Our good friends in Amsterdam, Bryan and Hilary, love country music as much as we do. Last year we all saw Thomas Rhett at this small venue in Amsterdam. He was so good that we knew if he came back to Europe, we’d have to try to see him again.

Before we even moved to London, Cole discovered Thomas Rhett was playing in Birmingham, so we all decided we would make a fun weekend trip out of it. Bryan arrived Friday evening and we grabbed drinks nearby on Elizabeth Street while we waited for Hilary to get in. We grabbed a late dinner in NOVA near our house and ended the night at Vagabond wine bar before we called it a night.

Celebrating Hilary’s arrival!!

Saturday morning, we tried brunch at a cute restaurant which is right around the corner from our house, Cambridge Street Kitchen. In addition to our individual meals, we shared an order of pancakes which were delicious. We then headed to Fitzrovia to get some coffees and explore a bit before our train to Birmingham.

The train was only 2 hours and we arrived into town by early afternoon. We found a cool brewery restaurant called Purecraft Bar & Kitchen and then stumbled upon this amazing restaurant/cocktail bar called Lost & Found that looked so good we knew we had to make dinner reservations there.

After dinner, we walked over to the concert venue which was just on the outskirts of town. Old Dominion opened up for T Rhett and they were incredible! Thomas was his usual amazing self – he played all of my favorites from his new album and some of his older songs as well. After the concert, we headed to a sports bar we called earlier that promised would play the UGA Auburn game for us. They had it playing on the big screen which was great, but unfortunately, right after halftime, after a few bad plays, the game took a turn for the worse and Georgia wouldn’t be able to recover (although we got our sweet revenge just a few weeks later at the SEC championship).

Bryan was flying out super early Sunday morning back to the US, so Hilary, Cole and I grabbed breakfast together at Boston Tea Party, which offered some healthy options to help us detox from the weekend. We and grabbed coffee at this adorable cafe 200 Degrees before we headed to the train station and Hil left for the airport.

Birmingham is definitely not the most glamorous or charming British city, but the food and drink scene was surprisingly alive and well in the town. We had a great time catching up with our friends, showing them just a tiny bit of London, and exploring another UK city together.