By Bob Carlton | AL.com
Another food truck hit the streets, one of Birmingham’s rising-star chefs moved away, and the Alabama tourism folks crowned a new state barbecue king.
In case you missed any of that, here’s what happened this past week on the food and restaurant week in Birmingham:
Jeffrey Hansell, one of two Birmingham chefs named a regional finalist for Food & Wine magazine’s The People’s Best Chef 2014, has left Veranda on Highland after two years there and moved to Covington, La., to open a restaurant in that townâs historic Southern Hotel.
Click here to read about Hansell’s new restaurant and the Veranda’s plans to hire his successor.
Saw’s Street Kitchen, the new food truck from the owners of Saw’s Soul Kitchen in Avondale, made its debut on the Campus Green at UAB on Wednesday and has started roaming the streets around Birmingham, including a scheduled appearance at the Saw’s Spring Fest on Saturday.
Go here to find out what’s on the menu.
The Alabama Tourism Department revealed the winner of its statewide 2014 Alabama Barbecue Bracket, and in a huge upset, Smokin’ On the Boulevard, a little roadside shed in Florence, topped the much bigger and more established Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q out of Birmingham and Bob Sykes BarB-Q from Bessemer in the final round.
Click here to read the story behind Smokin’ on the Boulevardâs hickory-smoked ribs.
McDonald’s restaurants throughout central Alabama held their annual McDonald’s Biscuit Bake-Off, and the judges selected Arleen McCain of the McDonald’s in Ashland as this year’s biscuit-baking queen.
Read about how McCain plans to share her $1,000 prize here.
Zoe’s Kitchen, the Mediterranean-style fast-casual restaurant chain that was founded in Birmingham, had a big opening day on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.
Go here to find out how Zoe’s stock soared.
And on Saturday, Birmingham’s Pepper Place Saturday Market, which Deep South magazine named one of the region’s 10 best farmers markets, opened the 2014 season with a new crop of fresh-from-the-farm Alabama produce.
Click here to read all about the new season at Pepper Place.
http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2014/04/a_new_food_truck_a_new_barbecu.html
