Centrally located in downtown Birmingham and near a number of businesses and hotels, BridgeStreet…read moreGallery and Loft is as lovely as a venue as they come. This place is an ideal spot for medium to large'ish gatherings (50-150 peeps?) and a perfect setting for any special occasion. Whether it's an art installation, photo gallery, wedding reception, or just a big ol party, there are two floors of quality spaces to work with. There is no elevator unfortunately, but the bathrooms are handicap friendly and there is a separate back entrance for vendors. Parking is a bit limited to alleyways and street parking, but as the area finishes their renovations, I wouldn't be surprised if a parking garage would eventually make its way here. The fun in a raw space is seeing how much it changes for whatever the theme merits. There is a dedicated team here that works to make that vision come true and they're a professional and friendly bunch. I think their operation is stellar from top to bottom that perspective folks should really consider this gem of a venue.

This is an absolutely beautiful little venue! I have never heard of this place until I had a Yelp…read moreevent here last night, and I have to say I was extremely impressed! There are two floors, and our event was on the upstairs. I'm not sure how old the building is, but it has an exposed brick wall painted white, beautiful hardwood (oak looking) floors, with gorgeous strands of light setting the perfect evening event. Not sure if the lights are part of their everyday decor or if they were for Christmas, but it's absolutely stunning! I could see this being a great venue for a rehearsal dinner, work/birthday party, or a small wedding/prom venue (My graduating class of 7 would have had enough room!) My only question is how do I get invited back to this place?! I don't plan events, but this is a place I definitely want to come back to! Just a head's up I only saw street/metered parking, but that's pretty much expected in downtown Birmingham.

The main point of our trip to Birmingham was to see an exhibit at the art museum. However, we are…read moreearly rises (especially with the 1-hour time difference from home), so we had some time in the morning to fill. My wife determined that the local botanical garden opened by 7 a.m. (!) and was also free, so we opted to stop here before the museum opened later at 10 a.m. We made it here by around 7:30 a.m. A word of caution - the highway interchange nearby was nightmarish. We missed 2 turns (even with a navigation app running). I don't think it was just me. So be careful and add a few extra minutes to get lost. Once finally off they highway and through the final roundabout, we proceeded along a road bordering the gardens. On the other side appeared to be an expensive hotel and an upscale shopping / dining plaza. The garden was having some sort of plant sale, and crowds were apparently expected. They had traffic control cones in place, but we arrived early enough so that parking was still plentiful. When we left, it seemed like the lot had mostly filled up. The gardens are quite large. They are divided up into sub-areas and there is a large map posted about 100 yards inside the main gate. No paper maps were on offer, so I guess you can take a photo of theirs and use that. We first strolled to the Japanese Garden. We had this to ourselves until almost when we left. This area is quite large by itself. They have koi ponds, a tea house, etc. It was nice. We took an alternate path back to the map pavilion. From there, we explored other areas (mostly dedicated to specific flowers). Some of the terrain is hilly. We routed through the vegetable garden and eventually ended up back at the central formal rose garden. This was being watered periodically that morning and some of the brick paths in it were flooded. They seemed to have some satellite restrooms in remote areas, in addition to the main set near the gate. We spent almost 2 hours here and probably could have spent even more time, but we wanted to drive to our prime stop. If you have any interest in botanical gardens, this is a very worthwhile stop.

One of the first things I appreciated was free parking and free entrance, which is always an…read moreattractive feature. From there, it just kept getting better. You can easily spend hours exploring the many trails that wind through beautiful flowers and plants, the serene Japanese Gardens, and even an active beehive community--which was my favorite part! We were on a bit of a time limit and didn't get to walk the entire property, but we still managed to spend about two hours covering roughly three miles, and it never felt rushed. While it's still a little early in spring for everything to be in full bloom, there were still plenty of gorgeous floral displays to enjoy. Some of the trail directions can be a bit confusing at times, and we did end up wandering off course once or twice. That said, it was never difficult to find our way back to the main trail and continue exploring. If you're looking for a place to meander, slow down, and truly enjoy nature, this is absolutely the place to do it. A peaceful and rewarding experience overall.

Had about a 50 person event in Dread River's private event room and it was great. The staff was…read moresuper friendly, food was great, and the space was prepared perfectly. Mashala, the Event Coordinator, was amazing throughout the entire process. She definitely went above and beyond to help us out. Would recommend!

Great service, bartender was super friendly and attentive, fun guy to talk to. Only had time for…read moreone drink but it was pretty good, I would order again for sure. Menu was extensive but it only had about 8 in house cocktails? The rest of the menu was food, beer etc kinda expected more options from a distillery. Ambiance was a little off, the outside of the building is nice, but inside when you get down to it was a little rough around the corners, it's my own preference, but having a bunch of big screens with sports on while serving chicken wings kinda kills the distillery vibe and makes the place seem more like a sports bar. It's not horrible, just seems like they were trying to cross a distillery with a buffalo wild wings.

I recently attended a private event at GM 705. The event space was nice and intimate, but it looked…read morelike they had the ability for a lot of different settings. The table arrangements of tables, booth seating, and cocktail tables were great so you could have a cocktail hour, as well as a seated dinner. The food was from the Gianmarco's menu and it was absolutely delicious. We had three appetizers in the cocktail hour. One was a mushroom bruschetta, one was a fried oyster bruschetta, and a small Caprese appetizer. The fried oyster and Caprese appetizer were the only two I tried and they were so fresh and delicious. I really liked that the fried oyster crostini and the mushroom bruschetta were served on small slate square plates. It was a really unique way to serve the hors d'oeuvres and the presentation was beautiful. Everybody's main meals looked so delicious and I was very pleased with my lamb. It was cooked absolutely perfectly and so flavorful and tender. I will say that the chicken Parmesan looked phenomenal and we had one friend order the veal Parmesan and it was an insane amount of food. He had never tried veal before and he really enjoyed it! The servers and team there were so hospitable and friendly. I would definitely keep this place in mind in the future for private events.

I have hosted two events at GM 705 - my firm's holiday party and my high school 40th reunion and I…read morecan't say enough good things about this venue. The space is beautiful and the staff is the best in the business. From the event coordinator who helped me plan all the details to the entire staff that took amazing care of us at both of my events- they were top notch. And the food is second to none (you can't go wrong with Gianmarcos cuisine!). If you are looking to book something simple or extravagant, I highly commend GM 705. You will not be disappointed!!

Food, service, and ambiance is unmatched by any restaurant in the Birmingham area. Join The Club…read moreand experience it for yourself or go with a member and enjoy it

This restaurant is equipped with the most gorgeous views of Birmingham. The food was amazing and…read morethe staff was even better.

From the start, communication has been incredibly poor--emails are ignored or go unanswered for far…read moretoo long, which is unacceptable when you're trying to plan something as time-sensitive as a wedding. The hours seem limited despite their posted hours, making it unnecessarily difficult to get in touch or schedule anything if you have a normal job. It often feels like they have no real interest in working with their clients. The experience of trying to work with this place felt incredibly frustrating. There are plenty of venues out there that actually value their clients.

I want to start by acknowledging that this venue is spectacular. The Carriage House and garden…read moreareas are beautiful in every way. We chose a buffet with chicken piccata, beef tenderloin, mashed potato bar, salad, and bread. Everyone complemented how wonderful the food was all evening. The food was wonderful. When we booked the venue approximately a year ago, our contact person was amazing. She left shortly after for another job. We had a second person after her who also left after a couple of months. In our last few months, Kaleb was the one who worked with me to plan the details of my daughter's wedding. He was amazing. He made sure that we got everything ordered and on our contract that we wanted. He always replied when I reached out and he was so helpful all along the way. He was truly a gem in every way leading up to the wedding. The reason for a lower rating is the stress, confusion, and lack of work that happened on our rehearsal day and the day of the wedding. The venue does state that you are not guaranteed to practice in the exact location of your event. However, we were told the last couple of months and up until the day before our rehearsal that we would indeed be able to use the garden area for our practice. We had also been told about two weeks out that there was nothing else scheduled at this venue on our rehearsal day and that it would be opened just for us. Upon arriving the afternoon of the rehearsal, there were many cars there other than ours. I went into the building to find a large group preparing for an event that we did not know about. They were confused at why I was there, and I was confused as to why they were there. I talked with the woman who was planning the other event (this was not a worker for Park Crest). I let her know that our practice had been planned for a long time and did not realize they would be there. She also was not told that we would be there. It was at this time I reached out to the venue and stated that we needed to be able to practice. All of our people were there, out of their cars standing around (including elderly grandparents) and ready to practice. I reached out to the venue and was told that we may have to just all get in our cars and move to another building to practice. I understand that this was in the contract, but we had been told up until a few hours before that we would indeed be able to practice at our location. You should never wait until the moment of an event to ask someone to relocate to another location. This was very unprofessional. The other group having the venue was a group who had strict religious dress practices and it was disrespectful for us to have even entered the building. This should have also been disclosed as well. However, the lady with the other group was very nice to me and she and I worked a compromise together for us to have a very rushed practice in the garden area. Again, she did not work for Park Crest, so she and I worked this out together on our own. During all of this confusion, all of our family and friends who were waiting to practice, had to stand around not knowing what to do. After our practice concluded, I reached out to the venue again to ensure that our reception area and the garden area would be set up first thing in the morning for my arrival at 9:00 to begin setting up for our mid afternoon wedding. I was reassured that the "crew" would be there at 7:00 am and all tables and chairs would be in place and ready upon my arrival. Upon my arrival at 8:45 am, there was not a "crew" anywhere in the building working. I entered our reception area first to start my decorating. The tables and chairs had not been set up according to the schematic that I had submitted two weeks prior. We did not have time to wait around for workers to show up as we were on a strict timeline. I had three friends with me, and we frantically began moving tables and chairs to where they should be placed. I reached out to the venue to ask why my set up was not complete. I was told that he was there and would come help. So not a crew, but one man shows up in the room. I had to ask him to bring two additional tables and several table cloths that also were not in place. He basically became my gofer because we had already put everything in place. He just had to bring me missing items such as another table and table cloths. It took us an additional 40 minutes of our personal time to prepare the tables and chairs before we could even begin to decorate. Next, we moved to the garden area to begin decorating as this is where the ceremony was to be held. The chairs in the garden area were still in the configuration from the last event that was there. Our gift table and sign in book table had not been set up. We had to frantically set up the chairs on our own. We found two tables for the entrance and had to drag them ourselves to set them up. It took approximately 40 minutes to set up the chairs and tables in the garden area to match the set up t

In search of a venue for our rehearsal dinner in March. Fingers crossed, if the weather…read morepermits--we'll enjoy the outdoor patio of this space! This is the penthouse of the Kress building and is used for an array of events. You bring in your own caterer and alcoholic beverages. There is a bocci ball court and enough space if you want to have a band. The inside will hold between 100-175 and add the outside, it holds 275, I believe. Great view of downtown Birmingham--and right next to Alabama Theater and McWane Center. If you look in the distance, Vulcan is directly ahead. Really a great space for anyone looking to hold an event. Check it out!

Came here to watch the SEC Championship. Wait time was minimal and we received our food in good…read moretime. Our waitress was good and was knowledgeable about the menu. The Steve burger is so good! Casual spot to watch the game. Great for groups or solo.

I went to The Fennec on a Friday night to watch college basketball games and have some drinks. We…read morewere seated quickly, and in front of multiple large screens. There's literally not a bad seat if you're there to watch games. The sound on was a nice touch as well. After a bucket of beer (which was a special for the night) we felt like a snack and ordered the nachos. It left a little to be desired, but it did the trick. However, I was mainly here for the drinks and games and I've got to say it was a lot of fun. The staff was checking in frequently to see if needed anything else, and helpful when we had some questions. If you're looking for somewhere for sporting events, this is definitely a place that should be on your radar!