Just. a quick update on yesterday’s peramublations, which included sightseeing and food.
We’ve rented an Air BnB equivalent in downtown Savannah, and it’s on this lovely tree-lined street:
Only half a block away is Clary’s Cafe, an eatery made famous because it’s in the novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a semi-true tale of life and a murder in Savannah in the 1980s. I read it before I came here, and it was pretty good.
Here’s Clary’s with an old-time sign. When I went to get coffee at 8 a.m. it was empty, but when we returned at 10 a.m. there was a 25-minute wait. The cafe became a lot more popular after it was featured in the novel as well as in the eponymous film directed by Clint Eastwood. From Wikipedia:
The author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt, described Clary’s as “a clearinghouse of information, a bourse of gossip,” where he came to know the characters who would animate his narrative. James Gandolfini made an uncredited appearance as the cook in the two scenes filmed at the cafe.
A photograph of the cast hangs inside the restaurant, featuring Alison Eastwood (who plays Mandy), her father, Clint Eastwood (director), The Lady Chablis, John Cusack (John Kelso), Kevin Spacey (Jim Williams) and Jack Thompson (Sonny Seiler).
The unprepossessing interior, which does serve up good food.
Since one of my goals here is to eat as much Southern food as I can, I had that classic staple for breakfast: biscuits in sausage gravy. Very filling–and good.
And I decided to have dessert as well: bread pudding. (Do not food shame me! I don’t eat like this all the time!)
In the afternoon we spent walking around the Wormsloe Historic Site, From Wikipedia:
The Wormsloe State Historic Site, originally known as Wormsloe Plantation, is a state historic site near Savannah, Georgia, in the southeastern United States. The site consists of 822 acres (3.33 km2), protecting part of what was once the Wormsloe Plantation, a large estate established by one of the founders of colonial Georgia, Noble Jones. The site includes a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) dirt road lined with southern live oaks, the ruins of a small house with fortified walls built of tabby, a museum, and an area with recreations of colonial structures such as a blacksmithing forge and a house similar to those first built in the colony of Georgia (or as housing for enslaved people).
It was atmospheric even though not many of the original structures remain. Here’s part of the long and famous alley of live oaks. I love the Spanish Moss, which for some reason doesn’t seem to hang on the palm trees. Perhaps a botanical reader knows the reason.
I’m visiting with my oldest friends Tim and Betsy, whom I stay with when I go back to Cambridge, MA. I’ve known Tim since 1967 when we lived in the same dorm at William and Mary; Betsy arrived as a transfer student two years later.
Here are the remains of Noble Jones’s house, a fortified structure built in 1745 not only as a home, but to withstand attacks by the Spanish and to monitor traffic passing through the narrows of the adjacent Skidaway River. The walls were built of “tabby,” an early form of cement made of equal volumes of water, sand, lime, and ground oyster shells. (The shells were obtained from copious Native American middens.)
And after considerable discussion in the morning, we decided to have dinner at a place of great repute—the Driftaway Cafe, known for its seafood and excellent cooking. And yes, it lived up to its reputation.
As soon as I saw shrimp and grits on the menu, I wanted it. I asked the waiter if the portion was large, as I was famished, and she replied, “Yes, it’s very big.” And it was: a huge bowl of grits made with four types of cheese, loaded with plump fresh shrimp, and studded with bacon bits. I could barely finish it (washed down with sweet tea, of course), and I was glad I didn’t order the fried green tomatoes (another Southern dish) as an appetizer. All evening long I would groan sporadically, “Oy, am I full!”
This was by far the best shrimp and grits I’ve ever had: a Platonic dish!
I would say that Spanish moss (neither Spanish, nor a moss) would not grow well on palm trees because the only thing to hang off of are the leaves, which drop off eventually.
The pictures of Savannah are beautiful. I attended a conference there a few years ago, and it was one of my favorite conference sites. I hope to go back again, just for a vacation.
Love your travel posts! Especially when they’re about food!
If you’re a fan of the stories of Flannery O’Connor and find yourself near Lafayette Square with an hour to spare, you might consider paying a visit to the writer’s childhood home at 207 E. Charlton. It’s open to the public. You can get a good sense of young Flannery growing up in these rooms as well as inspect a small collection of O’Conneriana housed therein. The local literary ladies who look after it (at least this was so when I made my visit twenty years ago) with their ripe Georgia accents are also a treat.
Jude Law was in that film. I wonder what effect the film had on business. Spotlight had a scene with the facade of the South End Buttery, and I went there for lunch because I had seen it in the film.
Food and walking lanes look great! A place to slow down for sure. Hey to Tim and Betsy.
The shrimp and grits looks great! – thanks for sharing your trip.
bread pudding and shrimp in cheesy grits YUM
Enjoying your trip as always.
Lucky is the man who has lifelong friends, the people whom we’ve kept since our salad days are the best.
D.A.
NYC 🗽
Glad you’re having a good time!
Mmmm, that food. I love biscuits with sausage gravy, and bread pudding (I used to make it with the heels of loaves saved up for the purpose.)
Shrimp and grits sounds delish.