests- bless their hearts- welcoming them with warm smiles and sincere invitations to stay awhile, visit, and dine.

My recent travels through the South took me through the great state of Alabama beginning in Montgomery — the current capitol and the past Cradle of the Confederacy.

It was here that the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s began when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger.  When she was arrested, the ensuing bus boycott by the black population of Montgomery led to the beginning of “civil disobedience.”

A young pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church (Martin Luther King Jr.) was suddenly thrust into the limelight and would eventually lead a march from Selma all the way back to the statehouse steps past his church to the very spot where Confederate President Jefferson Davis once ruled the South.

Today, you can tour the Rosa Parks Museum and the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church along with the parsonage where Dr. King and his family lived and survived a bombing.

I can assure you it was an emotional experience for me to walk in the footsteps of history deep in the Heart of Dixie.

But the turbulent strife of the 1960s is behind us now and the city of Montgomery was just one of many stops for me around the state that followed Illinois into the Union by one year in 1819.

My next stop was a culinary tour of Birmingham, Alabama’s largest city. 

After checking in at the swanky Renaissance Ross Bridge Resort and Spa, we embarked on the Alabama Wine Trail where my favorite was a delightful peach wine made from local Chilton County peaches at the Ozan Vineyards and Cellars. 

That night we enjoyed fine dining at the Highlands Grill in downtown Birmingham where guests are treated to fresh Gulf seafood and where the menu has been described as a “shotgun marriage between bistro and barbecue.” 

I ordered triggerfish that had been swimming in the Gulf of Mexico just hours before and found the delicate flavor and freshness sublime. 

The next morning we visited Jones Valley Urban Farms in the heart of Birmingham where Chef Clayton Sherrod made us a breakfast of Shrimp and Grits on a former vacant lot that has been transformed into an organic community garden. 

Utilizing over five acres of vacant downtown property, local residents are given a small plot for a nominal charge to plant their own vegetables and flowers transforming an asphalt jungle into a productive piece of green space.

After a whirlwind tour of Pepper Place Saturday Farmer’s Market, the Peanut Depot, and famous local cafeteria Niki’s West, we headed back to the hotel where I tried my best to work off some of the calories with an afternoon of tennis.

However, if golf is your game the Ross Bridge Course is the newest addition to the statewide Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. 

Played from the tips, it is 8,191 yards long making it the third longest course in the world! 

However, with multiple tee boxes, it is playable for golfers at all skill levels.

We finished our culinary experience at the upscale Hot and Hot Fish Club named in honor of Chef Chris Hasting’s great-great-grandfather who founded an early 1800s’ epicurean club who enjoyed hunting, fishing, and bountiful tables laden with simple food.

The name reflects a philosophy, a frame of mind and a spirit of friendship in which those men gathered.

We felt the warmth and toasted that spirit as we enjoyed our gourmet meals along with their award winning wine list.

All that remained now was a good night’s sleep and a relaxing massage at the resort spa the next morning to work out the knots in my aching muscles from tennis before I hit the road home. 

But I had been offered a chance to return to Alabama to sample another slice of Southern hospitality. 

Read about my trip to Huntsville (Rocket City USA) along with a “Ghost Paddle” on the Alabama Scenic River Trail before culminating my trip with a visit to Tuscaloosa to enjoy college football on a perfect Saturday afternoon (Roll Tide Roll!) in Part 2.

For more information on all that Alabama has to offer go to www.alabama.travel.

For more about Mark Bradley, click here.