Restoring Hope and Redefining Rescue, One Dog at a Time!

Interview and photograph by Angela Karen

Name: Diana L. Brewer

Hometown: Trussville, AL

Age: 33

How many dogs have you saved/placed in the past three years? As of April 5, 2013, we have saved 258 pets, mainly dogs, but there has been an occasional cat over the years.

What is the hardest and most rewarding part of this rescue?

HARDEST —saving a dog and though every effort is made, tears, blood, sweat, hours of efforts, their past is too much to overcome and they/we lose the fight. They cross the rainbow bridge, thankful with our love.

REWARDS—my biggest reward is beating the odds. I’m told so often this dog is too sick, too old, too scared—but time, effort and love goes so far. And every now and then one of those adopted dogs will come to one of our meet and greet events, and I get to see how happy, loved and spoiled that once sick, weak, neglected and/or abused foster is now. That encourages me to do more, push harder, fight longer the next time.

How do you find foster parents and how many fosters do you have within the Birmingham area? We ask family, friends and co-workers to foster and ask the people in their life to foster.

Peace, Love & Dog Paws Rescue has about 24 foster homes, the majority are in the Birmingham area. Though we are always in need of more fosters and there’s a never ending plea for help every day.

How do you fund care and food for rescues? We are a not-for-profit all breed rescue that uses donations (monetary and supplies) to cover the vetting, microchips, food, monthly flea/tick and heartworm preventions, crates, collars, leashes, etc. Rarely does an adoption contribution cover it all, so we are blessed to have people that donate regularly. We have amazing relationships with our vets and local companies that help in donating supplies, food and vetting discounts. Every year we do three to four fundraisers in addition to our one to three meet and greet events monthly. Events are posted on the website monthly and our Facebook page.

What is the process to foster or adopt? The process is the same for a foster, foster-to-adopt or adoption—apply online, the application is reviewed, and a vet reference is done. If both are approved ,a home visit with the adoptable that has been applied for or who is the best fit is done in the applicant’s home, ideally with every person that lives in the home and the companions currently residing in the home. The goal is to save the life and find a home that can provide everything that adoptable will need from that day until its last.

For more information on Peace, Love and Dog Paws Rescue visit our website at peacelovedogpawsrescue.com. We also have a Facebook page and our adoptables are on petfinder.com.

Peace, Love & Dog Paws Rescue, Inc. is a registered 501(c)3

not-for-profit, all volunteer, dog rescue organization.

Sharing the city from the heart–and the keyboard.

by André Natta

Everywhere you turn in Birmingham you can find digital outlets staking their claims to a piece of the content-consuming pie. It’s become extremely easy to launch a site, or a profile on a social network. The lesson many are learning is it takes a lot of work and dedication to continue to feed content into the virtual communities they’ve established.

While some have chosen to pursue these efforts as businesses, there are still a few who approach these projects as labors of love. They’d rather reveal a city to their readers out of a desire to share the city they call home with others than worry about turning it into a business.

There’s something to be said about creating a website focused on where you live—particularly when it’s your hometown. Antwon Ervin is a local example of someone who took on that challenge—one that’s been seeing more and more interest as natives and transplants alike realize the spotlight is on us now. DiscoverBirmingham.org was launched late last year as Ervin finally decided to share what he was learning about his hometown as he was out exploring. By the time you read this, a new version of the site will have launched focusing on letting visuals, specifically videos, help tell the story about the city’s food and culture scenes. It provides an opportunity to build on the site’s YouTube channel in addition to its Twitter and Facebook profiles. According to a recent piece on Magic City Post, he’ll also be accepting submissions, allowing others to join him in showing a passion for the city.

The growing interest in the city by those looking to move back and others considering it as their next stop is providing the impetus of another effort being spearheaded by Laura Kate Whitney and the folks over at REV Birmingham. The former B-Metro columnist and area blogger will be helping to launch LIV Birmingham (http://livbirmingham.org/) on May 11 with a tour of “cool spaces” in the city center. The initiative and accompanying site will focus on providing people with the necessary information to make an informed decision about where they can live, work, and play throughout the city limits of Birmingham. They already maintain an Eventbrite account as well as a Twitter profile, possibly pointing to some more engaging conversations in person and online with those considering the city as a place to settle down.

Both of these initiatives, and others like them, are doing something that is no doubt important to the sustainable good health of a city–—providing additional outlets for necessary information. They are not necessarily focused on serving the public by being as a watchdog, but rather as a compass to guide you to new adventures. Considering summer’s almost here it’s as good a time as any to look to sites like these to see just where those adventures may be.

I fall in love with Bistro 218 at first bite!

by Jan Walsh      Photography by Beau Gustafson

Downtown Birmingham now boasts another fab, fine dining restaurant. Bistro 218 incorporates local and regional food products with the culinary styles of traditional French Bistro and modern American. The restaurant opened in November 2012, at 218 20^th Street North. And tonight is my first experience.

The Place

A valet awaits our car at the front door. And the host opens the door for us to enter. The storefront building dates to the 1880s and has been a boarding house, barbershop, candy store and more in its rich history. The restaurant has a warm and welcoming ambiance. The two-story dining room is flanked by exposed brick on each side wall lit by glowing sconces. Tables, appointed with crisp, white tablecloths, fresh flower stems, and candlelight, line the left wall’s long banquette, which wraps itself onto the back wall. Here a staircase leads upstairs to the bar, which is being finished at press time. The restaurant is open for lunch, Tuesday through Friday, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and dinner, Tuesday through Saturday, 5 p.m. – until.

The People

Chef and owner Tom Saab—a Birmingham native—graduated summa cum laude from Johnson and Wales and has years of culinary experience, including stints at country clubs and resorts. Saab is a humble chef who prefers to be in the kitchen with a philosophy that the focus should be on the food—not the chef. Here he takes common, local foods, applies advanced culinary techniques and creates magic. French food deserves great wine. And sommelier, David Manning recently passed the Level II Certified Sommelier course of The Court of Master Sommeliers. His additions to the wine list and plans for the bar upstairs are a lovely match to the restaurant’s cuisine. And pastry chef, Nina Jones’ talents are tasted on the dessert menu.

Favorite Fare

We begin dinner with soft, fresh baked olive bread and French bread—with generous helpings of butter and glasses of L’Arpent des Vaudon Sauvignon Blanc 2011 and Barco de Piedras 2010. I would come here just to eat this delicious bread. Looking over the dinner menu, we find it difficult to choose among the starters. So we order a tasting of it all: duck rillettes, mini crab cake sandwiches, pommes frites, and steamed mussels! The delectable duck rillettes are served with pickled vegetables, whole grain mustard and grilled French bread in traditional charcuterie style. The crab cake sandwiches are house–made, slider–sized buns encasing golden cakes plump full of flaky white crab and little else—just the way I like them. Crisp, hot frites—with house aioli for dipping—are a must have accompaniment for this dish. And the mussels are hot and succulent, tender and moist, with their broth adding buttery flavor.

After eating the entire starters menu, we skip the soups and salads list. But next time I look forward to catching their gumbo, chowder and the BLT salad with farm egg. From the “Specialties” list we order entrees of beef short ribs bourguignon and pan seared gulf grouper. The plateful of beef is served hot and steaming, with tender and earthy root vegetables of baby carrots, potato, and onions basting in its jus. The pan seared gulf grouper is also large in portion. A gorgeous, thick piece of milky white grouper rests atop a plate of scrumptious creamed corn and a tasty lemon butter sauce, with fried leeks as an accompaniment. For dessert, we indulge in a heavenly plate of profiteroles—creamy puffs with chocolate sauce. So what’s not to love about my first dinner at Bistro 218? Not a thing.

Asian Rim Sushi Company creates a special roll just for you.

By Jan Walsh

Photography by Beau Gustafson

Making sushi is not something that many home cooks want to tackle. It takes skills that must be honed and ingredients that are not readily available. But if you are a sushi lover and want to make your own, here is a new, secret recipe for a roll that is not found on the menu at Asian Rim Sushi Company.

Or better yet you can order this secret dish, if you know the name, “The B-Metro Roll.” It is large enough to share and is priced at $35. For B-Metro readers and BirminghamRestaurants.com website visitors only! View Video at BirminghamRestaurants.com/Recipes.

Rice Ingredients:
3 Cups Japanese rice (short grain rice)
3 Cups water
Rice Procedure: Wash rice, and soak rice for 15 minutes. Drain water. Cook rice according to directions on package. Let rice sit for 15 minutes.

Vinegar Mixture Ingredients:
1 Pound Japanese rice vinegar
1 ¼ Cups of sugar
¼ Cup Salt
2 Teaspoons Mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
2 Teaspoons Sake (Japanese rice wine)
1 Sheet of Kombu (2” x 2”)

Vinegar Mixture Procedure: Mix all ingredients together in pot put on medium heat until boils. Remove from heat, and allow to cool. Mix the hot cooked rice with ¾ of a cup of cold rice vinegar. Let cool about 15 minutes. Then it ready to use. Refrigerate left over sushi rice vinegar.

Spicy Aioli Mixture Ingredients:
½ Cup mayonnaise
¼ Teaspoon paprika
1 Petal fresh garlic, chopped fine
2 Teaspoons butter
4 Teaspoons Half & Half
½ Teaspoon vegetable oil
1 ½ Teaspoons sugar
½ Teaspoon Sriracha chili sauce
Spicy Aioli Mixture Procedure: Saute garlic in hot oil until golden brown. Add butter. Turn off heat. Add paprika
Roll Ingredients:
7 Ounce lobster tail
5 ½  Ounces sushi rice
1 Full sheet nori seaweed (8 ¼ ” x 7”)
1 Ripe avocado, sliced thin
4 Colors of caviar (tobiko)
2 Ounces barbeque Eel, broiled
2 Strips cream cheese

Roll Procedure: Spread the 5 ½ ounces of sushi rice on full sheet nori. Flip over on bamboo mat. Arrange all ingredients on nori. Roll it up tightly ensuring all ingredients are even throughout the roll. Cut 10-inch width plastic wrap. Place on cutting board, arrange four colors of tobiko or caviar equally on plastic wrap, one inch wide and ten inches long. Put avocado on top of tobiko. Put the roll on top on slices avocado. Wrap it up and upside down so you can see tobiko.

Put paper napkin on the roll. Use bamboo mat,and press the roll to adjust the shape. Cut into 10 to 12 pieces.

Discover awesome new pours at The Wine Loft

By Jan Walsh,  Photography by Beau Gustafson

Mike Dunnavant keeps the wine and his passion for it flowing at The Wine Loft. Every time I stop in, he has new and interesting wines on his glass list. And tonight is no exception. Seated on the leather sofa in the private tasting room, we have a nice view of the red wine cellar. This room can be reserved and is no extra charge.

Here we enjoy Hungarian, French, and American wines—each new to the list. The first wine is a white from Tokaj, Hungary, a region known for their dessert wines. Tokaj’s volcanic soils and south-facing slopes lend themselves to growing vines. Yet this 100 percent Furmint grape wine, Evolucio 2011 ($7 glass, $26 bottle) is dry in style. It has the minerality of a Sauterne, is light in body and displays notes of green apple, tangerine, honeysuckle, fig, and melon.

Our next taste is a red wine from Cahors, France. The Clos La Coutale is a 60–hectares estate on the alluvial floor of the valley, with complex soils that contain gravels, silicates and limestone clays. Cahors AOC wines must be a minimum of 70 percent Malbec and are blended with Merlot and Tannat. A significant supplement of Merlot softens and heightens the bouquet of Clos La Coutle 2010 ($10 glass, $39 bottle). The wine is black ink in color with a fruity nose. It bursts with aromas and flavors of blackcurrant and raspberry in this silky wine. Another red, Arbios Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 ($11 glass, $43 bottle) rounds out the tasting. This wine is from Alexander Valley in Sonoma County, California. Arbios Cellars produces only one varietal wine—100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon. From grapes that are sustainably grown on their mountain top vineyard, this lovely wine is dark garnet in color with plum, dried red cherry, blackberry, pomegranate and cassis.

By Jan Walsh  Photography by Beau Gustafson

La Dolce Vita is known for its scrumptious Italian fare. And today we lunch here, pairing pizza made from scratch with wines to match.

We order the meatball pizza and pair with both a red and white wine.

Our pizza arrives piping hot. No precut, perfect circles here. The outer rim reveals this pizza was hand cut. And the rustic, thin, soft crust does not give into its toppings—large pieces of smashed meatballs and generous portions of ricotta and mozzarella. The cheeses envelop the meatballs and meld to the crust, trapping inside the richness of the meat, acidity of the tomato sauce and creamy cheese flavors.

Our red wine, Querceto Chianti Classico is a medium to full-bodied wine that both complements and stands up to the pizza. It boasts notes of blackberry, black cherry, mineral, and violet in this lovely, balanced wine. And our white, Maso Canali, is more round, ripe, floral, and balanced than typical Pinot Grigios—giving it a broader range of food friendliness. Notes of pear and honey contrast well with the pizza’s spiciness, while its acidity cuts the creaminess of the pie. Other tempting pizzas to try on our next lunch at La Dolce Vita include Margherita Pizza, White Pizza, and salmon and spinach Pizza.

Much to enjoy with the local music scene.

by John D

Best Coast coming to Bottletree (Photo Credit: David Black)

The Music Festival season is officially in full swing with the arrival of May. The closest, and most dear to people in Birmingham (because the festival actually takes place in Alabama) is The Hangout, May 17–19, in Gulf Shores. Spring has sprung and with the fantastic weather there is no better way to enjoy live music than with your feet in the sand and the breeze off of the Gulf of Mexico. Just writing that makes me wish I were able to attend this year. Then you have Bonnaroo in mid June nipping at The Hangout’s heels. I have mentioned all of this before but it does bear repeating for another reason—the dreaded, rumored, derided, (insert applicable adjective here) exclusion clause for bands performing these festivals. This clause essentially states that a band that performs at a festival is not allowed to play a set number of weeks  before or within a set range of the festival. So be it. I understand that the festivals have to make money and so do the bands so I do not begrudge an artist paying their bills. It does affect Birmingham, mainly because we are located squarely between the two festivals. Sure, a lot of bigger acts cannot play here if they want to play one of the festivals, but it does allow for up and coming groups and more laid back artists to dominate the scene in Birmingham. The following are just a few of the acts or shows that will be a lot of fun to see and attend in May (for a more detailed list check out the concert calendar at birminghammountainradio.com).

Early in the month the Junior Board of the Alys Stephens Center is throwing their annual College Rewind Backyard Party (5/10). The party is just what the name suggests; it is designed to make you feel like you are back in college and someone’s big backyard is the best place to have it. Even better? Drivin’ N Cryin’ is this year’s featured band. There is nothing that calls me back to (a very distant) yesteryear than hearing “Straight To Hell” or “Fly Me Courageous.” The whole event also benefits programs at UAB ArtPlay; programs that encourage and teach the next generation of musicians in Birmingham. If you think about it, it is an investment in Birmingham’s future local music scene. Tickets at alysstephens.org

The next weekend we have another fundraiser that is a much bigger event and, more importantly, allows you to see animals with fur, feathers, and even scales while enjoying great local (and regional music) and all for free. If the fur and feathers did not give it away, surely “scales” brings to mind Do Dah Day (5/18, the parks on Highland Avenue). A family friendly event where there is something for everyone. This year’s music headliner is Nashville’s next up and comer Luella and The Sun. Their bluesy dirty gospel inflected rock and roll is something to see live and this is your chance. In addition to a solid headliner many of Birmingham’s truly talented local musicians will be performing (India Ramey, Downright, and relative newcomers to Birmingham, Feather Canyon). Find the whole line up and more info at dodahday.org

Duquette (Photo credit: Cary Norton)

Local musician Duquette Johnston released an EP earlier this year as a teaser for the album he has been working on. The featuring of the Johnston on NPR’s World Cafe in mid–March was a pleasant surprise and, to be honest, a much deserved spotlight on Johnston and company. The attention on the national level also convinced Johnston to release that album sooner rather than later.The Bottletree will be hosting the album release for Rabbit Runs A Destiny on May 24th with opening act Water Liars. Tickets at thebottletree.com

All of these are exciting and fun things to do that are much more Birmingham–centric than usual, so take the chance to make May about supporting local and enjoying great music!

COMING to BIRMINGHAM:

Dispatch with Allen Stone 5/30 @ Sloss Furnaces: Dispatch is indie-jam music, and good, but opener Allen Stone is going to shine as he belts out his distinct style of soul and R & B influenced rock.

Best Coast 5/30 @ The Bottletree: The small two piece (technically three with a touring drummer) surf/garage rock band shines in smaller more intimate venues like The Bottletree.

The Black Jacket Symphony performs The Rolling Stones’ “Some Girls” 6/14 and 6/15 @ WorkPlay. I have said it before, and I will say it again. There is something about Black Jacket that is distinctly NOT a cover band. And “Some Girls” is one of the Stones’ best.

Yes 7/19 @ The BJCC: Prog rock elder statesmen still going strong. All I have to mention is “Owner Of A Lonely Heart” and it is in your head for the rest of the day.