Food Diary

Dining is half the fun of traveling, at least for me. I do enjoy learning about the history of the place, but to get a real sense of the “local color” as my father used to say, there’s nothing like rubbing elbows with the natives or, if you choose a tourist hot spot, getting to know the wait staff.

On our recent trip south, our first dinner was on Jacksonville Beach at Joe’s Crab Shack. Yeah, I know it’s a chain, it’s a tourist focus, but we had avoided the one here in Pittsburgh (where’s the sand?) and thought it was time to see what it was all about. Plus it was right on the beach. We chose to sit outside, although at first it was rather windy it did calm down. The place was packed on a Wednesday evening but our drinks came fast and the waitress took our order promptly. And then we waited. And waited. Anne, our waiter, was nearly in tears as she apologized for the lost order; it was over an hour before we got our food. Jeremy, the manager, was good enough to take half off the food bill and give us free dessert. I chose Key Lime pie, because I really like the tartness and it was a favorite of my father’s.

Before we met our realtor on Thursday morning we had breakfast at The Fox Restaurant in Avondale, a kitschy diner that has a huge local fan club. I’m told that some mornings the line is out the door but we were lucky that morning. The staff was all heavily tattooed, including the waitresses, and everyone was very friendly. The realtor’s office was down the street one block so when we came back early afternoon she treated us to lunch at The Brick, across the street from The Fox. That was a nice, trendy, empty restaurant, with some interesting paintings on the walls. For dinner that evening, we walked across the Main Street Bridge (a blue bridge built in 1941 and quite the sight at night) to Jacksonville Landing and ate at The American Café. There was a concert in the square by a local band that had a following of motorcyclists … yes, it was loud.

Friday morning before we headed to Savannah, we walked back across the blue bridge and had breakfast at the Landing again, at The Village Bread Company, then perused a small artists’ market set up right outside but found nothing I couldn’t live without. We left Jacksonville well after noon and headed north on I-95, stopping in Brunswick, GA at an interesting combination of a ‘50s style Denny’s with a bowling alley and video arcade. It wasn’t the cleanest restaurant I’ve eaten at, and that seems to be true of Denny’s in most places. I’d stop eating there but they have the best breakfasts, especially the cheesy scrambled eggs, of any place I’ve been.

After walking around downtown Savannah along River Street we decided to drive east to Tybee Island and find a place to eat on the beach. We happened on Marlin Monroe’s Surfside Grill, tucked behind a high-rise hotel, but it was so incredibly windy with a storm moving in that we chose to eat inside. A trio was performing, two guitarists and a singer, and our waiter was an engaging young man, who had spent the winter working on a shrimp boat.

Saturday evening, after an incredibly long day of looking at townhouses, condos and marinas, we decided to walk back down to River Street and eat at River House Seafood, in a very old building. One of the drink specialties was some type of plantation punch that had every kind of liquor you can think of plus champagne; we both passed on that! Our waiter was from East Liverpool, OH and had graduated from one of Pittsburgh’s cooking schools. She wanted to start her own catering business in Savannah and talked her mother into moving down from Ohio.

Since we were staying at a Hampton Inn in the Historic District, we had a quick, light breakfast there on Sunday. The breakfast area was a zoo as there were three large groups all eating and departing at the same time that morning: a family reunion; a church youth group returning from a mission trip, and a Girl Scout troop. I think we were lucky to get our boxes of Raisin Bran!

After a disappointing morning visiting marinas, we went back to Tybee Island for lunch at Fannie’s on the Beach, where I think I picked up the chiggers that have been feasting on my ankles and shins all week. Our final meal in Savannah, not that we had planned on it, was at an airport restaurant because our flight was delayed over two hours. I had a pretty darn good chicken quesadilla and Bill had some tasty wings.

 So we may not have found THE city yet, but we had fun visiting and sampling the cuisine!