Photo by Jon Anderson.
Uriah Price makes a Manhattan drink at The Anvil Pub and Grill in The Village at Lee Branch in Hoover. Price was the winner of the Hoover Bartender Challenge in 2023 and 2024 and will be serving as a judge in 2025.
The Hoover Restaurant Alliance is gearing up for its annual bartender challenge and Hoover Restaurant Week in July.
The bartender challenge, now in its third year, will start on July 14 with about six bartenders competing in a preliminary competition to see who’s the best at making drinks at The Anvil Pub and Grill in The Village at Lee Branch.
The top three from the preliminary competition will move on to the finals on July 17 at the Beef O’Brady’s at The Grove shopping center.
Each of the competitions will be at 6 p.m., said David Cohen, founder and president of the Hoover Restaurant Alliance. Judges were still being determined at press time, but the judging panel for the events was expected to include: state Rep. Mike Shaw; state Rep. Leigh Hulsey; Joseph Mitchell, the director emeritus for the Jefferson State Community College Culinary and Hospitality Institute; Paul Dangel, sales director at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel; and Uriah Price, a bartender at The Anvil Pub and Grill who won the contest both of the previous years.
Next, Hoover’s 2025 Restaurant Week will be held from July 18 to July 26, spanning nine days. During the week, participating restaurants will be offering specials that will be advertised on the Hoover Restaurant Week’s website and Facebook page.
Typically, close to 50 restaurants participate in the campaign — everything from fine dining establishments to barbecue joints and everything in between, Cohen said. Many Hoover restaurants that have participated in the past year’s events will be taking part again this year, but one new one that already has committed is Umi Sushi Poke in the Trace Crossings shopping center that includes Publix, Cohen said.
“Just trying to highlight Southern hospitality — Hoover style,” he said. “Our goal is just to promote our local industry with all the great restaurants that we’ve got. We’ve got 125 to 150 independent and corporate restaurants in this town.”
That includes a great selection of international restaurants that serve Mexican, Asian, Indian, Pakistani, Thai and African food, he said.
Hoover Restaurant Week also is a way for restaurant owners and managers to connect, Cohen said. It’s easy for independent restaurants to feel like they’re alone sometimes, and it helps to bring people together to realize there are others facing the same challenges they do, he said. Sometimes they even help each other in times of need.
Hoover Restaurant Week will start with a kickoff event at 7:30 a.m. on July 18 that will feature probably 15 or so restaurants that are participating in the campaign, Cohen said. Those restaurants will be sharing samples of some of their food, he said. The location of the kickoff event was still being determined at press time.
Any food left over from the kickoff event will go to Grace’s Kitchen, a nonprofit that serves food to homeless people, Cohen said. Some of the restaurants participating in Hoover Restaurant Week also have signed up to
be regular donors to Grace’s Kitchen as well, he said.
Check out the list of participants in Hoover Restaurant Week at hooverrestaurantweek.com.
