The City of Savannah has a great reputation. It's known throughout the country for its beautiful coastal landscapes, its well-preserved architecture and its rich, vibrant history. Savannah's a charming Southern town where art, period buildings, trendy boutiques and haunted stories all come together under a veil of Spanish moss. This is a place where cuisine comes straight from the coast and it seems that cocktails are served at nearly every meal. It was America’s first planed city laid out in a series of grids that allowed for wide-open streets intertwined with shady public squares and parks that served as town meeting places and centers of business. The city had 24 original squares and 22 of them are still in existence today. Savannah’s always been on our bucket list and we were fortunate in having longtime good friends from Florida and Georgia join us for a visit there over a long weekend in early February.
We were excited to be staying in Savannah’s Historic District. While that has its perks, it also has one disadvantage: the lack of off-street parking. Before we even checked into our home, we were told to stop by the Bryon Street Garage to obtain parking passes and thereby avoid being on the receiving end of any parking tickets. We arrived on a Thursday afternoon and departed on the following Monday morning. So, we purchased a 48-hour Visitor DAYPASS for $24 and were instructed to download the Park Savannah app, which allowed us to electronically “feed the meter” as needed for the Saturday evening and the Monday morning before our departure. The city’s metered parking spaces are typically enforced Monday through Saturday from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. It was very confusing to us at first, but we once we got the hang of it, it wasn’t problematic at all, with one exception, which I’ll tell you about shortly.
With our passes in hand, we proceeded to our 3 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath home in the Historic District. We had rented it through Homes & Villas by Marriott, a relatively new home rental initiative offering travelers’ access to 2,000 premium and luxury properties in a number of destinations around the world, including 100 markets across the United States, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. Managed locally by Southern Belle Vacation Rentals, the Crawford Main House (aptly named due to its proximity to Crawford Square) was recently renovated and featured a fully-equipped kitchen, good-sized living room and an open dining room with seating for six, which proved to be the perfect spot for us to play cards. Crawford House was larger than most vacation rentals in Savannah. With three bedrooms, three full bathrooms and one half bath, there was ample room for our group of six. The master suite featured a king sized bed, a flatscreen TV and the bath boasted an enclosed standing shower and jacuzzi tub. The next bedroom featured a king-sized bed and, while smaller than the other two bedrooms, was quaint and comfortable. The final bedroom on the third level featured two queen beds and that room opened directly onto a great rooftop patio.
We had made a prior reservation for dinner on Thursday evening at the 17 Hundred 90 Inn and Restaurant located several blocks away. Named for the year the building was constructed, the establishment offered old-school hospitality and Southern cuisine. The lounge was downstairs and, while it was a very cozy space in which to relax with a cocktail before dinner, the lone bartender was also operating the service bar for the upstairs dining rooms, so it took some 30 minutes for our group to get a drink. Before long though, our table was ready and our waiter was friendly and efficient. I ordered the Escargot as an appetizer and the Spicy Jambalaya for my entrée and they were both quite tasty. We certainly enjoyed ourselves at dinner that evening. As we were walking home and reached our street, I just happened to look up and noticed a red and white sign showing the street sweeper schedule and said to my companions, "that's now." So, we quickly scrambled to find 3 other parking sports nearby and did so just before the truck and the citation writer made their pass. The citation writers are responsible for citing illegally parked vehicles. Their primary job is to accompany the street sweepers on zoned routes, writing citations on improperly parked vehicles along the routes. Luckily, we avoided any $35 citations.
The rain started on Friday morning and stayed with us for the duration of our visit. We didn’t let that dampen our spirits in the least and set out for 215 West Boundary Street to book an Old Savannah Trolley Tour. This “hop on-hop off” tour took about 90 minutes and covered nine miles of the city’s Historic, Colonial and Victorian Districts with 15 different stops. During several, we were entertained by actors portraying various historical characters and that helped to bring the experience to life. “Tammy with a T” was our driver and tour guide who drove the trolley and provided running commentary while riding sideways facing the steps. The only problem was that Tammy droned incessantly without any breaks whatsoever and to say she got on our nerves in short order was an understatement. Four of us later stopped by the JW Marriott Savannah Plant Riverside District Hotel to get out of the rain and were glad we did. The hotel was originally a power plant built in 1912 that was transformed into a luxury property. The open-air lobby includes a variety of natural science artifacts, including a 135-foot, chrome-dipped dinosaur; oversized geodes, gemstones, and fossils; a prehistoric tortoise shell; an Ice Age bear; and the world’s largest nugget of copper. We busied ourselves there for quite some time before stopping for a light lunch at the Turbine Market + Cafe off the lobby before heading back to the house.
Our group dwindled in the wet weather as the ladies decided to stay home while my friend and I headed over to the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum. It’s primarily a tribute to Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century vessels in a home built in 1819 with what is today the largest private gardens within the city’s Historic District. Founded in 1966, this museum exhibits ship models, paintings, and maritime antiques while interpreting the rich story of Savannah’s illustrious maritime history, principally from the great era of Atlantic trade and travel between England and America. The Museum features nine galleries of ship models, maritime paintings and artifacts. There were two exhibits of special interest, the first being six models constructed by William E Hitchcock, who built scale replicas for nearly fifty years. His work is superb and is also on exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum, the Mystic Seaport Museum, the South Street Seaport, and the Mariners' Museum, as well as in numerous private and corporate collections throughout the country. The second exhibit paid tribute to Arthur Beaumont. In 1933 he received his commission as a lieutenant in the US Navy and was appointed as the official artist of the US Fleet. He served in that official capacity and as a freelance artist for the Navy until his death 45 years later in 1978. This exhibition is striking and is on loan from the Irvine Museum, courtesy of the Naval History and Heritage Command.
Last-minute dinner reservations in Savannah are nearly impossible to come by as the city is noted for being a culinary lover’s dream, from the array of restaurants offering world-class cuisine to those featuring its signature eccentric Southern low country dining. While securing our parking pass during our Thursday arrival, we noticed The Olde Pink House, one of Savannah’s top restaurants, was nearby facing Reynolds Square. My wife decided to walk over and inquire about any weekend openings. As luck would have it, she managed to secure an early reservation for our group of six for Friday dinner. The building, built in 1789, was originally known as Habersham House, after its owner James Habersham, Jr., one of Savannah's most important early cotton brokers. The Olde Pink House is one of Savannah's finest dining establishments, offering new Southern cuisine in a sophisticated, yet casual setting. We were seated upstairs in the formal dining room where I enjoyed the Pecan Crusted Chicken Breast with a Blackberry Bourbon Glaze served with Horseradish Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans. It was a wonderful end to our second day in one of America’s favorite cities!
Our adventures continued over the next two days and I’ll tell you all about them in a future post.
Until next time…safe travels.
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