I spent the Christmas holiday in Savannah, Georgia. I will post a proper discussion of that visit under a different post (or series of posts), but, I have to tell you that the fifteen hour, two day drive to Savannah to accidentally eat at The Wilkes House was nothing short of well worth it! Even though we didn't go to Georgia JUST for this event, it was a very nice way to punctuate the end of our trip. I heard that The Wilkes House is on that 1001 Things To Do Before You Die....or 1000 Places to Eat Before You Die or one of those bucket lists, a list of which I clearly have not yet perused. But, based on full Savannah-local and family authority, I now can scratch eating there off the proverbial list. My life is more full (figuratively AND literally) as a result of waiting in line just shy of TWO HOURS to partake of Pure Southern Food.
The street is paved with grey brick -- NOT cobblestone as their website says (that makes me CRAY!ZAY!). The houses and apartments along there have those classic scenes of Savannah we all know so well: trees adorned with draping Spanish moss (that I learned is not really moss, it's an herb). The weather was cold and wet, the only warmth coming from spots of sunshine breaking through the buildings, which is where chilled bodies rotated shifts to mollify.
Once we got inside, we took a good look around and picked up on some unusual things immediately. For example, across from where we stood awaiting our turn to be seated, was a good size dining room, tables sat from four to ten people. Clinking of dishes and chatter were the most noticeable sounds. Clinking of dishes struck me as odd. Lo and behold, there, directly across from us, was a cafeteria-style door like when we were in high school and you had to take your tray to the wash staff. Then I noticed patrons bussing their own tables, carrying their dishes to the wash staff. Interesting...we get to wait in line all this time for a quick meal then clean up our own mess. I'm not above cleaning up after myself and I am very grateful for all service staff (I used to be in the business, too), but I was pretty taken aback at the notion that this world famous little place wouldn't accommodate staff to help clean off tables when patrons were done with their meals.
The Seven of Us are given the green light that we could be seated, so we snaked through the busy, noisy dining room into another part of the house with a similar size dining area. I'd venture that eight or ten tables that could seat up to ten people each were in this second dining room. If your party is fairly small, you are seated with other smaller groups (similar to hibachi-style seating). Our Seven didn't have to share a table, which was covered in food. I mean COVERED in food! At each sitting was a glass of sweet tea (if you wanted unsweet tea or water, you had to specially request it) ,a big white plate flanked by flatware. Bowls and bowls of southern foods: polka-dotted the tabletop: collared greens, rhubarb, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, black eyed peas, lima beans, macaroni and cheese, and oh so much more! To my surprise, waitstaff was there, and they were bringing MORE food on plates: fried chicken, ham, corn bread, biscuits, beef stew and oh so much more! It was almost offensive the amount of food that was served, (coming from a food addict, you KNOW I'm making a statement here!) knowing there's no way one group could eat all that food. I couldn't help but wonder what happens to all the leftovers since it's against the restaurant's policy to take it home. I took a picture and labeled some of the foods I could identify/remember. If you want to see their menu for daily meals, click here.
It goes without saying that we left absolutely stuffed. My mom raved about it for days. For $16/pp, I'd say it was worth it. Still wish I knew what happens to all those leftovers....
