Sidewalk dining comes to Southside Square

Longtime local auto dealer Jeff Sikes has stepped into the restaurant business with a new European-themed "contemporary American" restaurant called Cotton Row (not to be confused with Cotton Row Market, which was a short-lived establishment next to Humphrey's a couple of years ago). It is scheduled to open this week on Southside Square downtown, according to the Huntsville Times. So, what's so special about this restaurant? The prospect of it prompted the city to lift a ban on outdoor dining a couple of years ago. The building it is housed in-- renovated by Sikes-- was also part of the first phase of a city "sidewalk revitalization project" that never really went anywhere.