The Market at Pepper Place celebrates summer with the addition of a Tuesday Night Street Market. The evening market begins the third Tuesday in June. Hours are 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.  Farmers, food trucks and dancing will be on 29th Street South between 2nd Avenue and 3rd Avenue South.

“This monthly market will give people who work in the city center a chance to pick up fresh produce on their way home from work. They can also visit Lakeview, meet their friends and eat a wonderful meal from one of our local food trucks or the restaurants at Pepper Place. There will be live music and dancing. It’s smaller than the Saturday market and a great way to celebrate summer in the city,” said Cathy Sloss Jones, founder of the Pepper Place Saturday Market.

Street dancing on June 18 is supported by the local contra dance group Red Mountain, White Trash. Joyce Cauthen will call the steps. Dance groups are encouraged to attend and those who just want to learn are invited, too!

The Red Cat Coffee House will stay open late to serve beer and wine as well as traditional coffee beverages.  Cantina will serve margaritas and other refreshments on their patio. And Bettola and Vittoria will be serving dinner inside and outside on the patio.

Farmers markets are a vital link between local farms and their supporting communities, playing an important role in local food systems and community building. The addition of a Tuesday Night Street Market will help support local growers and artisans in the Central Alabama region.

For the last fourteen years Pepper Place has hosted the Saturday Market. which has grown from 7 tents to as many as 100 tents each week. Local farmers, artisans, chefs, and musicians gather every Saturday morning from 7:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon between April and December – rain or shine!

Strickland will headline the event by sharing his insight regarding southern vernacular architecture. He will explain what is involved in creating beautiful, livable homes with elements of traditional design, yet with practical design sensibilities for today’s modern families and lifestyles. The presentation will feature an array of information and images, showcasing breath-taking homes Strickland and his team of architects have created throughout the South. Many of the homes Strickland will discuss are displayed in his firm’s Rizzoli-published book, Coming Home: The Southern Vernacular House.

The “Tips from the Trade” presentation will also include Strickland’s inspiration behind Historical Concepts’ design and architecture concepts for the Southern Living Idea Houses, four of which were designed by his firm’s architect team. He will provide take-home tips and ideas for planning the quintessential southern dream home.

Following his overview, Thuston will provide her and the Southern Living editorial team’s vision for the magazine’s Idea Houses. She will also share insider information about the way she and her colleagues choose and develop southern home design and décor topics for articles they publish, culminating in real-world southern design tips that are both informative and enlightening.

Strickland and Thuston will reveal a brief sneak peek of the 2013 Southern Living Idea House, which is scheduled to open June 2013, in Nashville, Tenn. A question and answer period will conclude the presentation.

Following “Tips from the Trade,” The King’s House Antiques, Pepper Place will host a meet and greet session with Strickland and Thuston, and wine and cheese will be served. The event is free and open to the public. Strickland will sign copies of Coming Home: The Southern Vernacular House, which will be available on site for purchase.

For your complimentary reservation, please email tipsfromthetrade@slossrealestate.com.

This year, the Alabama Department of Tourism’s Year of Alabama Food campaign hosted a state BBQ Sauce-Off.  After intense regional battles featuring 34 nominees at farmers’ markets in Decatur, Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, and Mobile earlier this month, the four regional finalists met in Birmingham at Pepper Place on Saturday during the Pepper Place Saturday Market.  The blind taste test featured finalists LawLers Barbecue Sauce (Athens), Costa’s Famous Original Bar-B-Que Sauce (Birmingham), Phil’s BBQ Sauce (Eufaula) and Viper Sauce (Fairhope).

“Our state has a great barbecue culture, and we wanted to highlight it during the Year of Alabama Food,” contest coordinator Brian Jones said in a statement. “When visitors come through an area, they want to sample the local barbecue flavor and take some of it home with them. These sauces are like barbecue passion in a bottle.” (Source: AL.com)

In order to qualify for nomination, each barbecue sauce had to be bottled in Alabama or for an Alabama-based company, in addition to being available for purchase in retail outlets.

So who came out on top?  Congratulations to Phil’s BBQ in Eufaula for being named the best barbecue sauce in the state!

March in Alabama means a few things.  Footballs programs begin spring practices (giving glimpses of potential national championships to come), kids start itching for the ever-nearing freedom of summer, and families flock to the beach for a week away from the hustle and bustle of city life.  In the midst of all this, Alabama farmers are busy harvesting strawberries, peaches, and blueberries and getting ready for the bountiful tomato and okra crops of summer.  And in order to give these farmers a fun, urban outlet to sell their wares, Pepper Place Market is getting ready for it’s 14th season.  In addition to fresh farm produce, market-goers will be able to find prepared foods, artisan goods, and more.

There are some new and exciting things coming to the market this summer.  In addition to old favorites such as weekly chef demonstrations and live music stages, this year the market will be adding a children’s tent to get kids more involved.  Pepper Place Market is teaming up with groups such as Children’s of Alabama, the Jefferson County Library Cooperative, Artplay, and more to promote farming, healthy food, and active lifestyles to children of all ages.

The spring market will run every Saturday 7-noon, rain or shine, in the main parking lot of the Pepper Place Complex from April 13th until May 5th.  The summer market kicks off May 11th and will spread to a closed-off 29th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues South.  For more info be sure and follow Pepper Place Market on Facebook and Twitter.

If you’ve visited Bettola in the Martin Biscuit Building recently you may have seen work happening in the space to the immediate right.  After intensive renovations, James Lewis’s much anticipated Vittoria Macelleria is set to open next week.  Named after Lewis’s grandmother, Vittoria will not only serve fresh, grass-fed meats to customers who eat in the restaurant, but will also operate as a butcher shop.  The meat counter will send you home with some of the best cuts of meats in the city, and will provide recipes and suggestions for preparation as well.  (A “macelleria” is an Italian butcher shop, though they differ from American butcher shops in that they tend to cut almost all meat fresh, with fewer pre-cut items.)

Like sister restaurant Bettola, Vittoria will focus on high-quality, farm-to-table products.  Lewis prides himself on knowing all of his farmers personally, and recently told Birmingham Magazine a little about his newest venture.  “We’re going to have a broader range of product, and it’s all going to be good quality. We’re creating an experience,” says Lewis.

Of course, Vittoria will also serve cocktails ranging for the classic to the immensely creative, all absolutely delicious.  For more information, be sure to follow Vittoria Macelleria on Facebook and Twitter.

Organized by the newly formed Greater Birmingham Street Food Coalition, proceeds from the event were spilt between the coalition and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. In January these mobile vendors banded together to present a unified voice within the city regarding proposed food truck ordinances and operation procedures. The coalition believes that the current proposal would put them out of business by restricting their business hours and operational areas (click here to read the proposed law and see what you can do to help).

For those who missed this event, don’t dispare.  The coalition is planning events for the summer and fall.  Stay tuned for updates.

Be sure and follow Pepper Place on Twitter and Facebook!

Ona’s Music Room at Pepper Place

YOUR  “IN”  Place for Musical Entertainment

2801 2^nd Avenue South Suite C   B’ham, Al (205) 320-7006

Website: www.onasmusicroom.com

Email:     onasmusicroom@att.net

Open 5:30p Wednesday through Saturday

MARCH, 2013

Fri 3/1              Good Doctor

Sat 3/2              William Green w/ William Green Trio

Wed 3/6           Jacksonville State University Jazz Band

Thur 3/7           Gary Wheat Trio

Fri 3/8              II Da Maxx  w/James and Maxine

Sat 3/9              Ona Watson & Champagne

Wed 3/13         Mart Avant Quartet

Thur 3/14         Chad Fisher Project

Fri 3/15            Groove Daddy

Sat 3/16           Kelley Oneal w/ “KOBand”

Wed 3/20         Chris Moore Project

Thur 3/21         Mollie Gorrigan

Fri 3/22            II Da Maxx  w/James and Maxine

Sat 3/23           Bonus Round

Wed 3/27         Chad Fisher Project

Thur 3/28         Molly Bennett & Friends

Fri 3/29            CBDB

Sat 3/30           Ona Watson & Champagne

2010 Obie Award for Best New American Play

CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION
Written by Annie Baker
Directed by Carl Stewart
Starring Karen Marie Black, Kelsey Crawford, Lee Griner, Cari Oliver, and Jonathan Sweatt.

March 7 through March 30
Thursday, Friday & Saturday shows at 8 p.m.
All Thursdays with the exception of opening night are “TADA pay what you can”.
There will be one Sunday matinee on March 24 at 2:30 p.m.

For reservations, call (205) 328-0868.