This is how to plan a small city: fill it with art and culture so it entertains like a big city, preserve the past, and keep it walkable. Most importantly, assign a full block every 2-3 blocks to a park covered with large oaks providing deep shade, fountains, seating, and amateur musicians.
Surround these 21 parks with gorgeous old homes (many open for tours or used as museums), build the Telfair Museum in 3 parts for antiquities and modern art, and offer a day a month (lucky it fell on our one day in Savannah) when all museums are free.
Add to that the “Central Market” with blocks of live music and outdoor dining, and a thriving waterfront….and you have a nearly perfect small city. The fact that it is also walkable and friendly makes it…a magnet for mannerly tourists of course!
Although there is suburban and industrial sprawl at the edges, the city’s historic district is pristine. We of course had to eat at ‘The Lady and Sons’, the Paula Deen restaurant, murmuring in our thickest drawls, “C’mon, Ya’ll, It’s time to eat!”, the signature TV welcome by the ‘Queen of Southern Cooking’. It provided a well-priced, delicious hot table, offering black-eyed peas in porcine pot licker, collard greens, and the lightest, tastiest fried chicken we have ever had, truly. Lots of other sides provided that legendary southern starch. Unfortunately, my desire for shrimp n’ grits, and hot biscuits slathered with butter and jam went unquenched as no menu items were available on Sunday. Still, it was the highest quality, hot table ‘Meat n’ Three’ we have had in the South…and that is saying a lot, especially as it was only a little more expensive than less generous hot table restaurants set in small cinder block houses throughout the rural South.
…and the desserts…..I just bet this is one of the primary causes for ‘The Queen’ to become diabetic:
“Ooey-Gooey Chocolate Chip Butter Cake”, the consistency of a warm butterscotch brownie, but chewier and more buttery with strands of bittersweet chocolate punctuating the sweetness. Perhaps the Peach Cobbler and the Banana Creme Pie were unremarkable, or maybe they just suffered by comparison with this signature dessert. My mother is a great cook, watches Paula Deen’s cooking show on TV and encouraged us to visit her restaurant. So Ma..could you whip up a pan of this for us…with a side of insulin, please?
