Frozen Slushies and Southern Food in Savannah

After our success with the AirBnB apartment we rented in East Nashville, we delved in again and booked a 3-night stay in Savannah, Georgia.   We rocked up in the mid afternoon sunshine and checked ourselves in before heading out to stock up on some food and wine (wine and food would be a more accurate description) and proceeded to spend the remainder of the afternoon and evening, chilling out and recovering from a few days of constant road trippin’.

I’ve been lucky enough to visit Savannah on several occasions and I love the slow pace of life, the weather, the scenery, and the old world feeling that Savannah has.  I love wandering around the beautiful squares, wishing I had one of those voluminous dresses and a corset.   Oh, and one of those cute bonnet things that makes you look like you’ve strapped a paper plate to your head.  And a horse and carriage, because, obviously…   Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that I’ve been to Owens Thomas House in Oglethorpe Square and now I think I’m Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With The Wind*

Well, if you think I'll marry you just to pay for the bonnet, I won't...

On this trip, however, it was all cocktails and southern cooking.   What could be better than that, I hear you say?  Well…nothing, really.    After an evening spent relaxing, we were up and ready to hit downtown the next morning.  We managed to make reservations for lunch at Paula Deen’s Lady and Sons restaurant on West Congress at 1pm, so headed down to the water to do MORE relaxing and road test a few frozen daiquiris at Wet Willie's on River Street.

A Bar. A Party. A Sore Head.

I LOVE Wet Willie's (now, now...) and you’re always guaranteed a warm welcome there.    Our bartender quickly offered us a few samples and we soon discovered just how strong Moonshine really is.  I mean, I can read the labels in the liquor store like anyone else, but I hadn’t actually tasted any.   Safe to say that it’s great, but one would definitely be enough for me!   I’m a creature of habit, so I will drink anything that tastes like it might have come into contact with an apple at some point, so I had to get the Green Apple slushie, just as I imagine Scarlett would have done before me…   LT indulged in a frozen magarita and we happily stared out at the river, slowly going numb from the feet up.  

Fill 'er up!

Why, yes, I'll have one of everything, please...

It turns out our bartender realised that our accents weren’t local and we informed him we were British, from Scotland.   He’d actually spent time travelling in Dumfries.   I know people from Scotland who’ve never been to Dumfries, so it was quite a shock to find a Georgian who was there.  We chatted about all things Scottish, including whisky and haggis (obviously), and then paid up and attempted to make our lunch reservation with Paula.

Wet Willie’s was started in Savannah, but now has 15 locations, mostly in the Southern States of the US (as well as one in A.C, NJ), and I have now made it my mission to visit them all.  Everyone’s gotta have a dream, right?  I have the same ambition about Cracker Barrel.     Anyway….

I enjoy eating in Lady and Sons and, the first time I did, I realised that you couldn’t book from out of state.  You had to turn up to put your name on the waiting list for the buffet menu.   This was many years ago. This time around, things are a bit different and they have a handy online reservation system.  Technology rocks.

Paula Deen: Butter Queen

The menu is excellent and contains appetisers, such as fried green onions and black pepper shrimp, while the mains offer fried chicken, green beans, and a whole host of other things that we gleefully crammed into our chops, stopping only for breath and another sip of iced tea.   The buffet serves some seriously tasty food and I’m just glad we don’t live any closer or we’d be camping outside.  As well as the food, the service is great and you can experience the Southern hospitality that the region is so famous for (it’s so true).   

After calling in the local crane company to hoist us out of our seats, we rolled out the door and made our way home with a belly full of food and a head full of grain alcohol.   If you have a few hours to spare in Savannah, I’d highly recommend popping in to visit both.  You can’t beat a lazy afternoon eating and drinking, right?   

Corset. Burst.  

*Nothing could be further from the truth. 

hell yeah!

Too many cocktails and not enough tea.

Have you visited Savannah?  Where do you recommend for eats and drinks?