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September 2025 | Volume 16 | Issue 4
Serving the Birmingham area since 1958. SERVING HOMEWOOD, HOOVER, MOUNTAIN BROOK, VESTAVIA HILLS, TRUSSVILLE AND THE U.S. 280 CORRIDOR
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The last supper at DeVinci’s
Education Guide
In the final days of DeVinci’s Italian Restaurant, old friends crowded a back table to share pizza, memories and a reminder not to put off the things — or the people — that matter
Learn more about Homewood-area schools in our annual Education Guide.
See page 10
Medical Guide
Above: Old college friends (clockwise, from left) Kelli Hewett Taylor, Mike Baswell, Tim Stephens, Chuck Evans and Kelly Council enjoy a final meal at DeVinci’s. The Homewood restaurant closed on Aug. 10 after 64 years of service.
By TIM STEPHENS
T
he place was loud — not like a concert but with the warm buzz of every table full. Voices overlapped with the clatter of plates and the shuffle of servers balancing pastas, breadsticks and pizzas. Somewhere to the right, laughter. To the left, a story told over the clink of a wine glass. Our table was in the back, after a 45-minute wait in a crowd that seemed to be here for the same reason. For 64 years, DeVinci’s Italian Restaurant had been part of Homewood’s heartbeat — a first date one night, a graduation dinner the next, a Sunday family meal after that. People marked time here with calzones, pasta bowls and Mona Lisa pizzas. When the news broke on Instagram that DeVinci’s would close Aug. 10, memories poured in: first dates, anniversaries, after-game dinners, birthday parties. Calls came from as far away as Tokyo, asking for favorites to be shipped. In the month that followed, business jumped 30 percent.
Discover Homewood-area health and wellness services in our biannual Medical Guide.
See page 17
For 2025 Homewood city election coverage, go online to thehomewoodstar.com
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Left: Owner John Day and daughter Camila Day outside the front door of DeVinci’s Italian Restaurant. Below: With Council, right, waiting her turn, Evans bites into the first slice of the restaurant’s signature pizza, the Mona Lisa. Photos by David Leong.
See DeVINCI’S | page 30
Homewood public hearing on former police station ends almost instantly
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A plan to convert a vacant Homewood Police Department property into a steak restaurant, surrounded by a walkable, familyfriendly park, has been withdrawn by the developer after public criticism. Concept image courtesy of city of Homewood.
By SOLOMON CRENSHAW JR. If you blinked, you missed the public hearing about the potential rezoning of the former police station in downtown Homewood for a steakhouse and pocket park. Chris Underwood blinked. The Hollywood resident, who admits to having problems with her hearing, couldn’t make out what Homewood Council President Walter Jones said when
he opened the public hearing at the Aug. 11 council meeting. In nearly the same breath, Jones opened and closed the proceeding. “As we all know, and have been discussing, this item is strictly about zoning but the applicant has withdrawn plans,” Jones said. “We really don’t have a plan.
See DEVELOPMENT | page 31