BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Big Bad Breakfast -- the long-awaited breakfast and lunch restaurant from Oxford, Miss., chef John Currence and Birmingham restaurateur Nick Pihakis -- finally opens for real today on U.S. 280.

The restaurant has been two years in the planning, and to give guests an idea of what to expect when they walk through the door, Big Bad Breakfast operating partner James Claborn took AL.com on a tour of the restaurant Monday.

(Click on the photo gallery at the top of this story for a slideshow from our photographer Tamika Moore.)

For those familiar with Currence's original Big Bad Breakfast in Oxford, the menu here is almost identical, but some of the names of the dishes have been changed to reflect Alabama's musical and literary heritage.

Among them, for instance, are a Drifting Cowboy skillet dish with pork belly, hash, eggs and cheddar cheese ($10) in honor of Hank Williams; a pun-intended Moo Radley hand-pattied hamburger ($9) in tribute to Harper Lee; and a Greenbow County Cathead biscuit with bacon, sausage, ham or chicken ($7), named after the fictitious Alabama county in Winston Groom's "Forrest Gump."

James Claborn, left, is the operating partner and Leo Oliver is the chef at the new Big Bad Breakfast that opens June 3, 2014, on U.S. 280 in Birmingham, Ala. (Tamika Moore/tmoore@al.com)

The menu also includes a Big Bad Breakfast Plate with two eggs and a choice of meats and sides ($8.50); a Cahaba Lily omelet with two eggs, Swiss cheese and seasonal herbs ($10); a Buttermilk Short Stack with three pancakes, whipped cream and strawberries ($10); a Big Bad BLT sandwich ($7.50); an Elvis peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich ($7.50); a Double-Fried Pork Belly Quesadilla with cheddar cheese and scrambled eggs ($9.50); and Co-Cola Fried Chicken, a three-piece plate of chicken that has been brined in Coca-Cola ($9.50).

The pork for all of the bacon and sausages is processed and cured at Pihakis' Fatback Pork Project in Eva; the grits are from McEwen & Sons; the free-range eggs from White Oak Pastures; and the coffee is from Octane. Big Bad Breakfast makes its own jellies.

The bar menu features a rotating selection of local and regional craft beers, keg wines by the glass or a small carafe, and specialty cocktails that include a Big Bad Bloody Mary and a Breakfast Margarita, as well as a Screwdriver and Mimosa. Bar service will not be available on opening day but should begin by Friday, Claborn says.

The orange juice is fresh-squeezed in a state-of-the-art Zummo slicer and juicer that Claborn refers to as "not the Cadillac, but the Bentley" of juice machines. The juicer is prominently displayed behind the bar, and watching it in action is a sideshow in itself.

For a full menu that includes descriptions and prices of all of the dishes, go here.

Also, for guests who want to take a little Big Bad Breakfast home with them, the house-made bacon and sausage is packaged for sale, along with BBB caps, T-shirts and coffee mugs.

The restaurant seats 104 diners inside and another 62 on the patio.

The dining room's rustic décor is the handiwork of another one of the partners in the restaurant, John Michael Bodnar, who is especially adept at salvaging old materials and putting them to new use.

[RELATED: Q&A with Big Bad chef John Currence]

Among Bodnar's touches are a marble-topped bar skirted with reclaimed wood, a beadboard and pressed-tin ceiling, hand-hewn tabletops, and a weathered metal "B" that hangs behind the front counter to remind guests that breakfast here is big and bad.

"John Michael, this is something he does really well," Claborn says, pointing out the bar. "He gets wood like this from old barns and outdoor structures and makes things with it. . . . It looks good with the marble, too."

Birmingham folk/pop artist Paul Cordes Wilm created an original piece of art that reflects the restaurant's Alabama flavor, and he will paint a whimsical, "Big Bad Wolf"-themed mural on the patio, Claborn says.

Big Bad Breakfast is at 5361 U.S. 280, in the strip center just east of Walmart and directly behind Krispy Kreme. The phone number is 205-490-7568.

Hours are 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. seven days a week.

UPDATED at 10:51 a.m. on Tuesday, June 10, 2014, to correct that the pork served at Big Bad Breakfast is processed and cured at the Fatback Pork Project in Eva, Ala.