Press

  • Gourmet

    Highlands Bar & Grill named #5 in the list of 'The 50 Best American Restaurants.'

    When we dream about an American restaurant, it looks and smells a lot like Highlands Bar & Grill: a gleaming, big-city place with the precise buttery glow of our favorite Parisian bistros...
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  • Bon Appétit

    Frank Stitt listed as one of the culinary 'Legends of the Decade.'

    Highlands Bar & Grill in Birmingham, AL, is the place to experience Stitt's beautifully crafted cuisine, which mixes ingredients of the American South with classic dishes from the south of France.

  • The New York Times

    Highlands Bar & Grill Review

    He (Stitt) sniffs out prime regional ingredients -- flippingly fresh seafood from the Gulf of Mexico, fruits and vegetables from Alabama farms, stone-ground grits, plump quail from the Carolinas -- and cooks them with French finesse.
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  • Gourmet

    A Star Fell on Alabama

    He's come a long way, but Frank Stitt's journey of discovery continues. Birmingham gets closer to France every day.
    Read more...

  • Turner South

    Off The Menu

    Frank is one of four featured chefs in the series "Off the Menu" which highlights the flavors and techniques of the American South.

  • PBS

    Frank has appeared in two features, "Jerimiah Tower Cooks with America's Great Chefs" and "Chefs A' Field".

  • Discovery Channel

    Great Chefs, Great Cities

    In the series "Great Chefs, Great Cities", Frank appeared in multiple episodes, demonstrating recipes from the kitchen of Highlands Bar & Grill.

  • James Beard Foundation

    'Best Chef of the Southeast'

    Frank Stitt was named 'Best Chef of the Southeast' by the James Beard Foundation in 2001.

  • DiRõNA

    Highlands Bar & Grill Recognized...

    ...as one of North America's Distinguished Restaurants for 2003

Events, Awards and Publications

  • Wine Spectator "Award of Excellence," Highlands and Bottega 2001.
  • Voted into the 1992 Fine Dining Hall of Fame by "Nations Restaurant News"
  • Named one of Food and Wine magazines's Top 25 Hot New American chefs
  • Winner of Cooking Light magazine's "Cooking with Wisconsin Cheese Contest" 1994
  • A "Salute to Southern Chefs" participant 1993-1998
  • Consulting editor to Saveur magazine, 1994
  • A James Beard Foundation Rising Star of American Cuisine
  • A James Beard Foundation Great Regional chef
  • Esquire magazine Best Regional Restaurant
  • SOS Great Chefs of America
  • Named one of the Independent Restaurant magazine's 25 Shining Stars
  • State wide Chair: Share Our Strength
  • Food Chair: "Magic Moments" Wine Auction, an annual fund raiser to benefit terminally ill children
  • Food Chair: "An Event in Three Acts," an annual fund raiser for Birmingham AIDS Outreach
  • Inducted as member of Leadership Birmingham 1993
  • Featured in the Food Network's "Best Of..." series
  • Frank has been a guest chef and/or speaker for numerous culinary events, including: Napa Valley Wine Auction, AIWF, Bacchus Society, Symposium on American Cuisine, IWFS, Callaway Gardens, The Cloister and James Beard House.
  • Feature articles on Frank and all three restaurants have appeared in Gourmet, Metropolitan Home, Art Culinaire, Bon Appetit, Food and Wine, Travel and Leisure, Southern Living, Southern Accents, The Wine Spectator, Playboy, Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, Ladies Home Journal, McCall's, Woman's Day, Restaurant Business, Santé, Independent Restaurants, Nation's Restaurant News,the New York Times, USA Today, Delta Airline's Sky magazine and Cooking.com.

Review Excerpts

  • Jack Hayes, Nation's Restaurant News, Dec 1989
    "His menu is an exhibition of classical technique put to work on regional foods."
  • Colman Andrews, Metropolitan Home, May 1988
    "...his southern-flavored dishes... really make a hungry Yankee like me sit up and take notice"
  • Food and Wine, 1996
    "The romantically lit restaurant attracts savvy alabamians who love chef-owner Frank Stitt's distinctive New Southern cooking."
  • John Mariani, Spirit, July 1995
    "Born and bred in Alabama, Frank Stitt III has almost single-handedly raised the consciousness of cooks in the Deep South... first at Highlands Bar and Grill, then at Bottega — both packed nightly with locals and travelers who know Stitt is forever coming up with great new twists on good old-fashioned ideas."
  • Jane and Michael Stern, Gourmet, March 1997
    "...Birmingham's best-known modern restaurant, the Highlands Bar & Grill...is a debonair bistro... frequented by well-dressed Birminghamians in a cheerful mood. What fun it is to begin an evening at the marble raw bar... when we order ordinary apértifs, gregarious neighbors tsk-tsk... recommending instead the watermelon margarita"
    "the Highlands kitchen toys with tradition. Smoked bacon and porcini gravy is drizzled over grilled swordfish. 'We thought Frank was crazy,' a waiter confesses. 'Who'd ever have thought bacon would work with fish?' It does more than work: it is a tour de force. So things go at the audacious culinary salon."
  • R.W. Apple, Sky, April 1998
    of Frank Stitt "...His southern peers think his cooking may have a more profound sense of place than any of theirs. His food is rustic and homey but sophisticated in method."
  • "Gourmet", October 2002
    "Frank Stitt's lively mind, unerring palate, and easy grace have combined to make him the culinary king of Alabama."

Highlands Bar & Grill