Savannah Proper

Friday, November 22nd
Savannah, GA
Partly Cloudy - 77 Degrees

Where as Charleston is sophisticated and classy, Savannah is sensual and sassy.  Charleston historic, Savannah eccentric.  Charleston is a girls' weekend.  Savannah is a bachelor party.

It's Savannah's southern sensibility, easy walkability, and ultimate livability, that give it real likability.

It all starts on River Street.  Everybody says it's "touristy," but everybody does it anyway, so we did too.  River Street runs along the Savannah river, a body of water with lots of industry and little charm.  A promenade lines the riverfront.  River Street runs alongside, rough cobblestones fronting the backs of old cotton warehouses, now filled by trinket and t-shirt purveyors, peg-leg pirate fish houses, and cheap beer and umbrella drink bars.  The convention center and a Westin resort anchor the opposite bank.  The Riviera, it's not, but there is some art along the way, and it's a pleasant enough stroll.

More tankers and container ships ply the waters of the Savannah River, than ferries and tour boats.

The World War II memorial, "A World Torn Apart," is a nice monument.

Far more controversial, is the recent memorial to the African American rise out of slavery.  The black family, shackles broken at their feet, have a vacant stare, a facial expression critics say plays to negative stereotypes.  If the statue lacked verisimilitude, the inscription, by former Poet Laureate Maya Angelou, was too real for some people.

"We were stolen, sold and bought together from the African continent. We got on the slave ships together. We lay back to belly in the holds of the slave ships in each others' excrement and urine together, sometimes died together, and our lifeless bodies thrown overboard together."

Maya Angelou had credibility and history on her side, but finally agreed to amend the original quote to include more fitting Hollywood ending:

"Today, we are standing up together, with faith and even some joy ..."

At the far end of River Street is Savannah's Favorite Statue, "The Waving Girl," Savannah folk hero, Florence Martus.  At nineteen years old, she started waving to each and every ship that plied the waters of the Savannah River.  She waved a handkerchief by day, and a lantern by night.  For forty years.  Without fail.  Ship captains would return her salute with a blow of the ship's horn.  Everyone needs a purpose in life, I guess.

River Street is about forty feet below the rest of downtown.  Bay Street runs along the bluff above, and for all practical purposes, defines the northern edge of the city.  We finished our west to east walk along the waterfront, climbed back up the bluff, and worked our way west through Emmet Park along East Bay Street.

The Owens-Thomas House is Savannah's finest antebellum house museum, and it's one of the best examples of Regency architecture in the United States.  The architect, Englishman William Jay, was one of the few professionally trained architects practicing in America at the time, at just 24 years old.  The home was built for cotton merchant, Richard Richardson, but the depression of 1820 forced a sale.  Mayor George Owens bought the home in 1830, and it stayed in his family until 1951.  His granddaughter Margaret Thomas bequeathed the home to the Telfair Academy to be run as a house museum.  Thus the name, Owens-Thomas House.

The house is extraordinary.  It was the first in Savannah to have indoor plumbing, twelve years before the White House.  There was no municipal water supply at that time, so the system at Owens-Thomas House was fed by rainwater.  Three cisterns held water collected from the roof, the largest in the basement, with smaller ones for each of the upper floors.  The kitchen, laundry, and bathing rooms were plumbed in the basement, a master bath on the main level, and a shared bath on the third floor, both with flushing toilets.  The engineering was revolutionary for the day, but the design was no less inspired.  Curved doors and walls, ornate paint and plaster to create unique optical effects for different rooms, a bridge at the top of the split staircase connecting the front and rear of the third floor.  It's a study in symmetry, with false doors and windows to balance out rooms with unbalance programs.  The house is beautifully restored, always a work in progress, along with the carriage house and slave quarters out back.

Owens-Thomas is on the National Register of Historic Places, having hosted Revolutionary War hero, the Marquis de Lafayette, who is said to have delivered an address from the cast iron veranda overlooking the crowd in Oglethorpe Square.

Savannah is a warm-weather city with a streak of hedonism.  There is lots of ice cream to be had.  But there is only one place to go for the "VeriBest" ice cream, a Savannah favorite for generations and almost 100 years, and first-hand Hollywood memorabilia:  Leopold's Ice Cream.

"Leopold’s Ice Cream was founded in 1919 by three immigrant brothers from Greece: George, Peter, and Basil Leopold. They learned the art of candy and dessert from an uncle who had already settled in America. The brothers perfected the secret formulas and created the world famous Leopold’s VeriBest ice cream.  Leopold’s VeriBest ice cream is absolutely one-of-a-kind. All flavors are made on the premises, one batch at a time, using top-secret family recipes handed down from the original Leopold brothers.  The original Leopold’s Ice Cream shop closed in 1969. Stratton Leopold, the youngest child of Peter Leopold, kept many of the original fixtures in storage while he pursued his dreams of working in Hollywood.  On August 18 of 2004, Stratton and his wife Mary officially reopened the legendary family business. The new location on downtown Savannah’s bustling Broughton Street was designed by Academy Award nominated set designer Dan Lomino. The original fixtures Stratton had kept were used, including the black marble soda fountain and wooden interior phone booth. The shop has a beautiful old-fashioned flair with some modern decorative additions – posters and props from Stratton Leopold’s film career."

Mrs. Leopold was onsite unpacking Christmas decorations, and pausing to chat with customers, pouring glasses of ice water, noting that "Sometimes people like to have a little water with their ice cream."  She is a total sweetheart, and obviously as beloved by staff and customers as the ice cream is.  And the ice cream is, as good or better than any you will ever have in a local scoop shop anywhere in the country.  Take it from an ice cream elitist, this is serious stuff:  maximum butterfat content, minimum air content, subtle natural flavors.

Leopold's Ice Cream Menu:

• Lemon Custard
  (Original Flavor from 1919)
• Pumpkin Spice
• Honey Almond & Cream.

We walked back to the hotel down Broughton Street, Savannah's local shopping district, and through the modern new Ellis Square.

History and fine dining are not often found together.  The food seems to follow the history to bad places: kitschy tacky "ol' fashion" period dishes, or modern dishes that fall decades behind relying on the history to draw customers.

So, we are dining tonight in a mansion dating to 1771, so old, they actually spell it "Olde."

"The Olde Pink House is one of Savannah’s most popular restaurants, offering new southern cuisine in a sophisticated, yet casual setting in Savannah’s only 18th Century Mansion."

This National Historic Landmark, originally called Habersham House, is proud to be pink, but pink by accident.  The structural brick was stuccoed white, but the red of the soft brick seeped through the stucco.  White + Red = Pink.  The house has been host to conspirators in the Revolution, Planter's Bank - the first bank in Georgia, Union officers during the Civil War, law offices, a bookstore, and a tea room.  Finally, and fully, restored in the 1990s, the Olde Pink House has a large catering operation, multiple dining rooms, a bar, and Planter's Tavern in the basement.  The room is dark and the ceiling is low.  In the candle light, it looks something like a romantic dungeon.  The old bank vaults are now wine cellars, with intimate seating for two.  We followed a recommendation from the manager at Empire State South to head downstairs to the Tavern.

The Olde Pink House has been among Savannah's go-to special occasion destinations for at least a generation.  Their latest claim to fame was an appearance on the Food Network show, "The Best Thing I Ever Ate."  Celebrity chefs pick a favorite restaurant dish that fits in the category of that episode.  They travel to the restaurant, taste the dish on camera, go back into the kitchen to see how it's made, and tell you why it's the best thing ever.  This episode:  "The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Sliced."  It's a bit of a stretch on the theme, but Aaron Sanchez picked the "BLT" Salad at The Olde Pink House.  "Fried Green Tomatoes & Sweet Bacon w/Black Pepper Thyme Buttermilk Dressing."  Sounds good.

And it was.  The greens were a little limp, the fried green tomatoes a little soggy, the bacon a little short of crisp, but the flavors were great.  The grilled pork loin was good, the fried pork chop was great (c'mon, it was a fried pork chop), but the sides were even better.  And the pecan pie was the best, a southern specialty, and a first for this trip.  So good it left me doing Billy Crystal from "When Harry Met Sally" all night.  Don't know the scene?  Shame on you.  Netflix.

This is not fine dining to the highest standards, but they do what they do well.  We took a tour of the mansion after dinner, and it was an impressive operation.  Prepping for two catering gigs, every dining room packed, people lined up out the door, the bar overflowing onto the sidewalk.

Planter's Tavern at the Olde Pink House Menu

• Saazerac & Planter's Punch
• “BLT” Salad
  Fried Green Tomatoes & Sweet Bacon w/Black Pepper Thyme Buttermilk Dressing
• Bourbon Molasses Grilled Pork Tenderloin
  Sweet Potato with Pecan Vanilla Butter and Collards
• Fried Pork Chop with Pan Gravy
  Macaroni & Cheese and Collards
• Bacon Buttermilk Whipped Potatoes
• Pecan Pie
  Cinnamon Pecan Crust, Dark Chocolate Served Warm with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Savannah is a place you feel.  It fills your heart before it finds your mind.  Johnson Square after dinner.  Not quite balmy, but a blush in the air, a whiff of sweetness on the breeze, a slow stroll under live oaks, a lone flute carrying the tune of the night.  This is why people fall in love with Savannah.

Tomorrow:  Savannah Squared