A couple of years ago I was trying to set up a lunch meeting with someone. When I asked them, they said they really didn't "eat lunch" - for them food was just fuel. I was shocked.

For me, food is an experience. A journey. And a quest. So here are my thoughts. If you eat to live, you may not be interested. If you live to eat, you may find some ideas for places here. I went back to the first of this year, as opposed to diving back multiple years and started there. These are my thoughts on everything except for burgers. They deserve their own page and it is here.


Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room, Savannah, GA (March 2011)

For Colleen's spring break, we headed down to Savannah for a couple of days to scout for an apartment for her pending move.

Come Monday, we were making the requisite food plans and Jo wanted to go to Paula Dean's restaurant, Lady & Sons.  I had read about Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room for years, but we had only been in Savannah on the weekends previously.  This was the day.

We started the morning putting in our name for a dinner reservation at Lady & Sons, then made our way over to Mrs. Wilkes to wait in line there.  They open at 11:00.  We got there at 11:30 and ended up waiting about 90 minutes to get inside.   The view to the right is as you walk in the front door.  Mrs. Wilkes has been open since the 40s, originally as a boarding house.  It was converted into a restaurant and now has family-style lunches at tables for ten.


The table was covered in a veritable cornucopia of food - fried chicken, barbecue, roast beef, macaroni and cheese, green beans, field peas, butter beans, fried okra, squash, mashed potatoes, tomatoes, biscuits and cornbread, and at least ten more bowls. 

The result for me:
the biscuit?  okay
the fried chicken?  blue ribbon best, among the top 10 I've ever had
everything else?  Somewhere in between.

If you're going to have one truly Southern meal in Savannah, make it at Mrs. Wilkes.










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