Fervent Foodie

When I booked the weekend trip to Savannah I envisioned days filled with sunshine, spring flowers, and Spanish moss—a picturesque backdrop for hours of meandering about the historic city.

Boy was I wrong.

 

The south and much of the eastern U.S. were hit by a wretched cold front this weekend, and the low temperature in Savannah coupled with chilling high-speed winds whipping from every direction made for less than optimal strolling conditions.  But we trudged onward.

The best way to start any vacation day (or any day, period) is with a full belly, so we made the mile trek from our hotel (the Four Points by Sheraton) to Clary’s Cafe.

We were freezing, famished, and ready to feast when we arrived, so I quickly ordered the Western Omelet (with sausage instead of ham) breakfast potatoes, and a biscuit.

This was the perfect breakfast platter, and the biscuit was buttery and flaky throughout.

Jarrod got the Hoppel Poppel with sausage instead of the salami.  The Hoppel Poppel is basically an enormous serving of scrambled eggs with meat, potatoes, onion, and green peppers mixed in.

We also split a “small” bowl of their Special Creamy Oatmeal, which came with every oatmeal topping known to woman.

I was a tad surprised to see oatmeal on the menu at a southern breakfast joint, but I am elated that we ended up ordering it.  This picture does the oatmeal no justice–the toppings were literally toppling over the the bowl.  There was a generous sprinkling of ever fixin’ listed on the menu, and several delectable slices of the best banana I have had since summer.

This was an amazing breakfast… So good that I’d like to recreate the whole spread next weekend.  I’d highly recommend Clary’s to anyone visiting Savannah.

After breakfast we walked up towards Forsyth Park.  By then it was 11am and it became clear that the weather wasn’t going get any friendlier.

I get a tad grumpy when subjected to extreme whether conditions (just a tad), so we headed for a coffee shop to warm up.  We nabbed two chairs right in front of a gloriously sunny window at the Wright Square Café & Chocolatier.  The sun radiated down on us as we sipped our piping hot lattes (well, actually it was a turtle mocha for the man) and the cold weather became a distant thought as we perused the visitor guides and local newspapers… and by we, I mean he.  I closed my eyes and took a nap.  It was fabulous.

After Jarrod got bored with reading and watching me sleep, we picked up a mini tic-tac-toe board and perfected our gaming strategies.  I’m pretty sure we’ve come up with a no-fail plan for never losing a game again. 

Once our coffee cups were empty, we bundled up and headed back for the City Market area where we perused some of the local stores.  I snapped this photo in the kitchen store:

Ain’t that the truth.

Apparently we were feeling brave at this point, because we headed down towards the river where the wind was even more shrill and would occasionally take our breath away with its icy gusts.

The river area was really cool to see.  The narrow cobblestone street is jam-packed with old buildings, shops, and restaurants. 

I’m not sure how else to describe it other than it felt like a pirate town.  I kept glancing at the horizon expecting to see a pirate ship ascending on us.  I didn’t get my pirate ship, but I did get to see the ferry.

We checked out a few lunch spots on our to-try list, but after finding many of them had waits we ended up eating at Wet Willies.

FAIL.

I got the Willie’s Cheesy Steak sandwich (after the waitress advised me not to go with my original selection—the Cheddar Beef Sandwich with Horseradish). 

This may look tasty all slathered in cheese, but it was absolutely horrible.  Tasteless and blah covered in fake cheese.  I ate a third of it.  So you KNOW it was bad.

Jarrod got a 190 proof cherry daiquiri that tasted like cough syrup and the Drunken Chicken Sandwich.

He said he enjoyed the sandwich, but I’ll chalk that poor judgment up to the daiquiri.  This sober sister says the sandwich sauce was a weird combo of citrus and barbeque, and the flavors just didn’t mesh.  Period.

After our lackluster lunch, Jarrod took his frozen drink out on the frozen streets (there is no open container law in Savannah!) and we perused the shops along the river before a much needed two-hour nap.

Mary = grumpy.pants.

Once we were recharged, we took another mile walk to Leoci’s Trattoria for dinner.  I LOVED this place, thank god.

We sat at a small table right under the window in the cozy dining room. 

From inside Leoci’s, I could see their fabulous deck and heated tent area completed with hanging paper lanterns.  On a warmer day, I’d love to sit out on the patio sipping wine.  But as we were in the midst of Jack Frost unleashing his fury on the city we will have to save that for our next visit.

While we waited for our entrees, we chatted over wine and the Leoci’s house bread, which arrived at the table piping hot.  The bread had a crunchy crust and soft steamy middle and came with balsamic and olive oil for dipping.  Need I say more?

For dinner, Jarrod ordered the Fusilli Verde with sausage and lots of fresh veggies:

And I had the Bari Bari with homemade oricchiette with sausage and broccolini in a butter sage sauce:

Both dishes were elegant, simply prepared, and delicious.

Too full for dessert (or for a pizza night-cap from Vinnie Van Go-Go’s), we power walked it back to the hotel to catch some zzzz’s.