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photo by Tamika Moore

By Bob Carlton

Mauricio Papapietro got it right when he opened his first Brick & Tin restaurant in a century-old building on 20th Street North in downtown Birmingham.

The second time around, he got to do it even better.

The new Brick & Tin location that Papapietro opened in March on Cahaba Road in Mountain Brook Village has all of the old-is-new-again charm of Papapietro’s original restaurant and then some — with exposed brick enclosing the bakery, pressed-tin tiles adorning the dining room and a handsome, U-shaped bar made from reclaimed oak as the restaurant centerpiece.

Acrylic ghost chairs encircle dark-wood tables, clear schoolhouse globe pendant lights dangle from the ceilings and the words “brick & tin,” spelled out in black letters against the white tile flooring, greet visitors as they walk through the doors.

“We were trying, from a design standpoint, to strike a balance between rustic and contemporary,” Papapietro says. “I call it classic contemporary, or rustic refined.”

Papapietro partnered with architect Kyle D’Agostino and Appleseed Workshop to transform what had been the offices of Village Dermatology into a swanky new suburban restaurant.

As happened with the restaurant’s original downtown location, the more layers they peeled back during the demolition, the more hidden gems they uncovered.

“We found this brick wall that we didn’t know was here,” Papapietro says as he walks into the bakery. “So it became the story of ‘How can we use this wall?’ Obviously, we love the brick; it’s part of our name. So we had the idea to use this wall to enclose the bakery.”

The new restaurant also has a few extras that the downtown location doesn’t have, including a separate side entrance for customers to pick up to-go orders; a larger kitchen that will allow the staff to handle lunch while also prepping for dinner; and a more spacious bakery where all of the breads for both Brick & Tin locations will be baked at one site.

Perhaps most importantly, Papapietro has added full bar service, expanded the menu and will be open for dinner six nights a week, as well as brunch on Sunday.

“Downtown on Friday nights, we offer entrées, but the kitchen is really small and tiny, so it’s hard to pull off all the time,” Papapietro says. “So we just do it on Friday nights.

“Here, we’re basically taking that, and we are going to do it all of the time here. So you can get an entrée at lunch or dinner, anytime. We’re trying to keep the price points of the entrées in the $18 to $25 or $26 range.”

As they do at the downtown Brick & Tin, diners place their orders at the counter and a server delivers the meals to their seats.

“We are trying to fuse really high-quality food into that kind of fast-casual model,” Papapietro says.

Matthew Couch, who previously worked as the wine director at Hot and Hot Fish Club, is the bar manager at Brick & Tin.

“I’m excited about our cocktail program,” Papapietro says. “We are going to do kind of a farm-to-glass seasonal cocktail thing as much as we can. We probably will have six beers on draft, as many local beers as we can. We’ve got a great wine and bar manager who is going to drive a really good wine program here, too.”

Details

Brick & Tin

2901 Cahaba Road, Mountain Brook Village

Hours: Mon.-Wed., 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m.; Thurs.-Sat., 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun., 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m.

205-297-8636

brickandtin.com

On the Menu

A sampling of Brick & Tin’s offerings:

Entrées:

Pork scallopini with romeso sauce, fava beans, mushroom, scallions and Yukon gold potatoes ($18)

Flat-iron steak with charred spring onion, farro, roasted cherry tomatoes, avocado and sherry vinaigrette ($19)

Red snapper with sweet pea puree, asparagus, preserved lemon and new potatoes ($25)

Sandwiches:

Roasted free-range chicken, spinach, pecorino and roasted garlic aioli ($8)

Braised beef brisket, caramelized onions and white barbecue sauce ($9)

Three cheeses melted with smoky bacon and whiskey marmalade ($7)

Salads:

Classic with iceberg lettuce, house-made buttermilk ranch, aged cheddar, garlic croutons and tomatoes ($3, $7)

Spring salad with mixed lettuces, shaved asparagus, radish, goat cheese, almonds, carrots and sherry vinaigrette ($7)

Bibb salad with gulf shrimp, butter lettuce, mint vinaigrette, pistachio, feta and radish ($5, $10)

Soup:

Selections change daily and are $3 for a cup, $6 for a bowl and $6 for a cup and a small salad