Red or White

Red or White sits at 3916 Clairmont Avenue in Birmingham’s Forest Park neighborhood, operating as a combined wine and gourmet shop with a wine bar and restaurant built directly into the same space. The Birmingham location is part of a small, Alabama based group with sister locations in Mobile and Fairhope, but each store functions as its own neighborhood spot rather than a formulaic chain outlet, and the Forest Park location has become a fixture of that part of the city.

The shop sells wine by the bottle for takeaway, and guests who want to drink in can order wine by the glass or by the taste from a rotating list that runs a dozen or more selections deep at any given time. For guests who would rather bring their own bottle from the retail shelves, Red or White charges a 10 dollar corkage fee, a straightforward and reasonably priced option that lets serious wine drinkers open exactly what they are in the mood for that night rather than settling for whatever happens to be poured by the glass.

The kitchen leans toward food built for sharing alongside wine rather than a full dinner menu. Pizzas run between 19 and 20 dollars, share plates fall in the 12 to 24 dollar range, and cheese and charcuterie boards sit between 21 and 24 dollars, giving groups an easy way to order a spread across the table rather than individual entrees. Smaller snacks priced between 9 and 18 dollars round out the food side for anyone who wants something lighter with their glass.

The retail shop and the wine bar keep slightly different hours. The shop itself is open from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, extending to 9:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and running a shorter 1 to 6 p.m. window on Sundays and Mondays. The wine bar and restaurant side runs a tighter schedule, open from 3 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 3 to 9:30 p.m. on Fridays, and 1 to 9:30 p.m. on Saturdays, closing entirely on Sundays and Mondays. Group reservations are accepted for parties of eight to twelve, which makes the space a workable option for a birthday dinner or a small private gathering built around wine rather than a full sit down restaurant meal.

For Birmingham visitors who want a wine bar that doubles as a place to shop for a bottle to take home, Red or White’s Forest Park location covers both roles well, and its Alabama roots give it a more personal feel than a bottle shop chain imported from somewhere else.

Forest Park is a quieter, tree lined residential neighborhood a short drive from both downtown Birmingham and the busier bar district in Avondale, and Red or White has become one of the anchor businesses on its small commercial strip. The combination of a retail wine shop and a full wine bar and restaurant under one roof gives the space a dual identity, drawing both a dinner crowd looking for a full meal and a shopping crowd stopping in to pick up a bottle for later.

Because the Birmingham store is part of a small group with locations in Mobile and Fairhope, the wine selection benefits from buying power that a single independent shop might not have, while the day to day operation still feels like a neighborhood business rather than a corporate outlet. The 10 dollar corkage fee on retail bottles is a particularly useful detail for visiting wine drinkers who want to try something specific from the shelves without paying full wine bar markup, and the shared plates style food menu makes the space workable for a group dinner built around wine rather than a single entree per person.