Soho South Cafe - Savannah, GA

Years ago, before we lived here, when the husband and I were in Savannah interviewing for a job, someone highly recommended that we eat at Soho South.  It was a bit of  let down, the decor, while "eclectic", had the dated feel of a wanna be artist late 90's New York loft. The food was just okay, nothing exciting or novel, but the service was AWFUL. After we moved here we decided to give it another try, the service had gotten even worse. The server even went as far as to say  "it's kind of our thing, what we are known for". Yikes, we were done. Not worth our time or money. Or, at least we thought. Then I heard that they had been bought out by Daniel Reed Hospitality, they own several other restaurants that I really like. Just driving by, you could see that they had renovated the interior.
I gave it another shot.

Fast forward, my really good girlfriend and I had the rare opportunity for a kid free, husband free lunch. We opted for Soho South Cafe since she had never been. The restaurant was not overly busy when we showed up and we were promptly sat in the bar area. This is a beautiful space. The makeover still has an eclectic artistic vibe, but it is done in a fresh way. The table we sat at is in front of huge plate glass windows that over looks the oak lined Liberty St., it was nice to take in the bustle of lunch pedestrians from the cool cozy interior of the bar.

The bar tender was very sweet and enthusiastic about their new cocktail menu. So, without much effort she talked me into a libation.  The seasonal mojito had my attention, the bar tender gave me the choice of strawberry or watermelon. Watermelon won. It was a great choice. It maybe that I am not overly picky when it comes to cocktails, but I have been very impressed with the hand crafted cocktails lately. They are fresh, subtle and not overly sweet.

The menu at Soho South is not fussy, sandwiches, salads, soups, and a couple of entrees. But they are doing these simple items well with quality ingredients. And, they have the wonderful feature of labeling which items can be V- vegetarian, VE- Vegan and GF- Gluten Free. This automatically makes me breath a little easier, knowing I won't have to explain as much. When ordering I said "okay, I see the GF on the menu that is obviously gluten free, but I am celiac so do you need to make an extra notation of that when I order" and she said " yes, I put it in the system. What are you thinking about?". At this point I told her I was interested in a burger. She did inform me that the GF next to the burger just means they do it with out the bun, not that they have GF bread. I told her that I was okay with that because a lot of the time the GF bread isn't great anyways. Overall, she seemed very informed about what gluten free is and how the restaurant handles it and even what specials could be made gluten free.

I ordered the PB&J burger with the gazpacho (the daily special) as my side. Let me be clear the PB&J in this stands for Pimento cheese, Bacon & Jalapeno. It was delicious. The burger had the thickness of a hand patted burger and it was cooked to a juicy medium. The bacon was crisp. The Pimento cheesy and the fresh jalapenos made a nice counterpoint to all that richness. The gazpacho was refreshing and cool with just enough texture to be very pleasant. My friend also had a burger with full gluten, which she said was also delicious. We meandered at the table for a while enjoying the setting and our conversation. The bartender did not seem in any hurry for us to leave. It was a languid, enjoyable lunch.

Bottom line: We will be back, maybe for brunch, maybe with our husbands next time.

To visit their website: Soho South Cafe