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

Treylor Park - Savannah, GA

Do you know that feeling of let down when you keep hearing about an awesome new place, that everybody LOVES and raves about the food but you check out their online menu and can't imagine that there is anyway that a person with Celiacs could eat there?

That was me with Treylor Park. Over and over again I saw accolades on facebook and it kept popping up in list of "must try" places in Savannah. One recent evening my husband and I decided we were going to hop on our bikes and eat dinner downtown (if you have never ridden bikes through downtown Savannah, you should. It is the best way to see the city and you do not have to worry about parking.). We weren't real sure where we wanted to end up and it was still early, so I suggested that we go to Treylot Park to have a drink while we decided where to eat.

Treylor Park is located on Bay Street between Drayton and Abercorn. I can't really say much about the interior, it looked inviting but we breezed right back to their Beer Garden too fast for me to take in any real detail. Now, the Beer Garden is cute. It is a little bricked in stucco courtyard that opens up to the alley vi a beautifully detailed gate. Truthfully, next time we go we will probably just come up the alley and straight to the Beer Garden. It has a bar running down one side and a smattering of tall bistro tables on the other. There is a small canopy and fans to combat the summer heat and lights strung from end to end. Sitting at the bar and looking up through the lights to the tall historic brick buildings surrounding it is nostalgic. Also, cute but no kitschy, is the model Airstream trailer parked next to some ivy on the back side of the bar. So far, so good.

My husband ordered a bourbon on the rocks, while I perused the drink selections. The Tire Swing is what I settled on, a muddle of cucumber and berries mixed with lemon juice, vodka, Pimm's cup and a little bit of simple syrup. It was light, refreshing and not overly sweet. A nicely crafted cocktail. We were enjoying our drinks and surroundings so much and my husband was drooling over the gluten bomb of a menu. We are talking tacos made out of pancakes,  cheddar and apple pie sandwiches, fried Bologna sandwiches. All kind of homey classics, with promising hints of elevation. I decided to test the waters and see if there was any possible way they could accommodate my dietary needs.

This is how I started out with the bar tender "Okay, I am going to ask you a question and it is alright to tell me 'no', to be honest with me". He looked rightfully scared. I went on " I have celiacs disease and have to eat gluten free. Is there anything on the menu I can eat? That would not likely be cross contaminated"? He looked immediately relieved but then made that screwed up face that universally means "not so much". But then he spoke  "My boyfriend has celiacs, so I get it. I know how hard it can be". Phew. while it sucks to have this condition and I would not wish it on anyone, it is so nice to deal with someone who understands. Sparing the tedium of the rest of our conversation, the one thing he assured me they could do GF with out cross contamination were their PB&J wings. I was optimistically skeptical, they just didn't sound like a combo that should work. But, oh did they! Six huge sloppy peanut-buttery glazed wings of glory, nested on a wooden tray with a mason jar dunking pool of peach and cinnamon jelly sauce. They were so good. My husband said "if every restaurant did just one gluten free option as well as this, like really really well, I think most people who have to eat gluten free would be okay with that". He is right. I wouldn't complain. Since I was content (and greedily did not want him to eat the rest of the wings), I encouraged him to order something else. He ordered the fried Bologna sandwich. Needless to say, he was also very happy.

Bottom line: this was a surprisingly wonderful experience. I will definitely be stopping in again, at the very least for a drink and some PB&J wings!

To visit their website: Treylor Park