I will start out by saying that I absolutely LOVE Savannah! It it a great place to visit. I am not sure how I would feel about it in the middle of the summer when it is 95 and humid, but for the month of April, it is great. The weather was in the mid 70's with a light breeze. It was sunny, with deep blue skies. The trees were already fully grown in providing a great source of shade.
Savannah is a great place to visit if you like history, sidewalk cafes with good drink and some good eating. It is what I describe as New Orleans Light. Savannah has a good but calmer night life than what I have heard about New Orleans and there is a whole lot of effort put into working the ghost angle around the town. There is a seedy element to it as well. I will admit that I make this judgment blindly because I have never been to New Orleans. I am going only on what I have heard and read. With that said, lets get into the good and bad of Savannah.
First the bad. There is a River Walk section of Savannah that has a nice feel to it, however, from what I gathered it is just a tourist trap. It is still worth seeing. There was an old boat docked that allowed people to walk on and "tour". It took about 10 minutes and they made sure to have something on board for sale. After the boat tour we walked to a restaurant called Shuckers. It was HORRIBLE. We were victims of our second trap...we were 2 for 2! I had an oyster po' boy which came with Ruffles. My wife had a crab salad that tasted of freezer burn. Our first clue that it was bad was the parsley sprinkled all over the plate...food camouflage is always a bad sign! We continued to walk the River Walk area. It has charm. Old cobble stone streets and some really cool steep staircases that look like they have been around for hundreds of years. The stair cases were made of stone and rock. They took you from the lower River Walk to the main streets.
Our walk and hike up the stairs took us to a row of bars and cafes that were a little better than the River Walk. Our first stop was Moon River Micro Brew. Our first impression was good. We sat and had a few beers. They were ok and the food looked ok but it was just bar food....we found out it was worse than bar food the following night when we ate there. It sucked. A shrimp salad that came out with 3 of the smallest shrimp I have ever seen in my life and a burger that was raw. I did order it as medium rare so I take some fault. I do however think that a professional cook should be able to cook a burger medium rare. I sent it back...they threw the same burger on the grill and re-dressed it trying to pass it as new to me...that sickened me.
That is enough bad...now for the good! There is a ton of walking and that just feels good! Especially when you are allowed to walk with a "go cup". The squares are beautiful. There is history and a story everywhere you look. There are also some great restaurants once you know where to look.
We stayed at The Marshall House. It is the oldest hotel in Savannah...and like most of Savannah it is haunted. It is also very charming and I would recommend it to anyone going to Savannah. It was great for a romantic get-away but there were also full families staying. The staff was nice. The rooms were clean. Just a great place to stay.
Broughton and Bull was the first decent restaurant we ate at. It was a little trendy for my liking and it was empty...it was also a Wednesday so maybe it picked up later in the week. The food was good, the help was adequate...but it kept us searching for something better. When we found it, we knew it!
The Old Pink House was fabulous! A gourmet twist on traditional Southern cooking. The venue itself was literally an old pink house. Apparently it was a red brick house that a long time ago, the owners tried to plaster over with white plaster but the red from the brick bled through coloring the house pink. The downstairs (street level) was a tavern of sorts with french doors all along one wall that completely opened to let the out side in. And yes...it is also haunted. We had an appetizer of cheese and Italian meats with some sliced crostini bread. Included in the platter was a date spread and some stone ground mustard. There was Blue Cheese and sopressata salami. It was a perfect appy! I then had a Southern Chicken Fried Chicken with mashed potato and collard greens. It was possibly the best fired chicken I have ever had. The whole atmosphere was perfect.
For night life, we found a spot outside of a Wild WIngs Cafe that had a one man band playing southern blues. He was very good. Jeff Beasley was his name. The night was cool, the music was good and the $15 buckets were perfect.
My only real regret in Savannah was that I was only there for 3 days. I want to go back and hit a few more places that I found out about to late. Again, I highly recommend Savannah for a good place to visit, explore the history, eat some of the southern cooking, and have some drinks while taking it all in.
