The Mill
- This article is about the 5 Points South restaurant. For the Mountain Brook landmark, see Old Mill.
The Mill was a casual restaurant located at 1035 20th Street South in front of Pickwick Plaza at the intersection of 20th Street South and Magnolia Avenue in Five Points South.
The restaurant, owned by neurosurgeon Cem Cezayirli, first opened in 1990 as The Grill, a 96-seat white-tablecloth bistro managed by Michael Cloth. Executive chef Ron Koetter produced a mild New Orleans-style menu with signature dishes like muscadine chicken with watermelon sauce and crawfish fettucini as well as fresh grouper, salmon and amberjack entrees.
The restaurant soon was re-created as The Mill restaurant, brewery and bakery, part of a Huntsville-based casual restaurant chain with patio dining, pool tables, and draft beer produced at the neighboring Southside Cellar microbrewey. The legal fight to permit operation of the microbrewery extended into 1994. The brewery closed a few years later, and a few years after that a dispute between the owners led to the name being changed to the Five Points Grill.
In 2007 Cezayirli brought in former Cheesecake Factory manager Gary Nemet on as a partner to rejuvenate the restaurant. Nemet oversaw a $200,000 overhaul of the decor. Executive chef Doug Morgan designed a new menu with the goal of providing "four star food at a three-star price". Nemet also arranged for the Good People Brewing Company to rekindle the former Southside Cellar brewing apparatus, producing a "house beer" which was sold back to the restaurant through a distributor to avoid the legal restrictions of Alabama's brewpub law.
The restaurant changed to a Tex-Mex menu under the name No Way José Grill & Cantina for a while before resuming operations as "The Mill" in 2010. The restaurant closed once more in September of that year and was leased by Brett MacDonald for Metroprime Steakhouse.
The Brother Bryan statue is displayed just outside the restaurant's outdoor dining area.
References
- Williams, Roy L. (November 3, 2007) "Five Points Grill gets facelift, more traffic." Birmingham News
- Hayes, Jack (January 28, 1991) "Chef Koetter competes with the best at Five Points Grill." Nation's Restaurant News
- Cooper, Lauren B. (March 5, 2010) "Ruby Tuesday on Southside closes after 16 years." Birmingham Business Journal
- DIel, Stan (September 18, 2010) "The Mill restaurant closes doors in Birmingham's Five Points South." Birmingham News