Savannah & Charleston

As I get ready for the first family journey of this summer, I started thinking back to the summer of 2022. Last Summer was the first real family vacation we had taken in a few years. You know, Covid and all….So we wanted to do something special. Family, the open road, the beach, some history, and of course, amazing food. So we piled in the car and headed south. Savannah and Charleston were our ports of call.

At the time, I was only really photographing our adventures and admittedly not taking the best of notes on vacation. I am more of a live in the moment / Be Here Now type than food blogger I suppose, or at least I was last summer. Add in that it was about 105 degrees and 80% humidity, and well, taking meticulous notes for an Instagram start up was not exactly high on my list. I did happen to take enough great shots to share here, but a lot of the details are lost in the murkiness of sweat and filmy skin that is the south in July.

To keep it brief some of the highlights of Savannah were stoping in and having a chat with Cheryl Day at her Back In the Day Bakery. We picked an autographed copy of one of her cookbooks for our daughter, and had hands down the best fucking biscuit I have EVER ate. And it wasn’t even close. We also had Sunday brunch at the celebrated The Grey. If you have wondered what heaven on earth tastes like, have brunch here. Dinner is more than likely just as good, but hot damn everything we had on a Sunday morning was as close to going to church as I will ever get. The food that Mashama Bailey and her staff feeds you is delight and can enlighten your soul into understanding why Southern Food is a force of nature and a reflection of the sometimes over looked bounty of Americas southern farmers.

From there we made our way a short drive northeast to the port city of Charleston, SC. While this was not my first time here, it was my first time there on vacation as an adult, and I took advantage of every moment. Our Airbnb was our favorite house we have ever stayed in, the city is as beautiful and as historic as our Philadelphia, but in a whole different way. The food here is deep and rich. You could taste the generations of chefs and family cooks who passed down tradition and flavors. Then you add in the peacefulness of Folly Beach and its haunts and you have yourself damn near the perfect vacation region.

To many there is a big difference between fine dining and a mid-afternoon lunch at a local seafood shack. If there is one, I couldn’t find it. We had the best shrimp of our lives (and trust us, we eat A LOT of seafood!!) looking over the back bay at Bowens Island. To this day, I have not ordered shrimp anywhere else. It would only end in disappointment. The next shrimp I eat will be back on their patio watching the pelicans scan the water ways. Being the food lovers we are, had to hit two iconic eateries on this inaugural family jaunt to Charleston, Rodney Scott’s BBQ and Husk. I can’t really add to all the accolades and poetry these places have inspired others to write, but I can say they are both worth the spend. The BBQ was a journey into sticky molasses and smoke drenched meat and sides that are worth the wait in line. Husk, well, it lived up to the hype. There is plenty of info out there on them, so I will spare you the additional time here.

So now that you are all caught up, I gotta go run and pack my bags. Texas is calling and I have a plane to catch…