by Sam Tackeff | Nov 9, 2014 | Travel
Well, hello, again, again, and again! from Savannah, Georgia! I’m here for the Savannah Rock and Roll Marathon with my coworkers Rebecca and Matt, and we’ve had a grand time so far. (Check out our first day, our second day, and third day, if you haven’t read them yet.)
Brace yourselves, this is going to be a long one. Yesterday I completed the marathon, but that’s going to get a post all to itself! I will say that it couldn’t have been a better first marathon experience – the race was incredibly fun, there was a lot to see, and the crowds on the course were awesome! (More on that tomorrow!) For now, here are photos from our last two days in Savannah, tomorrow we are headed home to the frosty New England.
{Savannah, Day 4}
Let’s get started, shall we? First of all, that gorgeous girl starting out the post is Punkin. Her original name was Fluffy, but that wouldn’t do. One thing that I’ve noticed about this city is that it is very dog friendly. There are dogs everywhere! There were dogs the entire race course, which, had I not stopped to pat as many as I could, I probably would have finished about seven minutes faster. I have no regrets, making friends with pups is my jam.
For our post race meal, we decided to eat at Pacci’s in the Brice, the swanky Kimpton hotel in the city. Chosen, aside from good reviews, because of the good feeling I get from the name: for the past year and a half, I’ve eaten many bowls of escarole soup at an establishment called Pace’s in the North End. Last month they closed, and I’ve become nearly despondent at the lack of great escarole soup. But I digress. This Pacci’s was a sort of country Italian farmhouse style sort of restaurant, with a happening bar, and nice fixtures. There was very good bread, and olive oil, and we immediately started eating copious amounts of it, as none of us had eaten a real meal after our race.
Here’s an obligatory bathroom selfie. I took it because I was wearing my medal to a hip dinner spot, and also because the bathroom was really adorable, and also had some sort of nice smelling sticks that made the place enjoyable. What I did not enjoy was trying to lower myself onto the seat post marathon. Hellllllo, quads.
Because I’m on vacation, I opted to start my meal with chicken liver pate. If you’ve been reading along, that makes two chicken liver dishes in the past four days. My excuse is that my nutrients have been depleted, and liver is an incredibly rich source of all sorts of nutrients. And also, it is delicious. And also, I feel a teensy bit bad for my vegetarian travel mate, who looked just slightly concerned when I ordered liver not once, but twice. “Is this…. usual for you?” Yes. Yep. Mhmmmm. Liver.
Moving on to dinner. Rebecca went for the toasted gnocchi with brussels sprouts, and Matt got the trout, which was served in a cast iron pan.
I ordered the Seafood Mediterraneo: fresh bass, capellini aglio e olio, and white wine caper sauce. Generally speaking, the portions were small, but the food was good. Light and fresh, this was a nice post race meal that didn’t leave us totally weighed down.
After dinner, we took a long stroll through City Market – I don’t actually have any photos, but City Market is essentially like the Faneuil Hall of Savannah – tons of shops, restaurants for tourists to get drunk on vacation, and a smattering of places you might actually stop in as a local, such as the Byrd Cookie Company. (Helpful tip: they give out as many samples of cookies as you want here. I managed to get in about seven samples before I tapped out, and liked the oatmeal and the benne seed cookie.) The main reason to stop by City Market was to get open containers of peach boozy drinks, so that we could walk home with a drink in hand – a seemingly illicit luxury that us northerners still find to be highly entertaining.
We got home around 9:30, and within five minutes of my head touching the pillow, I was completely immobilized and dead to the world until ten in the morning.
– – –
{Savannah, Day 5}
After over a dozen hours of quality sleep, I woke a little sore, but mostly ready to EAT ALL OF THE THINGS. And of course, my first priority was caffeine. After a quick debate, where there was no disagreement, we opted to go back a *third* time to The Collins Quarter – the Melbourne influenced cafe which opened in Savannah just a few months ago. I know, I know. Three times to the same place? Yes. Even on vacation, I like becoming a regular. When we arrived today, the line was long for Sunday brunch, and we were quoted an hour wait. I put our name in and attempted to assuage my hungry dining partners, mostly because I was really, really desperate for good coffee at this point, and the food was really delicious. The owner, Anthony, came over and helped my cause, assuring us that we’d get in soon. No sooner than I had ordered a flat white from the to-go window did we snag an excellent table inside.
Here’s another obligatory bathroom selfie. We were keeping it casual. Also, putting on real pants is difficult when your legs are sore.
So about this coffee. I went for the flat white, one of my regular favorites. Rebecca got the lavender mocha, above.
And then there was the food. Matt went with the burger. No substitutions on Sunday brunch, so we could’t order extra fries, alas.
I ordered the biscuits and gravy, with chicken sausage, which was served with poached egg, and did not disappoint. After this meal, I would have bathed myself in this cream gravy. Can every day be cream gravy day? Rebecca opted for her third installment of smashed avocado toast with poached egg.
Service is a little scattered, but friendly, (and the kitchen found itself a little backed up on all three times we were there), The Collins Quarter provided a solid meal experience that kept me wishing that we had something similar in the Boston area. I’d definitely recommend it if you are visiting this city.
After lunch, we did a little bit of shopping. Many of the stores along Broughton street are what I can best describe as shiny! Seriously. Maybe it was the holiday season, but it seemed like many of the stores were experiencing a glitter explosion – it was actually pretty fun, even to window shop!
More shiny – I even found some gold glitter for sale at the Paris Market.
There were a handful of really cute design-centric shops, including this one: Prospector Co. Had I lived in the area, and/or taken a checked bag, I’d probably spend a lot of money here.
There were also some pretty fabulous sign boards, windows, and flyers, all over the city.
And who could ignore the Irish store. Savannah actually boasts one of the largest (possibly, the largest?) St. Patricks Day festivals in the world. Coming from Boston I find this bizarre and confusing, possibly because every day feels like St. Patricks day in Boston. This store was pretty much the only Irish paraphernalia I noticed in the whole city.
And of course I couldn’t keep this photo to myself – yes, that is a walkup McDonalds window. I resisted the urge to get a 20 piece McNuggets meal.
After our shopping, we set out on an afternoon stroll, walking through many of the squares. The squares, which are much smaller than I expected, are mostly green and lush, and each have their own character.
Ultimately we ended up in Monterey Square, home to the Mercer House, the setting of the infamous true crime story in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. One of the more beautiful squares in the city, we spent several hours here in the afternoon reading our books on this quiet Sunday afternoon. (Many things are closed here on Sunday, so we didn’t feel one bit bad spending several hours of our day here.)
As the sun set, we made our way back to the apartment before setting out to dinner. I wish I could tell you about our fabulous meal, but our final dinner was a little comical. As many of the restaurants are closed on Sundays, our choices were limited. Against my better judgement, we opted to head to the Flying Monk, a pan-asian noodle bar on Broughton that seemed perpetually busy. Reviews suggested terrible service and food that was okay, but craving all of the food, we ended up going for it.
The verdict? Don’t go out of your way for it, but the food was decent. I went with my favorite lemongrass beef noodles, which couldn’t hold a candle to my Pho So 1 Boston Bun Thit Nuong, but hit the spot on the cool evening. Matt went for Ramen, and Rebecca had Buddha’s noodles, pretty much the only vegetarian option on the menu, but a disappointment because they only served their tofu fried. Matt’s order of spring rolls never arrived, but we weren’t charged for it. The service, though friendly, matched the reviews: confused, novice, and haphazard. Every table around us got a dish that was wrong. Given that I’m feeling relaxed and laid back, I’d say that on the whole the experience was simply entertaining.
What brought the evening around, however, was dessert: one final cup of Leopold’s ice cream, Peppermint, tonight, doused with copious amounts of hot fudge. If you come to this city, be sure to get yourself a scoop, or two, or three. This is good ice cream!
And with that, I bid you goodnight! Cheers, y’all!
by Sam Tackeff | Nov 8, 2014 | Barbecue
I’ll be back tomorrow once I’m rested up from my marathon! But tonight, I leave you with some goodies from the Paula Deen Store. Yep, she has a store here in Savannah, and it’s everything you could hope it would be.
by Sam Tackeff | Nov 7, 2014 | Southern, Travel
Well, hello, again, again! from Savannah, Georgia! I’m here for the Savannah Rock and Roll Marathon with my coworkers Rebecca and Matt, and we’ve had a grand time so far. (Check out our first day, and our second day, if you haven’t read them yet.)
Today we had a limited itinerary, because our goal was to keep our legs as rested as possible. Of course, being someone with a usual travel itinerary pages long, we still managed to do quite a few things.
We started off with coffee. Rebecca had woken up early to get her shake out run in (I don’t shake out, because I’m neurotic, and am terrified that I’m going to break my leg on a shakeout run, and then DNS. (Racer acronym for “did not start”). I cheered her out the door and took a long shower. When she returned, Matt and I went out for a quick first cup of caffeine, a Long Black at The Collins Quarter. (If you read yesterday, you may see a pattern here.
We then of course, picked up Rebecca, and headed back to The Collins Quarter for a tasty breakfast. I got the very same dish I had ordered yesterday, but asked for an extra egg. For some reason, our dishes only came with one slice of toast, instead of yesterday’s two slices, so we ordered another round, just because.
After the bookstore, we stopped into an old book store: E. Shaver, which boasted a large selection of books of all kinds. I was especially appreciative of my two favorite topics being situated in a section next to each other. (Architecture and Cookbooks). It’s a hard road as a bookstore these days, and I’d be curious to know how they manage. (I heard titterings in the store that the owner might consider selling the building (a huge house), and store in the near future. Sadness.
We then made our way over through several squares to Forsyth park, where the end of the marathon celebrations will take place.
On our way, we made a special shop to ShopSCAD – the Savannah College of Art and Design store! So many great things for sale! Here are some of the (many) pictures I snapped in the place.
For several hours, we found a spot on the lawn to read our books. We made three stops into Brighter Days Natural Foods at the end of the park, to use the bathroom (we were drinking a lot of water), buy more water (we needed to drink a lot of water), use the bathroom (again, all the water), where they undoubtably found us very weird. Our last trip in we picked up groceries to bring home and make for dinner.
The park was great – the Rock n’ Roll folks were setting up, so we had to listen to Sting on repeat for an hour. There were kids out skateboarding being pulled by their dogs, a guy riding past on one of those 8 feet tall bicycles, hippies abound, a few folks playing guitar, some guy playing a Berimbau (a bow shaped instrument). And then there was this ridiculous Golden puppy who made a b-line towards us. After some major belly rubs, it found a little husky friend and tried to chase her.
At five, we started heading back with our groceries, and made our way home to cook dinner. We stopped by Starbucks for some coffee for the morning, Panera for a bagel and banana (for breakfast), and a convenience store for Rebecca to get some wine. Priorities people. I contemplated a snickers for my race bag, but thought better of it.
When we got back, Matt did his quick shakeout (during which he ran to World of Beer to pick up his beer – a Southbound Secret Shared PRO AM), again, priorities, and we started cooking. That big pot on the right has two pounds of pasta.
Rebecca and Matt made pasta with tomato sauce, and arugula.
I went for my ultimate comfort food: Annie’s Macaroni and Cheese. I was planning on getting a baked potato and some chicken, but whenever I get an excuse to eat a whole box of Annie’s to myself, I take it. (Plus, I know from experience that I can eat it and not get a stomach ache.)
Finally, the race set up! I’m still half convinced that I’ll forget something, but that’s not too likely, since when I run, I’m a sherpa, and carry ALL THE THINGS.
This marathon is just one sleep away! Goodnight, y’all!
by Sam Tackeff | Nov 6, 2014 | Restaurants, Travel
Well, hello, again, from Savannah, Georgia! I’m here for the Savannah Rock and Roll Marathon with my coworkers Rebecca and Matt, and we’ve had a grand time so far. (Check out my first day, if you haven’t read it yet.)
Despite a late night out, I woke up before 8:30, ready to find a coffee drink and wake up for reals. Matt was still sleeping on the couch, so Rebecca and I walked for a quick errand to CVS, I had my first coffee of the day, a Flat White at The Collins Quarter, which was so good that we determined that we’d like to head back there for brunch. (I felt a little bit like I was cheating on my main squeeze, the Cuppa flat white. This was very good!)
On the way back to picking up our sleeping room mate, Rebecca gave a quick call to the apartment managers, because upon initial inspection, we noticed that our apartment didn’t have smoke detectors. I’m glad that Rebecca cares enough that we don’t die in a fire! They were incredibly responsive, and by the time we returned home tonight, we’ve been outfitted with two protective devices.
Here’s the lovely outdoor tables at The Colllins Quarter:
For brunch, I had the All American ($10): two eggs any style, cherry tomatoes, bacon, and Beaufort artisan toast. It came with a little salad of fresh herbs, and was served in a gorgeous plate! Rebecca and I also ordered Iced Espresso Mint Juleps, which reminded me a little bit of my very favorite Philz Mocha Tesora with a mint leaf.
Rebecca went with the gorgeous Smashed Avocado ($10): with Beaufort artisan bakery toast, Persian feta, cherry tomatoes, lemon, micro herbs & shaved radishes, and a poached egg.
Matt went with the Niman Ranch Brown Egg Omelette, to which he added pretty much all of the fillings, and was a very happy camper.
After brunch, we headed across the street from the restaurant to the Juliette Gordon Low House front stoop, in order to pick up an “Old Savannah Tours” on and off bus, so that we could explore a good amount of the city without totally overusing our limbs before our race. They have a special where you get discounted tickets online (we paid $71 for three people, for a 90 minute tour that you can take as many times as you want in the day) and so we purchased tickets before brunch, and simply hopped on and the closest stop.
I’ve taken a handful of bus tours like this, and the on and off is a great way to get around the city, and see a good amount of sites. I will note that the tours are only as good as the drivers, so if you don’t like your tour guide, simply hop off, and wait until the next bus comes along. Luckily, we had two great drivers (we had to switch to a new bus at the first “official” stop, so that they can drive people to their hotels when they finish the tour.)
We definitely enjoyed the tour, which took us around 16 of the squares, down to Forsyth park, and around the top part of the historic district. (One odd thing to note: they do periodic checks to see if everyone has a ticket on board. Because we got our tickets online, we had to show them our receipt on my phone, which happened to say “this is your ticket”, but then one of the ticket checkers instructed us to fill out a voucher at stop “one”, and then exchange that for printed pay stubs from the ticket checker at the next stop. I have absolutely no idea why that was necessary, but I did find it amusing!
After finishing the tour at the Juliette Gordon Low stop – no girl scout cookies in sight, alas – we headed to the convention center to pick up our race packets. A word of warning to those prone to seasickness coming to the race – the convention center is actually located across the river from the city, and you have to take a (free) 5 minute ferry ride across.
We arrived to a *very* quiet convention center, and things started to get real! Bib pickup was super easy, but they hadn’t yet gotten in race tees yet, so we actually ended up waiting for an hour or so outside in the sunshine, so that we wouldn’t have to pick up the shirts post race. I had assumed that I might want to buy a bunch of things at the expo, but I ended up just picking up a few margarita shot blocs from the Fleet Feet booth.
The race expo was decent, but I didn’t feel compelled to do any more shopping. Instead we sat outside and looked at this view. Some of us took naps.
Around five, we headed back across the river, and took a short walk down River Street, which reminds me of so many of the other boardwalk streets intended solely for tourists, and then down Broughton to take a peek at some of the shops before dinner. We stopped by the Savannah Bee Company for some samples, and I wish I could have purchased some of their white winter honey to take home with me! It was delicious!
I saw this little guy, but he was too heavy to take home in my carryon. (Concrete.)
After our long day, we got ourselves to dinner at Public Kitchen & Bar just at the beginning of happy hour, which we opted to do tonight, because they don’t take reservations, a risky prospect when 18,000 people are in town for a marathon. (Most people are likely going to arrive tomorrow.)
We sat outside, and our meal started awkwardly, with some general confusion about our happy hour wine orders. Rebecca ordered a Twisted Cabernet, but the waiter gave her a white wine (which was likely Chardonnay), and insisted that this was the Cab when she repeatedly expressed confusion. She finally gave up and ordered a different wine, but our first experience with service made me nervous for my meal. I on the other hand, made my own mistake, ordering a sickly sweet riesling when I assumed it was going to be a dry one. I just didn’t drink my grape juice, although our waiter seemed to take no notice of this, even by the end of our meal.
The food, however, was good – Matt opted for an arugula salad with chicken (a prudent choice, although he had been eying the kimchi cheeseburger), Rebecca the risotto. I made the best choice of all, the shrimp and grits with bacon cheddar grits, peas, chorizo, tomato, and a sherry cream sauce. While I was bracing myself for a dish that was outrageously heavy, I was actually pleasantly surprised to find it quite light, and incredibly well seasoned and balanced. I left not a single bite.
For the second night in a row, we passed on dessert. It makes me a little dubious of my coworkers, but it’s probably for the best :p
We did, however, make a final pitstop to World of Beer, so Matt could order a beer to go, to drink while walking home, as this is apparently legal in this fine city. He went for a Southbound Hop-lin IPA, which I got a sip of – yet another fine choice from this state!
And with that, we’re back at the apartment again, and it’s 9:30 pm, and I’m thinking of turning in.
Onwards!
by Sam Tackeff | Nov 5, 2014 | Restaurants, Southern, Travel
Well hello from warm Savannah, Georgia!
Usually I don’t blog while I’m actually on a trip, but I’m here for five days for the marathon, and judging from how much we’ve done on day one, I thought I’d start keeping a log here now, otherwise I’m never going to keep up!
Our flight was an otherwise smooth one from Boston, despite a little bit of turbulence. I happened to be sitting in a window seat, where both my front and back neighbors decided that the windows that shared a crack with their seats should be closed immediately, leaving me windowless for most of the flight. That left me with plenty of time to finish reading Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking, and get started on a new book: Cowboys and Indies, a so far captivating history of the music industry.
We arrived to an airy southern airport, and shared at taxi to downtown. It ended up being a little steep $39 (they tacked on $5 for each extra person, and I wasn’t looking to haggle on my first day here.) We drove through strip suburbia, saw an air force base. When I travel I’m always on the lookout for interesting fast food chains, or other local specialties, but the ride from the airport wasn’t the most busy.
Instead of staying in a hotel, we decided to rent an apartment, which ended up being both more affordable, and really adorable! After getting settled, we immediately headed to our first meal of the day: Zunzi’s, a local sandwich shop with a following. (It’s one of the most reviewed places on Yelp in general, but several locals recommended it to me. After hearing the guy behind the counter selling the African tea to the woman in front of me, I accepted the sample … which tasted like sweet lip gloss. I actually really like sweet tea, but when you are expecting unsweetened, and you get what will put someone in a diabetic coma, it’s a shock to the system.
Rebecca had the falafel, Matt ordered a salmon sandwich, and I went with Oliver’s lunch: a bed of mashed potatoes with chopped grilled chicken, and chopped house made sausage and smoked sausage. And a roll. And a spinach salad that I ended up passing on. It was quite a meal to start the day! Here’s a close-up of Oliver’s Lunch:
After consuming much of the meal, we headed for a good long walk down Broughton Street, one of the main drives. We popped into a handful of shops, with so many cute details. Here’s one from a gift shop called Sylvester & Co that had a coffee shop in the back.
And here are a few photos from the lower level of Paris Market & Brocante, a shop primarily with gorgeous French housewares and gifts, with some delightfully bizarre decorations around each and every corner. I should have taken more photos, the place was gorgeous, but as usual, I’m drawn to the weird.
Near the end of Broughton, we stopped into Chocolat by Adam Turoni, seduced by the wafting scent of chocolate that they were tempering in house, and crafting into individual truffles. I absolutely loved this quirky looking chocolate shop, and will be heading back for more before I leave. I had a single blood orange Grand Marnier truffle that was the perfect bite.
Of course, by late afternoon, we needed to fortify ourselves again, so we headed to Leopold’s for some good old fashioned ice cream. Rebecca went for the historically significant “chocolate chews and cream” flavor, Matt got pistachio, and I had a perfectly done butter pecan. We then took ourselves on a walk, down by the waterfront, and then back up to Colonial Park Cemetery. I’ll take more pictures before we leave, but the cemeteries here are so interesting!
And then we did more walking, so we had to caffeinate. We stopped into The Coffee Fox, a coffee shop owned by a Texan (I couldn’t help but notice the kolache in the case). I drank espresso with milk, Rebecca had a cortadito (sweetened, cuban style), and Matt got the “eye-opener” nitro milk stout with a shot of espresso, yep, coffee and beer combined. Magic!
Finally, after resting for a few hours in our apartment, we headed out for a good Southern meal at The Olde Pink House. How could we not? I must admit, I was a little skeptical, but when good friends (including one who went to school in the south and hit up the Kentucky Derby this year) recommended it, I knew I’d have to keep it on my list.
The Olde Pink House is exactly that – but possibly it should be called The Olde Very Large Pink House with lavish rooms that made me feel like everything was magical.
We all ordered beers from Georgia, and gorged on their cornbread and biscuits. The room was lively, filled with people, and one of the hostesses was going from table to table, breaking into song.
Rebecca prudently started with a salad, while I went for the she crab soup, which was similar to a clam chowder, but smooth, silky, and rather elegant. To my utter delight, the waitress asked me if I’d like some sherry *sherry!!* to stir into my soup, to which I could not possibly refuse. It makes the crab sweeter – and she was so very right.
For dinner, Matt ordered the deep chicken pot pie, which came with a splendid buttery crust, and Rebecca had the sweet potato ravioli, with oyster mushrooms. For my meal, I knew I had to go bold, and not look back: deep fried chicken livers with grits and fried spinach. (Actual fried spinach!). It was rich. It was delicious.
I wish I could tell you of the pecan pie, or key lime we devoured after dinner, but wisely we decided to tap out early. We went for a very long walk to counter the meal, found everything closed (including CVS… they close at 9pm, apparently), and now we are back. Sleep soon, there will undoubtably be so much more tomorrow!
