Tuscaloosa is a destination filled with excitement and energy all year long. Opportunities to wine and dine around town continue to expand, so when it comes to searching for best places to eat and drink in Tuscaloosa, your options are plenty. The community offers a wonderful blend of traditional spots featuring some of the best soul food around as well as many eclectic places too. Below we have compiled a list of just a few places to wine and dine the best way we know how in Tuscaloosa.
The Wine Market
This place provides a variety of offerings by the glass including red, white, sparkling, and rosé, which can all be enjoyed on-premise. The owner believes that this business is an opportunity to bring new and exciting possibilities for the wine market family to further the way they serve the community of Tuscaloosa.
Evangeline’s
This locally owned restaurant offers fine dining outside of the hustle and bustle of downtown. Evangeline’s customers enjoy great company and cocktails, and a very delightful menu too. New American cuisine and wines are artfully presented in a romantic, upscale dining room. This fine dining option is the best place for signature dishes, fresh from the Gulf seafood, and decadent desserts. Reservations can be made on their website as well.
Chuck’s fish
All of the featured fish at this gem comes from their own wholesale market at Harbor Docks. In addition to Gulf seafood, they offer aged, naturally-raised beef – cut in-house, and an award-winning sushi bar, created and managed by renowned chef Yoshie Eddings. If you’re looking for a top-notch dining experience with wonderful food, stellar service, a great atmosphere, and a nice selection of wine, look no further than Chuck’s Fish.
Sessions
This one-of-a-kind bar focuses on pre-Prohibition and modern classic cocktails in a non-smoking environment. The atmosphere is very relaxing with delightful service. Don’t underestimate these mixologists; they can make the drink of your dreams in just minutes. The entire staff makes for a spectacular experience no matter what time it is. And don’t worry, if you aren’t feeling adventurous the good ole glass of wine never fails.
Starting January 22nd and going through January 26th, Tuscaloosa Tourism & Sports will be hosting the first annual Tuscaloosa D.A.T.E. Week, a week where businesses around the city provide deals and specials in order to accommodate couples looking for a respite from their weekly routine. We are excited about this opportunity to showcase businesses around the city of Tuscaloosa and to provide couples the chance to get out and celebrate each other as the new year kicks off! If you would like to explore all the ways that you can enjoy Tuscaloosa Date Week all around town, you can visit https://www.ttowndateweek.com/ for all the details you need!
The word “DATE” as a part of this week-long event is actually an acronym for all the available opportunities around town: Diamonds, Arrangements, Tastes, and Entertainment. These four key words reflect the deals and specials around the town, whether they are special food menus, exciting new couples events, or delicious food options for two! We have worked with a diverse selection of businesses around the city to provide a wide variety of ways for couples to have a nice dinner together, get out and do something, or to purchase a gift of some sort for each other. You can buy flowers or diamonds, you can get coffee or dessert, or you could even get barbecue, pizza, tapas, or seafood! Plus, if you haven’t yet been to some of the exciting restaurants Tuscaloosa has to offer, you can try them out! Places like Dotson’s Burger Spot and Southern Ale House will be offering a special menu, while Chuck’s Fish and Animal Butter are perfect places to take the opportunity to try something new at a discounted price!
Tuscaloosa Date Week is an opportunity for anyone looking to make a special date with their significant other, whether it be a first date or an anniversary celebration! For a first date, you can break the ice over a cup of coffee at O’Henry’s and then go learn how to make a cocktail at Roxy’s! For a date with a long-time loved one, you could get a snack at Frutta Bowls during the day and then surprise them with a lovely piece of jewelry from Hudson-Poole right before trying some new wines at Carpe Vino! If you and your significant other want to share a pizza pie, Tuscaloosa Date Week is the perfect opportunity to try something other than delivery, like Heat Pizza or Broadway Pizzeria! There are many opportunities to celebrate each other all during the week in Tuscaloosa. Some of the locations participating in Date Week offer a way to just hang out, drink some cocktails, and get to know someone better, like Five Bar, Sweet Home Food Bar, or Avenue Pub! Whatever activity is best suited to the kind of date you want to have, there is a place where you can do that!
Gifts are a wonderful way to express how much you care for someone, and therefore Tuscaloosa Date Week will be offering deals at businesses all around town to purchase gifts for those for whom they care greatly. Someone in a relationship has the ability to surprise their special someone with an unexpected bouquet of flowers or even a shiny, new bracelet, all purchased using the Tuscaloosa DATE Week discounts put in place by participating businesses. The two florists participating in Tuscaloosa Date Week are Pat’s Florist and Gourmet Baskets and the Tuscaloosa Flower Shoppe, and both are offering discounts to those who come in and purchase a special gift to celebrate Date Week! Even further than flowers, Hudson-Poole Fine Jewelers will be offering 10% off, in addition to other deals, to customers who come in and mention that they are celebrating Tuscaloosa Date Week!
While some of the offers appeal to the gift-giving side of date night, others appeal to some of the most popular date night activities: dinner, dessert, and wine! During Tuscaloosa Date Week, all participating restaurants will be offering special deals or special Date Week menus for customers that mention they are celebrating “date week”! Evangeline’s will be offering 25% off your whole meal, along with half-priced glasses of wine! In total, there are 20 restaurants around Tuscaloosa looking to provide a decadent addition to any couple’s date night while they are celebrating Tuscaloosa Date Week! Some sit-down restaurants included in Tuscaloosa Date Week are Jim‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q, Avenue Pub, and 301 Bisto, Bar, & Beer Garden, to name a few. In addition to sit-down restaurants, some coffee shops and dessert destinations will be celebrating Tuscaloosa Date Week with deals, including Monarch Espresso Bar, UPerk, Cravings Specialty Grocery, and O’Henry’s Coffee.
However, if the relationship you are in is more geared to going out and doing something, then you have a mass of deals around town to satisfy your craving to get out of the house. Many businesses will be offering experiences for couples to enjoy together, like learning to make sushi at Black Warrior Brewing or making your own candy bar at Peterbrooke Chocolatier! Additionally, couples have the opportunity to have a classic date tonight together by visiting Cobb Theaters and Druid City Music Hall for a movie or to see Corey Smith in concert. Corey Smith will be performing Thursday at 8:30 PM with Hudson Moore and tickets can be found for that show at https://druidcitymusichall.com/. Tickets start at $20 and go up to $35 per person!
In addition to diamonds, arrangements, tastes, and entertainment, another business participating in Tuscaloosa Date Week is a mobile app, Wyndy, that connects parents with college-aged babysitters. This way, those couples who may not be able to get out are able to hire a babysitter for the evening and have the night on the town to themselves! Couples celebrating Tuscaloosa Date Week will enjoy $10 off their babysitting service when they use the app during Date Week. Details on the app and how to receive this discount are located on the Tuscaloosa Date Week website at https://www.ttowndateweek.com/.
Share your Date Week experience with us by tagging us, @VisitTuscaloosa or using #DateWeek in your post! We will be looking out for posts all over social media and giving shoutouts to those that mention us or use our hashtag! In order to learn more about the deals around town, you can visit https://www.ttowndateweek.com/. On the website, there is a list of participating businesses and what deals you can find at every location. We are excited to see everyone get out and go celebrate each other during the first annual Tuscaloosa Date Week!
Written by Will Baggett