A “Bright Star” in Bessemer

Today, the James Beard Foundation announced the five honorees for the 2010 James Beard Foundation Awards America’s Classics category. The America’s Classics award is given to restaurants with timeless appeal, beloved for quality food that reflects the character of their community – from small, regional restaurants, watering holes and shacks, to lunch counters and down-home eateries that have carved out a special place on the American culinary landscape. This year’s five America’s Classics honorees will be celebrated at the annual James Beard Foundation Awards, the nation’s most prestigious recognition program honoring professionals in the food and beverage industries, in an awards ceremony taking place on Monday, May 3, 2010 at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall in New York City.
Among the 2010 James Beard Foundation Awards America’s Classics award winners was the Bright Star restaurant in Bessemer. In an area where many of the local restaurants are Greek-owned, The Bright Star continues to outshine the competition as the oldest and most storied of the pack. Tucked away in Bessemer, Alabama, an old steel town southwest of Birmingham, The Bright Star serves up an intriguing and delicious menu of Greek-meets-Southern cuisine, as interpreted by African American cooks. From broiled Greek-style snapper to fried red snapper throats (house-cut from whole Gulf fish), cornmeal-crusted okra and field peas with snaps, the menu reads as a melting pot of culture and cuisine. The Bright Star has been family-run since 1907 when Greek immigrant Tom Bonduris (a Peloponnese native) first opened the restaurant, with its tiled floors, mirrored and marbled walls, intricate woodwork and painted murals lining its walls. His cousin, Bill Koikos, emigrated from Greece in 1920 to join the business, and today, many of Tom and Bill’s descendants still run the restaurant, with septuagenarian Jimmy Koikos and his younger brother Nicky leading the charge since 1966.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.