Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Mothers and Daughters

I remember Emily's being young and our going shopping. She, even then being visual, gawked and dawdled, and I would say, "You are like my little duckling, following along in mother's footsteps!" Now, she is much too big to be considered a duckling, except that she is my duckling, and will always be.

After Max left Savannah for home and Susie and Dick went exploring on the way to Hilton Head, Emily and I had much fun getting manis and pedis and talking about life after school and in her first job, whatever that would be. We also walked up and down Broughton Street, looking in windows, making small talk, and for me, spending more than a few minutes remembering what it was like to have a child who came out remarkable and has stayed that way.

We tried to make reservations for a restaurant we had tried when we went to Savannah last August - Cha Bella - which is a really good locovore restaurant, but it was having a special chef's dinner and had no seating available. We decided to try another locovore, Local Eleven Ten, which is in an interesting location - kind of off the beaten path and in a neighborhood, but still close to downtown. The decor is clean, contemporary, and spare, and looks like something I would have expected Emily to design had she followed her first job inclination and been an interior architect (too much math!). The menu is seasonal and has unusual items - for instance, we had Brussels sprouts. I had a scallop that was not quite done enough for me, but the kitchen was kind enough to put it back in the pan for a few seconds and not make fun of me for asking. As an aside, it is quite an eye-opener to eat dinner with one's child and have her know just as much, if not more, about wine that the parent!

After our dinner, we went to Circa once again to meet Emily's friends Jeff and Angie for a cocktail. They were still at work, so we waited for them, and then, after some really good Scotch, headed back to the apartment.

The next day was to be my last in Savannah for a while, and I dreaded leaving. I probably am being silly about not iiking being so far away from my child, but I think that my proximity with my mother and my sister - forever, mind you, except for a couple of years when they lived in California - has spoiled me about what kind of contact is acceptable for parents and childre (perhaps Emily is fine with living so far away!), especially if the relationship is comfortable and enjoyable. Anyway, we just whiled away the day, running a few errands, and finally the time came for Emily to get to work as a bartender at A.Lure. She got ready - always running late - and I eventually followed her after I packed for the next day's trip.

I spent the next four or so hours seated at the A.Lure bar watching my little girl be a big bartender, making small talk with the patrons, and generally doing a really good job. After a while, Susie and Dick came to join me, and we drank a glass of wine together. They were leaving the next day as well, and we wanted to spend a little more time together.

Eventually, it was time for me to go, and time for them to go, and time for me to prepare to leave Savannah once again. I didn't look forward to my trip home, but I looked forward to being home, even as much as I had enjoyed leaving it some eight days before. Luckily, Susie took some great pictures and I attach some of them here.

My next travel blog entries will be forthcoming, but somewhat different. Stay tuned.
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Monday, July 23, 2012

Savannah Dan

One of the cool things about Savannah is the plethora of tours available for tourists who are interested in history, or "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" (I know novels are supposed to be underlines or italicized, but my computer is being weird today), the novel by John Berendt (published in 1994), or in old cemeteries. We had taken a tour with Gary and Susan during our March trip when we had found a half price Groupon (coupons available in most cities for entertainment, restaurants, and services) and bought it. While we had a really good time on that particular tour, as we were walking about, we saw another tour group walking with a man in a white straw Panama hat and a light seersucker suit. He looked interesting. I decided that we would take another tour with Dick and Susie, and so I scoured the travel brochures at our hotel until I found the one that had the picture of the guy in seersucker: Savannah Dan!

We made our reservations for Monday, and made preparations to meet him at 10 a.m. on Johnson Square. Right away, I knew that this had been a good decision. Savanah Dan is knowledgeable, humorous, and loves not only Savannah history, but history in general. We walked around town with him and listened to tales about Savannah's squares, historical houses, legends, and founding fathers, as well as Forrest Gump, which was partially filmed in Savannah. The only thing that Savannah Dan did not know, and he really couldn't know, because he is much too young, is that long ago, the peanut butter sandwich cookies sold by Girls Scouts were named Savannahs - probably because the founder of the Girl Scouts, Juliette Gordon Low, was from Savannah. I cannot rate this tour too highly, and I advise those visiting Savannah find Savannah Dan and take his tours. For those who do not want to walk, he offers a carriage tour as well.

The most important tip Savannah Dan gave us was to go to Leopold's (already went) and order the Savannah Dan chocolate malt. This concoction is made with chocolate ice cream, chocolate milk, chocolate syrup, and malt. Max went out on a limb right before he left and ordered one, and I have to tell you that it is worth the million thousand calories it certainly must contain.

Mr. Dan also told us about "sock monsters," somewhat like the monkeys of the same name, only monsters. These are unique children's toys constructed from socks, stuffing, and clever appliques representing eyes, nose, mouth, and so on. These monsters are created by a former SCAD student, and are sold only at a design shop on Broughton (the main shopping drag in downtown Savannah): 24e (located at 24 East Broughton). These things are darling, and I bought two for my favorite two children, who shall remain nameless at this time. I don't want their parents to spoil the surprise.

Susie and Dick struck out on their own, and Emily, Max, and I had some down time at her apartment, discussing the upcoming year and her plans to get a job - you know, the real life stuff that gets in the way of all the fun we used to have! She had some feelers out, and was unsure of what would come her way, but it was good family time. For dinner, we went to Circa 1875, a little French bistro that is one of my favorite places to eat. The food is not the best food that I have ever eaten, but it is good. The wine list is full of French wines, the decor is lovely and French without being kitschy, and the atmosphere is delightful. It is just a fun place to go, and that night was no exception. Emily always has the duck confit cassoulet, and for once, I did not share it with her. Max always has the lamb shank, and I usually have what is left over. It was a great place to go on our last night together for a while in a great town.

Max was to leave the next day, and Emily and I were going to spend two more days on our own before I headed back to Sedville.

Savannah Dan - $15/person, one tour daily except Sundays during the summer, two tours daily except Sunday all the rest of the time. You can reach him to make reservations at www.savannahdan.com.

Next: Mother/daughter time

Thursday, July 19, 2012

A Day at the Beach - Savannah

One of the joys of visiting Savannah is going to Tybee Island. Before we went with Emily to preview SCAD, so long ago, her junior year in high school, we knew nothing of the beach in Savannah. Luckily, however, someone let us in on the well-known secret of Tybee Island, where families spend weeks in the summer, playing in the surf, lying on the beach, eating and drinking at local joints both on the main drag and on the beach, and just generally having fun.

We went that year to Tybee Island and ate at the Crab Shack, which someone told us about. It was November, and not very many people were out, but we were. We drove over, found the beach, found the Crab Shack, and had a great time eating fresh seafood at the only tourist restaurant that serves it NOT fried! It was great. Since that time, we have gone to Tybee Island during every trip to Savannah and loved looking at the water and walking on the beach.

So this time, when we were finishing Emily's education in Savannah, we went over to Tybee Island on Saturday. Our plan was to eat at a place called North Beach, or something like that, and then just enjoy the beach and the water. Our previous visits to the island had been during the week, and were not impeded by a crush of people, so imagine our surprise when we found the beach so crowded that parking spaces at the North Beach place were not to be found! We circled and circled, and finally gave up. Then we headed back to Crab Shack, and, after we ate, we couldn't remember why we were going anywhere else. While parts of the Crab Shack are kitschy and touristy, the food part is really good and really well-priced. And best of all, none of the food is fried. We had you-peel boiled shrimp, crab salad, cole slaw, she-crab soup (which was merely okay), and a "boiled dinner," which is shrimp, potatoes, corn, crab, clams, and other delicacies, cooked together like a stew and then served in a pot. Susie and I had, in honor of Kim, who could not be there, glasses of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc, and Dick and Max had their choice of a plethora of interesting beers.

We spent some time looking at the alligators (yes, really - but they were fat and lazy and in a watery swampy area far down from the quizzical, rubber-necking tourists) and then headed out to the beach, where we spent a lovely couple of hours watching the water encroach on the shore, watching a couple of guys who took para-kiting to a new level, and watching the two love-birds who were so taken with each other that they didn't even notice our smiling at their amorous necking. We also watched a group of incredibly selfish people. How do I know they were selfish? Susie, who is our family historian, asked politely if any of them would take a picture of us together; they all kind of looked at each other, and then kind of shrugged, and then one of them said, "I don't really want to because I would have to get up." I guess the looks on our faces shamed at least one of them, because she, the only one of the group who even really looked in our direction, got grudgingly to her feet and took a snapshot. I was really irritated, and wondered could be important to these people who, when they could help someone, chose to do nothing.

After a while, we headed back over to the mainland, and had some down time. We split up for dinner, Max, Emily, Jeff and I eating dinner at Thai, and Susie and Dick not eating at all! Thai was an okay restaurant, but I can't say that it was much different from any other Asian eatery I have frequented. The food was fine, the wine selection was fine, and the decor was fine. In fact, it was so non-memorable that I had to stop writing and try to remember where we had dinner.

That was our last stop before we all took the Graveyards and Ghosts tour, which was at 10 p.m. The tour was the most disappointing, and the most expensive, part of our trip. Susie and I expected to be taken to some of the old buildings and some of the old cemeteries in the area; instead, we were taken on a trolley tour around some of the old buildings, we looked through the gates into one of the large cemeteries, and we experienced a Disney-like event complete with an actor, theatrical lighting, and visual and sound effects. Please understand that I am a Disney World and Disneyland freak. I LOVE going to those parks, and nothing is more fun than seeing the robotic Abraham Lincoln and the Pirates of the Caribbean and It's a Small World, along with everything else animatronic, but I was not expecting that kind of entertainment in Savannah, Georgia, which is rich in real history and legendary ghosts, and needs no animatronic enhancement.

ANYWAY! We separated that night determined to sleep late the next day, and then strike out on our own. Mother and Don were leaving the next morning, and we decided to simply hang out until dinner time, when we would meet Dick and Susie at the only deserving chain restaurant in town: Bonefish Grill. If you have not tried Bonefish, please do so. The food is good, it is reasonably priced, it is fresh, and the restaurant has nightly specials and a wine list with something for about everyone. In Kansas City, Bonefish is located in both Olathe and up by the airport. In Memphis, it is somewhere south of the city, in a really Yuppie part of town; the location is similarly upwardly mobile in Nashville. We were rewarded Sunday night, and Bonefish in Savannah showed its best side. It was good to take a break from the bustle of being a tourist, and it was good to sit together as a family. Emily was with us, and she enjoyed so much getting to spend time with Susie and Dick. Although we are separated by half a country, it is good to feel close.

The next morning, we finally met Savannah Dan. You will love hearing about him.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Papillote and A.Lure

The first full day of our Savannah visit was lovely. I had purchased a carriage tour for Mother and Don, because the walking tour we took back in March was about an hour and a half long, and I thought that would be too long and too hot for both of them. So they got up bright and early and headed out for their tour of the city Emily and I slept in.

We talked with Susie and Dick and agreed to meet up around 12:30 for lunch somewhere; however, my sending Mother and Don on the tour had an unintended effect: they had such a good time that they bought tickets to a trolley tour at noon. We agreed to wait for them to eat lunch, and set about deciding where that should be. Emily suggested Papillote, a little French sidewalk cafe, where she had never been, but where she had heard the food was good. And so we all trooped into a teeny-tiny cafe, where aromas of fresh-baked bread was nothing short of intoxicating. The restaurant sold a wonderful brioche, and offered a soup of the day, as well as sandwiches, salads, and wonder of wonders, French wine! Susie ate butternut squash soup and a salad and pronounced them fabulous. Mother and I split an open-face crab and avocado sandwich on the brioche, and I had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Dick ate one whole sandwich himself, and so did Don. Emily ate about half of whatever she ordered, which is why she is a size 0.

Even though we were all full, we headed to what is a Savannah legend: Leopold's ice cream shop. Here is a brief history of Leopold's, which I heard on Paula Deen's show, when she and Leopold's owner were chowing down on a caramel popcorn ice cream concoction - The shop has been in the family for three generations, and the current generation has significant connections to Hollywood, producing movies, and even winning an Academy Award (you can get the details from his web site). The shop itself is decorated in vintage soda shoppe, with movie posters and a projector thrown in. Most important, however, is the ice cream. You can get lunch there, but why? Unless, of course, lunch is a big ice cream sundae or waffle cone. Anyway, we all had ice cream and declared ourselves stuffed - and just four hours before we were to eat dinner at A.Lure, the restaurant where Emily tends bar.

Before going there, though, Emily and I decided to take Mother out for a glass of wine. We had a wonderful time at the top of the Bohemian Hotel, and then went back to our respective hotels to get ready for dinner. By this time, Max was on his way to meet us, and I enjoyed a relaxing hour or so out by the pool at the Sheraton Four Points. When Max finally arrived, it was time to head out to A.Lure for our second wonderful dinner with wonderful family.

A.Lure is an attractive restaurant in an old building somewhat off the beaten path in Savannah - just like many restaurants in the city. It has a cute little bar area - emphasis on "little" - and exposed brick walls throughout the building. It has many hard surfaces, so the area can be kind of loud, as it was the night we were there. We couldn't help it that we had been seated right across from a "girls night out" group - whose laughter and enjoyment became louder and louder as the night went on and the martinis kept coming. Regardless, we enjoyed our meals. Against my better judgment, I chose shrimp and grits, even though I knew at the time that the best shrimp and grits in the world can be found at City Grocery, run by John Currence in Oxford, Mississippi. I was proved right - the best shrimp and grits are still in Oxford, but A.Lure acquitted itself well, regardless, by serving wonderful chicken and waffles. We sat around and talked and laughed and had a wonderful time, until we left around 10 to get ready to go to the beach the next day.

NEXT: Beach, Crab Shack, and Savannah Dan

Monday, July 2, 2012

Dinner in Savannah

I arrived at Emily's apartment right on schedule at 4:00 on Thursday, about two hours after Mother and Don arrived and two hours before Susie and Dick arrived. Emily made reservations at Sapphire Grill at 8, and then we headed to the airport to meet Susie and Dick and show them to their hotel.

Savannah's little airport is just perfect. It is big enough to get people in and out, but small enough so that nothing is a whole lot of trouble. Parking isn't a problem, renting a car isn't a problem, security isn't a problem, and sitting and waiting isn't a problem because the whole thing looks like a building at the beach and is therefore beautiful. We found Dick and Susie quickly and caught up with each other's lives while they waited for their luggage and picked up the car they had rented. Then we led them to the Hampton Inn where they were staying.

Navigating through Savannah in a car is not nearly as friendly as navigating through the airport. The squares that make Savannah such a lovely city make driving, at least the first time, a challenge. A driver has to circle the square, which is a one way proposition, yielding where necessary, and realizing that streets exist on each side of the square that are not through streets, so turning on short notice and without signaling is common. Emily and I have it down by now, but Dick and Susie were in for a frustrating trip to the restaurant! Emily and her guest Jeff picked up Mother and Don, and I met them at Sapphire in my car. We waited for Dick and Susie, took phone calls from them as they made their way through the city, and ordered wonderful cocktails from the very talented mixologist at Sapphire Grill.

We had been to Sapphire in March with our friends Gary and Susan, when Susan had a blackberry martini (muddled berries in the glass, which was rimmed with sugar), I had a Mai Tai (just the right mixture of slightly sweet and rummy), and Emily had a French 75 (Champagne and gin). This time, Emily had another French 75, Jeff had a Mai Tai, and whatever I had, I don't remember because I was trying to make sure everyone was having a good time. After all, Jeff was meeting a bunch of Emily's family at once, and I wanted to make sure we sounded normal. During our meal, however, I do remember that the mixologist sent over, splayed with seven straws (!), a Gin Mule, which is like a Moscow Mule (vodka and ginger beer), except using gin, which I usually do not like. This drink was really good, and I drank my share.

Our food was also exceptionally good. The Sapphire Grill has two menus: one is a traditional menu that a diner would find at any restaurant; the second is a la carte, including the diner's choosing an entree and sauce, as well as any other dishes he or she would like. For instance, Emily chose diver scallops with white truffle butter sauce and a mushroom sauce. I ordered salmon from the traditional menu. Both were fabulous. In fact, everyone raved about the food, not much of which was left on the table. Unbelievably to those of us from the Midwest, Jeff ordered a steak instead of seafood. I guess those who hail from Florida aren't as enamored with fresh seafood as those of us who are landlocked.

We didn't leave the restaurant until after 10, and we all got home just fine. The next day was looming large, and we were going to spend some time downtown. I had reserved a carriage tour for Mother and Don, who are early risers, and then we were all going to go out for lunch somewhere. That meant that the rest of us would sleep late! What a treat!

So, when in Savannah, eat at Sapphire Grill and order a specialty cocktail. The food is good and the drinks are good; be prepared to pay for the good stuff, though. This is not an inexpensive restaurant. It is located next to The Lady and Sons, famous, of course, because of its famous owner. See an earlier post regarding Paula Deen, the queen of southern.

Next: Papillote, Leopold's, and A.Lure. And Savannah Dan!