Champagne was flowing at Little Bird in downtown Fairhope Tuesday night with the establishment celebrating its achievement of making The New York Times’ 2026 list of best restaurants in America.

Little Bird, opened in 2025 with James Beard-nominated Executive Chef Bill Briand at the helm, was one of two restaurants in the state of Alabama lauded as among the best in the country. The other was Perennial in Montgomery.

“We’ve been putting our heads down and really working hard over the last year-and-a-half,” Briand said. “I’ve kept telling everybody, ‘Guys, this hard work, this love for food and this passion for service is gonna pay off.’ It’s such a great thing for Fairhope and Baldwin County to get some acknowledgment down here. There’s people doing good things. We’ve got great seafood. We’ve got great products here. Come and eat it. That’s what makes this exciting for us.”

Photos by Colin James / Gulf Coast Media