Feizal Valli
Feizal Valli (born in Nairobi, Kenya) is a bar owner and artist who relocated to Birmingham from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Valli grew up in Buffalo, New York and earned degrees in English and fine arts at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. He moved to New Orleans in 1990 and worked as a bar manager for the Temptations strip club on Bourbon Street. He later opened his own bar in South Africa, but was forced to close down after he stopped paying protection money to local mobsters. He returned to New Orleans and worked at Emeril Lagasse's NOLA restaurant until Katrina forced him to move. He has tended bar at Cosmo's Pizza, Highlands Bar and Grill, Cafe Dupont, 26 and Hot & Hot Fish Club. He was a finalist in a national bartending contest sponsored by GQ magazine and Bombay Sapphire gin in 2011.
In 2006 Valli created an installation entitled "Mission Accomplished" in the 22-foot-long front window of his ground floor apartment in the Pheonix Lofts at 1710 2nd Avenue North. "Mission Accomplished" was composed of toy soldiers -- one for each casualty among U.S. soldiers in Iraq. A small label, reading "Mission Accomplished" located the point in the death toll at which President Bush declared victory from the flight deck of the USS Lincoln on May 1, 2003.
In 2013 Valli was hired as bar manager for The Collins bar on 2nd Avenue North. He contributed the paper-airplane theme and a Birmingham-inspired periodic table to the bar's decor.
Valli married Rachael Roberts in 2016, and the couple opened a new bar, the Atomic Lounge, in early 2017. The bar closed after they separated in 2021. In 2022 Valli opened a new bar, The House of Found Objects.
References
- Short, Dale (June 29, 2006) "Toy Soldiers: Window installation shows the casualties of war one life at a time." Birmingham Weekly.
- Short, Dale (June 8, 2006) "Art on the battlefield". Interview with Faizal Valli.
- Hubbard, Russell (August 18, 2011) "Birmingham bartender with complex past hopes for taste of fame from his cocktail creation." The Birmingham News
- Hornbuckle, M. David (January 3, 2014) "Bartender Profiles: Feizal Valli". The Whiskey Thief - accessed January 4, 2014
- Poe, Kelly (January 11, 2017) "First Look: Atomic Lounge will bring costumes and vintage character to First Avenue North." The Birmingham News
- Edge, John T. (June 11, 2019) "Social Engineering" Oxford American No. 105
External link
- Photo of Valli with "Mission Accomplished" on Flickr.com