The House of Found Objects

Esquire's 2026 Best Bars in America list covers the full breadth of American drinking culture, from white-tablecloth hotel bars to neighbourhood dives, and The House of Found Objects earned its place on that list through a concept that treats the bar itself as the artwork. The space on 2nd Avenue North in downtown Birmingham is built around repurposed found objects, costumes, a bubble machine, and seating areas that shift the experience away from the transactional and toward the theatrical. Playlists are curated by local DJs rather than pulled from a streaming algorithm, and cocktails occasionally arrive with props — a temporary tattoo, for instance — that make the drink part of a broader performance rather than simply something to consume.

The bar is the work of Feizal Valli, whose previous projects established a track record in Birmingham's cocktail scene before this one. His earlier venture, The Atomic Lounge, received three consecutive James Beard Foundation semifinalist nominations for Outstanding Bar Program, a recognition that places serious craft behind what might otherwise read as pure spectacle. At The House of Found Objects, that craft shows up in the cocktail list, which includes drinks named after regular patrons alongside riffs on classic formats — an old-fashioned built with bourbon and chicory liqueur being among the more discussed examples.

Birmingham's downtown bar scene has developed considerably over the past decade, and Second Avenue North now functions as one of its more active corridors after dark. The House of Found Objects occupies a specific register within that: it draws a crowd that wants something more considered than a standard craft-cocktail bar but less formal than a tasting-menu-adjacent drinks program. The Esquire recognition in 2026 confirms what local regulars had already established through repeat visits and the kind of word-of-mouth that fills a room on a Tuesday.