Mom and I slept in this morning, waking up about 8:30 and just lounged for awhile. We decided to try Lady & Sons one more time, so Mom called in her preferred seating coupon and got us reservations for 5pm. Once we were ready, we went downstairs to sit and eat a banana before starting our day. This morning, we were headed to Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room for lunch. Lunch is served at Mrs. Wilkes from 11am-2pm Monday-Friday only. So we (okay I), wanted to get there early because rumor has it there’s a long line to get in for lunch at Mrs. Wilkes. We then headed out to Liberty Street again, crossing over to Whitaker, and then headed straight down to Jones Street. We got there at 10:30am and there was already a line. Not a bad line, but a line. And the smell! Oh my, it smelled so good outside. That banana was doing nothing compared to the smells of the food coming from that place. Mom and I visited with the two ladies in front of us. One of the ladies’ husband grew up in Savannah and ate and Mrs. Wilkes’ a lot growing up. It was fun visiting with them and listening to their stories. Shortly before 11am, the staff starting letting people in. Mom and I got in on the first seating! The thing about Mrs. Wilkes’ is it is family style. You sit at a large table full of strangers and by the end of the meal, you’ve left with friends. Literally. It is truly an experience. We were guided to a large table in the corner and were seated. We were the last ones at that table. There were 3 ladies from Indiana, a couple with a small baby from Minnesota, one woman who was native to Savannah, and Mom and I.

The meal at Mrs. Wilkes’ was the best meal by far during our whole trip. The table was laid out with tons, and tons, and tons of food. There had to have been at least 15 kinds of food there at any given time. It was just like a large holiday meal. The staff led us through a prayer and then it was time to dig in. We feasted on fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole, coleslaw, mashed potatoes, squash, greens, biscuits, rice, marinated cucumbers, black-eyed peas, beans, and several other things that I just can’t remember anymore. For dessert, we had our choice of banana pudding or peach cobbler. The inner brat in me wanted to take the cobbler just so I could send a picture to my sister, but my love for banana pudding (and hatred for cooked peaches!) won out. After dinner, as was tradition we took our plates to the kitchen and said thank you to the staff for such a wonderful meal. I took a lot of pictures at Mrs. Wilkes after the meal. It was just so good. While checking out, Mom and I each bought the two cookbooks put out by the Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room. A great souvenir, to be sure! One final thing about Mrs. Wilkes? It’s cash only. So if you visit, be sure to plan ahead.

After our meal, Mom and I were both in such a food coma neither one of us had much energy for anything. We started to head towards City Market again, but our dragging energy levels led us back to the hotel. We lounged, read our cookbooks, and got some much needed sleep. Also, I called Enterprise in order to rent a car for the next few days because the next things we wanted to see weren’t within walking distance, and a cab would have been $60 in each direction. Yeah. Much cheaper to get a car.

After lounging and sleeping it was time to eat again. We headed left on MLK to Congress Street and went to the Lady & Sons. About the time we got there, it began pouring rain ~ I mean one of those really hard rain storms that comes on in an instant. Only this one didn’t stop. We were all huddled under the canopies just waiting to get in for dinner. Finally, the dinner bell rang and we were guided to our table, this time on the first floor. Again, we ordered the Fried Green Tomatoes, and then Mom had the buffet (fried chicken, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, greens, etc), and I had the crab stuffed shrimp (shrimp w/ crab, wrapped in bacon drizzled with a lemon basil cream sauce. Served with jasmine rice and sautéed asparagus.) We also had the complimentary hoe cake and garlic-cheese biscuit. This time, the meal was very good. I’m so glad we went back, because our first experience was so dreadful, I’d hate to have that as my only impression of the restaurant. After dinner, we each had a cup of Captain Michael’s coffee (named after Paula’s husband) and then a complimentary dessert of sweet potato gooey butter cake. Technically, this only goes with the buffet, but since the waiter gave Mom a piece, he gave me one too. After dinner, we headed to the connecting gift shop to browse and to pick up some souvenirs. One thing I forgot to mention, Paula signs each and every one of the cookbooks that is sold in her gift shop. So, I bought my sister Paula's first cookbook and brought that home to her as a souvenir. I also got Kiddo an engraved bookmark.

After dinner, it was off to City Market again and to the Savannah Candy Kitchen for our free samples. This time, I actually did buy some pralines to take with me. I bought 4 ~ and it was $13.00!!! I would have been better off buying a pound for $16.99. At least that way, I would have gotten a free pound of taffy to go along with it. Ah, well. Live and learn.




We then headed back to the hotel for some rest. We actually got back to our room early and watched some TV before we went to sleep. This was essentially the only lazy day we really had on our vacation.

You can read about Day 1 here.
You can read about Day 2 here.
You can read about Day 3 here.
You can read about Day 4 here.
You can read about Day 5 here.

Labels: Ramblings, Savannah