* Mudtown in Cahaba Heights is celebrating its fifth anniversary with an updated menu, featuring fried calamari served with green onion and roasted garlic aoli and housemade marinara; wild caught Crimson Snapper available grilled or fried; and previous specials that are now permanent menu items such as the Cahaba Cajun Burger, the fried shrimp basket and the grilled chicken salad sandwich. New on the dessert menu are fried pies, handmade by the family owned "Southern Fried Pies" in Calera.

* Avo in Mountain Brook recently completed an interior redesign to make the restaurant a bit more intimate and less industrial looking. We like the results -- it still looks very modern and urban, and the menu offers dishes that are a nice change from the many Southern-influenced restaurants we have in town.

* There's now a second Michael's restaurant in town in addition to the one near the Galleria. The new location is at the cool new Aloft hotel in downtown Homewood. Bob Carlton has more here.

* Bellini's in the Inverness area has a new lunch menu. Potato crusted tuna salad sounds awesome. Menu in PDF here.