Blog hyper-local, Buy hyper-local. Neighborhood stores help with election lines.

Tomorrow is the biggest election day in anybody's recent memory. UrbanUpscale-Intown Green's staff (me) was so inspired by CNN correspondent and Tom Joyner Morning Show regular guest Roland Martin's idea of helping the election by helping people who are expected to be standing in tomorrow's long lines.

What to do? What to do?


Oh, I know. Food and drink.

I contacted two neighborhood stores who I have worked with in the past and they have donated and discounted some food items to help out the cause. This is part of the

"Shop where I sleep" campaign

that has been hinted here in the past. Now I'm stepping up the volume. Southwest Supermarket in Titusville and Lusco Foods Grocery in Collegeville at 3800 Shuttlesworth Drive. The owners are great guys and carry some nice items that I like and hadn't been able to find in the big national chains. Notice the Morgan Creek muscadine table wine in the picture (the wine is for tomorrow night, not for the lines. Just so we're clear). This is from an Alabama winery located off of 280. Lusco Foods sells this brand; I'd recently been hipped to this brand by downtown fashion haberdasher Sonya Faye's Tailors. Hadn't noticed it yet at my regular grocery store, but Bill Mardis has it ready for the taking. Lusco's is also sponsoring the "name these 5 red trees" Ben and Jerry's pint give away.

I need your help in this. If you want to donate some snacks, please call me tomorrow and I'll let you know which poll I'm working at that time. I'm trying to go to both the Norwood Community Center location and The Hudson School location during the course of the day starting at about 11am or noon. I can be reached at 205-223-8637

Birmingham Home and Garden Magazine wants you, Norwoodians.

Some of you have put some serious money into your home and have great taste to back it up. Now's the time to floss a little in full, glossy color. Birmingham Home and Garden wants to do an article on Norwood for the magazine in an upcoming issue. My contact, a church member, tells me that they are looking for folk who have done upgrades recently to their homes. Email me or send a response at the end of this post and I will get your information to the magazine. cdechols@gmail.com is the direct email address.

Thus sayeth Mike, Eat not of the fruit of the tree in the center of Norwood Boulevard.

Lesson learned yesterday: beautiful trees aren't always your friends. At 34th Street and Norwood Blvd. there is a female gingko biloba tree, very rare, that produces a small, round, smelly fruit that is on the ground now.

Me: "So will eating or making a tea of this fruit improve my memory?"
Mike Helms: "No. But it may kill you!"

Me: "Oh."

My ensuing laughter shows you my dark sense of humor. Mike Helms (no relation to the late Senator, Jesse) is an unapologetic botany enthusiast. In the span of about 30 minutes I got many times more information on the day to day workings of the greenery I walk past everyday than a biology degree and a lifelong interest in science ever provided. It helps when you love something, and Mike loves green, growing things. Turns out this ginkgo tree is rare because the smelly fruit causes people to not plant female species, so the Boulevard has yet another distinction to it's name. Even the shape of the gingko leaf figures into neighborhood architecture history: the ginkgo leaf was a common motif in the Art Nouveau/ Art Deco movement that influenced architecture and home fashions when many of the homes in Norwood, Forest Park, and Bush Blvd were built.

Mike has agreed to regularly make readers privy to the deep wellspring of botany knowledge he has amassed here on UrbUps-Intown Green. We plan video and printable description you can use in planning your garden and yard. For now though stay away from Gingko fruit and stick to the in store extracts.

It's official. Andre and Betsey are Norwoodians.

Andre will be exchanging the view in the above picture for a more natural one in "the placid place", Historic Norwood. No more looking out over the stark, though beautiful, concrete, masonry and glass of downtown. Now when Andre and Betsey look out of the large windows of their four square home it'll be birch trees, green grass and the occasional squirrel they see.

He's asking for help with the move tomorrow and is promising food and beverage refreshment as payment for your labors. Work starts about 9am at the house on 34th street. You can email him at acnatta@gmail.com for directions.

New Norwood restaurant and nightspot at vangurard of new businesses betting on Intown.

It's Thursday night, 11:45 pm. You live in the northern part of Intown and you want some good, hot food and maybe a spirited drink and some company and don't want to drive too far to get it.

What to do? What to do?

Until recently there were few if any options. No longer, however. Entering the Intown restaurant and nightclub scene as of October is Cosmos Bar and Grill on 12th Avenue in Norwood. For some of us in the neighborhood it quicker to walk to Cosmos than to drive there, though most folk will probably wait until spring to test that!

The above scenario is a personal one; tonight for the first time since moving to Norwood I was able to quickly indulge a late night desire for savory fish and sweet drink while sitting down in the company of fellow travellers. That's where Steve Tutt, owner of Cosmos, enters the picture.

Steve Tutt is a busy man these days

managing a growing bevy of different businesses, all located in various Intown neighborhoods. He and wife Lelia are the engines behind these enterprises and represent an underlying optimism about opportunities for Intown Birmingham I've seen in my work when calling on many merchants. In the months of September and October several new restaurants have opened throughout various Intown neigborhoods, belying the general economic slowdown. Over the next few weeks I'll scoop the faithful on the details of a few of them (maybe even get some special kind of special UrbanUpscale/Intown Green swag for you, too). Stay tuned by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and subscribing to the blog for new updates! It'll be worth it.

Steve and Lelia began doing the extensive work to open Cosmos about 14 months ago. The result is a multi-purpose gathering place anchored by an extensive bar and a
fairly diverse bar food menu that is open from 11am to when the last person leaves. Always smiling Cosmos promotions guy, bar man and all around cool dude

Lee Vines says "We don't turn nobody away."

The food prices are very affordable and I've enjoyed the Philly Cheese Steak and the Catfish Sandwich with fries. The Talapia has also gotten a favorable report from another Norwood resident for it's taste. One thing: the portion sizes are decent but not as big as at dedicated restaurants; there's a reason Cosmos is named BAR and grill and not vice versa. You will get a nice meal, but you might have to double up if you are an eat-until-full person like me. One can do other things here though: pool, cards, TV watch, dance and hear some good music. Lenny Williams (whose " Cause I Love You" hit is a personal soul favorite) performed last friday night as part of the festivities for the Magic City Classic.

Urban Upscale/Intown Green readers are invited to come to Friday happy hour that includes a free buffet starting at 5pm and going until 9. Or do like me and get something for take out: Cosmos is located at 3200 12th Ave. North and can be reached at 205-214-7111.