Last week’s Cars and Coffee was a true return to form for Birmingham area car meets.
For those who don’t know, Birmingham’s Cars and Coffee used to meet every week since its inception at a parking deck above a local coffee shop in Brookwood, one of the more affluent neighborhoods of the metro area. This more centralized and somewhat more posh location meant that the richer folk of Birmingham were more comfortable bringing their high-end machines to the meet. This made for some wild spots at the show, and my first visit back in 2015 was a cherry popper for spotting a lot of the regular supercars we see a lot of these days.
However, the fun was stopped later in 2015, when attendees made their way up the parking deck to be greeted with a row of cones blocking the exit to the top deck. Apparently, local police and the mall security had become fed up with the incessant revving, tire squealing, and apparently even minor fender benders with other cars and structures, that they had decided to shut us down for good. After that day, the meet relocated to a firearms store in Hoover about thirty minutes away.
While it was in a more central location for a lot of attendees, the area in which the show was located seemed to turn off most of the more posh owners, so we saw less of the high-end supercars and rarities at the store than we did at the original location. To make matters worse, in 2016, half of the lot was demolished and replaced with a O’Reilly’s, which alienated a lot of potential attendees during the construction, who never seemed to return. So, basically, because of the issues, the show became a bit of a mess, with attendance and variety depending basically on the luck of the gods, and whoever wanted to come out that day.
Alas, about a month ago, there was a silver lining on the horizon. The old coffee joint had come under new ownership, now as Magic City Octane, and had struck a deal with Brookwood’s ownership to begin hosting the meet again at the old location. The meet would be slightly different, with more emphasis on security (from event hosts and local police attendance) and with the meet only happening once a month. Nevertheless, we had our old spot back, and decided to celebrate the first show by aptly titling it, “Homecoming.” With this return to form, the attendance was off the charts, doubling most days in Hoover and even some of the days when the meet was avid in Brookwood. This meant for a tasty collection of cars coming about. Join me, shall you?
So, all in all, how would I describe homecoming?
Well, it’s good to be back.