Food itinerary goes thus -
Friday: ice cream for lunch, The Lady and Sons for dinner.
Saturday: brunch at Express Cafe and Bakery, snack poolside, Garibaldi's Cafe for dinner.
Sunday: breakfast at the Westin Club Grille, all other dismal and overpriced meals for the day at the airport.
As far as the ice cream goes, we picked it up at the delicious smelling River Street Sweets on River Street. It wasn't hand-churned or authentic in any way - it was Edy's - but it was magnificent, and good on the go. And Stacie and I were on vacation, so there's nothing like throwing all caution to the wind and eating ice cream for lunch.
The Lady and Sons (Paula Deen's restaurant) was very, very easy to find. We spent most of Friday wandering the streets and getting our bearings. The city is a series of squares, the streets run straight, and if you have an eye for landmarks (don't use the squares as landmarks. There are 24), you'll have no trouble. The Lady and Sons is on West Congress and Whitaker, and it's three stories.
The inside is simple - wooden floors, beige walls with ivy stenciled on them. Great old (or distressed) wooden tables. Quick, friendly service. Lots of people saying "y'all" who can't wait to help you out. We ordered the fried green tomatoes because we couldn't resist, and then got the buffet, which was six different kinds of amazing.
The buffet on Friday night (it changes nightly) was fried chicken, smashed potatoes, chicken fried steak and gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans and potatoes (my first potatoes since starting South Beach on January 3), a seafood boil with corn and all kinds of seafood. Here's my seafood disclaimer: I can't eat anything but fish or squid. Shellfish will kill me - literally. So if you want a review on shrimp and lobster and crabs and crawfish and anything of that nature, stick with Lauren and Stacie. There were also steamed shrimp, cheesy grits, collards, and macaroni and cheese. The salad bar was also pretty well stocked. I also had a lovely glass of lemonade. Dinner was capped off with a bowl of banana pudding with Nilla wafers. Perfect. The collards and green beans had a little heat to them - not sure from what, but definitely delicious, and I offset that with some sweet potatoes anyway. The chicken was crispy, not over-breaded, and definitely delicious with a little bit of Paula's own hot sauce on the side. I felt like I was finally getting in touch with my grandfather's long-lost southern roots, and went in for a second helping of collards. The fried green tomatoes had a little heat too, with a spicy red pepper topping and a sweet Vidalia onion relish on the side. Incredible. The waitstaff was friendly, and our waitress didn't fall off the face of the earth as some are prone to doing.
Saturday morning we grabbed some coffee, caught the water taxi and went to grab breakfast/brunch at Express Cafe and Bakery, which was not only adorable but fantastic. And the name is accurate - very quick and hassle free so we could be on our way. It's on Bull and Barnard, and if you grab a window seat you can see the square and do some people-watching. I had the bagel with lox and cream cheese (they also offer tomatoes and capers on the side, but I opted out) and some apple juice. The bagel was nicely toasted, the lox was nice and thick (not too thick) and seasoned wonderfully. I don't know how much they had to do with that, but they bought it, so kudos on picking out yummy stuff. The bagel was pumpernickel and I'm assuming was baked on premises.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jp.nagel711/Savannah/photo#5173340638363473426
Here's the important one. My abysmal dinner on Saturday night. We asked the concierge for a recommendation (great lady, Mary. Our new best friend), and she recommended Garibaldi's on Congress, and called and made reservations. I called later from Forsyth Park to confirm and get a time for the reservations; Mary called and left a message saying that she'd confirmed our reservations for 7:30. When we got to Garibaldi's, there were no reservations in our name, even though Mary and I had both spoken to (in all likelihood) a manager. They accommodated us after I got a little Philly on the hostess, but gave us a small table very near the front of the house. Very loud, and distracting for me as I watched people walk in and out the whole time. I ordered a Libaio chardonnay (admittedly because it was the cheapest one and I was on a budget!), split the calimari, and had crispy duck in a ginger soy glaze with green beans and mushroom risotto. The chardonnay was a little weak and lacking in that crisp wine-ness I was looking for. Not watery, not fruity, but definitely not dry. It seemed to be nothing a wine usually is, but drinking it fast enough helped me forget about how angry I was at the hostess.
The calimari, served with an apricot sauce, was fantastic. Not too much breading, the right amount of crunch - very delicious. The house bread is also noteworthy. It comes out hot and fresh, sprinkled with rosemary and sea salt. I considered forgetting the whole reservation thing in exchange for a loaf of bread. The duck was fine, but I won't give it more credit than that. It was duck with yummy stuff on top. The mushroom risotto was also fine, but nothing on my plate was exceptional. Once I'd eaten most of the glaze off the duck, I was done. We split Tiramisu which was made with angelfood cake (blasphemy) and not nearly enough Kahlua. In fact, in the two bites I took before I gave up, I didn't taste any Kahlua. I was disappointed, pissed off, still a little hungry, and furious that I'd spent money at a place that did nothing for me. (Side note: the ghost tour that followed dinner was enough to make me forget, so if you must eat at Garibaldi's, go see some ghosts after so you can forget your dinner experience.) Additionally, at least a dozen waitstaff were hustling up and down flights of stairs and were obviously stretched pretty thin. I never lost sight of our waiter, who was very nice, but he did have plenty of other people to attend to at any given time. He was occasionally difficult to track down, but was friendly, polite, and helpful.
In short, Savannah: beautiful, warm, sunny, and moderately-to-severely delicious.
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