Mike Kaylor's Best of Huntsville is back

The 140-plus page guide to North Alabama called The Best of Huntsville by Mike Kaylor first appeared in 1984, when 10,000 copies sold out within months. A second edition hit the book stores a year later with updated information. It was never reprinted. Now it is being reissued on a blog at http://thebestofhuntsville.blogspot.com.

I wrote and published the book in response to the many phone calls from readers of The Huntsville Times wanting advice on nightlife and entertainment. I began writing a weekly column for The Times in 1978 that covered clubs, restaurants, local bands and other activities. People would call to ask where they should go for an anniversary dinner or what was fun for out-of-town visitors. The book was a summary.

Each year since then, I have planned to update The Best of Huntsville, but it never became a priority. Today's technology, though, gives me a chance to bring it up to date and make it an interactive guide book. That's what this blog will do.

Huntsville graphic artist and actor Fred Sayers illustrated the book, and many of his illustrations will appear here. My dear friend Bill Easterling, who died in 2000, wrote the book's Foreward. The Library of Congress number is 85-080556 and the book carries the ISBN: 0-916039-01-3.

My plan is to begin transcribing portions of the book in this blog that have withstood 25 years of change and to add new innovations. When it's updated, we'll release it again in print. Join me in this new venture. I'm excited about it. I hope you are too.

Huntsville is becoming Alabama's restaurant proving ground

Huntsville has been blessed with dozens of new restaurants over the last 18 months, and 2009 shows little sign of slowing down. Even over months of financial meltdown across other areas, Huntsville has added dozens of innovative independent and chain restaurants. Some may be struggling, but confidence remains strong. Names of some of the recent additions are Mezza Luna, Grille 29, The Angus Steakhouse, Bistro de Ville, Dolce, Ketchup, Connor's Steaks & Seafood and Cotton Row Restaurant. They span from far South Huntsville to downtown and the new Bridge Street Town Centre and Providence planned development.

I've watched Huntsville's sprawl over the last 30-plus years, and it has been truly exciting. I moved into an apartment that was at the time on the western edge of town looking out over cotton fields and a lazy U.S. 72 heading west into the country. Now that same road is bounded by restaurants and hotels for five miles beyond, where another hotbed city called Madison begins.

I began working for The Huntsville Times in 1977, when the hottest restaurants were on Memorial Parkway. They were called Boots, The Elegant, Dwarf Restaurant, Cafe Palaka, El Palacio, Jade Pagoda, to name a few. Univeristy Drive was being transformed into the new restaurant row at the time with Cork 'n' Cleaver, El Chico and The Fogcutter. Many more were to open there soon.

That was 1977. Thirty years later, restaurants had begun to cluster in different parts of town -- Airport Road, Jones Valley, University Drive West and Cummings Research Park. This blog will continue to trace the transformation of Huntsville from a tiny cotton town with mill diners to a bustling rocket city with new culinary creations.

The blogs will continue with personal observations and also to supplement my Under the Table blog for The Huntsville Times. The link to it is http://blog.al.com/kaylor. Thanks for reading.

Huntsville's restaurants are best in Alabama

Huntsville residents spent many years yearning for good and innovative restaurants. Their wishes have come true in the 21st century. Huntsville has become Alabama's hotbed as a restaurant proving ground. My name is Mike Kaylor, and I've watched the transition.

I have been following restaurant trends for more than 30 years as a nightlife columnist, entertainment editor and restaurant critic. I began writing a column for The Huntsville Times in 1978 that focused on nightlife. In 1982, I helped design a television and entertainment tabloid called ShowTimes that included a restaurant review each week. As editor of the section, I assigned writers to review certain restaurants and wrote many of them myself. In 1996, the newspaper's editor assigned me to do all of the reviews to keep the style consistent. Six months later, the publisher asked that we start taking readers along on reviews. Hundreds of Huntsville Times readers have become guest restaurant reviewers since then.