For my mom's 60th birthday this year my sister and I surprised her with a mother daughter weekend in Savannah, Georgia. She has always wanted to visit and I happen to love the town as it is at the heart of the south. To inform her of her upcoming trip, I faked a letter from Paula Deen inviting her to visit her hometown. The letter also informed her that she had reservations to eat at her restaurant, Lady & Son's on her actual birthday.
We flew into Atlanta and had about a 4 hour drive into Savannah. Upon arriving, we decided to check out the the shopping areas while we waited for time to check in. Public parking garages are pretty easy to find although the streets can be pretty congested with traffic at times. Most people staying near River Street hotels find it easiest to park their car at the hotel and walk or taking public transportation (trolleys) everywhere.
We stayed at
Hotel Indigo which was right next to City Market, central to everything. Parking was only via valet but as I mentioned, everything was within walking distance... if you could stand the heat and humidity! Our room was nice and the hotel was very pretty. The customer service wasn't so great though - we were originally given a key to a room that had not been cleaned yet that day ...
We ate at some nice places --
Pie Society - A British Bakery that had authentic Pastys and Sausage Rolls. So good we actually ate there twice!
Tequila's Town - Mexican restaurant with some different dishes than I typically see on the menu at other Mexican places. It was good, not excellent, but good.
Gryphon Tea Room - ran by SCAD students was my absolute favorite place we ate. The food was excellent as was the tea but the atmosphere was awesome. Dining tables were set up in a library-like setting, with cases and shelves of books and antique furniture. I had the Vanilla Lavendar Tea Latte and it was sooo good... even if it was hot tea in Savannah...
Lady & Son's - Paula Deen's restaurant that serves southern home cookin. This was my second visit and it didn't disappoint. I personally liked the hoecakes and biscuits the best but I'm also not normally able to eat carbs so I took full advantage. The sweet potatoes were really good and the fried chicken was perfect.
Leopold's Ice Cream - My sister waited in the hour long line to get some of this. I only tasted a bite but it was really creamy and I can see why it was famous.
Wet Willies - technically a daquiri bar but also served food. We only enjoyed the drinks but they were good... a little to sweet for me so I ended up not finishing my Monkey Shine & Pina Colada mix.
Paula Deen's Creek House - This one has a funny story. By some dumb luck we stumbled onto this place on our way to Tybee Island on it's grand opening day. We were seated immediately and joked it would be so funny if she was actually there for her grand opening and given the fact that we faked a letter from her to mom. Guess what? She was there! So was most of her family. And we got pics with her and my mom fan-girled out. Paula was so sweet and wished my mom happy birthday. It couldn't have worked out any better than if we would have planned it! The food was excellent and I loved the pimento cheese appetizer... I have this thing for pimento cheese.
A Lowcountry Backyard - We found this place as we were pulling into Hilton Head, SC. We made a day trip of it and drove 45 min north to check it out. This place was #2 on my list but overall the best food that we ate. Gryphon won for overall experience but this place had a grilled pimento cheese sandwich with bacon on flatbread... and it doesn't get much better than this.
You might be surprised that neither of the Paula Deen restaurants were my favorite... to be honest it is just reflective of how good the eats were on this trip. Everything was so so good.
We actually did do more than just eat... if you can believe that.
We visited
Wormsloe Historic Site which was so beautiful. It would have been nice to be able to walk around but it was hot and I knew there were probably all kinds of snakes around... I saw a snake book a la bird seeker book and thought to myself, no way, no how.
We visited
Bonaventure Cemetary. I love this place. I could stay there all day... so beautiful and creepy all at the same time. The epitome of southern gothic.
We did the
Ghost and Gravestones trolley tour. I've done a different ghost tour on a prior visit and I thought this one was a bit hokey but I still had a good time.
We drove out to
Tybee Island. Some people just use golf carts to get around here. I'd love to spend more time on this island, seems very laid back.
We did plenty of shopping. Some our favorite places were:
Savannah's Candy Kitchen... I ate a lot of pralines...
The Spice & Tea Exchange,
The Paris Market... my favorite shop in Savannah,
Byrd's Famous Cookies and
Savannah Bee Company... all things made of honey.
On our way back to Atlanta we stopped at a little french restaurant with a bakery and gift shop attached. I can't find the name of it now for the life of me but I really enjoyed the Croque Monsieur I had there as well.