Ravenous Fig

Honey for sale at the Savannah Bee Co.

Sentient Bean

I was about out of steam after Circa 1875 Saturday night, but a long night’s rest and a walk through the chilly fall morning to Sentient Bean woke me right up. Forsyth Park is lined with beautiful, historic homes, many of which have been converted to Inns. Vance and I pointed at all the ones that would make the perfect Bed & Breakfast location, bouncing ideas off one another about what we’d serve, where people would sit to eat their homemade popovers and scones, how expensive the renovation would be…

At the end of the park sits Sentient Bean, another one of those businesses where we get to vote with our dollars. To put it bluntly, their coffee isn’t brewed off the backs of underpaid growers living in poverty. And their all-vegetarian menu is sourced from sustainable sources. Awareness of the products they serve and the story behind those products is ingrained in their name; Sentient: having sense of perception; conscious. Which is a happy change from some of the coffee houses we’re used to. (Pro tip: Skip the biscotti).

A solid hour of reading at Sentient Bean preceded a sugar rush at River Street Sweets

River Street Sweets

Our trip couldn’t have been complete without me getting to try some of the city’s best saltwater taffy. So Vance and I made the trek out to River Street Sweets, the happiest tourist trap you could ever get sucked into. I picked up a hunk of chocolate to nibble as we walked along the stone road toward lunch, and finally tried a piece of butterscotch taffy after my fudge had disappeared. Incredible. I don’t know what I’ve been thinking all my life, trading taffy for Crunch bars the morning after Halloween.

Firefly Cafe

Our last stop was far from a tourist trap. We ended up at the Firefly Cafe, after a couple of our other lunch choices failed to be open on Sundays (good for them)! The tiny restaurant is buzzing with conversation and friendly faces; you can tell most of the people sitting there live within a mile walk of the place.

Sunday Brunch at the Firefly Cafe is the place to be in this corner of Savannah.

Turn down the coffee in favor of a bloody mary, and if you’re avoiding meat, go for the Greek Omelette with a side of creamy grits like you can only find in the South. The menu is a little sparse in terms of vegetarian options, but this one was a real flavor parade.

Savannah Bee Co.

One of my new favorite spots in Savannah has got to be the Savannah Bee Company. If you think honey is just honey (as I did until about a year ago), you should make a point of stopping here next time you’re in Georgia. The friendly honey advocates inside do their best to feed and educate the bee virgins among us about the different honey varieties — how often the flowers bloom, what region of the country/world they’re sourced from, what type of dish or tea to use them in, etc. I tried everything they had “on tap” and absolutely fell in love with the least local honey of the bunch (drats). I bought a bottle anyway and we’ve really enjoyed having it in the house as a special treat to add to Hors d’œuvres, tea, and English muffins.

Savannah Bee Company turns honey into collectible art. Delicious, delicious art.

Next time we’re in Savannah we’ll probably make the same tour we did last weekend, with few exceptions. Now that I’ve been to all of these wonderful Savannah gems, I can’t imagine going back without stopping at Soho, Cha Bella, and Circa. Anything else we should add to the list?

We ended our trip the day after Halloween. Luckily we were in better shape than these Jack-o-Lanterns.

The only style of graffiti that makes me smile. (Photo: Vance Kite)

Wherever you are in America, there are terrific places near enough for a short road trip to a weekend away. And it’s so healthy to occasionally push yourself out of the normal routine, to remind yourself what’s truly important in life: God, family, food. (You had to see that one coming).

As much as I know it’s important to get away, it’s good to have someone here to actually force the issue. I’m going around life’s merry-go-round at a dizzying speed; Vance pushes the big red button and says, “Get OFF — we’re going to Georgia.”

The most adorable baby slippers from Paris Market. I'll have to ask Vance's grandmother to make us these some day.

So to Georgia we went — Savannah specifically — leaving our neurotic but lovable “puppy” in the care of some dear friends (who also could use a weekend away). We arrived five hours later at an artsy cafe somewhere in Downtown, although I can’t say exactly where it was since the only concern I had was downing a chocolate cookie the second I walked through the door.

Soho South Cafe

Based on some Yelp recommendations, we had chosen Soho South Cafe as the first stop on our whirlwind tour of the “hostess city.” I might have mistaken the place for a quirky art gallery gift shop, but it didn’t take long for the chocolate chip cookies piled high in glass jars to start singing the Call of the Sirens. We sat on a creaky bench happily munching one of the dense cookies until the waitress seated us. It was nearly 2 o’clock in the afternoon and there was still a wait at this place. Albeit a happy wait; there were plenty of cookbooks and art pieces to keep us occupied.

The wait turned out to be worth it in the end. I downed their signature Crab Cake Sandwich in the span of a very lady-like two minutes; Vance took down a grilled cheese and tomato soup (amazing, smoky, delicious cheese combination BTW) in about the same amount of time. My crab cake was outstanding on its own, but paired with a toasty challah roll and some Russian dressing it was over the top.

The quirky atmosphere and food at Soho South Cafe

After a short walk, it was time to head over to the historic district, to the Savannah Bed & Breakfast Inn. The Inn does a “manager’s special” deal, where you take whatever room is left over at a reduced rate, and they really put us up in a nice one. At about $129 a night, the price is right.

Cha Bella

After a brief respite in our lovely room, we walked in the general direction of dinner. We stopped by some favorites from our previous trip to Savannah: shopSCAD, Nourish, and Paris Market and Brocante. Finally, we ended up on the edge of downtown, at Cha-Bella.

Our loot from Nourish; Vance being ridiculous at the Paris Market and Brocante.

Cha Bella has a commitment to local, sustainable ingredients, which is the quality that immediately drew us to the place. Each ingredient on the menu was chosen specifically with the season and region in mind; you can point to anything on your plate and your waiter will be able to tell you what farm it came from, or which section of the coast it was brought in from.

I pulled my usual “order something you’d normally hate” stunt, and this time it was thoroughly enjoyable. The soup special featured local collard greens — an ingredient I usually eat around rather than eat. But I could have licked the bowl clean it was so delicious and satisfying. And the ingredients were so simple I will definitely try my hand at recreating it next time collards show up in our Season’s Pick box. (And they will. Those sneaky buggers.)

Vance's Tilefish and Sweet Potato Special at Cha Bella

Vance’s plate was filled with a veritable kitchen sink of locally sourced ingredients — tilefish with a veal demi glace on top of savory sweet potatoes, topped off with an arugula-cilantro salad and lime vinaigrette. Oh, and there were homemade sausage meatballs floating in the lovely broth.

I went with a more familiar plate of grouper with a corn succotash in a mild broth. It was delicious, but couldn’t compare to vance’s tilefish. Tile? Mmmm tile.

The patio at Cha Bella is a warm and inviting atmosphere in which to enjoy their exceptional fare.

If you’re headed to Savannah, I’d highly urge you to spend an evening at Cha Bella. And if the weather’s nice, treat yourself to a seat on their handsomely decorated patio. They’ve turned what looked like an old loading dock into a charming, comfortable eating and drinking space you could spend an entire evening in without recognizing the passage of time.

Circa 1875

If you’re not ready to turn in after dinner and drinks at Cha Bella, you might follow our adventure to Circa 1875. The self-described 19^th century atmosphere provided a welcome shelter from the halloween festivities that were starting up in bars all around downtown. That’s not to say there weren’t bartenders in costumes at this gastropub; I was served a gin and tonic by the beautiful Dolly Parton.

If you’re headed to Circa with someone special, try to find a seat in the “nook” — that is, if you want to hear what they’re saying without having them shout HOW EXCELLENT THAT WHISKEY SOUR IS.

To be continued…

I’m remorseful about dinner this evening. Not because I indulged in a plateful of fried chicken or took down a mountain of biscuits and honey. No, I’m remorseful because I ordered a plate of vegetables and tofu. At the restaurant I’ve been dying to go to for months. Hrmph.

Inside the Tupelo Honey Cafe

I’m talking, of course, about dinner at the Tupelo Honey Cafe. We were the last in line to get a table right after they opened for dinner, which was a huge blessing because the wait time for the people behind us was nearly an hour. The busy waitresses, a mix of 90-pound tattooed hipsters and fast-moving women twice their age, ran by our table with a constant stream of grits, hot wings, fried chicken, steak, the occasional salad, and a dozen or so pints of beer. For whatever reason, none of it tempted me quite enough. The only thing on the menu that sounded too good to pass up at the time was the one at the very bottom: the vegetable plate.

The vegetable plate?!

Vegetable Plate at Tupelo Honey Cafe

Three of Tupelo’s “farm fresh” sides. I decided on the fried green tomatoes, grilled marinated tofu, and brussels sprouts. We’d ordered the local goat cheese appetizer, so I didn’t want to go too crazy on the entree. The marinated tofu (pretty sure it was simply marinated in soy sauce) was actually quite good. The Fried green tomatoes were good, but oddly enough don’t hold a candle to K’s in Winter Park. I didn’t have the heart to say this at the restaurant, so I’ll say it here:

Don’t order the brussels sprouts. They’re not good. Not good at all.

There, I feel better. (Heidi Swanson has ruined me for any other preparation of brussels sprouts). Now on to the better parts of the meal. Vance did order the (free-range) fried chicken; ironically, he has zero regrets. His chicken was coated in a nutty batter and fried to perfection, served over a dessert-sweet pile of mashed sweet potatoes. And no bones, which takes away all of the “gross” factor for him when eating chicken.

Fried Chicken with Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Tupelo Honey Cafe

Our appetizer (and yes, I realize I’m writing this in reverse chronological order) was outstanding. If I could recommend anything on the menu based on our experience, it’s this:

Order the local goat cheese app. Eat everything on the plate.

Order this appetizer.

Before we’d even left the place I knew I’d need to return for the Shrimp & Grits. I should have ordered them without a question. Bad Jamie. No cookie.

Every year toward the end of September, I make the ten-hour drive to North Carolina with my two best friends and a bucket of a coffee. We leave sometime after work and drive through the night until we make it down the steep driveway to the most wonderful mountain retreat: Papa’s house. Last night we also battled thick fog and detours and much bad singing of made-up songs after midnight (when we’d been awake 20 hours already), but we made here safely a little after 1am. The journey is worth it; I just love it here.

The backdrop for writing and reading and even working in the mountains is so restorative; somehow the chorus of bullfrogs and crickets and barking dogs in the distance (not to mention a glass of Biltmore wine) makes even working on vacation seem palatable.

Today was good.

It started with a freshly baked batch of bran muffins, baked with batter we’d used part of and saved in Florida earlier this week. Did you know you could save your leftover bran muffin batter for up to four days in the fridge? I didn’t know this until I read it in The Grand Central Baking Book (also where I got the delicious bran muffin recipe).

We had lunch at the beautiful Square Root restaurant. Grilled Zucchini, Asparagus, Onions, Alfalfa Sprouts, baby Arugula, with a Roasted Red Pepper Spread in a Tomato Basil Tortilla Wrap, accompanied by a side of sweet potato fries… Thin ribbons of beautiful fresh sweet potato lightly fried until nearly crispy. They are by far my favorite way to enjoy a sweet potato.

Dinner was at the Biltmore’s new Cedric’s Tavern. I sampled one of the first two Biltmore Estate beers, a traditional English style Brown Ale, alongside an evil platter of Fish & Chips. Absolutely disastrous nutritionally, but flaky and delicious and salty enough to dissolve all of my regrets.

Tomorrow, Vance and I are venturing into Asheville alone, with only one item on the agenda: Tupelo Honey Cafe. SHOO Mercy.

The “Piper” release of SocialSpark was finally announced last week. It’s the first feature set to roll out for the new version, and so far it’s been quite the roller coaster. Some days, I’m home after 7 (I get into the office around 7 am); some days I’m up into the wee hours getting a new feature ready for prime time the next morning. It’s exciting, emotional work, but unfortunately it leaves little time for cooking gourmet meals, much less blogging about them.

The Mise en place for a glazed bundt cake from The Grand Central Baking Book — the next in a series of Portland food posts — is on the kitchen counter coming to room temperature. Meanwhile, I wanted to give a shout out to someone else who is cooking up amazing homestyle Mediterranean cuisine with fresh, local ingredients.

Maraya at Sabrina's has a lovely ambience, save for the lack of crowds.

I’m not sure if it’s accurate to call this place “off the beaten path” when it’s in the heart of tourist country in Orlando, FL, but it’s tucked back into such a corner that I’ll call it that anyway. Maraya at Sabrina’s, a few hundred yards from the Florida Mall, serves up fresh, locally raised and organic Mediterranean dishes.

While their website leaves much to be desired (these things matter to the designer-developer in me) the food more than makes up for it. As soon as we entered we were greeted by Violet, as warm and inviting an individual as you could ever expect to find at a family gathering. She absolutely adores the food, and genuinely seems to want to get to know the patrons who dine at Sabrina’s.

A bit of hummus, on the house.

Our meal started with a complimentary hummus, as well as some Kibbeh, which Violet begged us to try. They were crispy and delicious; a great way to start off a Friday night meal. I settled on a Greek salad for dinner, while Vance ordered the lamb. Priscilla, a dear friend of mine, had highly recommended the lamb and I’ll do the same here. I’m not much on lamb (I get visions along the lines of this when I think about ordering it) but I had a nibble and it did not disappoint.

The "must-try" lamb at Maraya at Sabrina's.

If you’re in the Orlando area, and I know most of you reading this are, I’d definitely add it to the dinner rotation when you’re on that side of town. Don’t let the website scare you away.

Nearly every day Jamie calls me on the way home from work. Most evenings there are general frustrations or minor excitements, but no huge emotional outbursts or Earth shattering details. Work is work. Occasionally, however, I can hear it in her voice the minute I pick up the phone. It is the voice of someone who has just lost their puppy or just found out that Santa Claus is not real. It is the voice of defeat and frustration. It is the voice of someone who has had a very bad, no good, very awful day. Over the course of our two-plus years together I have learned that there is really only one remedy for that voice, food. You see, there is really nothing that can set Jamie’s mind and spirit at ease quite as quickly as food. So on those “special” evenings, the only question that I can really ask is, “Would you like to eat out or shall I cook us something?”

We have this odd game that we play where one of us will provide several options then we trade back and forth, eliminating one of the options. It’s our form of compromise, and typically proves quite effective. Tonight our negotiations landed us at Harmoni Market on Edgewater Drive … Jamie altered the rules of the game to bring it in as our selection.

Continued after the jump. »