Post Office Pies — Restaurant in Birmingham

Post Office Pies is a hip little pizza place operating in an old school post office (hence the name) in the up-and-coming Avondale area. Great pizza w/ a casual atmosphere, it's slowly becoming one of my favorite places to eat - and based on the traffic in and out during the weekends (and probably during the week as well) I'm guessing I'm not the only one.

Walking through the entrance to POPs, you immediately get an idea that there's something slightly different about the place vs. your typical restaurant. The front doors themselves are unique in that on the left-hand door, there's a logo for the neighboring Avondale Brewing Company watering hole, and on the right-hand door one for Post Office Pies. Turns out there's an entrance to the patio of ABC in the back of POPs, making it very easy for patrons of the former to mosey on over and pick up a takeout pie to carry back over to the brewery (where food is not served, btw), or for customers of POPs to eat and then chase their pizza with a few craft beers over at ABC (although POPs serves adult libations as well). A pretty atypical, but fairly convenient setup for a Friday pizza and brew night for the Avondale faithful.

Inside the restaurant, there's a healthy mix of normal 2-4 seater tables as you'd expect, and then lengthy wooden benches on which various groups, couples or singles can sit intermingled with their fellow diners, strangers or potential new friends. A small number of televisions hang from various corners for those looking to follow the latest sporting events while they eat; or for those who'd rather spend their time people watching under the clouds there's outdoor seating in the front of building (albeit, limited). As far as the food is concerned, I can only recall trying the pizza (b/c it's so good) but I can say without a doubt it is some of the most flavorful around town IMO. My typical go-to - the Swine - always has the right ratio of sauce to toppings, the crust tastes like it's made to order, is fresh, and balances out the salty bacon/pepperoni/sausage combo perfectly, and the small almost-sprig of basil on each slice adds a bite of slightly palate-cleansing refreshment. Ah, but if pizza's not your scene and yet you find yourself at POPs anyway, there are several salad and sandwich offerings to appease the appetite in those cases as well; and if the pizza itself is any indication of the overall food quality of the restaurant, I'd wager to say those offerings are probably fantastic as well.

In summary, if you happen to find yourself in the Avondale area (and chances are you will some point soon due its current, undeniable gravitational pull), and you fancy a casual slice and maybe a brew, Post Office Pies is probably the best thing you could do to your face. ...

"Best pizza in Birmingham, hands down!

Great venue with wood oven cooked pizzas that can't be beat. Definitely recommend the Swine Pie and Pepperoni Chunk Cheese Bread (don't forget to ask for meat sauce!)"

Edit: I sadly have to drastically reduce my rating from a year or so ago.

We've been coming here for a few years now and recommend it to everyone, but sadly I can no longer do so.

We went last month on 3/31 and had a terrible experience. We were sat and waited for 20ish minutes without anyone coming by, so I went to the host stand to request a server.

Our server was very apologetic, took our drink and food orders, and kept up with us on our drinks.

After 45+ minutes I flagged her down to check on our appetizer as a party that was sat after us was already getting their pizzas. Long story short, they lost our ticket and we had to wait all over again.

A manager came by and was very apologetic, graciously comped much of our meal, and asked us to give them another try. The food was still delicious as usual, so we agreed.

So on Tuesday 4/16 we call in an order for pickup of 1 large Swine Pie and 1 pepperoni cheese bread at around 6:00pm and are told it would be ready in 20 minutes.

We get there about 6:20pm, pay, and proceed to wait until almost 7pm before I ask where our order is.

Turns out they not only lost our ticket again, but charged me for 3 pizzas instead of 1!

Again a manager was very apologetic and comped our meal, but that isn't the point. I don't expect free food, just a pleasant and organized experience.

We ended up being last for Trivia at Cahaba, and unusually the pizza and cheese bread were doughy and undercooked.

I don't know if it's because they changed to a "full service" model that they can't execute, or because of new management, but this place is a shadow of it's former self.

I'm definitely going to be looking for a new local pizza joint before attempting to give Post Office Pies another go. Back to back bad experiences is really...

We are new in town and were very excited to try this place after several people recommended it to us. We called to place a carry-out order and the person who answered the phone placed us on a 5 minute hold, when he came back on the line we asked about the Mac-n-Cheese and a "build your own" pizza. He was short and didn’t offer any details about the mac & cheese, and said they were unable to make the "build your own" that we desired, so we decided not to get either. We ordered a cheese bread, Margherita pizza, Swine pizza (add mushroom), and a large Caesar salad. When we arrived to pick up the order the hostess pointed to where we could pick up the order at the bar, she didn't greet me, smile or barely look up- she hates her job.

We picked up our $70 order and headed home. The Swine pizza had burnt, thin crust and hardly any pizza sauce whatsoever. The Caesar salad was unbelievably tiny, I can't imagine what the smaller order could possibly be, we paid $3 more for the "large." The box was so light we thought it was just plastic utensils. The caesar salad is also heavy on the anchovy taste in the dressing- which we didn't mind but is something to note. The Margherita pizza was topped very lightly and only had a small amount of basil, but the ingredients seemed fresh. It felt like they skimped on everything.

We are giving 2 stars because my girlfriend liked the cheese bread, but I thought it was too chewy with not enough cheese. Between the skimpy details (yet high prices) and rude service we are bummed and do not...