Ask the new Miss Alabama to dish about her favorite restaurants, and three things become abundantly clear.
Abbie Stockard likes carbs. She isn’t afraid to eat carbs. And yes, she works out, partly because of the carbs.
“Italian is my favorite kind of food, so I love any kind of pasta,” Stockard, 21, said during a recent interview with AL.com. “If any restaurant has bread, I’m going to love it. I’m so serious.”
Miss Alabama 2024 was quick to emphasize that maintaining a healthy balance is important to her daily life. Exercise and good nutrition matter to Stockard, a nursing student at Auburn University who’s also a member of the school’s Tiger Paws dance team.
“I’ve danced all my life, so I know firsthand the benefits of a well-rounded lifestyle,” said Stockard, who grew up in Vestavia Hills. “Physical activity, but also mental wellness.”
That philosophy doesn’t prevent Stockard from indulging in her favorite treats — a juicy cheeseburger, for example, or a hearty bowl of mac and cheese — and she was happy to name some of her favorite places to chown down in the Birmingham metro area. Here’s what she said.
Mac and cheese at Bottega Cafe is served with a side salad.(AL.com file photo)
Bottega Café
Where: 2240 Highland Ave. South, Birmingham.
Menu includes: Baked feta, fried oysters, mushroom and spinach cannelloni, butcher’s pie pizza, chicken scaloppine, roasted pork loin, blueberry tiramisu, coconut-pecan cake.
Miss Alabama says: “My favorite Italian restaurant would be Bottega Cafe, because I love their mac and cheese. And it’s special, because the past two years, the night before Miss Alabama, I’ve gone there with my family — literally because of the mac and cheese. it’s kind of my good-luck place, and I love the mac and cheese. They cook it in the oven they make their pizzas in, I’m pretty sure. You can tell it’s homemade. It’s not the kind you just put in a microwave. It’s so rich.”
Margherita pizza at Bettola, a restaurant in Birmingham. The wood-fired pizza is made with San Marzano tomato sauce, Fior Di Latte mozzarella and basil.(Mary Colurso | mcolurso@AL.com)
Bettola
Where: 2930 Third Ave. South, Birmingham.
Menu includes: Herb insalata, pepperoni pizza, quattro formaggi pasta, pollo pomodoro panini, antipasti board, arugula insalata, tiramisu, chocolate budino.
Miss Alabama says: “I love Bettola. I like their Margherita pizza, and they have an appetizer, it’s some kind of bread and melted cheese that you dip the bread in. It’s so good. On an ideal night I would go to Bettola, and then right across the street is Jeni’s Ice Cream. What would be such a fun date night, or a family night, you rent those scooters in downtown Birmingham, which I’ve done before, and you drive around and get dinner at Bettola, and then ice cream at Jeni’s. It sounds like the perfect night.”
(Note: Stockard was likely referring to the burrata appetizer on the menu at Bettola, which features Italian cow’s milk cheese served with warm flatbread that’s baked in house.)
Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams has a location in Birmingham at Pepper Place. (Courtesy photo)
Jeni’s Ice Creams
Where: 219 29th St. South, Birmingham.
Menu includes: Flavors such as Double Dough, Brambleberry Crisp, Cookies in Cream, Buttercream Birthday Cake, Wildberry Lavender, Banana Cream Pudding, Pineapple Upside Down Cake, Strawberry Buttermilk.
Miss Alabama says: “At Jeni’s, I get two flavors. One is Coffee with Cream & Sugar, and then the Gooey Butter Cake. It’s so good. Their cones are also homemade, so you’ve got to have a cone.”
Customers inside Jack Brown's Beer & Burger Joint in Birmingham.(AL.com file photo/Tamika Moore)
Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint
Where: 2811 Seventh Ave. South, Birmingham.
Menu includes: Hamburger, The Frankie Brady grilled cheese, Elvis burger, Cobra Kai burger, Cowboy burger, Greg Brady burger, sweet potato fries, fried Oreo.
Miss Alabama says: “My favorite burger place now is Jack Brown’s in Birmingham. They just opened up one in Auburn, too. I like a classic cheeseburger — just meat, cheese and bun. I just like it plain. I don’t like sauce or anything else.”
Birmingham chef Frank Stitt and his wife, Pardis, opened their French bistro Chez Fonfon in Birmingham's Five Points South neighborhood in 2000. (Photo by Tamika Moore)
Chez Fonfon
Where: 2007 11th Ave. South, Birmingham.
Menu includes: Chicken liver mousse, veal tenderloin, grilled salmon, tomato salad, trout with capers, hamburger Fonfon, peach sorbet, lemon meringue tart.
Miss Alabama says: “Chez Fonfon has a really good cheeseburger. It’s up there.”
Johnny Brusco's New York Style Pizza in Hoover.(AL.com file photo/Jon Anderson)
Johnny Brusco’s New York Style Pizza
Where: 2341 John Hawkins Parkway, Hoover.
Menu includes: Veggie deluxe pizza, BBQ chicken pizza, four cheese pizza, chicken bacon ranch flatbread, three meat flatbread, cauliflower crust pizza, garlic knots with cheese, fried ravioli.
Miss Alabama says: “I don’t go there as much anymore, but for like six years in a row, my family would go to Johnny Brusco’s every Thursday. … I would just get a single slice of Hawaiian pizza. I like pineapple and bacon. Or I would get a slice of cheese pizza with bacon and olives. I love olives so much, I will eat them out of the jar. In Auburn, I would get made fun of, because I would just have a jar of Kalamata olives, and then my roommates would walk in and I’m standing there in the kitchen, eating them with a fork, straight from the jar.”
Milo's Hamburgers has 20 locations throughout Alabama -- primarily in the Birmingham metro area, but also in Cullman, Decatur, Jasper, Montgomery, Prattville and Tuscaloosa. (Photo courtesy of Milo's Hamburgers)
Milo’s
Where: Several locations in Birmingham metro area.
Menu includes: Bacon cheeseburger, spicy grilled chicken sandwich, Mexi buger, toasted cheese, loaded fries, chicken nuggets, fried apple pie, fried lemon pie.
Miss Alabama says: “I love Milo’s, their grilled cheese and fries, oh my gosh. But I don’t drink tea. I’m more of a water and milk kind of girl, which is kind of gross. But I still love Milo’s.”
City Bowls
Where: Four locations in Birmingham metro area, including flagship at 3036 Healthy Way, Suite 100, Vestavia Hills.
Menu includes: Powerhouse Bowl, Blazer Bowl, Island Bowl, OG Bowl, Vulcan Bowl, Nutty by Nature bowl, The Hulk bowl, The Hawaiian bowl.
Miss Alabama says: “I eat healthy, too. I love City Bowls. I get the açaí base with granola, Nutella, strawberries and bananas.”
The Taziki's menu includes a grilled Shrimp feast with basmati rice and a Greek salad.(AL.com file photo/Joe Songer)
Taziki’s Café
Where: Several locations in Birmingham metro area.
Menu includes: Hummus, whipped feta, Caesar salad, chargrilled lamb feast, grilled chicken gyro, turkey club pita, baklava, dark chocolate cake.
Miss Alabama says: “Taziki’s is my favorite just because it’s light and it’s healthy.”
California Pizza Kitchen's former location at The Summit in Birmingham.(AL.com file photo/Jerry Ayres)
Honorable mention: California Pizza Kitchen
Where: Former location at 238 Summit Blvd., Suite B, Birmingham, now closed.
Menu includes: BBQ chicken pizza, spinach artichoke dip, California cobb salad, pepperoni pizza, tomato basil spaghetti, shrimp scampi zucchini, red velvet cake, key lime pie.
Miss Alabama says: “I used to love California Pizza Kitchen. They got rid of it at The Summit, but that just was my favorite place to go. I love CPK, because they do bread as an appetizer, and anywhere that has bread, I will like it. And then I get their grilled salmon with a side of mac and cheese. I loved California Pizza Kitchen so much, I would go probably once a week. I’m so serious. I loved it. I was devastated when they closed their location at The Summit. And they also have a dessert, it’s a butter cake, and it’s so good, too.”
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