EastWest

EastWest opened in the Second Avenue North entertainment district in downtown Birmingham with a menu built around a simple idea: take familiar American dishes and rework them through an Asian lens. Owner Colby Conklin, who spent roughly a decade working for a Birmingham restaurant group behind Chuck’s Fish and Five, built the concept around that blend, describing it as “taking a ribeye and doing a Mongolian ribeye, and taking a piece of tuna and making it tuna tataki.”

The restaurant occupies a space that once housed What’s On 2nd, a longtime collectibles shop, on a stretch of 2nd Avenue North that has become one of downtown Birmingham’s more concentrated restaurant and nightlife corridors. EastWest’s kitchen is led by executive chef Joey Mitchell, who spent six years at Chuck’s Fish in Birmingham before EastWest and developed an interest in Asian cooking techniques earlier in his career at Harbor Docks in Destin, Florida.

That East-meets-West concept runs through the menu’s signature dishes. The Mongolian ribeye takes a classic American steak preparation and reworks it with the sweet-savory glaze typical of Mongolian-style beef, while the tuna tataki treats a raw tuna dish with the light sear and citrus-soy accents common to Japanese preparations. Rather than splitting the menu into separate “American” and “Asian” sections, EastWest folds both traditions into most of its dishes, giving the restaurant a distinct identity among Birmingham’s Asian-influenced restaurants.

The restaurant’s location places it within walking distance of several other newer Birmingham restaurants and bars that have opened along the same downtown corridor in recent years, part of a broader wave of investment in the Second Avenue North district. EastWest has positioned itself as a full-service restaurant and bar rather than a fast-casual concept, with a dining room built for both a casual weeknight dinner and a longer evening with drinks.

The bar program at EastWest complements the food menu, with cocktails designed to bridge the same East-West idea that runs through the kitchen. The restaurant emphasizes its downtown, locally owned status, distinguishing it from the national chains that dominate much of the “Asian fusion” category in many American cities. Conklin’s background in Birmingham’s existing seafood-focused restaurant scene also shows up in the menu’s raw bar and seafood-forward dishes, giving EastWest a stronger seafood presence than many Asian-inspired restaurants typically carry.

EastWest’s full food and drink menus are available as downloadable documents through the restaurant’s website, and the restaurant takes reservations and walk-ins for its downtown dining room. Its address on Second Avenue North puts it close to Birmingham’s Railroad Park and the broader downtown core, making it a convenient stop for both downtown workers and visitors staying in the city’s core hotels.

For diners looking for something beyond a straightforward sushi counter or a single-country Asian restaurant, EastWest’s blended approach offers a distinct alternative within Birmingham’s Asian dining scene, one built by local restaurant industry veterans rather than an outside chain or franchise group.

The restaurant’s menu extends well beyond its two signature dishes, with a broader selection of small plates, entrees, and shared dishes that continue the East-meets-West theme across appetizers, mains, and even dessert. That consistency in concept, rather than treating the fusion idea as a gimmick applied to just one or two headline dishes, gives EastWest’s full menu a coherence that has helped distinguish it from more scattershot “fusion” restaurants elsewhere.

EastWest has also become known for its bar program, which draws on the same blended philosophy as the kitchen, pairing classic American cocktail bases with Asian-inspired ingredients like yuzu, sake, and lychee. Combined with its downtown location near Railroad Park and the Second Avenue North restaurant corridor, EastWest has positioned itself as a full night-out destination, suited to a leisurely dinner with cocktails as much as a quick post-work bite at the bar.