My Perfect Birmingham Saturday

Welcome to “My Perfect Birmingham Saturday,” a column where About Town asks Birmingham residents from different walks of life how they would spend a Saturday in the Magic City if they had it their way (and COVID notwithstanding).

Today’s Saturday was planned by Taylor Peake, President of MotionMobs, which turned 11 this year and offers custom software development, technical consulting, web and mobile applications, and data-driven analysis for measurable business growth. Peake, who has lived in Birmingham since 2008, has seen her adopted city grow and flourish in her 13 years here – especially downtown. “When I first moved to Birmingham, there were only two things open downtown: Urban Standard for coffee, and Zaza for breakfast,” she said. “There was absolutely nothing open at night. That’s obviously changed significantly in the last few years.” Birmingham’s growth is part of what’s pushed her to stay here, she said. “The change has been healthy for the city,” Peake said. “Seeing all of the new restaurants, the cultural aspect, the artists we have in Birmingham – how those have changed has been a big part of what kept me here. It’s not the same Birmingham from 10 years ago.”

On an ideal Saturday, we really love being able to take the kids and go to Ted’s Restaurant for breakfast. We love the make it your way grits bowl – you can add anything you want to it. Tasos and Beba [Touloupis, the owners of Ted’s] are so wonderful. Their business was always so busy and difficult to get into pre-COVID – there was always such a huge crowd because of offices close by at UAB and Innovation Depot. During COVID they started offering a Saturday breakfast, which they’d not done before. The option to go see them on weekends, when the environment wasn’t as crowded as it typically is, is somewhere we like to take the kids to. The food is fantastic and having the Saturday breakfast option is cool to bring all the kids to and share that experience.

Breakfast is such an important thing to me on weekends; that’s my leisurely moment with the family.

Other things that make a good Saturday is we love being able to take the kids and spend time at a friend’s house, in someone’s backyard and front yard. It’s so difficult for me to think of [my perfect Birmingham Saturday] without COVID in mind. For a reprieve, we wanted to be around other families and kids and spend time with them outdoors. Everyone felt safe and it was something to do – socializing with our friends and spending time with our friends is really wonderful for us. The kids spend time with each other, we’ll have a meal together – either cook or bring part of a meal – and we’ll spend time outdoors. It’s lovely. I’ve enjoyed spending more time outside than I have previously. We have a lot of backyard dinners on weekends. That’s really important to me and Drew.

Showing up to one of our construction projects and everything going according to plan with no hiccups, on budget, and on time would make for a wonderful weekend. I always make sure I’ve got time to carve out to spend time on work – what’s important, moving things forward. I enjoy working on weekends when I can do things I need to do, carve out what we have lined up for the week, and what I need to be prepared for on Monday morning. It makes it a lot less hectic.

My ideal Saturday focuses on spending time with my family, friends, being outside, and having time to carve out and line things up for work. It’s extra perfect if I can check in and see everything is going according to schedule and nothing has popped up that’s a big issue that I need to work out immediately.