After my last post on the new brewpub planned for downtown, Gerry Nemet added a comment letting readers know that the kettles at Five Points South were fired up this week "for the first time in many, many years. The facility connected to The Five Points Grill (formerly The Mill) should be pumping the beer out by January."

When the restaurant opened as The Mill 17 years ago, there was so much buzz about it we even heard about it down in Tuscaloosa, where I was working at the time. Over the years, the beer-making operation closed, there was an ownership and name change, and the place generally went downhill. Gerry Nemet took over earlier this year and has been busy with renovations of the facilities and the food. His experience includes owning two successful '50's-style diners in Florida with his brother for almost 10 years, and most recently senior manager at The Cheesecake Factory.

It has long been one of the best spots for outdoor dining in town, and Nemet says it's going to be even better, with new stone-top tables, new chairs, umbrellas and a new fence with flowers from end to end in the works.

A new menu rolls out next Monday, including appetizers such as spinach and artichoke dip, grilled quesadillas, calamari, Cobb salad, Caesar salad, and crawfish & corn chowder; sandwiches such as Philly Cheesesteak, open-faced Reuben, po-boys or blackened grouper; hand-tossed pizzas; entrees such as rib eye steak, shrimp and grits, grilled salmon, jambalaya, basil chicken fettuccine and braised lamb shank; and desserts such as Key Lime pie, Milky Way mousse cake and Chocolate Tuxedo Meltaway. Sunday brunch features chicken scallopine, crab cakes, Five Points Eggs Benedict, steak and eggs, and "Southern Comfort" -- biscuits, sausage gravy, Conecuh sausage and two eggs any style over cheese grits.