Nation's food culture center moving south?

[kayb]

I've always thought Southern cities could hold their own with major northern/coastal ones when it came to cooking. New Orleans, of course, is in a class all its own; Nashville, Birmingham, Atlanta all offer some culinary jewels (People swear Frank Stitt's Highlands Grill is the best restaurant in the South outside New Orleans, but I am hard-pressed to rank it ahead of Murphy's Wine Bar in Atlanta or its neighbor, the Hot and Hot Fish Club in Birmingham.)

 

And now Food and Wine is moving to Birmingham. "Clickety." One wonders what seismic shift in the food world will occur next. Me, I'm pulling for an Eataly outpost. Birmingham's road-trip distance. And I could have tomato salad at Hot and Hot, which is the dish I would request for my final meal.