Welcome back to Savannah Flavors, our weekly newsletter bringing you the latest delicious details from Savannah’s culinary scene every Thursday.

Here is what’s on the menu today:

• Former Fork & Dagger owner begins new venture 🐟

• The 1540 team and their egg salad cravings? 🍳

• Give this Chicken Chili recipe a shot before winter ends!!

• Tried, tasted, and true at Fire Street Food 🔥 

THE MAIN DISH

Joining the club: Longtime food friends drive culinary upgrade at Savannah Quarters Country Club

In October, Torres stepped away from Fork & Dagger, which he co-owned and operated in two venues over six years with longtime business partner Sky Hoyt, and soon reunited with food friends Jamie Durrence and Chris Nason, who hired him to work with Daniel Reed Hospitality’s catering branch.

Years ago, the trio had all been together at Sapphire Grille which, incidentally, was where my wife and I ate our first-ever dinner in Savannah when we visited back in 2012.

“They took good care of me,” Torres said appreciatively, though come last summer, he needed to find another full-time gig.

“I just started interviewing, which was uncomfortably weird because I’ve always worked for myself,” he shared, admitting that he initially worried about taking the SQCC job simply because he had never before been beholden to a corporate entity.

“For what I love to do, it’s taking all my passions and putting it in a place that has two-thousand people who come dine all the time,” said Torres, his trademark enthusiasm for this new position evident as he heaped praises on the club’s general manager Chris Bowen and lifestyle director Leigh Ann Bryan, both of whom came on this past June.

CHEF’S CRAVINGS

1540 Room - Executive Chef Collin Clemons and his crew of cooks, Jessica Binkley, Hanna Helton, and Manny Miranda

Each week, I ask the folks behind the phenomenal food at our favorite places around Savannah these same simple questions:

When you are not in your restaurant kitchen, where do you go out to eat and what do you order?

This week’s Chefs’ Cravings come from the talented team at 1540 Room, executive chef Collin Clemons and his crew of cooks, Jessica Binkley, Hanna Helton, and Manny Miranda.

CC: I don’t get a lot of time outside of here, but when I’m craving a good smash burger, I always end up at Over Yonder and get the double stack with bacon. It’s a solid burger. It’s very tasty.

JB: When I am not here and I have the opportunity, and the stars and my days off align, I go to Auspicious (Baking Co.), after the line has subsided, and I just get a plain croissant. I really think Mark (Ekstrom) and Katie (Bryant) are really doing great from-the-ground-up work. It’s always really innovative. They’re always pushing boundaries, even though they could just do the same thing over and over again, and I appreciate what they’re doing.

HH: The egg salad sandwich at Finches is one of my favorite classic deli sandwiches. The ambience is always cool, and you can get it to go. The Cubano at Black Rabbit with a whisky sour is always great. And then The Wyld because they have a rotating menu that’s seasonal, lots of stuff with vegetables and fresh shrimp. 

JB: I second The Wyld. The view’s great. As a person with kids, you can go there on a Sunday afternoon, and there’s usually a place for my kids to run around, plus the ordering system makes it really easy to have a chill vibe.

MM: I’m new to town, so for me, if I have time, brunch at Collins Quarter, and if I’m craving a sandwich, right across the street: Casa Guava. When I go to Collins Quarter, I usually get their mixed plate, sausage, baked beans, toast, and over here, I get the Cuban sandwich or the Croqueta Preparada.

-Neil Gabbey

TRIED, TASTED, TRUE

Chicken Chili 🐓 

THE STORY BEHIND THE RECIPE

Over the last twenty years of becoming a better ‘home chef’, I have grown far more ingredient efficient, if you will, planning dinners that cross-utilize items or that build from previous recipes’ parts. Nowhere in my kitchen is that more evident than when I roast a chicken, either whole or leg quarters. Them bones always become chicken stock gold.

A few weeks back, I was wowed by the chili creations of the ​​chefs who participated in the cook-off hosted by Brandon Carter (FARM Hospitality Group) and Lone Wolf Lounge’s Andrew Ripley and Tom Worley, the proceeds of which went to Rootstock Community Foundation. 

Those abundant bowls reminded me that I had not made chili in a while, and because I had just roasted leg quarters for my spin on Jamie Oliver’s Caesar salad with chicken-fat croutons, I already had plenty of stock in store.

Having tried my hand at a handful of chili recipes, I chose to abandon all beans henceforth and forevermore more than a decade ago. Beef-based chilis are great, but my wife and I do not eat red meat at home more than twice a month. Chicken is my choice, and to my taste, red spices and tomatoes beat white broths with green chile peppers.

I have a feeling that chili purists will look at my ingredients and the final product and holler, “That ain’t chili!” 🍅

Guilty as charged. Go ahead and call this un-chili ‘Texas-style shredded-chicken stew’. I still say chili because my concoction has a rich red broth that is flavored with a blend of dried chile powders and that simmers low-and-slow for hours as the chicken breaks down. 

If you walk into our house while this stew is simmering, you will ask, “Are you making chili?”

Because we are not spicy eaters, I use an oven-roasted poblano and keep it mild and smoky with New Mexico and ancho chili powders. For yours, feel free to turn up the heat with jalapeños or even serranos and ground cayenne to taste. Better you than me.

While whatever you have tossed in is simmering, make a batch of guacamole. Mine has minced shallot and cilantro and both lemon and lime juice.

I bedeck my bowl of chili with shredded New Zealand Cheddar, a dollop of sour cream, and some scallion slivers and then alternate bites by spoon and by tortilla chip.  

-Neil Gabbey

THE RECIPE

HARD GOODS

• 1 poblano pepper

• 1 medium sweet onion

• 1 medium carrot

• 1 garlic clove

• 2 ½ to 3 pounds boneless chicken breasts (or mixture of breasts and thighs) 

• 2 t. Kosher salt

• 1 t. fresh-cracked black pepper

• 1 T. (or more to taste) chili powders (2 t. New Mexico, 1 t. regular blend, ½ t. ancho)

• 1 t. ground coriander

• 1 t. Mexican oregano

• ½ t. ground cumin

• 1 T. light brown sugar

• OPTIONAL: shredded cheese, sour cream, scallions

WET GOODS

• 2 T. olive or canola oil, divided

• 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes (no added herbs or spices)

• 6 cups chicken stock

DO THIS

1. Preheat an oven to 400°

2. Lightly coat the poblano with oil or cooking spray

3. Roast the poblano until its skin crinkles and browns, approximately 15 minutes

4. Place the poblano in a paper bag and let cool

5. Peel and rough-chop the onion, carrot, and garlic

6. Remove the poblano’s stem, skin, ribs, and seeds

7. Place all of the vegetables in a food processor and pulse into nearly puréed

8. Heat a 5-quart (or larger) Dutch oven over medium heat

9. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper

10. Add 1 T. of oil to the Dutch oven

11. Brown the chicken, approximately 8 minutes per side

12. Set aside the chicken 

13. If necessary, deglaze the Dutch oven with ½ cup of stock and scrape up the fond, approximately 2 minutes

14. Set aside the deglazing broth 

15. Add the remaining 1 T. of oil to the Dutch oven over medium-low heat

16. Sweat the vegetables for 5 minutes

17. Mix the chili powders, coriander, oregano, and cumin well with the vegetables and cook for 3 minutes

18. Turn the heat to low and add the crushed tomatoes and then the stock

19. Carefully, submerge the chicken pieces in the broth

20. Turn the heat up and bring the mixture to a low boil

21. Add the brown sugar

22. Cover the Dutch oven and simmer for at least 1 hour

23. Uncover and simmer, letting the liquid reduce, for another hour

24. Periodically, test the chicken with a carving fork and tongs until it all shreds apart

BEEN THERE. ATE THAT.

Fire Street Food 🔥 🍱 

As luck would have it, some Saturday errands a week back found us in the Liberty-Bull block, which meant a happy return to Fire Street Food for a ‘flunch’ (fun + lunch).

We found Fire more than a decade back on one of our first scouting trips to Savannah, staying at the erstwhile Joan’s on Jones Bed & Breakfast, and loved its food, service, and value from the outset. 

Over the last several years, what was formerly known as the Ele & the Chef Collection and what has recently been rebranded as Rhino Hospitality Group, seemingly opened a new resto per annum, though amid the masses’ infatuation with The Vault and determination to realize Flock to the Wok’s moniker, we have remained first and foremost fans of Fire.

Too cold to sit at one of the handful of two-tops on the East Perry Street sidewalk as is our wont, we warmed up in the reconfigured and refreshed front dining room and ordered our standbys: the otherworldly Gang Leuring ($13.95) for my wife and the Teriyaki Beef ($14.95) for me. The two dishes make for a somewhat expensive lunch, but to be fair, both portions are ample and almost amount to two servings apiece.

My wife again customized her yellow curry, substituting tofu for chicken and asking for extra veg and broth to replace the rice. As always, the solicitous staff was happy to oblige.

The only ‘choices’ I had to make were fried rice, instead of steamed, and medium-rare.

My wife’s brimming bowl arrived at whatever temperature is past piping-hot, the aroma once again enticing her to eschew the risk of burning her mouth for the reward of the first sip. It was too tempting for her to wait.

The mild and mellow curry is coconutty and creamy, and the inch cubes of tofu do more than stand in for chicken. Al dente bamboo shoots are added to the usual veg suspects. The only other considerable alteration might be to limit the large chunks of potato that, every so often, dominate the otherwise light dish. 

In my bowl, several lightly seared chunks of beef balanced atop the rice and sautéed veg, the former just lightly fried and flecked with egg, corn, and peas, and the latter a fork-tender medley of broccoli, cabbage, carrots, green beans, yellow squash, and zucchini that truly add to the dish. This is not a cheap toss-away veg, as is the case in so many restos’ renditions.

From the first time I devoured this dish nearly a dozen years ago, I was struck by the quality of the meat, a cut far better than it has to be, fully cooked but still pinkish on the inside and not at all overwhelmed by a cloying sauce.  

For me, there would be no leftovers today. As I tined my last grains of rice, my wife poured what would be her next day’s lunch into a takeaway container and had a revelation: next time, put a few ice cubes in the gang after the server sets it down.

-Neil Gabbey