Birmingham offers far more than a great car scene. Instead of cars and coffee, we spent a leisurely Saturday morning at the Market at Pepper Place, followed by lunch at the Birmingham Greek Festival. Both have been fixtures of the city for decades, and each has a story worth knowing.
Pepper Place sits on the site of the old Dr Pepper plant on Birmingham’s 2nd Avenue South. The bottling plant was built in 1928 and leased to Dr Pepper in 1930, and the syrup plant next door opened in 1931 to supply syrup for everything the company sold east of the Mississippi River. The syrup plant ran until 1982. Sloss Real Estate bought the buildings in the late 1980s and redeveloped them into a design and dining district that opened in 1990.
The Saturday market came a decade later. Cathy Sloss Jones, president and CEO of Sloss Real Estate, launched it in 2000 with about seven farmers and a few tents in a parking lot. Today it covers two blocks along 2nd Avenue South and draws thousands of shoppers on Saturday mornings.
The farmers market has a lot to offer, from fresh produce and meats to local art and clothing. Parking is in high demand, so we usually park a couple of blocks away. It’s not a bad thing, it helps us get a few extra steps in for the day.
On this visit, we bought a Conecuh Sausage scone from Continental Bakery. It wasn’t your typical scone, though. It was essentially a biscuit-shaped scone filled with Conecuh sausage, and it was so good! I also picked up a bag of hot BBQ pork skins from a local farm. I only seen them there a few times, so I’ll grab a bag whenever they’re there. They’re the perfect keto snack, if that’s your thing, and I’ve been eating pork skins since I was a kid they’re not for everyone but I think they’re a Southern staple.
On other visits, we’ve picked up fresh produce, breakfast sausage, chorizo, and a few other treats. We sampled Son’s Donuts, a food truck offering bite-sized donuts in a variety of flavors. They’re very good, I haven’t had a bad one yet.
Musicians set up on either side of the market, adding to the atmosphere playing anything from classic rock to folk musice. They even had an all electric car show, which was something I definitely wasn’t expecting to see at the farmers market.
A short drive away, in Five Points South, is Holy Trinity-Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Cathedral. Its roots go back to 1906, when Holy Trinity became Alabama’s first Greek Orthodox church. Holy Cross formed in 1933, and the two congregations merged in 1953. The cathedral’s Ladies’ Philoptochos Society began the Birmingham Greek Festival in 1972, inspired by a Greek-themed salute at the 1968 Festival of Arts.
The festival is a three-day event with free admission and individually priced food plates. Parishioners cook the entrees and desserts, and visitors can listen to live Greek music, watch dance groups, and tour the cathedral. Proceeds go to local charities, and the festival has donated more than $3 million since it began.
This was my first visit to the Greek Festival, and we started with a tour of the Cathedral, which is beautifully ornate and features some impressive stained glass. Just outside was where you placed your food orders. The line moved quickly, and the food arrived even faster after we ordered.
We took our plates down to the stage and enjoyed the live music while we ate. We chose the Souvlaki, a grilled lamb skewer served over rice, and Pastitsio, a dish that was new to me. The Pastitsio ended up being my favorite of the two. It’s a combination of ground beef and pasta topped with a creamy layer of something that was simply delicious.
Of course, no trip to a Greek festival would be complete without dessert, so we had to finish with some Baklava.
Birmingham is one stop on a much longer map. The South has far more to offer than any single scene, and at Southern Motoring Society, we want to spotlight the roads, communities, and traditions worth building a trip around, whether or not a car show is involved. Pepper Place sets up every Saturday morning, and the surrounding district is open year-round. The Greek Festival comes around once a year, so check the cathedral’s website for info on next year’s dates. Follow along for more Southern stops worth the drive.
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