The Savannah Civic Center presents The Royal Comedy Tour . This will be a night of laughter from the comedic stylings of Sommore, George Wilborn, DL Hugley, and TuRae.

Cost: $38-45

More Info: Call 912.651.6556 or visit savannahga.gov

Two of Savannah’s most seasoned chefs take their skills to a whole new canvas.

Two artists at the Telfair Museum’s Jepson Center work under a particularly challenging set of circumstances: Their paintbrushes are sharp and made of metal, their paints are perishable and from the earth, and they create their artwork every day, in a tiny, hot studio for a set of buyers with a seemingly insatiable hunger for their work. Their names are John Deaderick and Michael Pritchard, and together they’re the chefs behind Café Zeum.
Last year, when the Jepson Center decided to open up their in-museum cafe to outside restaurateurs, Pritchard and Deaderick were high on their culinary wish list and approached the pair with the idea. Evidenced by a cult like following at their other restaurant, the Starland Cafe, the chefs were comfortable with the lunchtime setting, but had their doubts about how they would fit into the museum environment. “We walked into the meeting just to see what they had to say,” Deaderick says. “For about an hour and a half, they described our business and our philosophy. It was a perfect fit.”

Huey’s Southern Café
Beignets

Bite into a beignet (ben – YAY) and you’ll get much more than a face full of powdered sugar. These sweet, little dough pillows are lightly fried clouds of heaven found right here in Savannah. At Huey’s Southern Café on River Street, an order consists of 3 beignets, served hot with a warm southern pecan praline dipping sauce made from brown sugar, creamy butter, real vanilla and laced with tiny pieces of crunchy, chopped pecans. “We make the dough here fresh daily,” says Ginger Sommers, assistant manager. “They are cut into rectangles, deep fried, and sprinkled with lots of powdered sugar. In season, we probably go through at least 50 lbs of powdered sugar each week…We sell so many of them on the weekends that we have someone in the kitchen solely dedicated to making beignets 6 hours each day.”

If you aren’t looking for T-Rex Mex Restaurant, you just might miss it as the restaurant is tucked deep beneath the pavement of Broughton Street, off the well-worn tourist track. However, the one thing that does stand out is its glass door painted with a ferocious, lime-green Tyrannosaurus in a sombrero, and it’s just a taste of what lurks inside.
Owners Anton and Tammy Withington brought their burrito-brimming menu to life about a year and a half ago, after eight years working in a burrito restaurant in Atlanta. Their inspiration for the theme of the restaurant was twofold: first, their son, Thurston Rex (the initials behind the T-Rex moniker) and second, their friends who happen to be artists.
“When we started, this place was just four walls,” Tammy Withington says, gesturing to the warm, ragged brick walls that envelop the restaurant. They got to work dividing the space and, more importantly, filling it with art. “We passed out tables to our friends who are local artists,” Withington says. The result: vibrantly colorful, skull-centric table art that is Mexican Day of the Dead mixed with a sense of humor and whimsy.

Bar • Food: BBQ Wontons

Nestled in the Habersham Village, Bar Food proprietors Johnny Baker, Alicia Cannon and Paula Letcher have created a back-to-the-basics approach to their French–Asian-themed restaurant. Each dish is priced under $12, and the menu is refreshed with new selections weekly. “We look at what is selling the most and listen to our clientele to guide us when changing up the menu week to week,” explains Baker, “but the BBQ Wontons aren’t going anywhere.” It’s a good thing they’re sticking around. The tasty pork pieces are slow cooked for 12 hours and spun with sesame and sauce. They are served in bite-sized crispy wontons, also made daily in the kitchen. Simply delicious. Bar Food, 4523 Habersham Street, 912.355.5956, www.barfoodsavannah.com

Chart House Executive Chef Jim O’Connor believes good food is all about the details.

A restaurant group based in Texas can’t know much about coastal provisions in Savannah … or can it?

Chart House, overlooking River Street, is one of the few restaurants under the corporate umbrella of Landry’s that proudly allows its chef the creative freedom to build a local menu. Executive Chef Jim O’Connor started with Landry’s Restaurants in Alexandria and Annapolis before landing the Savannah location, where he has created a Lowcountry menu. And Savannahians are taking note.

The menu at Chart House changes nightly to feature such local fare as stone crabs from Hilton Head. O’Connor attributes his success in Savannah to his emphasis on consistency. “The details make the difference. It’s the little things that make food great,” O’Connor professes when the question of his food philosophy is brought up. “When a step is missed, it simply won’t come out right. I really want the details taken care of.” 

A quest for the tastiest tenderloin takes The South to new levels of divine bovine.

The charm begins with the sound of its French name, filet mignon: It’s exotic, sultry. Considered the best cut of bovine beef because it runs along both sides of the animal’s spine and receives very little exercise, the filet is the top shelf of tender beef (and usually one of the most expensive).

Four Savannah restaurants offering U.S. Prime beef, the highest grade available, opened their doors to us in our quest to find the best filet. Bull Street Chophouse, Ruth’s Chris Steak House and Sapphire Grill were on our radar. We added the fourth candidate, Il Pasticcio, at the suggestion of its proprietor, Pino Venetico, who also owns its upstairs neighbor, Bull Street Chophouse. Venetico claims the filet at Il Pasticcio “was the impetus for the Chophouse concept.” So, the gauntlet was thrown with four restaurants in the mix, the focus of our search resting on each chef’s method of delivery for a flawless filet.

The South’s guest dining editors use their legal know-how to judge one of Savannah’s hottest restaurants.

As litigious lawyers, my wife and I seldom agree on anything. So we jumped at the chance to take our respective sides and put the fare at Eos—a casually hip food and wine bar tucked away in the Thomas Square neighborhood of the Victorian District—up for debate. The old brick bank building had been empty for some time when owner Shelley Smith happened upon it one rainy Savannah afternoon. Eos’s concept is small plates—bigger than tapas, smaller than entrees but perfect to share—along with 130 wines, including 50 by the glass. We wanted to see if Eos could prove its case.  

Bistro Savannah
Shellfish-Stuffed Black Sea Bass with Clam Sauce. One bite of this flamboyant sea-inspired dish and you may not want to venture back to shore. Bistro Savannah Chef Danny Kim uses fresh local seafood, infusing lumps of blue crab meat, shrimp, scallops with cream and saffron, wine and even a hint of fennel, all topped off with a rich clam sauce. “The dish became popular in Savannah because of [its] presentation and the flavor of fresh local seafood,” says Kim. “This dish, I believe, is what Savannah seafood is about.” Bistro Savannah, 309 West Congress Street, 912.233.6266

Playing with his food yields delicious results for Chef Kirk Blaine of Driftaway Cafe.

Kirk Blaine has an advantage over most chefs. Every evening, he walks through Driftaway Cafe’s dining room and knows what customers will order even before they open a menu. “Our customer base comes in here five to seven times a week,” Blaine says enthusiastically. “We pack the house every night—not many restaurants can say that.” But there’s another reason Blaine knows all of the hungry faces lining Driftaway’s mural-painted walls: he’s been working there since he was 16 years old. He left for a short time to attend the Culinary Institute of America in New York City, but before long he was back in Savannah—mostly because he hated the cold, but also because of his loyalty to Driftaway owners Robin and Michelle Quartlebaum. “They are amazing owners who have given me the opportunity to explore with food.”

A large part of his success is due to his fascination—obsession, even—with food. A visual artist by nature, Blaine finds himself playing with his food in the best possible way.