The brick exterior of the 90-something-year-old Magnolia Point building on Birmingham’s Southside was hidden underneath fading yellow siding and a sloping mansard roof that stood out like a bad haircut.
Michael Mouron -- who, as chairman emeritus of Capstone Real Estate Investments, has brought many old Birmingham buildings back to life – including the historic Greyhound Bus Terminal and the Federal Reserve Building – knew, however, there was a gem hiding underneath all those layers of makeup.
“It was just ugly,” Mouron says, sitting in one of the woven, cloth booths of what is now Magnolia Point seafood restaurant, a joint venture between his company and Birmingham’s Pihakis Restaurant Group. “But I had seen historical pictures . . . so when I got it under contract and peeled some of it back, sure enough, the brick was underneath.
“It was like a butterfly – first it’s a caterpillar and then it becomes a butterfly.”
That butterfly takes flight this week, when Magnolia Point seafood restaurant opens for lunch and dinner beginning Tuesday.
With a menu that features fried crab claws, catfish po’ boys, peel ‘n’ eat shrimp and seafood gumbo – the restaurant conjures up memories of the old 1960s-era fish camps that dot the Alabama and Florida Gulf Coasts.
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Mouron previously worked with Nick Pihakis and his Pihakis Restaurant Group to build the adjoining Rodney Scott’s BBQ and Little Donkey spaces in Homewood, which opened in 2021, and more recently, they collaborated on Luca Lagotto & Mercato Lagotto and Hero Doughnuts, which opened earlier this year, just around the corner from those other two Homewood restaurants.
They are also under construction on a project that will include all four of those restaurants -- Rodney Scott’s BBQ, Little Donkey, Luca Lagotto and Hero Doughnuts -- in a six-acre development at the intersection of U.S. 280 and Dunnavant Valley Road, Mouron says.
Capstone Real Estate Investments owns the buildings, Mouron explains, and the Pihakis Restaurant Group owns and operates the restaurants inside them.
The Magnolia Point building dates to the 1930s, and Mouron says he was incentivized to restore it not just because of the significant state and federal historic tax credits, but also because he loves seeing old buildings return to their original splendor.
“I’ve done a number of historical buildings, and as I like to tell people, I think a historical building has a patina, just like an old antique piece of furniture,” Mouron says. “And I think if you redo a historical building -- and do it well -- there’s a certain charm and a patina that you can’t get with new construction.”
The sandwich menu at Magnolia Point includes a fried oyster po' boy served on Leidenheimer bread with remoulade, lettuce, tomato, pickles and a red wine vinaigrette. (Photo by Angie Mosier of the Pihakis Restaurant Group; used with permission)
From crab claws to key lime pie
Paul Yeck, the executive chef for the Pihakis Restaurant Group, developed the surfside-casual menu at Magnolia Point.
“We have the stuff you expect -- like tuna dip, crab claws, hush puppies, gumbo, po’ boys,” Yeck says. “Every seafood place down there (at the beach) has a steak or seafood pasta, the baskets and the combos. We have all that, and then we have a really solid burger and an awesome pastrami Reuben, too.”
Appetizers include jalapeno-and-cheddar hush puppies, smoked tuna dip, lemon pepper wings, seafood crudo, peel ‘n’ eat shrimp, black-eyed pea hummus and fried crab claws.
The soup and salad menu features seafood gumbo, a house salad and a Green Goddess salad with Romaine hearts, avocado, cucumbers and a soft-boiled egg.
Among the entrees are shrimp spaghetti, shrimp and grits, a New York strip steak and blackened barbecue chicken.
The sides include baked potato, french fries, collard greens, coleslaw, salad, mac and cheese, stewed okra and tomato, and cucumber with feta cheese.
Also, baskets and combos -- which come with two sides and hush puppies and are served fried, grilled or blackened – include shrimp, Gulf fish and fried oysters, as well as combos of any two or a captain’s platter with all three.
The dessert menu features a key lime and a coconut cream pie.
“To me, the thing that’s cool about this (restaurant) is it feels very casual,” Josh Gentry, the Pihakis Restaurant Group’s chief operating officer, says. “You can come dressed up or dressed down. Everybody’s welcome. The menu says that, and the building says that.”
The Magnolia Point restaurant management team all previously worked at other Pihakis Restaurant Group concepts.
Michael Benson, who came over from Luca, is the head chef; Tyler Dunn from Hero Doughnuts is the general manager; and Shenny Perez from Little Donkey is the maître d.
Kristine Brown, the beverage director for the Pihakis Restaurant Group, put together the beverage program for Magnolia Point, which includes craft beers, wines and a selection of frozen drinks.
“She’s got lots of really fun stuff – some classic cocktails, some new things, some fishbowl drinks for multiple people (to share),” Yeck says. “We have this frozen cocktail machine that is customizable for all kinds of daiquiris, as well as nonalcoholic drinks for your kids.”
The Magnolia Point name on the 90-something-year-old building is spelled out in raised brick letters that are broken up by the pilasters on both the Magnolia Avenue and 23rd Street sides of the building. This is the view from 23rd Street South. (Bob Carlton/bcarlton@al.com)
The interesting story behind the name
The first thing passers-by will likely notice when they see the old Magnolia Point building is the odd spacing between the letters in the name.
On the Magnolia Avenue side, the spelling is “M-A-G (space) N-O (space) L-I-A (space) P-O-I (space) N-T” – with a period tacked on at the end. And on the 23rd Avenue South side, it’s “M-A-G-N (space) O-L-I-A (space) P-O-I-N-T” -- also with a period.
“When I looked at the historical pictures of this building, it had Magnolia Point written in such a way that was bizarre looking,” Mouron recalls. “It didn’t break phonetically.
“What they did was, they worked the letters in between the pilasters. It’s the oddest breaking you’ve ever seen. It’s hard to read if you don’t know what you’re reading.
“Here’s the interesting thing,” Mouron adds. “I thought it was painted on the brick. When we pulled the metal panels off (the side of the building), it is raised brick. So, it has raised red brick that spells the thing out. And then it has a period like it’s a sentence rather than a simple name.”
So, when it came to naming the restaurant, Mouron says, it was already spelled out for them. It would be called Magnolia Point.
Birmingham artist Marcus Fetch created this mural of the late Willie J. Perry (better known as "Birmingham's Batman") riding in the 1971 Ford Thunderbird he nicknamed the "Rescue Ship." The mural covers the back wall of the new Magnolia Point restaurant on Birmingham's Southside.(Photo by Rachel Ishee; used with permission from the Sprouthouse Agency)
A tribute to ‘Birmingham’s Batman’
On the back side of the building, facing north, Birmingham artist Marcus Fetch, who also painted the mural outside Luca Lagotto & Mercato Lagotto, has designed a billboard-sized mural honoring the late Willie J. Perry, the everyday hero better known as “Birmingham’s Batman.”
The headlights in Fetch’s depiction of Perry’s 1971 Ford Thunderbird, which Perry called the “Rescue Ship,” are lighted from the back so that they are illuminated at night.
“You ought to come by this place at night,” Mouron says. “It really lights up beautifully.”
Vintage photographs, mounted fish and gooseneck sconces give the bar area at Magnolia Point the look and feel of an old Gulf Coast fish camp. The bartop is made from a fallen magnolia tree, and the floor is century-old reclaimed oak. (Photo by Angie Mosier of the Pihakis Restaurant Group; used with permission)
Fish camp meets beach house
Inside, between the front dining room and the back bar, Magnolia Point will seat 72 guests, with room for another 60 or so on the patio, which includes outdoor sofas, a fire pit and a big-screen TV.
Birmingham’s Alabama Sawyer, which repurposes salvaged hardwood and gives it a second life as furniture for homes and businesses, crafted most of the woodwork in the restaurant, Mouron says, including the tables, booths, banquettes and the bartop, which is made from wood repurposed from a fallen magnolia tree. Chip Martinson of New Orleans made the chairs
Century-old oak covers the floor in the bar area, and the penny tile floor in the main dining room is original to the building. Large sections of the tile are missing, but rather than replace it, Mouron and crew left it like it is.
“The tile was peeking through these dirty layers of dust,” Angie Mosier, creative director for the Pihakis Restaurant Group, recalls an early inspection of the then-vacant Magnolia Point building. “I was like. ‘We’re going to keep this right?’ Mike (Mouron) was all for it.
“It just shows you years,” Mosier adds. “You don’t get that anymore. You certainly can’t create it.”
Other nostalgic touches throughout the space – including the taxidermy, the old family fishing photos, and the assorted beach town knickknacks -- are Mosier’s handiwork. She collaborated with Birmingham’s Williams Blackstock Architects on the design.
Mosier, a photographer, says she started with two different “mood boards” – one had a woodland vibe to it and the other more of a coastal feel – for inspiration. At Mouron’s suggestion, she decided to combine the two themes.
“The woodland was more like a hunting and fishing camp, and the coastal one was more like your old beach house,” Mosier says. “And Mike was like, ‘Well, let’s merge them. So that’s what we did.
“I just started looking for anything that had sort of an ocean vibe to it, or something that was super-nostalgic,” she adds. “A lot of the photographs that are more modern were things that I’ve taken from the years of me traveling and shooting, and they’re all from the Gulf Coast. And then a lot of them are just found.
“That’s one of the best parts of my job is sourcing things that evoke this sense of, ‘Oh, man, my uncle used to have that.’”
Nick Pihakis, left, of the Pihakis Restaurant Group and Michael Mouron of Capstone Real Estate Investments are partners in the new Magnolia Point seafood restaurant on Birmingham's Southside. (Photo by Rachel Ishee; used with permission from the Sprouthouse Agency)
Plenty of free parking
One of the restaurant’s main draws, in Mouron’s view is the ample free parking in the lot between Magnolia Point and the Retail Strategies and Retail Specialists building at 2200 Magnolia Ave., which Mouron also owns. The lot will accommodate about 120 cars.
“You’ll notice out back there’s just a wealth of parking,” he says. “Once (people) get knowledgeable with the fact that there’s always parking available, it’s not like they’ll be having to drive around looking for a parking spot.”
Magnolia Point is at 2234 Magnolia Ave. South in Birmingham, Ala. The phone is 205-732-7146. The restaurant opens for lunch and dinner beginning Tuesday, July 16. Hours will be 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. For more information, go here.
