Walk 18th Street or 28th Avenue South on any given week this year and you'll notice the same thing regulars have been texting each other about since spring: another sign is different. A new name over an old kitchen. A patio that used to belong to one restaurant now belongs to another. If you only glance at the surface, it can look like Homewood's dining scene is shaky, like storefronts can't hold onto a concept for more than a season.
Look closer at which addresses are turning over and why, and a different story shows up. The spaces that emptied out this year didn't stay empty. Most filled within weeks, often with an operator who already has roots on that exact block. That's not the pattern of a struggling corridor. It's the pattern of real estate that's in high enough demand that nobody leaves it vacant for long.
One Restaurant Group's Collapse, Not a Neighborhood's Decline
Start with the biggest visible disruption. Hero Diner at 1726 28th Avenue South and Rodney Scott's BBQ at 2701 18th Street South both closed in April as part of the Pihakis Restaurant Group's financial collapse, a shutdown that rippled across several Birmingham-area restaurants tied to the same operator, not just these two Homewood spots. Around the same time, Luca Lagotto's ownership made a deliberate move to separate itself from that same troubled group, rebranding as Salice under a new ownership team built from chef Rita Bernhardt, Little Donkey chef Joshua Gentry, and developer Mike Mouron. Salice reopened at 1722 28th Avenue South this spring with Bernhardt staying on as executive chef.
That's the key distinction easy to miss if you're just counting closed signs: these weren't three restaurants failing on their own merits. It was one group's financial trouble hitting multiple addresses at once, and the operators still standing moved fast to distance their concepts from it.
The Corner That's Hosted Three Different Concepts Since 2016
If you want the single clearest example of how contested this stretch of Homewood has become, look at 1726 28th Avenue South. Wil Drake, the Birmingham restaurateur behind Hero Doughnuts, first opened that concept at this address back in 2016. Hero Diner, the restaurant that closed this spring in the Pihakis collapse, operated at that same corner more recently. Now Full Circle Doughnuts, a new venture from Drake, plans to open on that exact spot.
The shop describes its approach simply:
"community first, scale never"
with 5% of Sunday sales going to rotating local nonprofits and free coffee for first responders. Whatever happens with the exact opening date, the fact that Drake is coming back to this specific corner rather than starting fresh somewhere else tells you something about what this address is worth to someone who already knows the neighborhood.
Drake isn't sitting on the sidelines elsewhere either. New Shoes Soft Serve, his first concept under a new hospitality venture, opened June 22 in a corner storefront next to Cookie Fix at 2856-A 18th Street South, after debuting to locals at the Taste of Homewood in March and Indie Bookstore Day at Little Professor Bookshop in April.
Down the Street, a 17-Year Address Finally Reopens
A few blocks over in SoHo Square, another kind of homecoming played out. ZOZO's Kitchen held its grand opening May 1 at 1830 29th Avenue South, Suite 115, the same space where the original Zoe's Kitchen operated for 17 years before closing. John Cassimus and his family, the founders of that original restaurant, are the ones behind ZOZO's. It's an independent, family-owned concept this time, and a second location is planned for Hoover.
Seventeen years is long enough that an entire generation of Homewood residents grew up on that exact footprint. The fact that the same family is the one bringing it back, rather than an outside chain claiming the space, says something about how personal this corridor's food scene still is even as it grows.
What's Actually Open (or Almost) Right Now
Here's the fastest way to track what's changed and what's still pending, address by address:
| Address | What was there | What's there now | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1726 28th Ave. S | Hero Doughnuts (2016), later Hero Diner | Full Circle Doughnuts | Set to open, same founder returning |
| 1722 28th Ave. S | Luca Lagotto | Salice | Open, new ownership under chef Rita Bernhardt |
| 1830 29th Ave. S, Suite 115 (SoHo Square) | Zoe's Kitchen (17 years) | ZOZO's Kitchen | Open since May 1 |
| 195 Oxmoor Rd. | Former Econo Lodge | El Barrio & Paramount (West Row) | Open |
| 803 Green Springs Hwy. | SanPeggio's Pizza | NY Deli & Juice Bar | Expected this summer, first Alabama location |
| 2701 18th St. S | Rodney Scott's BBQ | Vacant | No reopening date announced |
| 1903 29th Ave. S (Aloft SoHo Square) | New build-out | Foo Hai | Originally targeted for spring; opening not yet confirmed in local coverage |
Two additions worth knowing about even though they're not replacing anything specific: Bayt Al-Qahwah, a Yemeni coffee shop serving espresso drinks alongside Adeni spiced black tea and pastries like baklawa and sabaya, opened this year at 425 Green Springs Highway in Edgemont Town Center. And El Barrio and Paramount, a Mexican-Southern fusion restaurant and a retro arcade bar respectively, anchor the new West Row development at 195 Oxmoor Road, a $32.5 million mixed-use project built on the former Econo Lodge site, with each restaurant seating around 100 people.
Why This Reads as Demand, Not Decline
Not every closure this year belongs in the same bucket. Savage's Bakery & Deli, a fixture on Homewood's main drag known for lace cookies, iced smiley face cookies, and custom cakes, closed February 7 after 87 years in business. That's the end of an era by any measure, but it's a different kind of ending than a restaurant group running out of money. No new tenant for that address has surfaced in local business coverage since, which is itself a useful contrast: legacy retail spaces without a built-out commercial kitchen or liquor license can sit longer than restaurant spaces do, even in a corridor this active.
That's the real signal buried in all this turnover. The addresses built for restaurants, the ones with kitchens, patios, and licenses already in place, are getting snapped up within weeks of going dark. Meanwhile Arlington Properties recently received zoning approval for signage at its new headquarters at the 251 20th Place South office tower, where it's relocating around 100 employees from downtown Birmingham. That's 100 more people who'll be grabbing lunch or picking up dinner within walking distance of these same blocks. A corridor losing relevance doesn't attract new office tenants or get built out with $32 million mixed-use developments. One that's outgrowing its own storefronts does.
The Walk You Can Now Take After Dinner
If you're eating your way through this list, there's a new option for working it off. The Shades Creek Greenway's Phase 2 extension added 1.4 miles to the trail this year, pushing it closer to Red Mountain Park as part of the broader Red Rock Trail System's plan to eventually link Homewood's paths into a 36-mile loop around the metro area. The Homewood Chamber of Commerce marked the completion with a ribbon cutting, and the extended stretch is now long enough to turn a meal at Salice or El Barrio into a proper evening out instead of just a stop on the way home.
If you've lived here long enough to remember what used to sit in half these spaces, you already know Homewood doesn't let good real estate go quiet for long. That's worth keeping in mind whether you're deciding where to eat this week or just paying attention to what these shifts say about the neighborhood you've chosen. For a closer look at how Homewood compares to nearby suburbs, or what else is shaping life here, the Homewood neighborhood guide is a good next stop.
When the conversation eventually turns from where to eat to where to live, HBH Realty Group knows this corridor block by block. Schedule Your Home Strategy whenever you're ready to talk specifics.
