Bottega Restaurant

Bottega Restaurant, opened by chef Frank Stitt in 1988 as a companion to his flagship Highlands Bar and Grill, channels the warmth of an Italian trattoria while maintaining the elevated standards that define Stitt's culinary vision in Birmingham, Alabama. The restaurant occupies a richly decorated space on Highland Avenue South in Five Points South, its dining room marked by warm colors, tilework, and a bar that anchors the room with a social energy absent from the more formal Highlands next door. Stitt's culinary education included deep engagement with Italian regional cooking alongside his French training, and Bottega reflects that dual influence: pasta is made in-house daily and forms the backbone of the menu, with shapes and sauces rotating by season and ingredient availability from Alabama farms. House-made tagliatelle arrives dressed with ragù or with butter and local mushrooms depending on the season; rigatoni might appear with sausage or with blistered tomatoes. A wood-burning oven drives many preparations, giving the kitchen options for roasted whole fish—Gulf catch when available, prepared Italian-style with olive oil and herbs—and deeply flavored roasted vegetables that benefit from direct flame. Seasonal risotto is made to order with gradual stock addition and finished with Parmesan from the kitchen's Italian sourcing. The osso buco is a Bottega perennial: veal shank braised to the point of collapse, arriving with bone marrow, gremolata, and a reduced braising liquid that concentrates wine, mirepoix, and herbs. The wine list skews Italian and covers the peninsula from Piedmont to Sicily, with a particularly strong showing from Tuscany and the Veneto. The restaurant shares a building with Bottega Café on the ground floor, which operates a more casual and abbreviated menu at lower price points. Reservations are required for the upstairs dining room and should be secured at least two weeks ahead for weekend evenings.