To get to know Savannah and the surrounding Low Country, just grab a plate — and make sure you’ve got an appetite. Low Country food is a distinct mark of coastal Georgia culture, and one that brings its people great pride. While the cuisine in this region shares much with traditional Southern cooking, it’s a unique amalgamation of both its geography and demographic makeup. As a result, today’s culinary innovators— notably Brandon Carter of Common Thread and Mashama Bailey of The Grey— have spearheaded a movement bringing traditional Low Country cuisine into the future with sustainable ingredients, heirloom crops, and tasting menus starring modern twists on Southern classics. At Common Thread, for example, you’ll find rice porridge with barbequed mushrooms, pickled daikon, and Carolina gold rice, a rarefied local heirloom crop listed on the Ark of Taste, an international catalog of endangered foods. Oysters, a staple of the menu, come from Low Country or Southeast coastal farms and are shucked on-site. Then, of course, there are the Savannah mainstays like Leopold’s Ice Cream and Mrs. Wilke’s Dining Room, which serves up Southern classics— think platters of fried chicken and okra gumbo— the way people have always liked them.
Common Thread
Routinely touted as one of Savannah’s best restaurants, Common Thread is a prime example of the culinary South’s commitment to sustainability, serving locally sourced elevated Low Country food. Founders Ryan and Joanne Williamson initially purchased the farm to sell produce to chefs in the coastal community of Palmetto Bluff before opening their own restaurant, Farm, in neighboring Bluffton in 2016. In their Savannah location — which, in typical local style, is located in a historic home — expect a fusion of traditions rooted firmly in Southern heritage: local oysters with pickled ají dulce, habanero, and lime; roasted beets with whipped goat cheese, dill, white chocolate, and granola; collard greens salad with miso and hakurei turnips; and pork sausage with fry bread, butter-bean falafel, and benne tahini. A separate vegetarian menu offers plenty of delights for herbivores, and an impressive wine selection includes varieties from Austria, Willamette Valley, and rare Madeira imports.
The Grey
No shortage of ink has been spilled over chef Mashama Bailey and her restaurant, the Grey; in fact, some people probably became aware of the Grey before they knew anything about Savannah itself. (A 2019 episode of Netflix’s Chef’s Table helped put it on the culinary map, though those in the know had been following the lauded spot since its opening in 2014.) The Grey’s name can be traced to its provenance: a 1938 Greyhound bus terminal, with its Art Deco details still intact. The front of the restaurant offers a casual yet elevated diner experience, while the back is reserved for three-course menus of Southern fare or the chef’s tasting menus with an optional (but highly recommended) wine pairing. Though the dishes rotate daily, a typical evening may begin with a full pour of rosé champagne and deviled eggs with foie gras — an update on the Southern potluck staple — followed by beef carpaccio with sourdough breadcrumbs and chives paired with rare reserve port wine, and, several plates and pours later, culminate in quail stuffed with sweetbreads perfumed with Madeira and thyme, and finally a slice of chocolate torte. Served in a once-segregated bus station in what was once one of the South’s most segregated cities, the menu is as much an homage to Bailey’s Southern roots as a leap into modernity.
Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room
Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room is exactly what it sounds like: a cozy, family-run restaurant that might as well be inside the home of its namesake. Southern classics are served homestyle on large round tables — expect platters of fried chicken and cornbread dressing, sweet potato soufflé, black-eyed peas, okra gumbo, corn muffins, and biscuits. The homemade vibe is compounded by the fact that the restaurant is in an actual home, the historic 19th-century Wilkes House, which was taken over by Sema Wilkes in 1943 and turned into a boardinghouse with a communal dining room for everyone from schoolteachers to bankers. Wilkes ran the restaurant for 59 years, until her death at 92. The home has been restored and is now available for rentals, but the biggest draw remains the smell of fried chicken that wafts up from the parlor floor.
The Wyld
Just about 15 minutes from Savannah’s city center, at the end of a winding road shaded by Spanish moss, The Wyld is laid-back Southern dining exemplified: a sun-drenched seafood shack and shingled restaurant with a large deck strung with tea lights. This is the place to enjoy sweet tea or a cold beer with roasted oysters, mahi-mahi tacos, or shrimp rolls on buttery toasted buns, all overlooking a quiet marsh graced by blackbirds and a cool breeze. Locals fill up the outdoor area, which features lounge chairs and firepits, for occasional oyster roasts. The sign outside the Wyld promises fresh seafood and good times, and they deliver on both.
The Collins Quarter at Forsyth Park
In a town full of lush green squares, central Forsyth Park is the crown jewel — a haven for musicians, SCAD students, and stray wanderers alike. There’s nowhere more pleasant to sit and enjoy brunch fare, or even just an excellent coffee, than at the second location of the popular Collins Quarter, which lies right in the park. Started by Aussie Anthony Debreceny, who named the restaurant after café-lined Collins Street in Melbourne, the Collins Quarter serves a menu typical of Australia’s premier cafés, though touched by Southern influence: Think chicken and waffles with buffalo syrup and tempura-fried chicken; seared shrimp with Gouda grits and fried shallots; and the standout mushies and toast, with chèvre, wild mushrooms, and kale pistou.
Leopold’s
Reliably long lines make Leopold’s a mythic fixture of downtown Savannah. (There are even two outposts in the airport.) The cones here have remained unchanged since the opening of the flagship on East Broughton Street in 1919. Flavors are uncomplicated, with an emphasis on quality. Banana is made with real bananas, honey almond and cream uses honey from nearby Savannah Bee Company, and the bubblegum-pink tutti-frutti — Leopold’s signature flavor — is a blend of rum ice cream with candied fruit and roasted Georgia pecans. The tutti-frutti is so famous, in fact, that legendary lyricist Johnny Mercer, who grew up a block away from Leopold’s and worked there in his youth. While waiting for a cone at the flagship shop, browse the vintage photo stills and movie posters that line the walls, plus old one-sheets from the early film career of Stratton Leopold, an heir to the ice cream dynasty. Leopold was a film producer and served as the casting director for John Huston’s Wise Blood, an adaptation of Savannah native Flannery O’Connor’s bestselling Southern Gothic novel.
