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 Kim Lee, CEO and founder of Forge, one of Birmingham’s most popular professional coworking spaces. After attending college in Birmingham at Samford University, Kim moved away for a couple of years, but has lived in the Magic City since 2006, raising a family and starting a business. “It’s a great city to raise a family and just beautiful,” she said of Birmingham. “Everywhere you drive is so beautiful. There are fun things to do with your family and kids, great restaurants – we don’t eat out a ton, but we love good food. There are great schools for our kids, who are really involved in sports – there are lots of activities for them. We love Birmingham.” Despite Kim attesting that she is “so boring,” we beg to differ. After long weeks of work, school, and activities, the weekends tend to be more relaxed because “our weeks are hectic,” she said – and her husband is a pastor, so going out typically happens on Friday nights, not Saturday. Here is how Kim would plan her ideal day.

Waking up in the morning on a great Saturday would be my husband and I going for a walk with our dogs, coming home, and loading up our family to go to our daughter’s soccer game. (Two of our kids play sports, so on an ideal Saturday we’ve got to watch both of them play.) Then we’d head out for a nice brunch at The Essential or Big Bad Breakfast – our kids love BBB, so I’d say that, or Troup’s Pizza in Cahaba Heights.

Then we would go watch my son play basketball and come home and work outside in the garden. That evening for dinner, if we’re feeling fancy, we’ll go to Bottega. If we’re looking for good food and want to be comfortable, we’ll go to Automatic. Or FoodBar. There’s too many!

Then we’d come home and sit out on the back porch and enjoy a quiet night at home before going to bed.

I also love to go to Leaf and Petal – these are all Cahaba Heights places! – and I love meandering through and dreaming about what I can put in my garden.

Our Saturdays are spent with our family. We love to go to watch our kids play sports, come home, be in the yard, work in the garden and then, ideally, go out for a date.