Who would've thought the semi-clad Vulcan oversees a stronghold of Eastern Orthodoxy?…read more Mediterranean-food lovers and xenophiles alike rejoice each fall, with this event coming right on the heels of Birmingham's Greek Food Festival. Baked chicken, falafel, stuffed grape leaves, and zalabieh are just some of the highlights, but don't forget the baklawa or, more deliciously, the date-filled m-a-m-o-u-l...! My favorite plate is the Nile, featuring kibbee, spinach pie, grape leaves, rice, spicy green beans, Arabic salad, and humos. And you can order MORE as sides! Beware...they sell out of zalabieh early every year. A narrated church tour elucidates a liturgy blending the essence of Jerusalem, Damascus, and Antioch, and you can pick up a censer at the market to take the "atmosphere" home with you. Highly recommended, family-friendly event, with food to die, or kill, for. You'll rock on Friday and Saturday night to Amin Sultan's crazy beat, or something's wrong with you! I'm still giving them four stars, even though I miss the stuffed squash! From their website menu, for those not in the know: KIBBEE: Finely ground very lean beef, mixed with cracked wheat, onions, pine nuts, spices, brushed with butter and baked to perfection. ROLLED GRAPE LEAVES: Ground chuck mixed with rice and spices, rolled in grape leaves and cooked in a water & lemon juice mixture until tender. BAKED CHICKEN: Half chickens marinated in lemon juice and butter, seasoned with a blend of spices, oregano, and baked to a moist golden brown. SPINACH PIE: Spinach, onions, lemon juice, olive oil, and spices wrapped in fresh yeast dough in the shape of a triangle and baked. MEAT PIE: Browned ground beef, onions, spices and cream cheese mixed an wrapped in fresh yeast dough in the shape of a triangle and baked. FALAFEL: Ground chick peas, onions, spices, parsley and cumin rolled into a ball and deep fried. GREEN BEANS: Italian beans simmered with crushed tomatoes, butter, spices, onions and garlic. ZALABIEH: Yeast dough made with a blend of anise, mahalab and sugar, deep fried, dipped piping hot into a special syrup and topped with powdered sugar. Simply delicious! Mine Fave Entree (and I always "request"): THE NILE $16.00 ONE HALF POUND BAKED KIBBEE, SPINACH PIE, 3 ROLLED GRAPE LEAVES, RICE, GREEN BEANS, ARABIC SALAD, AND BREAD. (HUMOS ON REQUEST)

I went last night, and it was delicious!! I recommend the meat pie, spinach pie, hummus, and the…read moredoughnut!!! Yummm.....I want to go back again tonight!!

FREE LOCAL FUN…read more Local is an evening festival that features local artists, musicians, etc. all in one area. This is located right in the plaza of Alys Stephens Center. There are dozens of tents offering items for sale from homemade flavored popcorn, flavored sweet, t shirts, pillows, jewelry and various items for your home. There were food trucks offering BBQ, wood fire pizza, big spoon creamery, and dreamland cupcakes. There were also free stations for caricatures and face painting for kids. From 5-9 there were live performances from different musicians in the area. Great event for kids and adults. Bring your blanket, lay in the grass and enjoy an evening with local friends and talent

My husband and I had a great time at LOCAL. This was our first year attending. I love that it's a…read morefree event, open to anyone, and showcases some great small business, most of which are local. There was no shortage of food or sweets trucks/carts. There was also a good mix of food and art vendors. It was kind of like a smaller (and less crowded) pepper place market. A large stage housed the musical acts. They had a different one for each hour that seemed to span several different genres. Chairs and tables were set up near the stage, but they filled up fast. There was also a bar next to the stage that offered drinks for purchase. Right off of the stage seating area was the VIP area. This area was reserved for certain members of the center along with their junior board. So, unless you were a lucky yelper (me!), you couldn't just a random person and get tickets. In this area, there was a bar with complimentary wine, beer, and water along with catering from Jim N Nicks. They also offered free goodies like sunglasses and fans. If these tickets are ever available for purchase, I would say they are worth a reasonable price. We really had a great time at this event. The weather was perfect, with a steady breeze, and it wasn't too crowded. The only thing I may change for next year is to bring a blanket to sit on in the grass while watching the musical acts.

My first time attending the Lebanese festival (April 25-26, 2025) was really cool. I loved how…read moreorganized everything was on Saturday when I attended. The workers were so nice as well. TO GO ordering was really easy and fast. I really enjoyed my #1 which was pretty much a sampler of the popular items ( I imagine) - my favs were the spinach pie and kibbeh. The St Elias church is beautiful from an outside view; unfortunately, we did not go on a tour of the church. I look forward to attending this food festival again in the future.

This was great! I got the #1 - The Beirut Classic. It was baked kibbee, grape leaves, spinach…read morepie, rice, green beans (loobia) Lebanese salad, and pita bread. I was glad that we ordered an extra spinach pie because that was the star of the dish as far as my wife and I were concerned. I really liked taking bites of kibbee and wrapping them in pita bread. A dont miss item that I want my Yelpers to know about is the ZLAYBAH! I saw the long line and I asked a worker about it. She said that it was incredible and it would run out in just a few hours and that a lady that has been making it for decades was making it with her secret recipe. I waited in line for 30 minutes for that and it was well worth it! Sitting outside was very nice and we had a great time listening to the band while we ate. I am looking forward to going back next year!

What a great venue to have in Birmingham, AL!!! I have always been interested in Side walk Film…read moreFestival. Unfortunately, I didn't get to volunteer last year as I planned. Thankfully, they kept me on their email list and here we are. With the sidewalk film festival approaching next month , I was able to attend a sneak peek showing of some of this year's films. Such a great line up of movies and other opportunities for this year's festival. I'm very excited to actually check out some of the films!! Already got my ticket for opening night+party and really considering getting a Saturday pass. This was my very first time at the cinema. It's a really nice , colorful space! Bar and concessions available. Reasonable prices. Nice / hardworking staff. The theater is small but cozy with comfortable seats. Highly recommend checking out the cinema located in the basement of the Pizitz food hall. Check out there website for additional information. I don't think you will regret it!

Attended the Yelpie awards with a friend. Had a great time visiting the Sidewalk Cinema for the…read morefirst time.

Everything was even better than the previous year. It seemed to be more vendors there this year. We…read moredefinitely had some delicious and different gumbo there. I enjoyed the music and the other treats offered. Bellini's was my all time favorite and I hope they won at least placed. The gumbo was amazing and so was the bread pudding. I love the interaction with all the different people. I was with 5 others friends and family this year and it was a joy to watch them experience the different flavors and taste. Some was reallllllly bad as well and it was quite funny to us all that they even served it there. We were over stuffed by the end. It was just that many tastings there. I enjoyed and can't wait until next years event.

Amazing event. Family friendly. Pet friendly. Gumbo friendly!! We usually like to get there early…read moreso that we don't miss out on any good tents. We like to try everyone before we sacrifice our one voting ticket!! There are PLENTY good ones and a few bad ones here and there. But that's what makes it exciting!! Overall a very fun event. Only our second year attending but I will definitely make it a point to keep attending as long as they have it. Never judge a gumbo by the color of it roux! Lol!!

Why the heck I haven't shopped here before is embarrassing. Shame on me…read more This place is great. Lots of various fruits and vegetables - of course. But also lots of jams, relish, honey, chow-chow, salsa, etc. The toughest thing for me is buying tomatoes because these vendors often put rotten ones on the bottom of the container and who wants that? It is fall, so,there were hundreds of pumpkins, squash, gourds, etc I need to work in coming here weekly for our produce. Will start monitoring for when they sponsor a plant sale.

Plants are amazing and incredibly inexpensive!! Go see E and S there…read more The prices for hanging baskets and bedding plants are way cheaper than anywhere else.

This event is fun for the whole family and a blast if you love different cultural activities. You…read morecan eat your away around the world in one street.

Enjoyed the event a lot. We got there and got good seats in the shade. The event is free every…read moreyear. Every year they gave good artist. This year was seriously nice. the official clutch band was great. UAB jazz band was awesome too. See a few bands on my post are available

Great food event at Sloss Furnaces this year! There was food from EastWest, The Mayor, Bongiorno,…read moreSol y Luna, Tre Luna, Adorned Sweets, Daniel George, Habitat Feed & Social, and Troup's Pizza (that I can remember at least!). There were cocktails from Reve, Paper Doll, Adios, as well as beer and wine samples. It is a great way to taste some local cuisine!

This is an annual event held in Linn Park, downtown Birmingham…read more This is a well conceived, but poorly executed event. Tickets are sold in advance and at the gate. There is not enough of a discount for the pre-sales to take the risk of inclement weather as absolutely no refund is offered. That would be okay if the "organizers" did some planning and made arrangements for rain. But no, they have outside tables with no cover so these tables are useless if it rains or is very hot as was the case in 2013. You end up standing in line for measly offerings of food and then stand to eat. There are no facilities in the event itself to go relieve yourself of consumed beverages. Why not expand the area for the restaurants? This is a real charlie foxtrot. Nobody can walk by, the lines are ridiculously long and when it rains, it is just a massive jam. If you are going to take my money and offer no refund, you need to plan for rain, very hot weather and other contingencies. The portions are small, usually cold and unappetizing. You can go to a good restaurant for the money and not have to put up with all the inconvenience. We will not go back until better planning is initiated. I would recommend taking this event off your future plans. I came home wet, aggravated, disappointed and feeling like my pocket had been picked. No, no, just no. If you want to be miserable, go. Otherwise, go somewhere else. IMHO, this is the kind of event that needs to go out of business.

I've been to Secret Stages in the past so I knew what to expect. This festival has a lot of great…read moreindie-like musical artists from different genres perform. There are also vendors there offering services, products, and food. I was glad to see they had mainly outdoor stages vs. indoor stages this year. I think that was a good way to address the still serious issue of Covid-19. There weren't as many people here as the last time I attended, but it drew a nice crowd. They had signs up with directive related to staying safe. I enjoyed many of the artists I saw. I was surprised to see kids out here because many of the artist use adult language in their music. I do think they should probably enforce an age limit. Anyways, it was a good experience as usual. I'd attend the festival in the future.

This event shows the best of Birmingham/Avondale's music scene, food and diversity. We loved seeing…read moreabout 20 of the 40 musicians/bands over the two-day event. We got the VIP tickets, which provides a shared-private setting (great protection if it rains) with complimentary drinks and food. The food and drinks make the cost of the special ticket an excellent value. The crowd was so diverse, with all ages, races, cultures, preferences, etc. The music acts we saw were a variety of Indie, Alternative, Rap, Rock and practically any genre you can imagine. Parking was plentiful, streets were blocked off for safety, and there are food trucks offering great options. I would recommend this event, and will be attending next year.