Savannah, GA

[Enchanted_Mama]

we ate at a wonderful restaurant on our trip there last year - B. Matthews Eatery http://www.bmatthewseatery.com/index.php Great atmosphere and exceptional food and really yummy, interesting cocktails.

 

[simba20]

I have heard her tell alot of the stories of her beginnings and the locals. I have even read a portion of her book. She even lived over here in Columbus when the boys were younger. I believe she spent most of her childhood in Albany. She is southern through and through.

I don't believe she "stole" anything from anyone, her Bag Lady services were started long before her restaurant days, which, if I remember correctly began in the kitchen of some hotel.

Well, I'm southern by birth and can't fry chicken as good as hers.

Suzanne

The Bag Lady was a lunch delivery service she started out of her kitchen, only because her kitchen wasn't certified, she used a kitchen in a church near her home to make lunches. Her sons delivered the lunches. My dad's office used to order from "The Bag Lady." Then her popularity grew, so she decided to take a gamble and open a restaurant. It was located at the Best Western Inn, located at the corner of Eisenhower Dr and Abercorn St. on the Southside of Savannah (near Oglethorpe Mall). Agian, her popularity and cooking gre, so she decided to capture tourist buisness too, and open a location downtown. As popular as Savannah is, even in '80/'90 when she was moving downtown, the downtown area was undergoing revitialization and trying to get buisnesses to come back to downtown. Because my parents worked downtown -- well my dad worked on the Southside -- I grew up eating and shopping at the Kress 5 and 10 on Broughton St. and at the Woolworth's lunch counter on Broughton. Anyway, even back then, the early 90's, downtown was still a gamble.

For those who know historic downtown, my wedding was held in Whitfield Square (the one with the gazeebo) and my reception at the historic Davenport House -- outiside in the garden, but then it rained, so the historical society allowed us to move to their headquarters across the square from the Davenport House. Saving the Davenport House started historic preservation in downtown Savannah (although there have been a few blips when new buildings come along).

I miss Savannah so much. I'm nearly three hours away now. Boooo. Luckily my mom still lives there, so I can visit often. In fact, I am seriously debating about going down to the St. Patrick's Day parade next week and taking my daughter. Last time I saw the parade was when I was pregnant. Before that, the last time I "saw" it was when I was marchign in it in high school. If I go, I'll drive down Wed and spend the night at my mom's and then wake up early to head downtown parade day (you gotta) and then head back home after. Decisions, decisions.....

 

[Ilivetogo]

My son wants to go to SCAD next year when he graduates. He wants to go to the one here in Atlanta, though.

That's really great! Good for him. What field does he want to go into?

.

 

[Robinrs]

That's really great! Good for him. What field does he want to go into?

.

Television Programming. They took over the old NBC network building (I used to work there) and it's now set up for SCAD students. My son is a TV fanatic and was THRILLED that there was an actual course for it. My concern: the TUITION!! Did your daughter get a good package? I'm PRAYING for one!

 

[TbirdInn_SAV]

You know, thinking about it now everytime we've satayed at RiverSt Inn DH booked it instead of me. They were always anniversary trips and we had a King room with a balcony, roses, wine waiting in the room......
Maybe it was just my perspective that it was expensive. I'll have to go and look it up. $159 at Thunderbird Inn is for a king suite, but I have to admit that for our two trips this Summer we are staying on Groupons that we paid $45 for. It says it's for any room and I requested the Suite we had before by room number, can't wait to see what they actually give us.

I have a similar situation with that particular seafood and can only stomach it fried now. I think I ended up eating BBQ or something non seafood at Crab Shack

We are excited to have you stay with us no matter what method you used to find our little retro inn! Please drop me a line and let me know when you're coming to town. I can suggest some great BBQ restaurants for you!

Thanks,

Mark

 

[OhMari]

Interesting and timely thread. We are driving from MD to GA this weekend to visit DS who is in training at FLETC in Brunswick. He wants to go to Savannah for the day Sunday so this will help.

My dd went to the Academy. What program is he in. I'm not suppose to say what my dd does, because of the controversary- but she works now for the
Feds. ICE.

Is the hotel the Courtyard on Liberty Street? That one looks right over to the Welcome Center, and is near the Savannah Convention Center. If so, its only a flat $12 to park, not $12 + $12. We stay there every time we go down to drop off/pick up our daughter from college there.

Yes, this is the one. I would like to know if you are allowed over nite parking.

 

[poohbearbt]

I am a HUGE Paula Deen fan. I use her recipes, get all her magazines, although I cant stand to watch her shows.

Anyway, we drove 2.5 hours to eat her restaurant that were were beyond excited about trying. We went on Sunday and everything was shut down. We waited 4 hours just walking around Savannah and finally sat down to eat. Besides her sweet tea(which is the best I ever had and totally to die for), the meal sucked! Granted it was her famous buffet which was pretty small and quite disappointing. The food was just terrible. I want to say maybe we were expecting too much but I digress.

We will never make special trip to dine there again but should we ever end up in Savannah again, we will give a try again just not on a Sunday. I would like to try stuff off the main menu. We know a lot of people who have tried it and some absolutely love it and others think its too much hype. Mixed reviews for sure.

 

[mskayjay]

Lady and Sons is wonderful but Mrs. Wilkes is actually better in my humble opinion. Simply to die for and you don't wait in line to make a reservation! You need to literally wait in line until the reservation kiosk opens in order to even have a chance of eating at L&S now.

We stayed at The Mulberry Inn last time we were down and it was very nice. All of the beds are Tempurpedic mattresses which was very cool! Great location and good parking (you pay for it though....).

I also agree with seeing the cathedral of St. John, almost any walking tour, and if you have time, go see Bonaventure Cemetary....wow..... I could have spent several more hours there. I know that sounds gross but it is an amazing place.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

I am a HUGE Paula Deen fan. I use her recipes, get all her magazines, although I cant stand to watch her shows.

Anyway, we drove 2.5 hours to eat her restaurant that were were beyond excited about trying. We went on Sunday and everything was shut down. We waited 4 hours just walking around Savannah and finally sat down to eat. Besides her sweet tea(which is the best I ever had and totally to die for), the meal sucked! Granted it was her famous buffet which was pretty small and quite disappointing. The food was just terrible. I want to say maybe we were expecting too much but I digress.

We will never make special trip to dine there again but should we ever end up in Savannah again, we will give a try again just not on a Sunday. I would like to try stuff off the main menu. We know a lot of people who have tried it and some absolutely love it and others think its too much hype. Mixed reviews for sure.

There is a buffet on each floor of the restaurant. When we went on a Sunday, there were a couple of shops around the block that were open, we wandered for 15-20 minutes, then got right on in the restaurant, because the hostess had remembered us from the night before and our long wait due to an unexpected large wedding party crowd.

To me the food was out of this world good, the service was exceptional and I was very impressed. If you go on Sunday, I would suggest being there right before they open so you can get in before church lets out. When we left the crowd was really heavy with people coming from the churches in the area.

UPDATE: We have decided to put off going to Savannah until this fall, it just seems more like a fall visiting place to me. We are going to go to the F&G Festival at WDW instead.

Suzanne

 

[Golf4food]

We opted not to go to Lady & Sons last year because

a) recent reviews on Trip Advisor were very mixed - lots of really negative reviews and a few reviews that seemed to be mostly Yankees who love Paula more than they know anything about Southern food, and

b) we both are Southern with southern families and eat giant southern meals at every holiday and most of the food is the same we get multiple times per year, but cooked fresh, not on an overpriced buffet.



Wiley's Championship BBQ, while a 20 minute drive south of town, and a small joint, has the best BBQ Brisket we have ever put in our mouth - melt in your mouth tender, no need to even chew... so good. I have dreams about it. But lots of other hole in the wall BBQ places in Savannah proper, too. "Southern" food, BBQ, and seafood are three things you can get in abundance in Savannah.

 

[Ilivetogo]

Television Programming. They took over the old NBC network building (I used to work there) and it's now set up for SCAD students. My son is a TV fanatic and was THRILLED that there was an actual course for it. My concern: the TUITION!! Did your daughter get a good package? I'm PRAYING for one!

I hear ya!! Keep on praying. It is definitely high. She got a good academic scholarship ($10k/yr) and a good one for her art - photography ($8k/yr). But still ... I'm a single mom with 2 kids and this is NOT easy and honestly, my stomach is in knots about just "HOW" to do this!!! Just submit your FAFSA early, scour everywhere for scholarships, and like you said ... pray a lot. It's all some of us can do.

.