Homewood Gourmet owners Chris and Laura Zapalowski. Photo by Daniel Schumacher
You may have noticed some fresh new faces at the Homewood Gourmet tent slinging breakfast burritos at the Pepper Place Market this summer. This past May, Homewood Gourmet owner Franklin Biggs decided to sell his restaurant to Hot and Hot Fish Club alums Chris and Laura Zapalowski.
The Zapalowskis confirmed to me in an interview last week that while they are working on interior renovations that they hope to finish by Labor Day, they will take great care in evolving the menu.
“We love the style of the restaurant and it has such a great following. We don’t want to change someone’s favorite dish, but there are a few areas where we can create new items or tweak one to our taste,” says Laura.
Drawing on his experience at Hot and Hot, Chef Zapalowski was used to serving food that was 90 percent locally grown and procured and is working to incorporate more of that into the Homewood Gourmet menu. At this point, locally sourced Evans Meats products have been incorporated into the restaurant and catering menus.
“The long term goal is to evolve the menu in that fashion [that includes more local items] if we can figure out how to make it work financially. We are patient,” says Chris.
The Details
Homewood Gourmet
1919 28th Avenue South
Homewood, AL 35209-2600
(205) 871-1620
Very cool. I so support the idea of using locally grown food! I wish more restaurants did it!
Posted by Deb Miller on August 9th, 2010.