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

Charleston to Savannah

Thursday, November 21st
Charleston, SC
Mostly Cloudy - 69 Degrees

Charleston to Savannah

It was 153.7 miles from Charleston to Savannah, largely via US17 S and US21 S, with some twists and turns on SC and GA state highways, and we made some stops along the way.

Kiawah Island

Kiawah is a barrier island on the Atlantic ocean south of Charleston.  Three hundred acres of the island have been dedicated as a nature preserve.  The rest of the island is largely private, one gated community after another, but there is one facility open to the public, the exceptional Sanctuary Hotel:  255 rooms, acres of  dunes and miles of beach, swimming, tennis, and golf.  The resort was sad and lonely today, a pallor cast by the gray skies, and in a lull between the end of the summer season and the crush of the holidays.  Still, Kiawah is all class and easy living.

Angel Oak

On the road back up to the highway from Kiawah Island, is a roadside attraction something in between the World's Largest Ball of String and the Drive-Through Tree.  Angel Oak Park on Johns Island is dedicated entirely to one tree.  Angel Oak, an incredible specimen of live oak draped with Spanish Moss, is "65 feet in circumference, well over 1,000 years old, and commonly considered the oldest tree east of the Mississippi River."

One of the most enduring symbols of the South is the live oak thick with hanging moss, branching out to fill every void in the canopy, enveloping the ground below.  Live oaks make roads into tunnels, squares into rooms, light into shade, day into night.  It is a scene that is at once comforting and haunting, as if you are protected by their powerful embrace, and yet still feel them closing in on you inch by inch crushing the life from your body and soul until there is nothing left.  The live oak is the mysterious someone who can keep you safe from harm, but turn on you in an instant.  It is the Jekyll and Hyde of trees.

But this live oak in particular, this Angel Oak, beautiful in it's imperfection, is Frankentree, branches bandaged and splinted, propped up on posts and resting on the ground.  It is scarred and wizened and wrinkled.  It's the old man in the scary movie, pursuing slowly but relentlessly, limping and leaning on his cane.  He barely seems to move, but gives chase still, ever present.  You think you've lost him, reached safe haven, but you trip and fall, look up in abject terror to find him standing over you, pressing in, his gnarled fingers clawing at your face.  The stench of dirt and death is overwhelming, his stale breath choking out your own.  This tree will take a life, of that I am certain, but it won't be mine.  I have read the signs, I will heed the warnings, I am gone, and I ain't never going back.

The heart of the Lowcountry, or the Slowcountry as it is sometimes called, - both lovingly and derisively - is in the marshes between Charleston and Savannah.  It's capital is Beaufort, South Carolina.  We stopped in Beaufort for a "more authentic slice of life," an unremarkable lunch, and a lovely walk along the Beaufort River.  Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park is the front porch of the city, in a place where the front porch is the center of life.  It's very nicely landscaped with plenty of space for games and gatherings, a bandstand for community events, and a row of bench swings lining the riverfront promenade.  We strolled, had a seat and a swing, and took it all in.

Savannah, GA

Mostly Cloudy - 66 Degrees

We pulled into Savannah at dusk, and the Andaz, a relatively new hotel fronting Ellis square in the center of the city.  It's a great location, and a great story in urban renewal.  Ellis Square was an original part of the Oglethorp plan for Savannah.  When cars took hold in one of the world's great walking cities, the landscaping was ripped out, and replaced with a multi-story parking garage.  Fifty years later, the mistake was rectified, the parking garage put below ground, and the square restored.  It is a modern take on urban open space and has led to a renaissance of the neighborhood, including the Andaz.

Online, it looks like the Andaz is young and hip, but still comfortable and classy.  Turns out it's young and hip, uncomfortable and tacky.  We checked-in to Room 407 and went upstairs to wait for our luggage.  Fourth floor, no problem, 407, no problem, key in the door, no problem, opened the door, problem.  A very surprised young man was in mid-bend pulling up his pants in front of the hall mirror.  The room was occupied.  So, sorry.  New room, 415, no problem.

Savannah is not the food town Charleston is.  Not even close. The two grand dames are fading, their glory years in the past.  There are a few new contenders, but uneven and unproven.  So, this first night in town, after a shaky start, we want something local and dependable, close and cheap.  Vinnie Van Go-Go's is a long-standing, much loved, Savannah institution, a dive of a college town pizza joint at the end of City Market.  Pizza?  Southern Italian, maybe, but certainly not Lowcountry soul food.  Pretty good pie, though, and a sidewalk table fronting Franklin Square. 

"Welcome to Vinnie Van Go-Go's New York Style Pizzeria.  We make a thin hearty crust pizza called "Neapolitan".  We make our dough fresh every night while you sleep.  We use fresh grated Parmesan and Mozzarella cheeses, and our rich sauce will make you happy and warm inside."

Vinnie Van Go-Go's Menu:

• 14" Medium Pie
  Peperoni, Spicy Italian Sausage, Fresh Mushrooms, Black Olives

We walked back to the hotel through City Market, two blocks of Bourbon Street, Savannah style, and stopped at Savannah's Candy Kitchen, "Candy and Memories Made from Scratch," for a sweet finish to the day.

Tomorrow:  Savannah Proper

Charleston Before and After

Wednesday, November 20th
Charleston, SC
Mostly Cloudy - 55 Degrees

The Civil War

"The War of Northern Aggression"

"The Recent Unpleasantness"

South Carolina seceded from the Union by a unanimous vote on December 20, 1860.  At that time, the primary federal military installation in the area was at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island.  Fort Moultrie, under the command of Major Robert Anderson, had two companies totaling 85 men.  It was a fort in name only, in a residential neighborhood, isolated at the tip of an island.  The walls of the compound were so short, some of the neighboring houses looked down into the fort.  Major Anderson was surrounded by enemy territory, and his position was indefensible.

After the War of 1812, the federal government began strengthening coastal defenses up and down the Atlantic seaboard.  As part of this program, Fort Sumter was under construction on a man-made island at the mouth of Charleston Harbor.  Work began on the island in 1829, and was 90% complete by December of 1860.  The walls of the fort were 50 feet high, designed for a full complement of 135 guns, only 15 of which had been mounted and were ready to fire.  At full force, Fort Sumter would have a garrison of 650 men.

Six days after the vote of secession, tensions were on the rise and Major Anderson had to make a move.  Under cover of darkness on December 26th, 1860, Major Anderson moved his troops across the harbor to Fort Sumter, not yet complete, but secure.  The next day, the South Carolina Volunteers took possession of Fort Moultrie and the other three federal installations around Charleston Harbor.

The secession movement continued to gain steam, By March of 1861, seven other southern states had joined South Carolina in seceding from the Union, and they had formed The Confederate States of America under the leadership of Jefferson Davis.  As each state left the Union, local forces took command of federal military installations in their jurisdictions.  Fort Sumter was one of the few that remained under federal control, and it became the flashpoint of the conflict between the Union and the Confederacy, which demanded the fort be vacated.

Brigadier General Pierre G.T. Beauregard took command of Confederate troops in Charleston just as Abraham Lincoln took office as President of the United States.  On April 4, 1861, Lincoln notified the governor of South Carolina that he would make an attempt to resupply the fort.  The Confederate Secretary of War ordered Beauregard to "at once demand its evacuation, and if this is refused proceed, in such manner as you may determine, to reduce it."

Beauregard called on Major Anderson to surrender on April 11th.  He refused.  At 3:20 AM on April 12th, Beauregard gave a one hour attack notice.  At 4:30 AM, a signal shell was fired, and an attack on Fort Sumter was launched from Confederate batteries all around Charleston Harbor.  The confederate siege on Fort Sumter lasted 34 hours before Major Anderson was forced to surrender on Sunday, April 14th.  He lowered the Union flag and his troops were allowed to escape on a ship to New York.  There were no fatalities on either side, and only five injuries total, but the Civil War had begun.

In the face of relentless Union bombardment, 46,000 shells totaling more than seven million pounds of artillery, the Confederacy held Fort Sumter until they retreated from General William T. Sherman's advance and evacuated the fort on February 17, 1865.  On April 14, 1865, four years to the day after surrendering Fort Sumter, with Charleston under Union control and the war nearly at an end, Major General Anderson returned to the abandoned fort.  Once again he raised the Union flag over the fort where the war had begun.  The very same United States flag he had lowered in defeat four years before.

The boat to Fort Sumter leaves from Liberty Square on the Ashley River, a site the National Park Service Visitor Education Center shares with the South Carolina Aquarium.

Cruising down river to Fort Sumter at the mouth of Charleston Harbor, St. Philip's steeple towers above the Charleston skyline and Waterfront Park.

Ranger Kate met us at the Pier for a tour of Fort Sumter.

The wall surrounding the fort today is about one-third as high as the original wall, the result of Civil War bombardment, but what remains dates from the War and is largely intact. The fort continued to be an active US military installation well after the Civil War, and has been altered since that time.  The black structure was a post-war addition and is not original.  It now houses the Fort Sumter Museum and gift shop.

Three Civil War shells remain lodged in the wall of the fort:

Getting off the Fort Sumter boat back at Liberty Square, cold and wind burned, we were in need of a restaurant and a respite.  A little north of the historic district, Hominy Grill is on every insider's shortlist of southern staples, and they are open for lunch.

"Located in an historic Charleston single house, Hominy Grill feels as though it has been open for generations, in fact this landmark has only been dishing up its simple, clean fare since 1996.  Combining the traditions of the past with the bounty of land and sea, James Beard Award winning chef/owner Robert Stehling lets the Low Country’s unique cultural history and flavors guide his cooking.  Widely acclaimed on television and in print, Hominy Grill has built a reputation as a place where Charleston cuisine lives.  Savvy regulars slip in between the crowds of out of town visitors.  This is the food we wished our grandmothers could cook."

Our first fried green tomatoes of the trip did not disappoint.  Cut thick, cornmeal dusted, fried hot and hard to crispy juicy perfection, served with ranch so rich with herbs and personality, we bought the cookbook.  The real deal. The Big Nasty Biscuit is the best name going for a fried chicken sandwich.  The biscuit was outstanding, the chicken good, the gravy just OK.  We saved the top half of the biscuit from the gravy and slathered it with butter and honey instead.  Oh, yeah.  BBQ in the South is pork, not beef, but the brisket special was mighty fine, sliced thin and tender with just enough fat to hold the smoke, the sauce dark and sweet over the top.  Here's my theory on how hushpuppies got their name:  Mama made some up one day, and the dog whimpered and cried for one.  She said, "Hush, puppy, you ain't gettin' none.  Too good for you."  After all of that, desert stole our hearts.  The apple walnut cake was so tender and light, it was held together only by the loving embrace of the cream cheese icing.  In your dreams, carrot cake.  And, if Heaven is a bowl of chocolate pudding, I finally know how to get to heaven.  It's in the book.

Hominy Grill Menu:

• Sweet Tea
• Fried Green Tomatoes with ranch dressing
• Big Nasty Biscuit with fried chicken breast, cheddar cheese and sausage gravy
• Smoked Beef Brisket Platter with Low Country red rice, ginger cole slaw, jalepeno hushpuppies, & black strap molasses bbq sauce
• Apple Walnut Cake with cream cheese icing
• Chocolate Pudding

The remains of three great antebellum plantations still grace the banks of the Ashley river outside of Charleston.  Drayton Hall, The Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, and Middleton Place survived the war to varying degrees and differ in tone and presentation.  While they each provide a window into antebellum plantation life, Middleton Place, a National Historic Landmark, "is a sublime, unforgettable combination of history and sheer natural beauty.  Nestled along a quiet bend in the Ashley River, the grounds contain an historic restored home, working stables, and sixty acres of breathtaking gardens...Middleton Place is the culmination of the Lowcountry rice plantation aesthetic."

Middleton place served as the seat of the Middleton family through four generations and 125 years of prominence in the life of the South, and the life of the Nation.  The 200 acre estate was granted in 1675, and the grand main residence dates from 1705.  In 1741, Mary Williams brought the estate as a dowry to her marriage with Henry Middleton, who would become president of the First Continental Congress.  Their son, Arthur, was a signatory to the Declaration of Independence.  Arthur's son Henry was Governor of the State of South Carolina.  Henry's son, Williams, was a signatory to the Ordinance of Secession.  Williams lent his name to the Confederacy, and everything else as well.  He invested heavily in Confederate war bonds, continuing to invest even when it was clear that the North would win.  He believed so strongly in the future of an independent South, and the leadership role that he would play, that he had no exit strategy.  At the end of the war, he was broke.  A wealthy sister kept him afloat, but the Middleton dynasty of influence had ended.

The first Henry Middleton began the formal gardens almost immediately after taking control of the plantation.  He adopted the principles set forth in the gardens of Versailles.  "Rational order, geometry, symmetry, balance, vistas, focal points, and surprises were all part of the garden vocabulary."  A series of "allees" parallel and perpendicular to one another, lead to smaller garden rooms, and larger geometric gardens.  A reflection pool anchors one corner, a mill pond, another.  One central axis begins at the porch of the main house with two parallel lawns leading to a series of sculpted terraces, and finally to the Butterfly Lakes at river's edge, two symmetrical lakes, each in the shape of a single butterfly wing.

In 1755, Middleton expanded the residence as well, with two flanker buildings, one to the north of the main house with a family library, art gallery, and music room, and one to the south with office space and guest quarters for his businesses.

As badly as the war ended for Williams Middleton, the fate of Middleton Place was even worse.  On February 22, 1865 the 56th New York Volunteers, Union troops, who had occupied the plantation during the war, set fire to the main house and both flankers, and laid waste to the gardens, as they rode out of town.  The main house and north flanker were destroyed, the ruins left standing until the great earthquake of 1886 brought down what was left.  The south flanker was rebuilt as the family home in the same footprint as the original.

In the early 1900s, Middleton descendent J.J. Pringle Smith inherited the house and gardens, the latter in a terrible state, so "neglected and overgrown," that it took more than twenty years for restoration and recovery.  Much of the work done by the Smiths themselves, Mrs. Heningham Smith on her hands and knees feeling her way through the unruly growth to find the original brick borders that delineate the garden paths.  In 1941, in honor of the garden's bicentennial, the oldest landscaped garden in the United States was recognized by the Garden Club of America with the Bulkley Medal as "the most interesting and important garden in America."  In 1991, 250 years after work on the garden began, the International Committee on Monuments and Sites named Middleton Place a garden of international importance, one of only six in the United States.

Originally, an entirely green garden, some blooming plants have been added, even a few that bloom this time of year.  On a cloudy day, in the least appealing season, this is still a beautiful place.

We have, we think, saved the best for last...

"The Mobil Four-Star and AAA Four-Diamond Peninsula Grill is at Planters Inn, the acclaimed Relais & Châteaux property located in the heart of Historic Charleston, South Carolina.  A seamless marriage of cosmopolitan accents and Charleston gentility, the ambiance at Peninsula Grill is simultaneously refined and relaxed.  Heralded by Esquire magazine as one of America's Best New Restaurants in 1997, the Grill has earned recognition from a host of other esteemed publications, including The New York Times, Southern Living, Travel + Leisure, Wine Spectator and Food & Wine, which named it one of America's Top 50 Hotel Restaurants.  The Peninsula Grill experience begins with the very best Lowcountry produce and seafood combined with the finest ingredients flown in fresh daily from points around the world."

The Lobster and Corn Chowder was heralded by Richard Turen as a highlight of Charleston.  And it is.  Built on a foundation of medium roux, the chowder had the mouth feel of velvet with no hint of paste.  Nor did it suffer from an overpowering shell reduction, or the weight of heavy cream.  Just fresh vegetables and perfectly poached lobster in a happy medium.  The pork and beef were both outstanding, medium and sliced medium-rare respectively, highlighted by flavorful sauces, and complemented by the perfect potato.  And finally, the specialty of the house, The Ultimate Coconut cake:

"From Bon Appetit and Saveur to Martha Stewart Living and The New York Times, the Ultimate Coconut Cake has inspired many food and travel writers to wax poetically about its twelve layers of Southern perfection."

“The Peninsula Grill in the Planters Inn is deservedly famous for its scrumptious coconut cake, said to be a Charleston specialty.” — Vogue

“A little slice of heaven…” — The New York Times

“. . . skyscraper high. . . light as a cloud. . .” — Bon Appetit

"One of the South’s Grand Desserts.” — Southern Living

“All time favorite dessert.” — Bobby Flay

“The richest filling, and the best ingredients…” — Martha Stewart

At the first mention of the Peninsula Grill to anyone and everyone you may encounter, "You must have the coconut cake!"  So, we did.

Here's the thing...try to imagine the  V - E - R - Y   B - E - S - T  coconut cake you can possibly imagine.  It's moist.  It's rich.  It's light.  It's dense.  It's big.  It's beautiful.  It's the very essence of coconut.  This is it.  No question.  B - U - T . . . , it's coconut cake, a known quantity, easily within the grasp of your imagination, well within the reach of your fork.  We've all had good coconut cake.  How much better can the very best be?

Peninsula Grill Menu:

• Southern Manhattan
  Russell's Reserve Bourbon, Southern Comfort Liqueur, Angostura Bitters, Garnished with Brandy Soaked Cherries, Served on the Rocks
• Amuse Bouche
  Mushroom Mornay in Puff Pastry
• Chilled Wedge of Iceberg
  with Smoked Bacon Jerky and Buttermilk Dressing
• Lobster & Corn Chowder
  Basil Butter
• Grilled Berkshire Pork Chop
  Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Braised Greens and BBQ Jus
• Seared New York Strip au Poivre
  Crispy Potato Cake, Benne Beans and Brandy Pan Sauce
• Vidalia Whipped Potatoes
• The Ultimate Coconut Cake
  Coconut Anglaise and Strawberries

Next Stop:  Savannah, GA