tedgale

Yes, we've been there before but years ago.

Now -- newly liberated by retirement -- we have committed ourselves to spending all of January in Savannah.

Why? Because we live in Ottawa, Canada and WE HAVE SNOW ALREADY (7 weeks ahead of last year).

We are looking for:
- out-of-town spots to visit -- recommendations of places inland to visit (scenic, historic, atmospheric)
- cool restaurants (other than the big 3: Lady, Wilkes, Elizabeth)
- cool things to do in Savannah: for example, my spouse has already signed up for a couple of low-country cooking classes with a local chef.......

BTW: we have rented an apartment from www.suitesonlafayette.com. Their accommodation looks superlative. Hope it matches the photos and the website pitch.

TrvlMaven

greetings snowbirds--you will love Savannah. Another restaurant is the Olde Pink House. As for side trips--Beaufort, SC is a great day trip. Be sure and go out to the Penn Center. It is full of history of the area and the Gullah culture. Downtown Beaufort is very walkable, lots of great eats. Hilton Head would be another day trip. Charleston would be nice, but I'd spend a night or two there (lots of info here about that).
During your first days, take the trolley tour to get oriented.

gail

If you are into art, visit some of the SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) galleries and shops. Go to there website (scad.edu) and see if anything interesting is going on in way of performances or exhibitions. Drive out to Tybee Island, walk out on the pier and smell the ocean. On the way back, eat at Uncle Bubbas Oyster House (related to Paula Dean - uncle, sonk cousin - something like that).

Check out some of the little places on River Street on weekends for local live music.

If you are into photography or even just looking at old buildings, drive out of Historic District (down Abercorn) and check out some architecture on little local streets - just regular buildings that real people live in.

When you need to buy groceries and normal stuff, continue down Abercorn to "Midtown" area - not mid to anything or a town - but home to every chain and big box store you would ever need to shop at. There is nothing normal to buy in Historic District.

Jacksonville, FL is less than 2 hours away - plan a day trip there.

Bring a winter coat and unbrella(sorry). It will not snow and will certainly be warmer than Ottawa. You will catch some days that are warmish, but also plenty that are cloudy and damp.

Brian_in_Charlotte

I haven't been in a while, but George's on Tybee was a great restaurant for dinner. Will be all locals in January.

OO

Lucky you!! I hope you have a fabulous month. The weather is pleasant and although we had two little snows in the 4 years we lived there, one just a dusting, and one of about an inch, they had both melted by the end of the day, and when it snows in Savannah, it's actually exciting to everyone, not the drudgery it was for you at home. Generally it is very pleasant "walking around" weather. We moved there from Dallas and it was a FAR more pleasant winter then we were used to!

More dining choices. Garabaldis, Il Pasticcio, Bistro Savannah, Vinnie Van Go-Go's (pizza), Crystal Beer Parlor (burgers), Sapphire Grill, Olympia Café (Greek). I never liked Pirates House both you should at least see the inside. I'm not a barbeque fan, but those who are like Johnny Harris. Shrimp Factory...sort of OK if you are running out of places. Generally speaking, the restaurants along River St were tourist oriented (exception Olympia Caf&eacute and average at very best. It's fun to wander, see what looks good to you and stop in.

TrvlMaven mentioned a few of our favorite getaways. Beaufort, but also the other barrier islands in that area, all the way out to Fripp and Hunting Island State Park. Its fun to drive around, look at home sites and contemplate possibilities. I love Charleston! Thats where we did all our clothes shopping when we lived in Savannah. They have much better restaurants overall. You can do it as a day trip, we always did, but an overnight would be more fun, as she says. Hilton Head...although the plantations are gated and you can't drive into most of them, you can pay and go into Sea Pines and that was always an enjoyable excursion. They have a nice shopping area there, and a marina that will be fun to walk around even if you aren't boaters. You can catch a boat from there to Daufuskie Island for a day tour which is lots of fun. We were driven around in a golf cart. Do read Pat Conroy's, Water is Wide before you do this! Take a drive down to the Jekyll/Saint Simons/Sea Island area for a day of exploring. If you have a very nice weekend, drive to St Marys very early and catch the ferry to Cumberland Island for the day. It is a beautiful undeveloped barrier island. At one time Carnegie had a mansion there, Dungeness. It has crumbled, but you can imagine the elegance from what is left standing. There are wild horses all around the island...they ignore you, not to worry. Get off at the first ferry landing, see Dungeness, walk over the dunes to the beach then north to the 2nd ferry landing to return home. Don't miss the ferry...there is nothing out there! It is beautiful! These were all favorite getaways for us and should keep you as busy as you'd like to be for the month. My very favorite pastime living there was just walking around the historic district. My daily running route was down Bull St through all those squares and around Forsyth Park...I don't think there ever was a time I did it that I didn't notice something new that I hadn't noticed before.

Congrats on your new liberation and enjoy your stay in Savannah!

tedgale

This is very helpful. I am now going to post a separate question on where we should stop en route from NYC/ DC, where we will be seeing 2 of my brothers over Christmas.

We have travelled I-95 before years ago but stayed wherever we landed in the evening. This time we have 4 days to fill....

tarasbrats

Small Savannah restaurants and cafes are gaining in popularity -- Firefly Cafe (Habersham St. on Troup Square, about one block from Lafayette Suites). Try the burgundy chicken with finely cut fried onions and garlic potatoes or an amazing breakfast omelet; SoHo (a converted auto garage on Liberty Street @ Bull Street) where you should try the tomato bisque soup; Leopold's Ice Cream is a must do, not only for ice cream but for freshly made sandwiches, and old fashion sodas or milk shakes. It's owned by Paramount Pictures Executive Producer Stratton Leopold, who is from Savannah and the old fashion family recipes are addictive. A young photographer friend says that the Kayak Cafe (Broughton Street near Bull) has the best salad in town and recommends sitting at the street tables for people watching. And, there's a new find -- Screamin' Mimi's, a Jersey-style pizzaria (Oglethorpe Street near Habersham St.). You can order pizza, custom made by the slice, as you like it. Surprisingly, there are also 2 southern buffets with little publicity -- at the Mulberry Inn (Bay Street near East Broad) and the Hilton DeSoto Savannah (Liberty Street at Drayton. Both about $10/lunch.

MP07950

Sounds like a wonderful way to spend January! On your trip south, if you like to read, Daedalus (catalog selling books, etc.) has an outlet store just outside of Baltimore and right off 95. You can get exact directions from their website, but it's one of my regular stops when I travel from NJ to DC!

tedgale

tarasbrats: We are now in Savannah and will try out those restaurant suggestions.

We also tried the outdoor ribs takeaway that is operated Th Fri and Sat, noon- 4 pm, at the car repair place at the corner of Vistory Drive and Bull St.

Huge metal drums in which the food is cooked; long line-ups; people sitting around eating, gossiping and playing checkers -- and in the background, the car repairs and car-washing continue....

We mentioned this place to some prosperous white Savannahians and their eyes widened -- still not quite sure why.

$7 for a huge serving of ribs with potato salad. Not something I would ever eat at home, where we tend to be very health-conscious, but I found it delicious.

elsiemoo

tedgale, do try River House Seafood right on the water there in Savannah. Yes, it's in the "tacky" strip on the river, but it is excellent. We go into Savannah just to eat there when traveling through that area. Best Margaritas, delicious Caesar salads and seafood, AND desserts. Been there many times ... never disappointed. Have a great time in Savannah!

flygirl

tedgale, I'd love to hear about the rest of your trip! It's been a bit nippy down there, which is a bummer since last year at this time was pretty nice.

tedgale

Here are a few of the things we've enjoyed most about Savannah.

Needless to say, as discriminating quasi-residents we spent NO time in the tourist limbo of River Street/ Factors' Walk.

I won't dilate over the standard sights and the familiar restaurants, except to say we greatly enjoyed Bistro Savannah and its simpler neighbour Garibaldi's -- and we are planning in 2 days to dine at Sapphire Grill. We also greatly enjoyed Noble Fare on Jefferson Street, though the youthful but perhaps inexperienced staff need to polish their performance a bit, if they want to equal the exquisite food. (The food, in fact, takes some living up to.)

At Bistro Savannah, the service is both attentive and adept. The very pretty young woman at the door would do credit to any New York resto, as would the southern-charming waiter and the owner or manager, who has French-German-Italian elements in his background.

My spouse had an ample starter of calamari fritti with frisee salad, dressed with a lime / jalapeno vinaigrette. Then rare pork loin with potato/chive beignets and a tart apple sautee.

I had Thai mussels to start and a main course of rare duck breast, served with diced sweet potatoes and cranberry-like berries.

With 2 beers and 2 glasses of wine, the meal, probably the best we’ve had in the south, came in at $100, incl tax and a good tip.

Further highlights of our trip:

1. "Trick’s BBQ" for chicken and ribs -- sold at the Emerald Carwash on the corner of Bull Street and Victory Drive or in the courtyard of B and B Billiards on Congress Street, near Franklin Square (the latter also serves Beef Flanken).

A truly cross-cultural experience, especially the Victory and Bull location. (We were usually the only white patrons. WHY?)

2. The Crystal Beer Parlor at 301 W Jones Street. The "Beer Parlor Ramblers" jazz ensemble plays Friday nights at the Crystal Beer Parlor. The BEST and truest Dixieland!

The last evening we attended (January 18) the ramblers were joined by a number of members of the Marine Corps Band, who were in town for a performance for the MLK memorial. Wonderful improvisational jam session.

3. Chef Joe Randall’s cooking classes – a Cuban dinner; and instruction on preparing Low Country Boil. He has a website and is an esteemed local institution.

4. The Downtown Athletic Club- $60 for a month, which includes any and all classes given. Good selection of machines. Outside of peak hours there is almost no-one there, so no competition for machines.

5. Performances at the Lucas Theatre: a screening of “Sleuth” with Jude Law and Michael Caine; pianist Hong Xu performing Mozart, Prokofiev and Scriabin; and a very good roadshow performance of Tosca by the Teatro Lirico d'Europa.

6. Sunday brunch at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel, the former centre of the millionaires’ club of the same name. Absolutely first rate food and very thoughtful, soigne service. The pianist, cued by a waitress, played Happy Birthday for my spouse, whose birhtday it was.

Footnote: At one time, members of the club reportedly accounted for one-sixth of the world’s wealth.

7. Martin Luther King Jr. jazz event at the Jewish Educational Alliance on Abercorn; the Coastal Jazz Association sponsored the event, which included young players from a local Academy. Great, great music.

8. The Jazz Requiem for Martin Luther King Jr. at the Unitarian Universalist Church, a beautiful 1850 Unitarian chapel 5 minutes from where we stayed. The jazz musicians were excellent -- this is a great musical centre, especially for jazz -- and the choir was superlative. When the (all-white) choir sang "Oh, Freedom" ("And before I'll be a slave, I'll be buried in my grave" etc) there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

9. The steamed seafood platter – including snow crab, crayfish, dozens of shrimp, clams, sausage, corn and potatoes –- at the Crab Shack on Tybee Island. We paid $38 for a platter for two and had to take much of it home, as leftovers.

The restaurant is rough and ramshackle and the service is pretty dodgy but that platter was truly memorable. Desposito's, another well reviewed local dive, does not match up at all.

10. Parker's gourmet market on Drayton, Kroger's supermarket on Habersham and Gwinnett and Johnny Ganem’s liquor store on Habersham.

Given the price of liquor in Savannah, it is easy to see how a reported 8% of residents are alcoholics.

11. The museum trio: the Jepson Centre, the Telfair Museum (Ansel Adams photos and an exhibition of Kahlil Gibran paintings, respectively) and the exquisite Owen-Thomas House, available on single ticket. We also admired the Davenport House, Savannah's original house museum, now re-restored to remedy inaccuracies of the 1960s restoration.

12. The "Abominable Snow Jam", Savannah's "winter" hip hop extravaganza at the B & B Billiards (they had a snow machine outside that blew some snow-like chemical crap into the air and onto the nearby magnolia tree). It is put on by a consortium called Dope Sandwich. Until 3 am in the morning, there were breakdancers, live hiphop performers, killer DJs etc etc.

Best breakdance performers we have ever seen. Whoever felt motivated to dance took the floor -- nothing was organized -- including stuff I would have thought physically impossible.

13. Alex Raskin Antiques, in the Noble Hardee mansion on Monterey Square: In a “Miss Havisham” atmosphere of grandiose spaces, peeling paint and dirt-encrusted carpets, you find exquisite British and continental antiques of the 18th and 19th centuries –- and some outrageously overpriced dreck

14. One Fish, Two Fish; Peridot Antiques and Interiors; Arcanum; 12 West Jones Street – all first-rate shops of the Whittaker Street corridor.

dawnnoelm

tedgale - how is your apartment? Savannah is on my "wish" list to get to.

tedgale

I have 2 recommendations for apartment accommodation:

1. Suites on Lafayette, where we are staying. We took the smallest unit (900 sq feet -- plenty large enough); other units range up to 1800 sq feet (3 bedrooms, 2 baths).

Our Gallie House unit, called Parlour East, is the least renovated -- the kitchen and bath are VERY dated and the place looks tired. We got used to its deficiencies but would have taken a larger unit at higher cost, had we known how much better they are.

One major plus is the superlative location. I can't quite explain why it's SO much better to be on a square than on a street. But it is. And Lafayette is one of the finest squares.

Second: free wireless Internet -- a godsend. Third: free off-street parking.

Late in our stay, I had a chance to view a couple of apartments in their other 2 buildings, "Abercorn" and "Charlton", which are adjacent to ours.

The other units are spacious and renovated and have attractive period features (4 fireplaces in 1 apartment). STILL a bit funky, however, e.g. some of their furniture looks as though it may have come from a garage sale or junk shop or hotel sell-off.

Bottom line: if you want pristine, hotel-like fittings and furnishings, this place may not be for you. But if you want a great location and funky character at a good price, this is a good bet.

2. Luxury Living Savannah has units varying from 1 bedroom to a whole house. We recently looked at 3 units in the W. Jones Street building -- stunning kitchens, great furniture and lavish carpets and curtains.

The 1 bedroom "Chippewa Square Suite" in that building would be a great apartment for a couple.

I was also attracted to the garden-level suite in their Forsyte Park building (actually 2 blocks from the park, on W. Bolton Street).

And the Wedding Cake mansion, which we toured with the contractor, is brand-new and TOTALLY over the top in luxury.

Caveat: With the exception of the "Chippewa Square Suite", the units I saw generally have SOME quirk that lessens their appeal -- e.g. slightly dodgy location (Forsyte units); a couple of windowless bedrooms (Garden level unit on W Jones street).

However, the quality of the fittings, esp kitchens and baths, is very high.

We hope to return to Savannah for all of next January and will almost certainly rent from one of these 2 companies.

The "Chippewa Square Suite" is clearly the nicest apartment we've seen. But frankly I'm not sure I want to move away from Lafayette Square.....

dawnnoelm

GREAT information Tedgale - thank you!!

gail

Tedgale - I love your list - we have been going to Savannah a couple of timjes/year while our son is a student at SCAD and there are things on your list we have never tried. Thanks.

OO

tedgale...I was a member of DAC. If you see Allen, white-haired gentleman owner, please tell him that the "Hyatt wife" says hello and she misses, and has missed, that club and all the members so much!! It's a really good athletic club with great classes, catering to downtown residents. Not your standard Gold's or 24 Hr Fitness. I loved that place--it was hard to move on.

One of my instructors there worked at Dixie Crystal Sugar for his "day job". I heard about the blast and have worried he might have been there--hopefully not, night, and odds are against him having been involved anyway, with so many employees. Have not yet found lists of those injured or...dead.

Glad to see Crystal Beer Parlor still thrives. I don't ever read about anyone going there and wondered if they were open. That's an institution.

Alex Raskin is a character. Hit or miss as far as finding it open, but I love his place. That's his home too...and is a perfect example of what happens to Savannah homes when heat, humidity, and age begin to take their toll. It has a great, authentic feel though, doesn't it?!

Glad you are enjoying your winter! It's not at all a bad place to retire to.

tedgale

We're now back in Canada and regretting that we are not in the south: The snow is prodigious this year! Whereas I understand that the flowers are in bud in Savannah.

So reluctant were we to depart that we made a little detour to Charleston and spent the night there before heading north. To my regret, my favourite restaurant of the past, Carolina's, was closed that week. We did , however, have excellent meals at Cru Cafe and at Anson.

We did, moreover, eat at Sapphire Grill our last night in Savannah, as promised above.

We were taken upstairs and at first I thought we were being sent to some restaurant "Siberia". But no, it was a smart clientele up there --a better dressed crowd than downstairs. I had lamb shank on Carolina Gold rice. The lamb was perfect and the rice was melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Deft, attentive service, too.

I don't remember what we paid. Nor do I care -- it certainly was worth it.

leelane911

tedgale, you say "Needless to say, as discriminating quasi-residents we spent NO time in the tourist limbo of River Street/ Factors' Walk."

If you spent no time in the River Street area, how do you know it's a "tourist limbo?" Maybe it is better not to judge a place we know nothing about. You mentioned enjoying other places that I don't find classy, and I've actually been there. Why pick on River Street where you have not been?

gail

leelane - missed that. I love sitting on benches along River St and watching the River.