Birmingham Magazine – Classic Italian moves to a contemporary space

By Daniel Schumacher Photos by Cary Norton

It is always interesting to see a restaurant inhabit a new space, and Lovoy’s casual Italian spot in Homewood’s SoHo Square is no exception. Many customers have come from the original Green Springs Avenue location, as did the staff and their cherished equipment (including seasoned broilers and vintage register), but like an untailored suit or a new pair of shoes, the dining experience will not be seamless until Lovoy’s truly makes the former Grey House Grille space their own.

We arrived in the middle of a monsoon-like downpour on a Thursday evening to find Lovoy’s completely packed with a mix of families, businesspeople and young couples. The restaurant’s tall ceilings and bright lights create a vibrant atmosphere that is perfect for people watching (which I did until wellmixed cocktails arrived). Service was friendly and swift, and it wasn’t long before we were eating bowls of crispy fried calamari and bready baked oysters.

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By Bob Carlton — The Birmingham News April 30, 2010, 2:30PM Late Saturday night, as the last guests were leaving on the final night of the oldLovoy’s restaurant on Green Springs Highway, owners Zac Lovoy and Jim Levinson raised a toast. Levinson’s half-brother, Joey Lide, did the honors. “This is not the end of an era,” [...]

$1 on all house wines Opens at 4 p.m. We are moving to the new SoHo Square.

By Bob Carlton — The Birmingham News March 05, 2010, 3:00PM Word had gotten out on the street for a while, but earlier this week, Zac Lovoy confirmed his plans to move Homewood’s venerable Lovoy’s Italian restaurant from its longtime home on Green Springs Highway to a new location in SoHo Square. “We are going to celebrate [...]

By Michael Tomberlin — The Birmingham News March 04, 2010, 6:30AM The developers of SoHo Square believe a local, established Italian restaurant is the missing ingredient for the $60 millionHomewood development. Cyprus Partners signed Lovoy’s restaurant to one of the largest vacancies in SoHo Square on Wednesday, filling the void left by the closed Grey House Grille. Scott [...]

Lovoy’s Italian restaurant, a Homewood treasure where teenagers have taken prom dates and old married folks have celebrated golden anniversaries, is leaving the Green Springs Highway location the Lovoy family has called home since 1964 to move into swankier, roomier digs in SoHo Square. “It’s time to grow,” Zac Lovoy, the restaurant’s third-generation owner, said [...]

By Bob Sims — The Birmingham News September 26, 2008, 6:14AM … in the days before the pasta chains had a firm hold here, there were a number of old-school, home-owned Italian restaurants in town where you could go to enjoy a good Italian meal served in an unstudied, mid-century-Birmingham-Italian atmosphere. The lighting was dim, the [...]

BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANT LOVOY’S, [ 420 Green Springs Highway ] Runners-up: Leonardo’s (2520 Rocky Ridge Road), Bongiorno (68 Church St., Crestline) [Click Here To veiw entire Reader's Choice Awards]

BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANT LOVOY’S, [ 420 Green Springs Highway ] Runners-up: Leonardo’s (2520 Rocky Ridge Road), Bongiorno (68 Church St., Crestline) [Click Here To veiw entire Reader's Choice Awards]

Dining choices Our fascination with food eaten away from home is well-documented. According to the National Restaurant Association, an average household spends $2,137 on food eaten away from home each year. That amounts to more than $850 per person and nearly $180 per month. Those expenditures include dining out at fine restaurants, fast-food establishments, private [...]