Visit The Collins, a New Swanky Bar on 2nd

I gotta admit that I was a little sad to see the sign go down on the Metro Bar, formerly Metro Bistro. Before 2nd Avenue was a destination spot, Metro was there providing all of us locals a place to get a drink and meet up. From spaghetti nights to music to karaoke to trivia, I've got a lot of great memories at the Metro. For better or worse, the clientele in the area has changed a lot over the past 8 years since I've been downtown, and the Metro had seen a decline in business. The foot traffic has gone from locals of all ages dressed almost pajama casually walking around their neighborhood, to nattily dressed twenty somethings looking to hook up at a place with a more upscale feel than the Calculated Dive that was the Metro. I was really excited to hear that Andrew Collins from Lyric Hot Dogs had bought it, and that he and Feizal Valli were going to give it a makeover complete with a new name: The Collins.

The Accordion Player and I had been sticking our noses into The Collins all during the buildout, but Thursday night we went there for the first time to drink and watch a little football. The Collins has a sleek modern decor, and lo and behold it was full of those same dressed up twenty-somethings that had walked in and immediately out of Metro just a few weeks before. I hated to see the Metro go, but there is just enough of the bones remaining to feel a little bit of nostalgia.

The cocktails were awesome. I highly recommend The Collins' version of The Last Word. The Accordion Player had a Hairy Carrie, which is a classic cocktail with a rich history dating from the turn of the century, and if you ask Feizal to make you one I will personally buy you a drink the next time I see you.

The website (http://collinsbirmingham.com/) is a little sparse right now, but we were told that is progressing. The site's got the hours, though, which is all I really care about anyway.

Rev's Street Party

I love all the restaurants and bars that are open downtown at night, but we need more retail that doesn't close at 3 o'clock! Rev (formerly ONB) is doing a cool project to connect entrepreneurs with available downtown spaces. Also there's a party, and who wouldn't want to go to that? September 30th through October 4th. Come support some fun Pop-Up shops. For more Details visit Streetlife Project.

Birmingham—I Run This Town

Tanya Sylvan talks about running in Downtown Birmingham, and includes some great pictures.

Behind me? BEHIND YOU! Behind the Scenes: Making a movie at Counts Brothers

The crew of "Behind You" showed up at my place early this morning. "Behind You" is an independent film directed by Rebecca Pugh and filmed by Joe Walker with the help of some other great people. I don't want to give anything away about the plot, but I'm sure you'll be able to catch it at Sidewalk Film Festival next year. The story is very cool and the production values are above and beyond your average short film. Joe explained all the technology, which I will recite here: it's filmed on a ds-err-etch-blem with eccity-eccity-ooo. The lighting is something also special, apparently.

The crew was fired up and it was fun to watch them set up the equipment. Here's a few pictures of the setup.

Historic Preservation Status Approved!

Just got word that our request for Historic Preservation Certification was approved by the Department of the Interior and National Park Service! Thanks to Holly over at Appleseed and Pam King for making that happen. 

Gardening at Night

Family business has kept me traveling on weekends this spring, so time for gardening has been hard to find. I didn't spend much time planning or spacing. Instead, whenever I had a few minutes I just threw seeds or sprouts wherever looked vacant. Luckily we've had a lot of rain so I haven't had to water too often, and overall it has been going surprisingly well. We've been harvesting lettuce all spring, until it went to seed last week. I picked some peas that I probably let stay on the vine too long. Last weekend I picked a nice big green onion for a meal that friends grilled up on rooftop deck of the Accordion Player's building. I kept the herbs up on the window sill this year so that I could get to them more easily when I am cooking, and also to have more room for vegetables. I'm usually terrible with flowers but, I put out a lot this year and so far they've all survived.

One new addition was to put accent lights around the tree wells. Pedestrians often accidentally stepped on our garden last year and the lights have helped a lot. Also they really look cool.

Welcome Krewe to the Neighborhood!

The Accordion Player and I just got back into town after a week away. We were walking around doing errands, getting mail, picking up some tomatoes for spaghetti, hitting the ATM, etc. Strolling along 1st Ave we saw a sign "Krewe: Now Open." I had heard nothing about a new place opening just around the corner, so mail and groceries in hand we walked in to investigate. Turns out to be a swanky New Orleans themed bar. They've got a nice wine selection on the wall, and even have a carry out permit. I'm not a cigar smoker, but I was still excited to see a walk-in humidor, just because that's cool and different for the area.

The decor is cozy. Wine racks along one wall with a classy bar. They kept the old hardwood floors and heart pine ceiling and a great old skylight similar to the ones I have in the storage units (but theirs isn't covered).

The Accordion Player really enjoyed their Martini list and chose a Royale Sunset. She liked it. My "Dirty Krewe" Martini was delicious. We both enjoyed the New Orleans Jazz music.

We got to talking to the bar tender and she said they had moved from Patton Creek in Hoover because the rent was twice as much, and "Hoover is dead after nine."

Welcome to the neighborhood, Krewe!

Loft Tour Volunteers Needed

The LivBirmingham Loft Tour still needs volunteers to greet visitors and give directions. Please consider showing off our friendly neighborhood!

Movie to be Filmed at Counts Brothers Loft

Rebecca Pugh and Joe Walker are making a new short film. Most of the story takes place in an apartment. When they asked to shoot in my loft, I said "Heck yeah!" After talking to them this weekend, this sounds like a really ambitious project using state of the art cameras, flying in an actress from across the country, and submitting to all the big time international film festivals. The script looked great, and I can't wait to watch the movie!

You can see some more pictures on Rebecca's blog: http://rebeccapugh.wordpress.com/2013/04/20/location-location-location-indiefilm/

Tickets are officially on sale for Liv Birmingham's May 11 launch event, Cool Spaces+Downtown Places

Tickets are officially on sale for Liv Birmingham's May 11 launch event, Cool Spaces+Downtown Places. Come visit some of the coolest lofts in downtown Birmingham (including mine). I've also heard a rumor that Madge the Magic City Dragon might appear that day. You can get tickets at http://coolspaces.eventbrite.com/

El Barrio's Contribution to the 2nd Avenue Renaissance Featured in Business Alabama

El Barrio was featured in April's Business Alabama Magazine. The article cited not only the great food and atmosphere, but how it accelerated the downtown revival that was already under way on 2nd Avenue. I couldn't find a copy of the article on their web site, so hopefully they won't sue me for scanning the article and posting it here.

El Barrio in National Geographic

El Barrio in National Geographic

National Geographic Traveler published a short article about Birmingham, and El Barrio was mentioned! How cool? Follow the link to InBirmingham's reprint.

Redesigned Closet

Last Sunday the accordion player and I decided to redesign the closet. The original walk-in closet design was enormous, but as we added a washer and dryer, and all of the home control, security systems, and media hardware, "enormous" became "yeah, that's pretty big." We raised the original hanger rods and shelves to 80 inches, and added a second rod and shelf below one side at 40 inches high. Under the other rod we put in a shoe rack.  We almost doubled the closet capacity and now it looks a lot less cluttered.

Our next step is to reconfigure the media rack to be more compact, and add a few more shelves along with racks for ties and belts.

Happy Valentine's Day!

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Historic Preservation Application Submitted to National Park Service

I just got a notification from the Alabama Historical Commission that they reviewed and processed our application for Historic Preservation Certification. Now they send it to Washington for the National Park Service to review and hopefully grant Certification! In a bit of embarrassing news (cause I know y'all love that) it turns out that the first owners of the building were not the Counts Brothers. The first owners were named Green and Bragan. We had to submit the paperwork as The Green-Bragan Building, so just disregard the name of this site. I'm sure everyone will still call it Storkland anyway, or Wadeland as one of my friends put it.

Paint the Wall Crazy

Self Storage is boring, and I had no intention of running a self storage business, much less putting one into the Counts Brothers Building. However, I had 4500 storefrontless square feet that I desperately needed to lease out in order to pay the bills. I didn't want to split it up into residential lofts, but the question remained "What kind of business do you not want to SEE?" My friend and real estate agent Jerry suggested self storage, which I immediately turned down. But when I started asking neighbors what kinds of services they needed, it turned out that everyone with whom I talked had a storage unit and they all had to drive to get there, and would love to be able to walk to their unit. So I went with Self Storage, but tried to come up with ways to make it more fun. We painted the walls white, in order to create a canvas. Space 111 art studio is a block down the street and Rachael, Margot, and Suzanne came over to make art on the walls. Some examples are below (thanks to Sarah Miller for the pictures). There's also a bonus picture of somebody's hand on my glowing countertops.

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Storage Unit Recording Studio

I don't post pictures of customers' storage units until after they've moved out (and with their permission obviously), but I couldn't wait to post these. Friend and long time 2nd Avenue storage customer David Seale moved into his new wife Camille Spratling's nearby loft. While they were looking for a bigger place, David needed somewhere to put his recording equipment, along with some clothes and furniture. David arranged the items in such a way that actually made the storage unit look homey. He also set up his equipment so that he could record some songs without having to move all of his stuff to another location. The storage units don't usually have electricity but we ran an extension cord so that he could make some music if the inspiration struck him.

Sorry to see this one go, but I love that I can post the pictures now!

2nd Avenue Storage Begrudgingly Sets Up Facebook Page, Eats Crow

If you're one of those people who enjoy using Facebook, please like our 2nd Avenue Storage page. I'm not terribly fond of Facebook, myself; the interface is noisy and confusing. However, a day after we opened up the page I got a call asking about renting a unit, so I guess it was a good thing. Also, leave some feedback on what you would want to see on a Facebook page about a storage facility, because I sure don't know. On an unrelated note, The Counts Brothers Building is a block away from Levy's Fine Jewelry and I just want to say that Ms. Rhoda's radio commercials are my favorite part of Christmas. Happy Holidays, everybody!

No More Drinks on the Floor

Those of you who have dropped a drink through my table over the past year will be pleased to know I finally got around to ordering a glass table top. The table was made out of some of the old freight elevator gearing.

Fall at the Counts Brothers Building

The leaves of the ginkgo trees outside my window have turned a beautiful fall yellow