For years I have wanted to visit Savannah, Georgia. From the beaches to the history, I knew it would be a perfect weekend getaway. The history of Savannah starts in 1733 when settlers landed along the Savannah River. To this day visitors can walk along the river to enjoy shopping and food. Or you can stay at one of the many hotels over looking the water.
While walking around several of Savannah’s squares, I came to City Market. This is where I saw a sign for Belford’s. I glanced over the menu they had posted and saw several items that would make a perfect lunch.
While looking over the menu, I learned a little about the history of the building. It was built in 1902 and was owned by a Hebrew congregation until 1923. That is when it was sold to the Belford family. The building was used to run their wholesale food business. There are wonderful pictures of this history decorating the walls of the restaurant.
It appears that the restaurant did not appear until 1996. What was great about the look of the inside, it a lot of the history was kept.
As with most of my meals, I like to order a creative and unique cocktail off the menu. I went for the Dixie Lemonade. This was no ordinary lemonade, this was special. They used General Beauregard’s Black Pepper vodka, crop cucumber vodka, muddled fresh cucumbers, and fresh squeezed lemonade.
This drink was not sweet at all. It was slightly tangy from the lemonade. The pepper accents from the vodka shined through. The cucumber however mellowed everything out and turned the drink into a refreshing taste.
An appetizer for the table that is always a hit is fried calamari. It was pretty standard in taste and texture. It came with a Thai chili dipping sauce. I liked the calamari best with the sauce.
I was excited to see She Crab soup on the menu. It combines two of my favorite things, soup and crab. It was a pretty large bowl of soup. They placed a nice swirl of Sherry along the top of the soup.
The broth of the soup was extremely creamy with a nice herb accent. There was loads of crab meat in the soup itself. You could actually use a fork to get the crab out.
Since the soup was somewhat filling, I was glad I ordered the watermelon salad for lunch. This salad was arugula, feta cheese, grilled Vidalia onions, olive oil, and chopped up pieces of watermelon.
The arugula added spice to this salad. The feta cheese tamed that spicy note. As a side note the feta cheese came from Capra Gia Cheese Company located in Carrollton, Georgia (capragia.net). It was nice to see the restaurant keeping their ingredients local.
The grilled Vidalia onions (another Georgia crop) added a savory sweetness to the salad. It also paired well with the feta cheese. The watermelon added the juiciness and sweet sugar flavor. it balanced out the salty and spicy notes from the other ingredients. I only wish they added a little more watermelon. that was my favorite part.
I had a lovely lunch at Belford’s. I just had a sampling of what they had to offer. Their menu is filled with many other dishes that sounded wonderful. Check them out when you are in Savannah.
http://www.belfordssavannah.com/
Enjoy!
T
