Blowin’ Smoke BBQ: Better if you’re hammered

My most recent visit to Blowin’ Smoke was my second visit and I convinced four other people to join me because I swore the BBQ was amazing. The first time I ate here was about three months ago and I was a little drunk when I arrived.

I tried to duplicate this experience not only for me but for my four friends. I didn’t succeed.

And it would have been ok if just my food wasn’t as good as I remember, but everyone had separate complaints and I don’t think anyone finished their food.

To start, the night was beautiful and we had all planned on eating outside. When I arrived, the band was playing so loud that I doubted we would hear each other talk if we ate outside, so we moved the party inside.

The first time I ate here, there was an ambiance of rocker cool. We sat outside, heard good blues, ate BBQ and drank beer. This time, we were inside and there were dressed up toddlers running the place.

I then found out the restaurant was hosting three separate wedding parties that evening.

Despite that, the meal started out well. We had a personable waiter and we ordered some fried pickles and fried mushroom appetizers.

Fried Pickles

For one, I prefer pickle chips to spears, but that’s just me, so for the pickle aficionados out there, they serve spears here. The mushrooms were tasteless but the dipping sauces helped fix that.

BBQ Chicken & Black-eyed pea cake

For my meal, I ordered the BBQ chicken breast and added a black-eyed pea cake to it. Last time, I ordered the same thing and it was one of my best meals in Savannah. This time, it was pretty bad. The chicken was dry and burnt and the BBQ sauce wasn’t good. The black-eyed pea cake was dry and too many onions dominated the coleslaw. In addition, the French fries were soggy. But I kept my mouth shut and waited for input from my dinner companions.

Mike had brisket and fried okra. He said the BBQ sauce on the brisket tasted watery and I tasted his and he was right. His fried okra also was unimpressive.

Mike's BBQ Brisket

Ingela's Chicken Wrap

Ingela had the chicken wrap and had the same soggy French fry issue and the wrap was mediocre.

Allison had the pulled pork sandwich and didn’t like the potato salad at all and she also didn’t finish her sandwich.

Allison's BBQ Pork Sandwich

Patricia our poor vegetarian had the black-eyed pea sandwich and she also didn’t like her coleslaw because of my oniony observation and said her black eyed pea cake was “fine.”

Patricia's Black-eyed Pea Cake Sandwich

Our table was a mixture of Yankees, Southerners and a Midwesterner. We all have different ideas about BBQ and though some BBQ rivalry exists, our geographic notions of BBQ did not affect our response to this meal. Blowin’ Smoke did just blow smoke and nothing else.

So far, the best BBQ I’ve had in Savannah was Wiley’s Championship BBQ on the way to Tybee Island. It’s cheaper, the food is better, and there is no live music competing for your conversation.

Starland Café: One of Savannah's brightest stars

The main problem with the Starland Café is that I always want it. I eat sandwiches at other restaurants and in my head I compare them with sandwiches from the Starland. I do it much like the way you might compare past lovers to the a potential new mate.

But the problem with Starland is that they are only open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Do you know what this means? No dinner.

I'll let that slide because if you show up around 11:30 a.m. or 2 p.m. and avoid the lunch rush, you will have one of the best food experiences in Savannah all for around $10. Promise.

Right now, the weather is perfect for sitting outside and enjoying lunch while looking on at the Starland Dog Park or the row houses across the street that remind me of a cross between the opening credits of Full House, Key West, and New Orleans. You might even see this neighborhood cat stroll by and welcome you to his 'hood. The cafe is inside the first floor of a restored home. It just adds more flavor to the already perfect menu.

The chair of the welcoming committee

The Starland Cafe menu is basic Panini, soup and salad. If you order a Panini off the "everyday" menu, you get a whole sandwich.

The Gobbler

If you order the special Panini of the day, you can substitute a salad or soup for half of your sandwich. Sandwiches range in price from $8 - $11.

For some reason whenever I go here, I mix myself an Arnold Palmer and it just seems to go perfectly with sitting outside on a bench and eating. I recommend doing the same.

I most recently ordered their daily special which had the word Gobble in it. This made total sense to me because biting into the sandwich was like biting into the best parts of Thanksgiving dinner minus Uncle John's racist rantings or Aunt Betty boozing it up in the bathroom (sorry Mom). The sandwich had cranberry chutney and thick slices of cheese and onions. And now, I'm hungry again.

The Gobbler and Tomato Bisque Heaven

I chose a cup of tomato bisque soup for my side that also had a dollop of goat cheese in the center and I was seeing stars. I think my exact words were, “Let’s order more so we can hoard it and pour it over pasta.” I’m pretty sure I have a food problem.

Mike had the chicken sandwich from the regular menu and it was full of hunks of white meat chicken, peppers, and swiss cheese. He also got a small salad which is a mini version of their kitchen sink salad. It has an amazing homemade vinaigrette dressing, cheese and crunchy noodles. Of course, it was gone in sixty seconds.

Chicken sandwich, salad and Arnold Palmer

Overall the Starland Cafe is that place in Savannah where I feel I have to take out of town guests to show them that we do have good local food culture here. I've never had a bad meal here, and I'm sure you won't either.