FLIP Burger Boutique
A Birmingham restaurant flips the concept of fine dining.
By Brannon S. Dawkins Photos by Heidi Geldhauser, courtesy of FLIP Burger Boutique
Click here to download a menu from FLIP Burger Boutique
A new restaurant coming to Birmingham will soon show Magic City foodies a different side of fine dining.
FLIP, a burger boutique based in Atlanta, opens at The Summit Dec. 14. FLIP, “fine dining between two buns,” is the brainchild of Barry Mills, an industrial engineer from Atlanta. He opened the first restaurant near his alma mater Georgia Tech in December 2008 with his long-time friend and Birmingham native Ron Stewart.
Mills and Stewart’s friendship began 26 years ago through the Big Brother program in Atlanta. Mills was 10 years old at the time.“My little brother is now my business partner in FLIP,”says Stewart, who is retired from Accenture consulting in Atlanta, where he was a partner.
“Barry knew he wanted to do a restaurant with burgers,”Stewart says. So the two men recruited chef Richard Blais, a former contestant on BRAVO’s Top Chef: Chicago, to craft the idea of the burger boutique. “When we got together with Richard, he brought a lot of energy to the table,”Stewart says. So he joined Mills and Stewart as an owner and partner.“Barry gets the credit for hitting this niche in the market, and Richard has a new food idea a minute.”
There were several reasons Birmingham was chosen as the location for the second restaurant but one reason stood out, Stewart says. The city came highly-recommended by food lovers.
“We started talking to some of our regular customers about other great food towns,” Stewart says. “Charleston and Birmingham were the cities they suggested. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that.”
The first restaurant in Atlanta has successfully targeted people who enjoy the casual side of fine dining for a price range of $15 to $20 a person, Stewart says. The menu includes burger options most people have likely never experienced. There are a variety of beef burgers, like the A5, a grade A5 imported Japanese kobe burger with seared foie gras, truffle oil, bread and butter pickles and red wine syrup. If beef isn’t your meat of choice, you can choose from turkey, crab, tuna and even lamburgers. If carbs don’t belong in your diet, any of the burgers can be served as a lettuce wrap.
Side items also go beyond the ordinary. You can order hand-cut French fries or vodka-battered onion rings. Or you could branch out by trying the butternut squash tempura with oaxacan chocolate salt or veal sweetbread nuggets served with sweet and sour dipping sauce.
And then there is dessert. Milkshake flavors range from nutella and burnt marshmallow to Krispy Kreme.“The milkshakes are amazing,” Stewart says.“My favorite is the pumpkin pie.”
“FLIP has great energy, the food is outstanding and it’s a great environment,” Stewart says.“It’s high energy and fun. I think people will migrate to it just like they do here.”
