Bottega Cafe

Bottega Cafe Restaurant Review:

A carefully manicured hedge and market umbrellas that pop up as reliably as daffodils in spring lead to one of Birmingham’s favorite hangouts. Bottega Cafe provides a casual and vibrant dining option next to the more formal Bottega Restaurant. Find a perch on the patio and savor a chilled glass of wine or bask in the glow of the Pompeii-red walls while watching a crisp pizza emerge from the custom wood-burning stove. Start with house-made potato chips with charred onion dip or a Brussels sprout salad with hazelnuts, apple and pecorino cheese. The white pie with fennel sausage, onion, ricotta and provolone is a popular choice for pizza, as is the chicken scaloppine for a main. Murzilli, literally “small bites,” is a sandwich filled with fried oysters, Benton’s ham and chopped greens with a creamy herb dressing. Tuscan steak is served up with crushed new potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower. The extensive wine list, shared with adjacent Bottega Restaurant, leads with Italian selections, but includes plenty of French, Spanish and American options among others. Tiramisu is a favorite dessert, but you may want to conclude by licking pineapple passion fruit sorbetto off a spoon.