Montgomery

Downtown is not the center of current Montgomery life, but it is the center of the historical side of Montgomery. Start there, but don't end there.

Quick Tips:

Don't believe everything you see in documentaries. In many cases the money that pays for documentaries is from people who want one side presented. See everything and experience it for yourself.

Best Way To Get Around:

The main thing about coming here is: rent a car!! Public transportation is minimal and what you will want to see is spread out.

The Embassy Suites is Montgomery's convention center hotel, located between the Civic Center and the Riverfront train station that houses the visitors' center and Lek's Railroad Thai restaurant.

Small, quaint house in the Garden District, next to historic Church of the Ascension. It's covered in ivy. The people who run it are always very nice.

The Pub has been in Montgomery since 1972 and its third owner, Alex Calambakas, has about 30 years of cooking experince in local restaurants. His kitchen manager, Jessie Williams, has been cooking for 49 years... that is to say, the food is tremendous. Do not let the fact that it is in a shopping mall fool you. The grilled trout and grilled snapper are the house specialities. There are also cajun dishes that are very, very good. The steaks are all cut daily, in-house, as is all the fish. I can recommend the place and guarantee the quality, not only because Alex is my friend, but because I used to be the General Manager.

Tony's Pizza has been around longer than I have so I do not know how long exactly. This restaurant has the heartiest, best pizzas and steaks that I have ever had. The place sits free-standing on the backside of Maxwell AFB and is surrounded by a trailer park, a primitivist trading post, and cinder-block, hand-painteed Cowboy Club. The area around it looks bad, but don't be fooled. All the steaks are bigger than advertised on the menu, The servers have all been there since the beginnings days, and the pizzas are perfect. I highly recommend the chop steak with extra gravy and french fries. This is REAL FOOD. If you leave hungry, it is your own fault.

The Olive Room is a martini bar and restaurant. The decor is high fashion and dimly-lit with eccentric curves, lit from the floor, and very few tables. The wait staff is all young and very hip. The owners, Tyler and Allen, are both in their late 20's and have provided Montgomery with this gem as well as Tomatino's Pizza, Cafe Luisa Ice Cream Shop, and El Rey Burrito Lounge. The Olive Room is fine dining and I highly recommend their hummus; it is made in house and is fabulous. The crowd is always very eclectic and a DJ spins hip-hop and dance music every night. The menu changes seasonally and everything is good: Grilled chicken with sundried tomato gravy, mahi mahi, grouper, Filet mignon over smashed potatoes and the drink selection is even better than the menu selection. However, there being only about 10 tabels in the place, you have to either go early and stay or make a reservation for a party over 7.

Tomatino's Pizza, formerly Jan's Pizza, was Tyler and Allen's first go at owning a restaurant. Both guys, described earlier in regard to the Olive Room, started out flipping pizzas at Jan's, a favorite of nearby Huntingdon College. When they bought it, they super-charged it, hired a bunch of young, hip employees and began to sell beer, calzones, fresh breads, and pizza. The pizza is very good and nouveau and you can get anything from old favorites to new twists, like The Cali with all California-style veggies.

The atmosphere is very warm and homey, but there are, like Olive Room, only about ten tables, so a wait will probably be necessary. Take-outs are available, but not deliveries. Despite being owned and operated by young people, the place is very fast and efficient and will quell any notions some people may have about such an environment.

El Rey is favorite hang-out, right across the street from Tyler and Allen's other restaurants, Cafe Luisa and Tomatino's. This burrito lounge is Mexican food with a nouveau twist. Their guacamole is TO DIE FOR. All the burritos can come in a variety of styles - all-meat, no meat, etc. - and a variety of wraps - sun-dried tomato, spinach, honey wheat, etc. Their porch cannot be beat on a cool afternoon for drinking the house speciality margaritas or Sangria. They have every kind of Tequila, Mexican beer, or Margarita that anyone might want. The bartender Bubba is one of the best ones around. Everything about this place is eclectic and original...the one draw-back is that there is no smoking indoors, due to fire hazards because there are residences next door, and there is no air-conditioning indoors.

You'll never find Martha's Place if you're not told about it. It's on a back street downtown in a renovated house, but is has awesome home-cooking! It's a black-owned restaurant, if that matters to you. Everything on the menu is good, and the service is always good. They're only open weekdays for lunch.

The farmers' market cafe has great lunches. It's cafeteria style, or order-at-the-table. It's not fancy, but the food is great. As a side historical note, it's right across the street from where Hank Williams's mother owned a boarding house - the boarding house isn't there anymore though, it's a pecan company on that site now. The farmers market cafe is a weekday lunch place.

Derk's is a deli and market located in historic Old Cloverdale. Derk, the owner, is a meat cutter, and can be seen daily in the place. The market carries finer foods, wine and beer for discerning tastes. The deli is a good ol' neighborhood deli with excellent reubens, hamburgers, and cold salads. Derk's is open from 7am until 7pm Monday thru Saturday.

As a side note, Derk's is right in the middle of a small district of art shops, galleries, and antique stores.

Vintage Year is a hopping upscale nightspot and a great restaurant. It stays busy, so make a reservation. They're only open at night, no lunches. They're also closed on Mondays.

Sinclair''s is what we call "Old Faithful." When you don''t know what you want to eat, you know Sinclair''s menu will have something good. They have daily fish specials that are always good. Their core menu has everything from sandwiches to steaks. The decor is black and white and stainless steel, very laid-back. The wait staff are all good servers. Drinks are reasonably priced. An all-around good restaurant.

Also within the block are El Rey Burrito Lounge, 1048 bar, Jubille seafood, Cafe Luisa ice cream shop, and other stores.

Chris' Hot Dogs is a dive. But everybody knows it was one of Hank Williams hangouts. The place is dark, dingy, and kind of seedy, but the hot dogs are great. They're open for lunch and for dinner until about 8pm. You're as liable to see construction workers in Chris' as you are to see the governor.

The Montgomery Brewing Company serves draft beer in a city where draft beer is illegal. The owners found a loophole in the law that stated that draft beer could be sold on the premises of a building that had historically sold draft beer, but the beer must be brewed on-site. So they did it. The Riverboat Red and the Montgomery Blonde are my favorites, but they also have a porter and a seasonal. They have live music most nights, and good bar food.

The marina is a dive. It's a bar where river rats park their boats, but like the Florabama and Pirate's Cove, it's bikers, mixed with yuppies, mixed with river rats. They have great burgers. There's indoor and outdoor seating, and there's a dog that lives in the bar, which the Health Dept. doesn't like, but the patrons don't care. Ask directions before you head down there.

Jubilee Cityfest is the biggest event in Montgomery. It is held memorial Day Weekend on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There is live music, food, kids' areas, indoor activities, and plenty of people-watching.

The live music usually consists of country music and classic rock. The two biggest radio stations in town are WLWI (country) and WXFX (rock), and they have the money to bring in the acts, so that is what is usually there. We have seen Molly Hatchet, Foghat, Kansas, Cowboy Mouth, George Clinton, B.B. King, Bo Diddley, Hank Williams Jr., Candlebox, Matrina McBride, and The Beach Boys just in the last few years, and that has not been everybody. There are four major stages going all day all three days so there is plenty to pick from.

As for food, there is the usual midway style setup with charity organizations, etc. and beer is sold but is not allowed to be carried in. For those not so fond of the late May heat, there are exhibitions, big band concerts and local school kids putting on performances in the Civic Center which is encompassed in the area.

This festival is Montgomery's big to-do. It is hot and muggy, but every year, thousands of people come out. For those who have experienced Birmingham's City Stages or Atlanta's Music Midtown, this is very similar only smaller. And no one needs to worry. The whole thing is covered by plenty of police... it is very, very safe.

The Flimp Festival is held every year in May at the Museum of Fine Arts to celebrate local and high art. The musueum is, of course, wide open all day and the local artists display all over the grounds, for view and for sale. On the circular drive in front of the Museum local artists are invited to do chalk reporductions of their work or of famous works on the black top, which typically are begun the night before where festival-goers can see not only progress but the finished work as well. There are always more than enough artists' work to view, everything from folk art to modern art to homestyle. The grounds of the museum are adjacent to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and the whole park is always very lively in the spring anyway. So, if one wants to walk around in the open air away from the crowd, that is possible, too. There are two huge ponds with ducks and swans which encompasses about ten or twelve acres. So, if the Festival draws you there, but it is not for you, there is still a nice afternoon to be had in the park.

But back to the Flimp Festival. It is held the first Saturday in May. There are usually fountain drinks for sale, but no food. Inside the museum though there is a small cafe with very good food, more fine dining.

Overall, the little festival is just that: a little festival, a reason to get out in the sun, a little culture the way the Southerners love it: outdoors.

The Syrup Soppin' Festival is an annual event held in Notasulga, AL to celebrate the art of making pure syrup: sorghum, cane, maple, etc. It is an all-day thing with arts and crafts, bluegrass music, little exhibitions.

The best thing though is the demonstration of how they make the syrup. They have the yolked jackass turning the machine while he walks in the circle, churning the cane and getting the juice out. Meanwhile they carry the big buckets of juice over the covered, open-fire cooker and sifter where they cook the cane juice into sorghum syrup.

You can buy the cooled syrup there at a stand right next to the whole thing and this goes on all day. You can see history right in front of your face.

It is a good time and I was even surprised to see that they had a map up where visitors could put a push-pin in the map where they came from and that map had several hundred pushpins all over the US and Canada. Even though it sounds like a little po-dunk rural arts and crafts festival, it is really a lot bigger than you might expect.

This year 2000 was the first Annual TavernFest in Old Alabama Town. Old Alabama Town is a historic district of Alabama homes and buildings put together to demonstrate how early Alabamians lived. This year, with coordination between them and the local Budweiser distributor, they held a festival that reached a whole city block of beer tasting and looking at the landmarks.

From 6:30pm to 7:30pm they had a beer tasting of Bud, Michelob, and Shiner beers. After 7:30. it was a cash bar with beer and wine.

There were four bands: jazz, acoustic, blues and swing. The swing band, Badabing Badaboom, held the main drag down the center and blew high energy swing through the street. Levee Breakers from Oxford, Mississippi played blues standards mixed in with some old rock tunes. Lisa Busler, a local song-writer with credits of writing songs for Mary Chapin Carpenter and other female artists, played acoustic folk-rock in the old school house. JoJo Jackson Trio played modern jazz on the steps on the old doghouse into the courtyard where we sat under trellises of wosteria and listened.

Overall, it was a great night because there was good live music, plenty of beer, and a beautiful night to sit in. This being the first annual, the crowd was not big, but sufficient. But I expect it will get bigger as the years go by.

Old Alabama Town is a historic district in downtown Montgomery that houses old Alabama culture. It encompasses a square block and includes an old tavern, a mill, a horse-barn, houses and a school houses. Mary Ann Neely, who is in charge, is a walking encyclopedia about the place and of Alabama history. They have their own staff of people who dress in period clothes and demonstrate the old ways for those touring the block. You can watch horseshoe-making, butter-churning, and other activities being performed by the folks there.

My main recommendation is to go in the spring or fall, because the winter and summer are very unpleasant to be outside in Alabama. Most Montgomerians have been there so may times that we rarely visit it, but tours are given most Saturdays or can be scheduled by calling the Old Alabama Town office or the Montgomery Visitor Center.

For a little bit of the old days, something different from run-of-the-mill tourism, this is a good bet and an interesting thing to witness.

The Alabama Shakespeare Festival is the second largest Shakespeare Festival in the nation. Every show is worth seeing. They try to mix it up a little bit with scheduling and have had Shakepeare, Modern playwrights, and even shows on current legends like Hank Williams Sr and Patsy Cline. The Festival (as it is called here) tours annually for about three months, too, so if you cannot get here to see it, it may well come to you. There are two stages: the main stage seats about 2500 and the Octagon (in the round) seats about 800-1000, depending on the set. The University of Alabama's Master of Fine Arts Program is based at ASF, so not only can one see the Festival's actors, but a new crop every few years of budding actors. There is a well-stocked snack bar and a bar for alcoholic refreshments. The building is a sight to see in itself, named the Carolyn Blount Theatre and donated by her husband, local business Wynton Blount. Their last big successes were a modernized adaptation of 'A Comedy of Errors' involving hip-hop stylings and my own personal favorite has been Sahkespeare's version of 'Troilus and Cressida.'

The MMFA is a good museum, sponsored by the late Montgomery philanthropist Wynton "Red" Blount. It is in the same large park with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. The museum has a standing collection with great artists, folk artists, and local artists, as well as temporary touring collections. There's a gift shop and a small cafe, as well as an amphitheater for sitting in the sunshine.

The city advertises this as a "river walk." It's not even near the river. You can see the train tracks better than the river. Beside that, the thing is only about 200 yards long with a few picnic tables. Don't waste your time down here. You're liable to get panhandled down there anyway because it's not in a good neighborhood.

Never been up there, but it stays pretty crowded from what I hear. There was a big local controversy about the indians starting it. I've never heard of any trouble there either.

The Rosa Parks Museum is one of the Civil Rights destinations downtown. It is linked to Troy State University Montgomery. There is a gift shop on the first floor, and exhibits throughout the building. There are guides and plenty of help to view the history of Montgomery Civil Rights movements.

The zoo is not a very good one, but can be a decent attraction for kids. Their claim to fame is the only warthog exhibit in the United States.

The Capri is a run-down old independent theater that shows all the riskier films, including foreign, independents, and art films. It is managed by Montgomery's area ACLU lawyer Martin McAffrey, who sits in his red velvet sport coat in the ticket booth. It's really worth seeing any movie here. The place has a charm that cineplexes don't have. Tickets are $6 for non-members. Movies run from Thursday to Wednesday and change weekly.

The NewSouth Bookstore is the only bookstore in downtown Montgomery. It specializes in Southern literature, Southern history, and Civil Rights interest. It is tied to NewSouth Books, the publishing company, which is housed in the same building, along with a full-service bookbindery, which you can see from the bookstore. It is within walking distance of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Rosa Parks Museum, and State Capitol.

The SPLC is the bastion of Civil Rights, and the brainchild of Morris Dees. They are famous for suing and beating the Klan, and many other hate groups. You can't actually go in or tour their offices, except by appointment, but the Civil rights monument on the same block is worth visiting; it was designed by Mai Lin, the same artist who did the Vietnam Memorial.

The SPLC is within walking distance of the State Capitol and Rosa Parks Museum, and is one block off of Dexter Avenue. The old offices, on the South side of Washington, are set to be turned into a Civil Rights museum, but as of yet that has not been done.

This outdoor shopping mall is Montgomery's newest shopping attraction. It has all the brand name retailers from American Eagle to Williams-Sonoma. There's nothing particularly local here, but it's an all-American shopping mall for the 21st century. There is a very good upscale restaurant called La Jolla (pronounced la hoya).

For soccer fans, Montgomery has a very large soccer complex that is host to an annual international soccer tournament. I don't know the dates of it as I'm not a soccer fan myself.

The curb market is the small, privately owned farmers market. There's a state owned farmers market, and this isn't it. It's small and quaint. Everyone is friendly and eager to help. There's always a great variety of flowers, produce, crafts, and all sorts of homemade goodies. This one is a weekender - Saturdays and Sundays only.

Hank Williams is one of Montgomery's claims to fame. The museum on Commerce St. is small and is a good starting point, but doesn't blow you away. This isn't like Graceland for Hank Sr. It's a small storefront operation. The price recently went up, and last I heard it was around $10 to get in.

Montgomery, for some reason, does almost nothing to promote Hank Williams tourism. His grave is almost hard to find (the museum is not very good either). You'll kind of have to trek down into the old, bad side of town to get to this one. Oakwood sits behind the police station on the east side of downtown, next door to a pretty bad housing project. You have to go to this one out of reverence for a great talent, not for the tourism value.

Court Square is Montgomery's original town square, the focal point of downtown, where slave auctions were once held. A historic fountain dots the I. The square looks right up Dexter Avenue to the state capitol building.

Montgomery's downtown area is relatively small but very well put together. Dexter Avenue runs right down the center of Montgomery, from Alabama's state capitol at the head of the street, to the city's most famous fountain at One Court Square. The name of the street may ring a bell with anyone familiar with the Civil Rights Movement because Martin Luther King Jr's own church was the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. This historic landmark is only one block down from the Capitol Building on Dexter.

Dexter Avenue is not much of a hub anymore now that the city has moved a great deal to the east, but it is still the center of downtown. And to walk down Dexter and not stop in Chris's Hot Dogs would be a travesty. Dexter eventually turns into Commerce, which runs into the Riverfront. On Commerce is the Hank William Sr. Museum, the Civic Center, The old Train Station (where live concerts are held in the Train Shed) and the Riverfont Park. Down at the Riverfront Park, there is the Betsy Anne River Boat, which has the Blue's Cruise on the weekends, featuring blues great, 'Guitar Slim.'

The best advice for enjoying downtown is not to go looking for one thing, one site, or one event. Just to go and look around. Besides Chris's, there is a great martini bar called the Olive Room and next to that is The Old Elite Cafe well suited for finer dining. Just for grabbing snacks or sandwiches is the Dexter Deli which is always good with tables on the sidewalk. For the real meat, though, the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church really is worth visiting. I have heard plenty of stories about the 1960's and the blacks all hanging around the church because they knew that they would be safe there. The national law enforcement had intervened by the time things got heavy for them, but the church was always a safe haven. There is an aura in the church worth experiencing, a history worth knowing. The State Capitol is also worth touring and the Archive Museum is on the Capitol's side of Washington Avenue. All three of these historic buildings deserve more detailed descriptions---more detail than I could write about here---but I can say they are all worth seeing.

Wherever anyone wants to stay in Montgomery is completely up to the individual. Some people like the comforts of national places and some want the quaint little B & B. But what anyone travels to do is get around and look around.
Having a car is of course essential. The airport is about twelve miles out on Highway 80, the infamous Selma Highway, the route taken to Selma in the Montgomery March. So, if you fly in and do not have someone to pick you up, you will need a car. Enough reinforcement of that fact...

Montgomery's good qualities are not just in town though. You have a lot of good things very close, and as a central point for day trips all over the Southeast Montgomery is great. Selma is 50 miles west, Atlanta three hours east, Mobile two hours south, Birmingham one hour north. There are plenty of things to do if the willingness is there to expand horizons a little bit. Also, Montgomery is a lot like larger cities. There are smaller communities all around that are worth taking a lot at with little local cafes, small downtown areas, and landmarks. Prattville (named for the inventor of the cotton gin, Daniel Pratt), Wetumpka (a small town bordering an Indian reservation and full of antique stores), Tallassee (home to one of the best small hotels in the South, the Hotel Talisi), and Tuskegee (home to Tuskegee University and the Tuskegee Airmen) are all less than half an hour from Montgomery. That is not to mention the small farming communities whose landscapes and rolling hills are worth seeing any time of the year. It is easy just drive around in the country and not get bored.

Without going into a tourist guide book description using too many of the same adjectives over and over, I can simply say that driving around the area is worth spending a day or two doing. Do not waste time asking many locals about things worth seeing because so many of us have looked at most of it for so long that it is taken for granted. One thing: take a map and be sure to have AAA because it is hard to get assistance out in the rural areas if you have car trouble, even for a local.

It only seems relevant to begin everything with the practicalities. Granted, one comes to travel, to search, but what is important too is a place to sleep and food to eat and, of course, knowing that one is safe and well-taken-care-of.
For the traveller who wants it, we have the all the plastic money can buy. We have hotel chains, restaurant chains, four-lane highways. Montgomery sports a population of about a quarter million, so we have all the amenities that today's culture affords. We have two big malls, plenty of big grocery stores, and a main 'bypass' that encircles the whole city and is named after what part of the city one is in, e.g. Southern Boulevard or NorthEast Boulevard. If one really wants to do Montgomery justice though, they will avoid all of that. There a few very nice locally owned hotels, primarily the Madison Hotel downtown. There are a number of small local markets with delis, a few blocks with quaint shops scattered throughout town, and of course downtown where all the old establishment is. And if someone comes to Montgomery, they certainly come for history, for the Old South, for yesterday.

Of course, a car is absolutely necessary in Montgomery. The best little areas are often dispersed in such a way that there are not-so-good neighborhoods between them and beyond that a long, long walk. I don't mean a long walk for a housewife or a desk-jockey; I do mean a long walk. Montgomery summers average about 90 to 95 degrees during the day with 85 percent humidity and walking five miles through concrete is not fun and is not a vacation. Montgomery winters get around 50 degrees during the day but with the same humidity, so it is very uncomfortable still. Please do not think I am being silly.

Several years ago, the city decided that the public transportation buses were not profitable enough so they only run from 7-9 a.m. and 4-6p.m. Likewise there is no type of subway or elevated train system. To be fair to them, the cabbies around Montgomery are some of the finest people you will meet, but it still behooves a tourist or visitor to rent a car.

Montgomery is a very unorganized city. Zoning has been done very haphazardly and different areas can be confusing. Locals use many residential, two-lane, 25 mph streets as thoroughfares because they are the only realistic option. But for someone who does not know the neighborhoods, they can be difficult.

Some formerly-residential areas have been converted into business districts, too, so what may look like a nieghborhood may not be. But like I say, there are two interstates that run through the city and one four-lane that encircles the city and if they are used as a basis, getting lost is pretty difficult.

On the downside, there is only one bed-and-breakfast that I know of and I hear it is not very good at all. It is in the garden district on Hull Street if I remember right, but I have not heard any good things about it. As a matter of fact, it is less than a mile from where I live and I have never paid it any attention.

The best advice about travelling around Montgomery is: if it looks quaint and personal, it probably is; if it looks glossy and processed, it probably is; if it looks run-down and bombed out, it probably is.

To start off a journal about Montgomery, Alabama, the first thing that needs to conveyed is to open one's mind and get away from every pre-conceived notion. Living here my whole life I have heard all the stereotypes from people who have never been here. We don't have indoor plumbing, we marry our cousins, we lynch anybody who is not Caucasian.... rubbish.

Having traveled a fair bit in my life, I have experienced all of the prejudices that the rest of the country claims that Southerners are guilty of. As soon as someone hears a Southern accent, the stereotypes come freely. However so few people have come to see for themselves.

Montgomery was the capitol of the Confederacy, the site of the Selma March and the Bus Boycott, the home of Hank Williams, Sr. and Nat King Cole. It is the current state capitol and the home to quite a few federal government departments. The second largest Shakespeare Festival in the U.S. is here.

Beyond all that, we may well have the best home cooking in the whole world. If you walk away from a Southern table hungry, it is your own fault. There is not any point in trying to portray the whole city now. There is plenty of time for that.

King Kudzu is Montgomery's alternative monthly entertainment newspaper. It lists schedules, events, articles about local entertainment, and has tons of ads from local bars, restaurants, etc. If you roll into town, find a King Kudzu. They're free and 15,000 are circulated each month, so they're not hard to find.

The 1000 block of East Fairview Avenue, call 'The Block,' around the neighborhood I live in, Cloverdale, is the local strip for hanging out and seeing who is around having a good time. There are four restaurants, one all-night bar with live music, a community theatre that plays independent films, a few shops, and a styling salon.

For nightlife, this is the neighborhood focal point. 1048 Jazz and Blues Bar is the epitome of the smokey, dark, hole-in-the-wall dive with a small stage up by the dark and a great selection of wine, beer, booze and cigars. Anything goes in 1048. For good eating in a sit-down atmosphere, there are Sinclair's and Buds's. Both have great menus. Bud's sells only Black Angus steaks and Sinclair's is the old-faithful for everybody; when you don't know what you want to eat, you go to Sinclair's because it is always good. Bud's also has live music most nights staring later in the night after the dinner rush. For info on Tomatino's and El Rey, there are separate entries on them.

The Capri Theatre on the middle of the block shows films weekly, running from Thursday to Wednesday. They show all the films that do not make into local big theatres. They show a lot of foreign films, films of interest to gays and lesbians, controversial films like The Last Temptation of Christ, and plays host annually to several travelling films festivals like the Black Maria. The Capri is all things counterculture. It is run by local, notoriously liberal lawyer Martin Mcaffrey.

The few shops on the block are open at night but keep typical shop hours. Ella's sells household goodies and out-of-the-ordinary knick knacks and things. Everything is wildly colored and most nights Ella can be seen leaning out the door of here rather large shop with a drink in hand, people watching. The Davis Watch Shop is open during the day, but it is the authentic old-timey watch shop. Retro Specs is a sunglasses shop that I must admit I have never been in. Fronduti's hair salon is the quaint, very expensive salon where the price paid may be worth being able to say your hair was done there.

Still on 'The Block' but technically not on Fairview Avenue is Jubilee Seafood, owned by Bud Skinner who also owns Bud's. In both restaurants the key to Bud's success has been highquality, very good food. Jubilee one of the only places around for raw oysters. All of their fish is fresh. The only drawback to Jubilee is that it gets packed out early and stays that way all night.

A few little side notes. Sinclair's has a very good brunch. Cafe Luisa has great spumoni. 1048 will not run a tab if they no do not know you. The people watching on the whole block is fabulous.

Stonehenge is the place to go for local artists. This art store, gallery and frame shop is located at the corner of Cloverdale Road and Decatur Street. Though the place is not very big, it is very full of paintings, sculptures, crafts, prints, and information about local history. As a plus, too, it is located at the end of a small, old row of store-fronts and down the line are gift shops like Apropos, antique stores like Sheffield's and a market and deli, Derk's Filet and Vine. It would not be hard to spend a whole day on this block of seven shops. Everything on this block is worth seeing.

Stonehenge is the place to go for local artists Clark Walker, Julia Stark and Bess Coates. But if paintings are too pricey, there are prints of old Montgomery landmarks for sale and out-of-the-ordinary furniture, candellabras, etc.

There is not a lot to say about Stonehenge itself, but as a place of interest of tourists and travelers, it is an important stop. It is what's inside that matters. From the Cezanne-like work of 62-year-old Clark Walker to the post-modern work of Bess Coates (CC Bess), an art lover can find original works that are truly very reasonably priced.

The beauty of Stonehenge is that it is a real old South art gallery. They will let you take the paintings home and decide if you really want them or not. If you decide the work does not go in your house, you can bring it back; if you like it, come back and pay for it. They are very, very good framers, as well, who give excellent, personal service.