Tuscaloosa’s Urban Bar and Kitchen is making national news, as one of 47 restaurants chosen for the 2024 USA Today Restaurants of the Year List.
What makes Urban Bar and Kitchen stand out
Urban Bar and Kitchen is relatively new — but rapidly becoming the place you want to take visitors, not to mention yourself.
Owners Gary McGee and Grover Ryans opened in January 2021 with a blend of Southern comfort foods, including seafood, steaks, specialty cocktails and more.
The owners dub UBK’s airy design “minimalist boho meets industrial,” with wood paneled and brick walls reaching up to high exposed ceilings and hanging duct work, earth tones glinting off muted metallic silvers and grays. Along one wall there’s a cursive-neon sign spelling out UBK’s slogan: This Must Be the Place. The Talking Heads song by that title includes the lyrics: “Home is where I want to be/But I guess I’m already there.”
Just as lights and hanging sprays of greenery offset clean-stark lines, the effusiveness of UBK servers — and don’t be surprised if owners McGee or Ryans, or both, stop by and ask after you, and your meal —along with familiar-but-tweaked upscale soul food creates that home-away-from-home-style atmosphere. Dress is as-you-like.
You can load up, or down, with Southern fried smothered chicken over mashed potatoes, or lighten that with bronzed or blackened salmon. Brunch may include wings and waffles, pancakes and pork chops, or the restaurant’s much-loved shrimp and grits. Sides smack of the skillet, including collard greens, cheese grits, sweet potato fries, coleslaw, green beans and redskin potatoes.
For straightforward lunches, there’s a range of burgers, sandwiches and tacos; strawberry, salmon and Caesar salads; and starters ranging from fried green tomatoes to pulled pork nachos to buffalo cauliflower wings. UBK creates its sauces in-house, and designs specialty cocktails that morph with seasons.
You might walk in to UBK for lunch and get seated quickly, but for dinner, especially on University of Alabama game weekends, make reservations. The joint’s not just hopping, but on the cozy side.
What’s the best restaurant near you?Check out USA TODAY’s 2024 Restaurants of the Year.
What to order at UBK
UBK Pasta: Corkscrew noodles topped by Conecuh sausage, blackened chicken and shrimp, tossed with Cajun cream, spiced with peppers and onions.
Gumbo/Shrimp and Grits/Mac and Cheese: Not together, necessarily, but UBK’s versions of Southern staples stand out by not stopping at comfort level. They add finesse that make customers take note and sing their praises. Even New Orleans-born aficionados have been heard to swear by UBK’s gumbo.
Honey Garlic Pork Chops: Seasoned, topped with a honey garlic glaze, then bronzed. Or try the chops more traditionally, deep-fried in buttermilk.
Did you know?
Echoing a once-popular Cafe Venice idea, UBK holds a Wine Wednesday weekly, with half-off glasses and bottles. Desserts can also leave a Southern twang on your tongue: white chocolate bread pudding, Key Lime Pie, banana pudding, peach cobbler a la mode (from scratch), a Slutty Brownie (because you’ll feel decadent), and as the menu explains, or doesn’t: self-explanatory vanilla ice cream.
See the full menu.
Details: Urban Bar and Kitchen, 2321 University Blvd., Tuscaloosa, Ala.; 205-248-7162, urbanbarandkitchen.com.
USA TODAY’s Restaurants of the Year:How the list of best restaurants was decided