Before there was the Highlands Bar and Grill, Amore, Seasons 52, Satterfield’s, Hot & Hot, 218 Bistro, and a whole host of other culinary treasures in the Magic City, there was the incomparable Baby Doe’s Matchless Mine, a restaurant that in many ways set the stage for Birmingham as a “nice restaurant town,” especially for young people: It was The Club for the young and middle class.
Baby Doe’s was an interesting place, for sure. It was ostensibly a chain, but it was a small one, featuring just seven-to-13 restaurants at any one time. All were located in mining and steel towns, and all were boom town-themed.