Rosh Hashana

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We shared the Oriental room on the second floor with a cat. Bob McGalister, owner; Charlotte Dixon, mgr, Elese, asst.: $100 F&Sa, $90: Su. [in 1998]
Far from elegant, but the price is great in an expensive town of mostly B&B's.
We also stayed at the better places. [see other entries.]

We never learned the cat's name, but he didn’t belong to the inn, since they booted him out when he escaped our room and ran down the long stairs to the public area on the first floor. But the cat came back.

This is a very nice place to stay. I believe they had afternoon tea where we met many very interesteing guests. Carol & Steve Day are the owners. Five nights for $946 in 1998 . . . check it out on the web.

It is just west of the Eliza Thompson B&B. It is easy to miss, even though in recent years a tasteful sign does exist. Mrs. Wilkes, who we met, has been described as the Julia Childs of Low Country cooking. [She has since passed away.]

There are only four tables in the basement of a double wide.

No less than sixteen bowls of home cooking was served to the ten of us family style:
Mashed yams and raisins
Lima beans
Peas and noodles (English)
Collard greens
Fruit
Brunswick stew of ground beef, corn, tomatoes
BBQ beef
Okra, tomato and ground meat
Beef casserole
Biscuits and cornbread muffins
Gravy and syrup
Fried chicken
Beets
Potato salad
String beans and ham hocks
Sue’s Potato a gratin w/vinegar
Brown beans made with mayonnaise, mustard and onion
Macaroni and cheese
Banana pudding
Apple peach tart

You are seated family style around a long table of about 16 to 20. Great fun!

This is from 1998, so I don't know if it is still operating. The food was very good and the "captivating" belly dancer was quite entertaining. (Well, not for Susan.) We have pictures of me stuffing some paper cash in the dancer’s custom, as is custom. The place is decorated in the opulence of an authentic Moroccan ceremonial tent. We started with an assortment of salads and I think I had Lamb Maassal, baked lamb dipped in a honey nutmeg sauce that was topped with roasted almonds and sesame seeds.

We had a great dinner over the 1998 Christmas holiday. Reservations were a must and I wisely had made them back before Thanksgiving! I can’t remember what we had, but I do remember sitting next to the front door and suffering in the chilly draft past my back each time the door opened.

We celebrated Christmas dinner at the Pink House, built in 1771! We were seated upstairs in a room with a nice warm fireplace going. I can’t remember what we had, but we sure enjoyed the She-crab soup! Ambrosia. This is a fantastic place. If you visit Savannah, do not fail to eat here.

We had tea and sandwiches at the Gryphon Tearoom in a building restored by SCAD*. It is located one block north of our B&B on Bull St. It was jammed. Miraculously, we were seated immediately! Shortly thereafter, many folks were waiting.

I had a delicious shrimp sandwich, and Susan had a ham sandwich. Both of us had a crème base vegetable soup with potato, corn, etc. I enjoyed a memorable, flavorful Earl Grey, since the weather was bone chilling and rainy all day. For dessert, I had a German chocolate cheesecake that was all white with chocolate syrup drizzled over and about the plate. It was very good—like nothing I have ever enjoyed. It was not like German chocolate cake. Susan had lemon cake. [$30]

Celebrated Susan's birthday. This is a highly awarded restaurant, including the 1997 James Beard and DiRona awards. Susan had an excellent soup of sweet potato puree poured over two grilled shrimps rouyola and lettuce. Stef's appetizer was zinging shrimp in hosiene (a spicy sauce) with fluffy grits that were very airy in the form of two slices. Also included black-eyed peas. The salads we had were very bitter and we did not eat them. Stef's entrée was grouper (fish) coated with small cracked almonds, sesame seeds, and asiago cheese. Very good! Susan had rack of lamb with okra, tomato and olives. I had pecan pie for dessert.

We had lunch at Nita’s, which has a small dining room, maybe a dozen tables. The walls are covered with a haphazard mix of snapshots, letters, posters and other personal items from diners (important movie stars and normal folks sending vacation postcards) over the past few years.

Nita's always smiling, filling the plates at the steam table. Miss Mary is in the kitchen keeping the food hot and in good supply.

The menu is simple -- usually a choice of three entrees and six to eight vegetables, cornbread and dessert.

That day there were collards, okra, corn and tomato mix, squash casserole, macaroni and cheese, rutabagas, potato salad and possibly the best red rice in town. The vegetables are cooked the way many Southern cooks do, with a little sugar to enhance the sweetness.

We both had jambalaya of shrimp and sausage over white rice and grits plus fantastic sweet potatoes!

Do not fail to eat here!

We spent two leisurely hours delighting in tea, each delectable morsel bringing pleasure amongst quite civil conversation in a peaceful island. We enjoyed speaking with the owner, Rebecca Wright, and meeting her chef. We sat to one side of the fireplace where we had sat during our visit the previous week. This time the area was occupied when we arrived. I made some documentary shots of some of the food, but one I arranged under the lamp made from a gourd came out very nicely. The crystal dishes cast great shadows. The only real sound we heard was the tick-tock of the regulator clock on the wall above our table. Behind Susan was a 3-foot Christmas tree decorated in the Victorian manner, plus the usual very cute teddy bear in a charming dress with a bow tie in his hair at the top of his head and holding a pony head on a stick. The place abounds with all sorts of books about tea, recipes, and McIntosh, the Scottish architect and designer. Indeed, some of the furniture and fixtures are similar.

We shared tuna salad on a biscuit, egg salad on toast, tomato, and finely chopped watercrest on bread with crème cheese spread. All very good. Then: Crème cheese and diced cucumber sandwich, scones with lots of whipping crème, a 2½-inch quiche tart with a touch of brown sugar sprinkled on the top, which made it heavenly, and a circular croissant roll-up of Havarti cheese and bacon. All garnished with edible flowers, which I pressed in the spiral notepad I wrote these memories in. Topped off with Saffron sorbet. [$34]

(Check out a book: "Midwestern Tea Room Pleasures" by Joyce Decherd.)

As I was walking across Monterey Square, I saw many people going into what appeared to be a church and what I guessed was a funeral service since it appeared to be a church architecturally. Instead I discovered it was Congregation Mickve Isreal Synagogue, located on Bull Street at Gordon that was founded in 1733!

It does look like a Jewish house of worship (although there is no standard). The floor plan is actually laid out like a cross with the cross arm and architecturally appears like a church with a pointed spire. It is the oldest now practicing Reform Judaism Synagogue in the US founded by Spanish Portuguese Jews on July 11, 1733, five months after establishment of the colony of Georgia. There is a modest Jewish star above the entrance, which I didn’t notice. I walked over to read the historic plaque. (Everything in Savannah has a historic plaque in front of it!) I mentioned to someone at the entrance that I was Jewish and he invited me in.

I was wearing my plaid "sherbet" short sleeve shirt and my photographer’s vest and chino slacks! I was directed to a "seater" along the south wall who found a seat at the very front of the front row on a folding chair! I felt awkward since most everyone was very dressed up. The women wore elegant dresses and quite a few wore elegant stylish hats reminiscent of classic Coco Chanel of the classic fifties. One woman had a smashing black hat with a wide brim with a white rib around the rim. It reminded me of a classic Irving Penn photograph.

The interior glowed in a blaze of light filtered through tall stained glass windows upon crème walls.

Spent all afternoon at Bonaventure Cemetery (see text from John Muir's 1916 journal about his visit at end of my journal). Surrounded by marshes and a river, this cemetery's lush vegetation swells over its entrance. Resting on the site of a former plantation house, its numerous granite and marble tombs cradled by ancient oaks dripping Spanish moss are the backdrop for John Berendt's Southern Gothic tale, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which has brought so many tourists to this cemetery's paths that the owners of the sculpture featured on the book's cover have moved it to the Telfair Museum. Illinois artist Sylvia Shaw Judson sculpted the 4-foot statue Bird Girl in 1938 as a garden fountain. Lucy Boyd Trosdal bought one of three copies for the family plot in Bonaventure. Residence of composer Johnny Mercer and poet Conrad Aiken. I took many photos there. We were struck by how many graves were decorated by poinsettias, Christmas trees (decorated), and other Christmas objects, including wrapped gift boxes.

Here are four photos of some other B&Bs; we saw in our walk about the city. We were able to enter each one, speak with the owner or manager and get a tour of the public area and at least one room and bathroom. Each one of these are very nice. Prices range from a bit costly to expensive. A stay in any of them would be memorable.

This place is well worth a mininum of 2 hours. Many important folks are buried here including Johnny Mercer, the great American songwriter from the 20's till the 50's. It would be wise to bring some bottled water and perhaps a snack. Lots of sand, so high heels are out, unless you have a fashion shoot in mind. You might also meet some interesting locals tending to the plastic flowers and other items displayed on the graves.

Here are four photos that show the romance and unique qualities of Savannah. Forsyth Park is at one end of the historic district and quite large. The fountain has been featured in motion pictures. Hanging moss dangles from trees for photo ops. There is lots of fabulous custom made iron work all over the place waiting to be discovered. Christmas is a great time to be in Savannah. All the doorways are decorated with traditional southern wreaths and fruit decorations over the door.

Here are a few more photographs to whet your desire to visit Savannah. It is just such a delight to leisurely walk about this town discovering all sorts of architectural details, delightful foliage and approachable locals who can help direct you to whatever your interests may be.