Cornbread is yellow-cornmeal batter baked in a cast-iron skillet with a butter or bacon-fat crust, the canonical Southern bread for any savory meal.
Cornbread is the Southern bread, predating wheat-flour biscuits in Alabama and persisting through Reconstruction as the staple grain bread. Birmingham meat-and-three counters serve it with every plate; Niki's West runs the cafeteria version, Eagle's serves it with collards and Saw's puts it next to the white-sauce smoked chicken. The Alabama version is unsweetened or only mildly sweetened; sweet Southern cornbread is a more Northern interpretation.
3 editor picks for Cornbread in Birmingham, ranked by editorial score. All Birmingham signature dishes · Cornbread across every city.
Also in: Jackson.
Niki's West ★ 4.6
acipco-finley · 233 Finley Avenue West, Birmingham, AL 35204
Niki's West on Finley Avenue West in Birmingham has run the canonical meat-and-three since 1957, with a cafeteria steam table by the Alabama Farmers Market.
Eagle's Restaurant ★ 4.6
smithfield · 2610 16th Street North, Birmingham, AL 35204
Eagle's Restaurant in Smithfield Birmingham is the Black-owned soul-food anchor since 1951, with Friday catfish and weekday meat-and-three plates.
Saw's BBQ ★ 4.5
homewood · 1008 Oxmoor Road, Homewood, AL 35209
Saw's BBQ in Homewood near Birmingham is the 2009 Mike Wilson original, the room that introduced Alabama white sauce on smoked chicken to the city.
Learn to cook it, or eat it with a guide
Cornbread makes more sense with someone from Birmingham explaining it. These are the classes and tours we have checked, with booking links.