Hot and Hot Fish Club

Seasonal eating is no longer a novel trick among chefs and home cooks, and The Hot and Hot Fish Club has been one step ahead from the beginning by sourcing its incredibly fresh meats and produce from a network of local purveyors and artisans. In addition to building a strong community and lessening the restaurant’s carbon footprint, this gives Chef Hastings the tools he needs to provide diners with heirloom and foraged products that are too delicate to travel more than a few miles from farm to plate. Over the past decade, we’ve sought out and developed relationships with farmers and purveyors of the finest products. Our food at the restaurant is unassuming and uncomplicated because we want our customers to experience the sheer pleasure of tasting a ripe, heirloom tomato, freshly picked from Dave Garfrerick’s farm, or the delight of savoring a slice of cheese made with milk from a nearby dairy. They are the real hers of Hot and Hot—the ones who share our largely disproportionate passion for great products and hard work. Whether an oysterman, farmer, cheesemaker, or beekeeper, these producers provide us access to the very best ingredients available in America. By introducing you to our sources, we hope you will understand us and our vision for food and cooking. This is by no means a complete list of everyone who supplies products to the Hot and Hot Fish Club. We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all of the many extraordinary farmers, purveyors, and fishermen whose amazing products bring our menu to life. We appreciate their hard work and passion that defines their personal greatness as well as the products they bring us. PRODUCE: Farmer Dave Garfrerick of Garfrerick Farms has played a huge role in supplying our restaurant with incredible heirloom tomats, squash blossoms, a variety of peppers and eggplants and much more. His tomats, have in part, helped make our Hot and Hot Tomato Salad so successful. Dave also sells his produce at Friends Natural Market in Oxford, Alabama and at his new restaurant, Garfrerick Cafe. Snow’s Bend Farm practices organic agriculture and provides us with a variety of amazing produce such as Dragon Tongue beans, spring onions, head lettuces, Crimson okra, Sunburst tomats, and fresh herbs. Petals from the Past, is a nursery in Jemison, Alabama, that specializes in antique roses, heirloom shrubs and hard to find perennial flowers and herbs. Due to recent years’ severe drought in the South, they started selling their locally grown fruit and herbs to local restaurants. They were so encouraged by the welcoming response from local chefs that they will continue to sell their fruit (muscadines, scuppernongs, apples, pears, persimmons, figs, blackberries and blueberries) to restaurants and have gotten several neighboring farmers interested in selling their produce as well. Chris Bennett, whose family owns Hollow Spring Farm used to work in our kitchen at the Hot and Hot Fish Club. He has since left and is running his family’s farm with the intention of providing products to local chefs and restaurants. He provides us with foraged items such as mushrooms, wild ginger, sassafras roots, wild blackberries, mulberries, and wild persimmons. He also brings a variety of cultivated herbs. Averiett Branch Farms and Farmer John Wesson provides the Hot and Hot Fish Club with naturally grown fruits and vegetables such as melons, figs, squash and squash blossoms and okra. He also keeps our grill and wood-burning oven stocked with hickory wood. Jones Valley Urban Farm is a non-profit project in the heart of Birmingham, Alabama that promotes sustainable agriculture and alternative land-use. They provide us with amazing produce throughout the year such as beets, Yukon gold potats, French fingerling potats, and green beans. Michael Dean is a local farmer who brings baby arugula, mizuna, squash blossoms, microgreens, and fresh herbs to our back door. GRAINS: Frank McEwen, owner of Coosa Valley Milling has a stone burr grist mill and sells his milled grains under the McEwen & Sons label. We purchase yellow cornmeal, yellow grits and fresh farm eggs from them. Anson Mills produces dozens of products from heirloom seeds and is working to revive dozens more antebellum corn and rice varieties. Anson Mills is vital to the cuisine we serve at the Hot and Hot Fish Club. Owner Glenn Roberts and his group are renters and farmers on the same land as Chris’ ancestors (the founders of the original hot and hot fish club) and are growing some of the same varieties of rice that they grew. The growers take great care to grow these grains organically, meeting strict regulations and growing procedures. The grains are also milled in the traditional manner, preserving the flavor and integrity of the seeds. We use their Antebellum coarse white grits, Carolina gold rice and Carolina gold broken rice. MEAT, SEAFOOD & CHEESE: At Fudge Family Farms, Mr. Fudge sells pasture raised, no hormones added, all-natural pork. We purchase whole hogs and utilize the entire animal: Leaf fat added to pie crusts, livers used to make boudin, fry the skins for cracklin’ snacks at the cocktail bar, and make patés, terrines, and sausages. We purchase slab bacon and country ham with a wonderful, slow-smoked flavor from Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams. Country Farms Quail is a family owned and operated quail farm in Lucedale, Mississippi. Owners Blane and Ann Davis are committed to selling a quality product. Wright Dairy is located in Calhoun County, Alabama and are the only dairy family in Alabama who milks the cows, bottles the milk and sells it to you right on the farm. Their milk is pasteurized but not homogenized, allowing it to retain important nutrients. We purchase their whole milk, buttermilk and heavy cream. Belle Chèvre are goat cheese artisans located in Elkmont, Alabama. Everything is hand made and hand-packed. They produce a milk goat cheese with an incredible texture. We are huge fans of their fresh chèvre. Sweet Grass Dairy is a 140-acre family owned and operated farm in southern Georgia. They handcraft great cheeses and allow their cows and goats to roam their pastures. We purchase a variety of award-winning cheeses from them. Sexton’s Seafood is a multi-generational, family run business out of Destin, Florida. They have also owned and operated seafood retail stores both in Birmingham and Destin. They have provided our restaurant and Birmingham with the finest, freshest seafood from the Gulf. Greg Abram’s Seafood, Inc. is also a multi-generational, family run business out of Panama City, Florida. They are a wholesale only seafood company and provide our restaurant amazing, gulf seafood. Buddy Ward’s 13 Mile Seafood Co. now run by son Tommy Ward, is multi-generational seafood company specializes in harvesting Apalachicola oysters-the traditional way—by tonging. We order their 13 Mile Apalachicola oysters whenever we can. We also have very close relationships with a few national specialty providers whose philosophies match our own. World-class producers like The Chef’s Garden of Huron, Ohio, and the country’s oldest wild mushroom purveyor Fresh and Wild, based in Vancouver, Washington round out the produce that we cannot get locally. A batch of freshly caught Wild American Shrimp and Gulf of Mexico seafood is delivered daily, and occasionally Pacific fish are flown in from Osprey Seafood in San Francisco, California.