Tag Archives: Jimmy and Nicky Koikos

The Bright Star’s Night in New Orleans 2026

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The August summer night in Alabama, humid and hot, replicated a midsummer night in New Orleans as the Bright Star restaurant’s annual “Night in New Orleans” arrived back in Bessemer for its 2026 edition. The Bright Star event started in 1989 with Jamie Shannon of Commander’s Palace as the guest chef. The late Bright Star co-owner Jimmy Koikos got the idea on a visit to Commander’s after he met and befriended Shannon. Jamie Shannon continued to travel to Bessemer for the event until his death in 2001. A series of chefs has followed; the thing that connects all of them is a stint at Commander’s.

Eric Cook has been the chef for “Night in New Orleans” since 2022. He was the founder and executive chef of popular New Orleans Magazine Street eatery Gris Gris and, later, Saint John in the French Quarter. For this year’s event, Cook was joined by Bradley Marshall, the former chef de cuisine at Gris Gris. I was sad to learn that Cook made the difficult decision to close Gris Gris, effective July 31, so I had the opportunity to eat his food less than a week after he closed his flagship New Orleans restaurant (he had previously left Saint John). I look forward to seeing where he’ll land next.

For the Bright Star event, the menu always consists of classic Bright Star offerings in addition to the New Orleans menu of the guest chef. Anne, my companion for the dinner, stuck to her Bright Star favorites and I gladly checked out the New Orleans offerings. It has been a few years since I attended “Night in New Orleans” and it was good to be back and to see the crowd that arrived for the festivities. The servers were slammed, but cheerful. Our server, Lisa, was experiencing her first “Night in New Orleans” and handled it like a pro. I have noticed through the years that the chefs, who occasionally circulate through the dining rooms, seem to be having as good a time as the guests. Live jazz kept the room hopping and the energy up.

Oyster BLT

Anne started her meal off with a platter of crab claws – plenty to share – while I opted for Chef Eric’s signature Oyster BLT. The BLT is a deconstructed version of the classic sandwich with smoked pork belly (B), arugula (L), and tomato jam (T) embellished with fried oysters from the Gulf of Mexico. After that appetizer, we each passed up the salads for a cup of Bright Star’s singular seafood gumbo, one of the best gumbos around.

As tempting as Chef Eric’s braised lamb and double cut pork chop dishes sounded among the entrees, I opted for his cast iron snapper, served with tomato sauce, popcorn rice, and charcoal lemon, with flavors reminiscent of so many meals I’ve enjoyed in New Orleans through the years. Anne stuck with another of my favorites, Bright Star’s beef tenderloin Greek-style; it looked amazing, as always, but I enjoyed my delicious fish and knew that the tenderloin would be there next time I drop by.

Dessert for me was Chef Eric’s buttermilk biscuit peach shortcake with Chilton County peaches and Chantilly cream. On any given day, you can’t go wrong with Bright Star’s dessert menu and Anne’s slice of chocolate almond pie was a reminder why I always leave room for dessert at the Bright Star.

Cast Iron Snapper

It’s always good to be at the Bright Star, a 2010 James Beard Award-winning American Classic that will be celebrating its 120th Anniversary in 2027. And to be able to enjoy award-winning chef Eric Cook’s New Orleans flavors there was a special treat. As we left, the jazz was playing, a crowd was waiting in the lobby for their seating, and the revelry reminded me that I need to plan a trip back to New Orleans soon.

A Bright Star Celebration

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My mother shares a June birth date with her long-time friend Ruth in Tuscaloosa. In years past, when my parents were living in Tuscaloosa, Mom and Ruth would have a lunch to celebrate around birthday time. They renewed the tradition last year, with Ruth driving up from Tuscaloosa to meet Mother at Bessemer’s venerable Bright Star, a Birmingham-area institution since 1907 (History | Bright Star Restaurant (thebrightstar.com). They had to delay this year’s celebration, which was a landmark birthday for my mother, but they met at Bright Star not long ago.

It is my habit to drive Mother to the luncheon, send her and Ruth to a booth in the main dining room, and take a table away from them to have lunch on my own. I am not always the best company for my mother, I think, and she and Ruth always have a fine old time. So I stay away and let them celebrate as long as they like. As I sat in a small booth, enjoying one of Bright Star’s specialty seafood dishes, I was once again moved by the history and tradition of the place. Bessemer is a small city about fifteen minutes from downtown Birmingham and, when most of the heavy industrial plants, including a Pullman railroad car plant, left town, a good chunk of the economy left with it.

Through it all, the Bright Star has stayed strong since opening as a 12-seat bar in 1907. It is now a sprawling restaurant in the heart of downtown Bessemer which serves as a meat-and-three by day and shifts to a more fine-dining oriented menu in the evening. The Bright Star is the kind of place one goes to for special occasions – a birthday, before a wedding, after a funeral, an anniversary. It runs a brisk business before or after Alabama football games. Coach Bear Bryant’s favorite booth is in the back, close to the kitchen, and Coach Nick Saban’s booth in the 1907 Room has been added to the seating options. A friend and I were having dinner there on a Sunday night in the ’80s when it seemed like every priest in the metro was passing our table on the way to a private room in the back.  Jimmy  Koikos, one of the owners, on one of his passes,  said, “They come  most Sundays.”  Actor Sandra Bullock brought her dad, who had Alabama roots, there for Father’s Day one time. 

Members of the same Greek-American family have owned the Bright Star since the beginning. It was honored with a James Beard American Classics Award in 2010. In my years going there it has mostly been run by brothers Jimmy and Nick Koikos. “Mr. Jimmy,” who greeted guests and is featured in many of the photos that line the lobby, passed away a few years ago and now the restaurant is owned by Nick, his niece manager Stacey Craig, and cousin Executive Chef Andreas Anastassakis. The Greek heritage is reflected on the menu, as are Southern staples. They serve great steaks but I usually have a Greek-style seafood entrée.

In the main dining room, landscape murals line the upper walls above the wainscotting. These were painted by itinerant German painters in 1915. I have never heard names for these painters but I have always wanted to know more about their story. For most of my life, the murals were glazed a deep golden brown. The restaurant did a restoration of the murals in the early-2000s and the transformation was startling. The brown tint was the result of decades of tobacco smoke in the earlier days before smoking restrictions were in force. The subtle shades of the restored murals cast a much lighter ambiance to the room.

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Sitting separately from my mom and Ruth, old friends with many stories to share, I would occasionally hear the pleasant sound of laughter from the back of the room. I have never been one for chitchat and don’t seem to have the ability to make my mother laugh that much, so it was good to hear her celebrating her birthday with someone who can always make her laugh.

My mother’s favorite Bright Star dessert is their decadent lemon icebox pie. I had two slices sent back to the table to top off an extended and celebratory lunch date. While they were visiting, a thunderstorm and windswept rain had come and gone and the city streets were glistening wet in sunlight when we emerged.

The two friends looked out at the wet street in surprise. “It rained?” they asked. The Bright Star had worked its magic one more time.

The Bright Star

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     100_2314  Bessemer, AL It seems that every family has a restaurant where it convenes for special events and commemorations – the place where the family goes to celebrate graduations, birthdays, and anniversaries, and to gather after funerals and hospital visits and other more somber occasions. For my family, that restaurant in the Birmingham area is The Bright Star west of the city in Bessemer. The Bright Star, Alabama’s oldest restaurant, opened in 1907 and has been family-owned ever since. The Bright Star was awarded as an “America’s Classic” by the James Beard Foundation in 2010.

Mine is a family of strong, vocal, and often divergent opinions on pretty much everything, including food. The Bright Star is one of the places that is in every family member’s “comfort zone.” In addition to being a safe choice, it also has a good and diverse menu with offerings for every taste. I always look forward to eating at The Bright Star, whether it is a quick lunch or a leisurely evening meal.

Frank Stitt triggered Birmingham’s ascent on the national culinary map with the opening of Highlands Bar and Grill in the 1980s. But the culinary history of the Birmingham area is full of the stories of Greek families and immigrants who opened restaurants. Many of their descendants are still restaurateurs into the 21st century. The Bright Star is the anchor of that Greek-influenced dining tradition in Birmingham with off-shoots that range from fine dining establishments to fish markets, barbecue joints, and hot dog stands.

The Bright Star was started by Tom Bonduris and has been continuously owned by Bonduris and Koikos family members ever since. Jimmy and Nick Koikos, sons of long-time owners Bill and Tasia Koikos, are the current faces of the restaurant, along with a large and long-serving support staff. Much of my recent planning with the restaurant has been coordinated through the invaluable  and gracious help of Jimmy and Nick’s niece, Stacey Craig, and maître d’ Marlon Tanksley. The restaurant always bustles and the place is full of regulars as well as people who are traveling through or have made the effort to come to Bessemer just to check it out.

The Bright Star has grown over the years in its current building in the middle of downtown Bessemer. The vibe of The Bright Star reminds some of New Orleans’ Galatoire’s. (It is a lesser known fact that the first Galatoire’s was in downtown Birmingham before Jean Galatoire ended up in New Orleans and opened his iconic Bourbon Street bistro.) The Bright Star menu that features seafood and steaks in the evenings serves a classic Southern “meat and three” lunch menu each day. The shredded cabbage with the signature slaw dressing is a staple, as is a superior bread pudding and an array of fine pies. The Bright Star serves one of my favorite gumbos. Tipping its hat to the New Orleans influences on the menu, The Bright Star does an annual “Taste of New Orleans” event in August that usually features the executive chef of New Orleans’ Commander’s Palace.

Fresh seafood is delivered daily and Alabama Cattlemen’s Association has named Bright Star’s beef the best steak in Alabama. The large foyer entrance to the restaurant is full of memorabilia including awards, national magazine and newspaper articles, and archival photographs of the many celebrities and dignitaries who have enjoyed a meal at The Bright Star. One finds photos of Sandra Bullock and her father dining there among an array of celebrities and sports figures from earlier times.

The main dining room is flanked with highly varnished pastoral murals painted by an itinerant German painter in 1915. A century of varnishing and cigarette smoke creates a warm glow from the murals and the combination of the murals and the high wooden booth backs creates an intimate and cozy feeling in the large room, even as the aisles are full of servers and patrons coming and going.

Far in the back of the main dining room is the enclosed booth that was Alabama Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant’s favorite booth. For a recent birthday dinner, my mother reserved the Bryant booth and I dined there for the first time with a large portrait of “the Coach” looking down from the west wall.

When The Bright Star turned 100 in 2007, a book, A Centennial Celebration of The Bright Star Restaurant, was released. The book, a project by nieces of Jim and Nick Koikos with assistance from Niki Sepsas, is a compilation of history, memories, recipes, and photographs of the restaurant. IMG_1119

Bessemer, a vibrant industrial town in the early 20th Century, lost much of its industry in the 1970s and has suffered economic downturns and redefinition. Through it all The Bright Star has endured. I was in the restaurant this past weekend and am convinced that The Bright Star will be serving good meals to happy patrons for generations to come.

Note: The top image is a detail from Scott Smith’s assemblage, “Ensley” (2010), featuring the menu listing for The Bright Star’s “famous snapper almondine.” “Ensley” was a commission celebrating my parents’ marriage. Each pin represents a place they have lived during the marriage. Images of Ensley, the Birmingham neighborhood where they met, and other aspects of their marriage are represented, including images from The Bright Star menu.