Highlands Bar & Grill Birmigham, AL

Highlands Bar and Grill- Birmingham, Alabama

This is the spot to be in Birmingham. Don’t even think about coming to town and not getting the royal treatment at this well -known establishment.  Valet parking just to the side is quick and courteous. Upon entering, a warm welcome and quick escort to our table starts off this incredible evening. There are two sections to choose from when making your reservation at Highlands: the dining room side and the bar side. We have experienced both, but when it’s just the two of us, we prefer the hopping and jovial bar side. It’s bigger than you would expect. A large “U” shaped bar sits in the center of two good sized rooms. Half of the bar on the far side is devoted entirely to the fresh oysters and their shucker, but still offers seating all the way around.

White table clothes drape high bar tables as well as the booth/chair combos along the wall. Highlands’ décor includes tasteful art, wine bottles, and of course, the Highlands Bar & Grill cookbook by Executive Chef Frank Stitt displayed on a high stand.

Our waiter is Marco. This guy is the absolute BEST in the business. Hailing from Italy, his accent entices you even more with every dish description.  Ask him what he recommends and you will not be disappointed. He will tell you the best time of year to consume any kind of fish, understands what kind of texture you want in porchetta, and will come to any kind of compromise to make your experience the best it possibly can be.  He watches every table in the bar area like a hawk. He knows how many bites until you are done with one course and times it perfectly with your next one. He can replace silverware for the entire bar area in less than 30 seconds and you would never even know he stopped by your table. If you get up for any reason, your napkin is folded and placed again within seconds of your depart. These guys have ESP and I love every minute of it.

Fresh bread and soft butter are placed at the table. We know we want the oysters for sure. It is a must no matter when or why you stop by Highlands Bar & Grill. Quite possibly the best I’ve ever tasted, but more on that later. Marco suggests the following:  Grilled Pork Skirt Steak, Picnic at the Farm, Grilled Figs, and Fudge Farms Pork Cripinette. All are appetizers, so we get all of them and one entrée to split…the Wild King Salmon.  You have to get dessert here, so we order Marco’s top 2 suggestions of Sweet & Salty Cake and Upside Down Peach Cornbread Cobbler.

Oysters arrive first. They are presented in a large tray on ice with fresh horseradish, cocktail sauce with fresh horseradish, light ginger vinaigrette, and lemons.  We have two of the Alpine, Deep Cove, Sal t Pond, Well fleet, Malpeque, and Beau Soleil.  They are extremely fresh, and go perfectly with our Reverdy Sancerre.

Next up is Highlands Picnic at the Farm:  Porchetta di Testa, Chicken Liver Mousse, Grain Mustard and Spicy Pickled Carrots. The porchetta is marbled perfectly.  Nothing fatty or oddly textured…just light and savory. The chicken liver mousse is smooth and creamy. It’s seasoned perfectly and the crunch of the perfectly toasted bread is all you would ever need in your mouth. We took it one step further with a bit of the homemade grain mustard. Oh! I could have eaten 10 of them, but I had new taste bud surprises around the corner.

Grilled Figs:  Country Ham Wrapped with Toasted Walnuts, and Lemon-Mint Cream.  Jazz party for the mouth!  The walnuts will melt in your mouth into a rich and muted savory flavor. Add in a piece of grilled fig with touch of lemon mint sauce for a harmonizing delight!

Grilled Pork Steak: Vidalia Onion, Sweet Corn, Poblano Peppers, and Salsa Verde. This dish is so simple that it must have a perfect grill on the pork. Because we are at Highlands Bar & Grill, it will always be flawless. It certainly was because you could basically inhale the pork it was so tender. In fact, this dish only lasted a few seconds between the two of us.

Fudge Farms Pork Crépinette: Pickled Green Tomatoes, Local Watercress, and Green Goddess Dressing. So by now, you probably have guessed our weakness. Yup, it’s our fourth pork infused dish.  Why not try all of what you like just to be sure they get them all right? This caught our attention because it reminded us of a popular South African dish called Skilpadjies. In South Africa, they take different parts of organ meat and stuff it into a casing (almost like sausage links only in patty form). We had a few different versions while in South Africa, and if done right, it will be an explosion of savory goodness in your mouth.  At Highlands Bar & Grill, the term “patty” does not do the form justice. A thicker, juicier, and more artful roundness was presented before us. Inside were layers of smooth and tender pork and a light sauce with flavors of chives, lemon, tarragon, pepper, and parsley.  It was like putting beautifully cooked pieces of pork into angel wings on a Victoria’s Secret runway.

The entrée was up at bat:  Wild King Salmon. Salmon has a season, and we wanted to get a taste of this fish before time was up. As you get later in the year, the Salmon gets stressed out as it treks upstream. This translates into a flavor loss on the dish. House Cured Bacon, Harvest Farm Corn, New Potatoes, Rattlesnake Beans, and Tomato Butter surround the pristine salmon cut.  Splitting it was the way to go after all the appetizers, and Marco had two equal portions displayed beautifully on separate plates. It was full of flavor, light, and cooked perfectly.

Sweet & Salty Cake: Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel. A true chocolate lover knows that only two things can complement the confection:  milk and salt. Cappuccino took the place of the milk in this instance, so the salted caramel just took it to pure indulgence.

Upside Down Peach Cornbread Cobbler is everything the name suggests plus some buttermilk ice cream. The peaches were in season and Highland’s cornbread took a nice southern spin on cobbler pastry.

It wouldn’t be fair to you if I didn’t let you in on the local drink favorite:  Orange Thing. Fresh oranges are what make this refreshing martini. No artificially flavored vodka in this drink. Real people want the real thing and practically every table donned this beverage delight at one point in the evening. Don’t miss it!