Highlands Bar & Grill in Birmingham has been voted among the 100 Best Restaurants in America for 2017, a list published by the popular dining forum OpenTable.

What makes Highlands special: The restaurant has many unique dishes, but perhaps its most distinguishing feature is its oyster bar, which serves mollusks sourced from the coasts of Alabama, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Brunswick, Canada.

The details:

— Patron reviews, verified by OpenTable, determined that Highlands deserves a seat at the national Best Restaurants table. Eateries from 47 other cities made the list, with some major cities such as New York, Washington D.C., and Chicago having multiple.

— OpenTable examined more than 12,000,000 reviews of more than 26,000 restaurants across the country. Honorees were rewarded based upon their exceptional dishes, hospitality and overall dining experience.

Jeremy Beaman is a Huntsville-native in his final year at the University of Mobile. He spent the summer of 2017 with the Washington Examiner and writes for The College Fix. Follow him on Twitter @jeremywbeaman and email him at jeremy@new-yhn.local.