Metro Roundup: Valley Hotel adds 3 dining concepts
Ironwood Kitchen & Cocktails
► Upscale restaurant with indoor and outdoor dining serving breakfast, lunch and dinner in addition to beer, wine and cocktails.
► Breakfast is served 6:30-10:30 a.m. seven days a week. Lunch is served 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. seven days a week. Dinner is served 5-9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Terrace Bar
► Fireside views of the Vulcan statue and a menu with drinks and appetizers.
► Hours are 4-9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday and 4-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
The Valley Coffee Co.
► An indoor cafe serving house-made pastries and coffee from Non-fiction Coffee Co.
► Hours are 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day.
The Valley Hotel, which is a 129-room luxury hotel on 18th Street in Homewood, opened its doors in January.
While the hotel might appeal more to out-of-town visitors, the Valley Hotel also has something for Homewood and other area residents to enjoy with its three new dining concepts.
Ironwood Kitchen & Cocktails is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s an upscale restaurant serving quality regional ingredients as reimagined Southern comfort staples. The Terrace Bar has original craft cocktails on the menu, and patrons can enjoy their drinks by the fire with views of the Vulcan statue. The hotel also has a cafe called The Valley Coffee Company, which serves craft coffee and pastries.
Franck Debril, who serves as the director of food and beverage at Valor Hospitality Partners, grew up in France. From an early age, he loved to cook, and his mother taught him how to make crepes, he said. He attended culinary school in France, traveled with the French army as a maître d', became a server on cruise ships and then entered the hotel industry.
There’s something for everyone at Ironwood, Debril said. There are menu items that cater to patrons who are vegetarian, gluten-free or meat lovers.
The menu was curated by executive chef Doug Zuk, who before coming to Birmingham spent eight years in the food and beverage industry in Las Vegas. His menu not only includes Southern staples but also has some of his signature dishes, Debril said.
A few menu items jump out in Debril’s mind, he said. One is a starter called The Hanger.
“If you’ve seen your grandmother’s clothes drying on a line outside, well, picture a version of a line, and on there, we have laundry pins that are holding pieces of thick-cut bacon coated in brown sugar and ground chipotle powder, and it’s baked slowly in the oven and brought to the table,” he said. “As soon as you pass with that item, everybody notices and says, ‘Oh my gosh, is this bacon? Can I have one?’”
Another of Debril’s favorite starters is the Blue Crab Pancakes, which includes three crab pancakes with smoked corn and black-eyed pea salad. It’s topped with a charred pepper jelly. Entrees on Ironwood’s dinner menu include scallops, filet mignon, salmon and cauliflower steak.
Debril laughed and said he knows about cocktails on both ends — preparing them and drinking them. One of his favorite cocktails offered on the Ironwood menu is the smoked old fashioned. The kitchen uses a smoking gun, which he said looks like a hairdryer and sends smoke through a nozzle. The bartender fills the glass with smoke and pours the drink, which has bourbon, simple syrup, bitters, a dehydrated orange and an amarena cherry. The bartender then covers the drink, brings it to the table and removes the cover.
“When you bring it to the table, the flavor, as well as the smell, it’s just unbelievable,” Debril said. “Again, it’s a showstopper. When you bring one to the table, it’s very rare that somebody doesn’t say ‘You know what? I’m going to try that, too.’
“The senses are awakened in different ways. It’s not just vision and taste, but now it’s also smelling. You have three of them from just one drink, and that’s fantastic.”
Upstairs from the Ironwood Kitchen is the Terrace Bar, and Debril said it has more of a “toned-down” menu with appetizers and cocktails, but if guests are at the Terrace Bar and request a menu item from Ironwood, Debril said the staff can make that happen because it’s all in one building.
Similar to Ironwood, the Terrace Bar has both indoor and outdoor seating, and guests can turn on one of the fire pits in the outdoor seating area to keep warm.
Near the hotel lobby is The Valley Coffee Co. This is near to Debril’s heart, he said, adding that he loves great coffee.
The coffee machine is a French brand called Unic, and it will brew local coffee from Non-fiction Coffee Co., which is based in Pelham. The cafe will also serve house-made pastries.
“We have a great talent in the pastry world, and she does every day some chocolate croissants, which I am somewhat of an expert at eating,” he said, laughing. “I know what is good and what is fair, and this is excellent. This is just a great product for breakfast.”
In the afternoon, The Valley Coffee Co. offers a variety of gourmet salads and artisanal sandwiches. It also serves beer, wine and cocktails.
The hotel’s three concepts tie together all of a guest’s dining needs, Debril said.
“If you want coffee and a pastry, you go to the Valley Coffee Company. If you want a relaxing moment and sun time, you go to the Terrace Bar on the second floor. And if you want to have dinner with your sweetheart, we are ready downstairs at Ironwood Kitchen to make it happen.”
The Valley Hotel is at 2727 18th St. S. Visit valleyhotelbirmingham.com for more information.