The folks at Fife’s Restaurant in downtown Birmingham know how to get the day started — with tasty eggs, fluffy biscuits, savory sausage, satisfying grits and other traditional breakfast foods.

The restaurant has fans aplenty, and few would argue that Fife’s, which opened in 1959, is a bona fide institution on the city’s dining scene.

Now Fife’s has received a tip of the hat from Garden & Gun magazine. The restaurant was on an opinionated list of “7 of the South’s Tastiest Breakfast Joints,” posted in February on the Garden & Gun website. In the piece, writer Hanna Raskin lauded eateries that serve “hearty breakfast standards,” praising their day-in, day-out skills.

“After Bogue’s closed in 2022, following an eighty-four-year run, Birminghamians weren’t sure where to go for breakfast,” Raskin writes. “But Fife’s has been there nearly all along, having opened in 1959. The homey restaurant shifts to cafeteria service for lunch, but scrambles eggs and flips pancakes to order. Devotees are divided on sides: Some favor thick-skinned smoked sausage, while others are partial to sweet country ham.”

Raskin, from South Carolina, is the founder of The Food Section, a newsletter that covers food and drink throughout the South. She didn’t mention specific criteria or ways of ranking the breakfast spots on her list, but simply pointed to a few that she evidently finds impressive.

Aside from Fife’s, Raskin’s list for Garden & Gun featured Coney Island Cafe in Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Narobia’s Grits & Gravy in Savannah, Georgia; Tastee Bar-B-Q in Memphis, Tennessee; Pinehurst Track Restaurant in Pinehurst, North Carolina; Omega Pancake House in Surfside Beach, South Carolina; and Yankee Coffee Shop in Petersburg, Virginia.

AL.com offered its own kudos for Fife’s in a list of “6 Birmingham-area restaurants to grab a good breakfast,” published in September 2022.

“Fife’s has been serving Birmingham from its location on 4th avenue since 1959,” reporter Shauna Stuart said. “Originally opened by Ernest and Margaret Fife, restaurateur John Kostakis took over Fife’s and has helmed the eatery since 1989. Breakfast at Fife’s starts bright and early at 6:00 a.m. All the breakfast classics are on the menu, including pancakes, eggs, grits, biscuits, and of course, Conecuh sausage.”

Fife’s has earned a few celebrity endorsements over the years, as well. The Blind Boys of Alabama, for example, introduced Dan Rather to Fife’s in 2002, when the veteran CBS newsman was interviewing the gospel troupe for a segment on “60 Minutes II.” Rather had lunch with the Blind Boys at Fife’s, and pronounced the collard greens “superb.” Rather also said Fife’s food was worth his entire trip to Birmingham.