Photos by Erin Nelson.
Above: Guests dine for lunch at Civitas in Mountain Brook’s English Village on Dec. 6. Inset: The pimento cheese appetizer.
Tonya Jones’s love for the people and the community of Mountain Brook prompted her to become an “accidental restaurateur.”
“When I was approached to buy this restaurant, it was like, ‘Do I really want to get into the restaurant business?,’ but then a bigger part of me was like, ‘I have to. I have to save a restaurant that is a staple in this community,’” Jones told Village Living.
The restaurant in question has been known by many names. Most recently, it was Bobby Carl’s Table and Evelyn’s Southern Fare. After the purchase of the space by Jones and her husband, the restaurant is now called “Civitas.”
“Within my core, I love leadership,” Jones said. “I love helping people reach their full potential. It’s about great food. It’s serving people. It’s really just business 101. Civitas means ‘for the citizens.’ I bought the restaurant for the citizens. I bought it to keep a staple restaurant here. I wasn’t brought up in the restaurant industry. I’m not a trained chef, but if I can run a hair salon, I can run a restaurant.”
Jones said that the team started their endeavor by looking at the menu from Bobby Carl’s and Evelyn’s to find inspiration for their new menu of “contemporary, southern cuisine.”
“We have everything from a Conecuh sausage corn dog to pimento cheese to a great snapper dish and a filet mignon,” said Jones. “We’re going to start adding more salads, more sandwiches and adding some really cool things that people remember from the places that were here before.”
Saturday brunch features Jones’s own homemade buttermilk biscuit recipe. She believes that by creating dishes that people really want, the citizens of Mountain Brook will get excited to return to a space that holds nostalgic memories.
“We have committed to this corner space in front of us, and we want to start serving coffee and small pastries and giving people a place to come and work during the day. You’ll also be able to get sandwiches and salads and soups and a cocktail or glass of wine during lunch, before rolling right on into happy hour specials and tapas and the restaurant for evening dining and event space,” Jones said.
“I would describe Civitas as contemporary American. We’re going to have a little bit of everything on our menu. You’re going to see pasta come up on the menu. You’ll see tacos show up on the menu. It’ll just be a little bit for everyone,” she said.
Jones tells Village Living that their team and restaurant are available for private events and catering.
“With our space and technology, you can have [anything from] a breakfast meeting or a lunch meeting to a bridal shower or a baby shower. We rent it by the room or you can rent the whole space. We want to make it easy for everyone,” she said.
She said the beauty of her work is seeing people’s excitement when they leave the salon after a haircut or a facial, but now she also gets to see the excitement from customers when they eat great food.
“The joy of that fills my cup,” she said.
Civitas is open Tuesday through Saturday for lunch from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., happy hour from 2:30 to 6 p.m., and dinner from 5 to 9 p.m. For more information and the most current menu, visit civitasbham.com.
