B. Matthew's: Brunch on this

With the tourists gone and classes underway, I expected my life to get back to normal.  With one exception.  Mike kept reminding me about my promise to go chain-free while writing this blog.  He’s kind of a jerk.  And he recently quit smoking so he is twice the jerk he was before.

Mike steals food from my plate (again)

 We decide to go to breakfast together on Sunday morning.  And I would have been fine with going to J. Christopher’s for the 100^th time, but wait, what’s that you say?  It’s a chain.  Yep.

While I can’t tell you an exact number, there are 14 pull down choices of cities alone on J. Christopher’s “Find a restaurant near you” portion of the website.  Most of them are in Georgia, but some are in Tennessee. Not only do I love everything on their menu, my friend John goes there all the time.  And we all have a mutual friend who works there.  Boo.  Blog project. 

So Mike and I agree to get up early on Sunday and go to B. Matthew’s.  I’m not sure what the appeal is of first initial/last name places, but this one is not a chain.  I’m sure of it.  I even reviewed their website ahead of time. 

So Mike and I walk there, they are open for breakfast and lunch during the week and on Sunday when we went, they had a special brunch menu.  They do this for both Saturday and Sunday.  This also means they do not open until 9am.  When we arrive at 9:03 the hostess asks if we have a reservations.  Nope we sure didn’t.  But crap, do we need them right when the doors open?  The hostess asks us if we want to sit at the bar.  Nope we sure don’t.  So we get a table and a very witty, friendly server.  Hooray.

I decide on the Bay Street Scramble, here is the menu description: 

Scrambled eggs smothered with hashbrowns, applewood smoked bacon, mushrooms, tomato, green onion and cheddar cheese topped with a sundried tomato hollandaise and a homemade biscuit $9.00

Bay Street Scramble

It was a whole lot of food and taste for $9.00.  This is definitely something to order again.  The homemade biscuit was to die for and my dish was almost like an omelet on top of roasted potatoes.  I typically put ketchup on my eggs because I am a Yankee but this meal did not require it.  This says something for the food if I shied away from my trusty ketchup bottle.  The applewood bacon, scallions, cheddar cheese and sundried tomato hollandaise sauce make it completely unnecessary.

And Mike ordered the black-eyed pea cake sandwich.  I hate to admit it, but his was better than mine.  His meal was a big savory black-eyed pea cake seasoned just right with awesome bread and what won my heart was the side of blue cheese pasta.

Black-eyed pea cake sandwich w/blue cheese pasta

Here is the description:

Black-Eyed Pea Cake Sandwich on wheatberry bread with red onions, lettuce, tomato and pepperjack cheese with Cajun remoulade served with your choice of side$7.75

Overall B. Matthew’s was a big win.  The food was great, the restaurant was comfortable and our brunch cost maybe $20 for the two of us.  I think this weekend we are going to check out Firefly Café. 

Happy eats y’all.

Leoci's: Faith in Tagliatelle Carbonara

A few days later...It’s St. Patrick’s Day and I have two friends in town, one from London and one from New Orleans.  My buddy Justin from New Orleans used to be one of my favorite dining companions.  As a result of living in New Orleans he and I both know good food just by totally passive osmosis. 

Rachel from London and Justin from New Orleans

And my friend Rachel from London, well, she comes from a country where the national fare is fried fish wrapped in newspaper – she shouldn’t be too hard to please.

After a string of personal failures of my inability to pick a non-chain restaurant and the bogus meals we’ve had, we decide to let Rachel from London pick where she wants to eat on her last night.

She decides on Italian.  She uses an app on her phone and comes up with three choices, Olive Garden, Leoci’s, and some other restaurant that popular opinion instantly vetoes.  Truth is, I love Olive Garden.  I could eat salad and breadsticks all day everyday.  But I lose the battle.  We decide to go to Leoci’s despite the fact that we know nothing about it.

It’s rare for me to experience a meal so great that I tell everyone I know about it.  But quite possibly the best meal I’ve had in the past 18 months was that night at Leoci’s.  And the inspiration behind finding such a truly hidden gem fuels me in this blog project search. 

Leoci's dining room

I am Italian, and I know what authentic Italian fare tastes like.  I also like some of the American variations.  This place is the best of both worlds.  On top of that, they make their own pasta.  On top of that, they rotate their menu so it’s never the same.  On top of that, they locally source their ingredients from Georgia and South Carolina.

Here is what our meal consisted of:

BRICK OVEN—ROASTED MIXED OLIVES 6
A mix of Mediterranean olives

INSALATA DI RUCOLA  7 / 10
Arugula salad, shaved fennel, cherry tomatoes, house seasoned croutons,
lemon vinaigrette

CLASSIC BOLOGNESE 16/ 22
House-made pappardella pasta tossed in a Hunter Cattle Co. hunter sauce consisting of beef, pork and veal ragu with a touch of Sweet Grass Dairy cream

TAGLIATELLE CARBONARA 12/ 18
House-made tagliatelle pasta, smoked pancetta, pecorino romano cheese topped with poached egg and parmigiano-reggiano

Mike also had some duck specialty dish that was to die for.  We each tasted the other’s meal and I decided that Rachel’s Tagliatelle was by far the best.  In addition, I had a really nice Argentine Malbec wine and some of the best cannoli I have ever had for dessert. 

So in one instant, Leoci’s restored my faith in Savannah’s dining culture.  Leave it to an out of towner to pick my new favorite restaurant for me.  As this blog continues, I hope to find more places like Leoci’s and less like the places I naturally gravitate towards.

Leoci's image taken from leocis.com