A new diner serving stir fry, dumplings and beef noodle soup has quietly opened inside one of East Avondale's most well-traveled storefronts. Taiwan Street Food launched its soft opening on Monday at 4350 3rd Ct. South, taking over a building that has cycled through several restaurant concepts over the past two years.
Operator Stephen Kao is running the new diner, which features an open-kitchen concept and a menu built around stir fry, soups, dumplings, potstickers, beef noodle soup, crispy chicken with rice, stir fry shrimp and vegetables with rice, dumpling soup and edamame, according to Bham Now. Kao brings a different kind of résumé to the restaurant business: he has spent more than 20 years running Christopher House Antiques in Birmingham, specializing in 18th and 19th-century European and Asian antiques and building custom furniture from reclaimed wood, per Birmingham365.
A Building That Keeps Changing Hands
Taiwan Street Food occupies the former Lag's Eatery space, continuing a pattern of fast tenant turnover at the address. Before Lag's, the building was home to LoLo's BBQ, and the 2024 overhaul that brought Lag's Eatery back to life included gutting the interior, replacing a gravel parking lot with paved concrete and adding a separate restroom structure, Bham Now's historical reporting notes.
That November 2024 revival was launched under co-owners Eric Wallace and Justin Shubert, reviving a name with deep roots in the area. The original Lag's Eatery had operated as a popular Homewood breakfast and lunch spot from the 1970s until it closed in 2009 after its longtime owner suffered health issues, according to the same report.
Soft Opening Hours and What's on the Patio
For now, Taiwan Street Food is open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and closed on weekends while it works through its soft opening phase. The diner also has a fully functional patio, giving diners an outdoor option in the East Avondale commercial strip.
A Neighborhood Built on Reinvented Spaces
Taiwan Street Food is sandwiched next to Gatos & Beans and sits near Cahaba Brewing, placing it inside a small commercial pocket that has become something of a niche destination. Gatos & Beans, at 4348 3rd Court South, opened in 2019 as Alabama's first cat café inside a converted former tire store. By August 2026, the concept had spread statewide, with Alabama now home to four operating cat cafés, according to That Cat Life.
Cahaba Brewing Company anchors the block from inside the historic 1925 Continental Gin Building, after relocating to East Avondale in January 2016 and converting the complex into a 51,000-square-foot production facility and taproom, per Cahaba Brewing Company. That move paid off for the brewery: it generated 135 percent growth in sales and earned Cahaba Brewing Alabama's Silver Retailer of the Year award in 2017 for driving neighborhood economic development, according to the Alabama Retail Association.
The brewery's pull as a neighborhood anchor was on full display just a day before Taiwan Street Food's soft opening. On Sunday, the 10th anniversary Birmingham Punk Rock Flea Market drew more than 100 regional vendors to Cahaba Brewing, as Hoodline reported in its coverage of the milestone market. Together, the brewery, the cat café and now Taiwan Street Food form a cluster of adaptive-reuse businesses that have reshaped a stretch of East Avondale once defined by industrial and auto-related tenants.
