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.

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.  

With a throwback to Prohibition, The Distillery serves up spirits–and sustenance–with history.

Nearly four years ago, a broad-shouldered, dark-haired Maryland Yankee walked into my downtown office bearing a huge, rolled-up color printout of a historic Savannah map. Introducing himself as Michael Volen, this stranger proceeded to tell me that he had just purchased a three-story building directly across from my office and was looking for an appropriate use for the property. Four years and many strange twists and turns later, Michael Volen is the proprietor of Savannah’s hottest new pub.

The Distillery is located inside an old nightclub building at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Liberty Street—a place, in the words of local personality Murray Silver, cursed with an address “that does not front on any street.” In fact, it may be the largest building in town you’ve never seen. But The Distillery’s beguiling secrecy hasn’t stopped folks—Savannahians and tourists alike—from entering its doors since the day they first opened in mid-November of last year.

Two Savannah eateries are taking organic dining to a whole new level by tapping local farmers to help create the freshest dishes around.

We like to think things are better here in the Lowcountry. Boasting beaches, marshes, pine and maritime forests, Savannah and the Coastal Empire certainly plays host to a slew of scenery to appreciate. Still, it is hard to scrub that provincial habit of looking over your shoulder and wondering, telling and asking about what’s going on in the bigger cities of Dixie. But just because the cities are larger doesn’t mean you have to run off towards sparkling skylines to fix every craving—especially when the craving is of the epicurean sort. After all, what are provinces if not the breadbasket of the cities?