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:

• Erica Davis Lowcountry Hosts Delicious Sunday Service 🥞🥓

• Frali Gourmet Highlights Must-Try Eateries in Savannah 🍝

• Warm Up This Fall with the Perfect Chicken Dumpling Recipe 🍲

• Tacos and Avocado fries from Treylor Park 🥑 

THE MAIN DISH

Coastal Southern standard settles into Sunday brunch service with catering operations now in nearby Cannarella Center 🥞🥓☕️

While I acknowledge my role as ‘food writer’ obliges a degree of objectivity, I refuse to dissemble my food fandom of Erica Davis Lowcountry. 

As soon as the namesake and husband Dwight brought their bona fide catering brand to a brick-and-mortar space back in 2019, the restaurant became an instant classic, beloved by Thunderbolt and W&W Islands regulars and folks far and wide.  

Nearly five full years after they resurrected the dilapidated former home of Charlie Teeple’s Seafood, I do not understand those who have not yet visited this stylish but unpretentious riverside eatery, still as clean and coastal chic as it was on its opening day.

C’mon, y’all. Honestly.

As of Labor Day, we all were given even more opportunities to eat the Davises’ Southern home cooking when they launched Sunday brunch service, expanding to five operational days each week.

“More and more people are starting to recognize it, but I’ve only posted it online,” Erica Davis said of the first month’s brunch business. “I was trying to have a soft opening before I really started to advertise it.” 

Though my wife and I were, by design, the first in line this past Sunday and were seated by 10:02 a.m., within the hour, the interior was packed.

So much for a ‘soft’ opening.

Around the same time, the Davises moved their catering operations a half-mile down the road, a growth step that has given them room to differentiate the two arms of their esculent enterprise.

After all, what is their restaurant was not supposed to be so.

CHEF’S CRAVINGS

Alessandro Marra & Josh Wooten - FraLi Gourmet 🍝

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?

For its first decade in business, few locally owned restaurants were as beloved by Savannahians and visitors from afar as FraLi Gourmet, the eponymous pastificio and trattoria co-founded by Franco and Lisa Marra. Exactly a year ago, the Marras retired, and their youngest son, Alessandro, “recruited” lifelong friend and childhood neighbor Josh Wooten away from Elizabeth on 37th, and the pair officially became the ristorante di famiglia’s generation next. This week’s Chefs’ Cravings come courtesy of FraLi Gourmet’s co-owners and migliori amici.

AM: We go to Rancho Alegre a lot. We adore them. The menu is humongous, so usually finger foods and really anything else. Definitely for me, some Ardsley Station. I love that place. You like Ardsley, too, right?

JW: I do, yeah. Last time, I got the…

AM: I got the gnocchi with truffle. That was a good one. I enjoyed that.

JW: I got the crab cake benedict.

AM: A great go-to, for sure.

JW: I also like Ukiyo. I usually get sushi. Sometimes, I get pork bao buns, and the bluefin tartare they have is absolutely amazing, too.

AM: You know, I thought of another ‘cheap eat’, and it’s Sly’s. It’s delicious. I love Sly’s. I mean, each one’s like $3.50, each little slider. Eat four of those: perfect. I stick with one thing anywhere I go, so it’s the Boardwalk all day over there, no mustard.

JW: I’m a big seafood guy. I do crave scallops, but there’s no particular restaurant where I go. If it is, it’s super-fine dining.

Speaking of, for a special occasion?

JW: Elizabeth is really good. They do that seven-course tasting menu. That steakhouse at JW [Marriott]. Stone & Webster. Their steak melts in your mouth.

AM: I believe it. I’m a big Bar Julian guy, too. They’re good people. I live right next door, and I think it’s the most proper pizza in Savannah.

JW: (searches phone for restaurant on River Street before I say, “Coastal 15?”) Yes! There it is! That place is good, man. I got the seafood tower, which was amazing, and I got the pork chop. I thought Elizabeth’s pork chop was one of the best, but that one was amazing. Definitely going back.

AM: (smiling) Honestly, I eat about two pastas a day, every day, and if I do a late night out, I might make it three when I get home.

-Neil Gabbey

TRIED, TASTED, TRUE

Chicken and dumplings 🐓

THE STORY BEHIND THE RECIPE

Because my wife was in between temporary and permanent crown, the pain of chewing on her left side was in its second week, so I continued to make dishes that required minimal mastication.

Loyal readers of Triple T know full well my penchant for poultry preparation, especially whenever a batch of scratch-made stock is involved. I figured that my wife could tackle a bowl of chowdery broth filled with pulled chicken, tender-soft veg, and pillowy dumplings.

Particularly in the cooler months, chicken and dumplings has been frequent fare in our house, but the traditional dish did not become part of my repertoire until fifteen years ago. 

Growing up, I fondly remember my mom making a mean chicken stew, though the topping of doughy dollops was never part of her preparation. After all, her Marsh family and all my great-aunts’ cooking techniques were rooted deep in Western New York farmland soil and not remotely close to where I have spent the majority of my home-chef life.

Like so many recipes I have tried to recreate and to individualize over the last thirty years, chicken and dumplings iterations are all over the worldwidewebternet, each with its own choice of chicken cut, variety of vegetables, and dumpling design. No surprise here, I draw most of my method from The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook with a dash of Bon Appetit, though the longest detour from the former is cooking the chicken separately and fully from the final one-pan preparation.

Do this. Dumping a bowlful of shredded cooked chicken into the simmering stew, simply to reheat, is infinitely easier.

Because I had used up my entire stash of frozen chicken stock, I started this recipe by poaching a whole chicken with a sliced leek, a chopped carrot, a chopped celery stalk, half an onion quartered, a smashed clove of garlic, hunks of thyme and parsley, a bay leaf, and a tablespoon of whole black peppercorns. After a steady simmer for 90 minutes, the chicken took a cooling rest, and I strained the broth through a cheese-clothed strainer.

All in all, pulling the chicken into stringy shreds is this dish’s only onerous step, and once that chore is checked off, chop the remaining carrots, celery stalks, and onion half into quarter-inch pieces. 

Both of the model recipes call for schmaltz to be the gravy’s basis, but I use an equal amount of unsalted butter in which the veggies are sautéed until they are just softened, between five and eight minutes. Bon Appetit makes the proper call for a half cup of flour to be stirred into the veg; any less is not going to give you a properly thickened stew. 

Stir in the cup of frozen peas, a handful of chopped parsley or thyme, and the reserved chicken.

Not surprisingly, there are dozens and dozens of ways to make dumplings, and I always tinker with my mixture, more often than not adding fresh chives and a generous handful of whatever hard cheese I have on hand.

I had a cup of buttermilk to use up, so into two cups of flour, I whisked a tablespoon of baking powder, a quarter teaspoon of baking soda, a teaspoon of salt, a half cup of shredded cheddar-jack, and two tablespoons of chopped chives. To replace ATK’s addition of more schmaltz to fatten up the dumplings, I melted two tablespoons of unsalted butter.

Working around the perimeter of my deep 12-inch Le Creuset skillet and then into the interior, soup-spoon dollops of the light and frothy batter cover the chickeny stew. 

Cover the skillet, and over low heat, the dumplings will puff and steam to perfection in about fifteen minutes, but check them with a toothpick after ten.

Prior to ladling up portions, if the gravy is not thick to your liking, try this EatingWell trick: whisk another quarter cup of flour into another half cup of heavy cream and steadily stir this slurry into the stew. 

Though ‘winter-month’ temperatures in Savannah rarely fall below fifty, even a slight chill in the evening air begs for this classic Southern stew. Give it a scratch-made shot.

-Neil Gabbey

THE RECIPE

HARD GOODS 

• 3.5 to 4-pound chicken

• 4 stalks celery, used separately

• 4 carrots, used separately

• 1 large sweet onion, used separately

• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns

• 2 bay leaves, used separately

• Bunch fresh thyme

• Bunch fresh Italian parsley

• 1 cup frozen peas

• 2 ½ cup flour, used separately, plus a ¼ cup more (as needed)

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• ¼ teaspoon baking soda

• 2 tablespoons chives, chopped

• ½ cup shredded cheese (cheddar or colby Jack)

• 1 stick unsalted butter, used separately

• 2 teaspoons kosher salt, used separately

• Fresh cracked black pepper (to taste)

WET GOODS

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 2 cups chicken stock (made during first preparation steps)

• 2 cups heavy cream, plus ½ more (as needed)

• 1 cup buttermilk

DO THIS

1. For the chicken stock:

   • Rinse the exterior and cavity of the chicken and set aside

   • In a large stock pot, heat the olive oil

   • Peel and rough-chop 1 carrot, rough-chop 1 celery stalk, and quarter the onion

   • Place the carrot, celery, and 2 of the onion quarters in the stock pot and let sweat for 5 minutes

   • Set the whole chicken in the stock pot and cover by an inch, at least, with cold water

   • Turn the heat to high

   • Add the whole black peppercorns, 1 bay leaf, a handful of thyme (on the stems), and a handful of parsley stems (without their leaves)

   • Bring to a boil before turning down the heat and letting simmer for 90 minutes

   • Every so often, as needed, skim the spume off the top of the surface

   • When the chicken is tender, remove it from the stock pot and set aside to cool

   • Allow the stock to cool before pouring it through a cheesecloth-lined strainer and then discarding the aromatics

   • Set the stock aside to cool

2. Peel the 3 remaining carrots and chop into ½” pieces (or rounds)

3. Chop the 3 remaining celery stalks into ½” pieces

4. Chop the remaining half onion into ½” pieces

5. In a large skillet, melt 6 tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat

6. Sautée the vegetables until softened but not fully tender, at least 8 minutes

7. Season with a little of the salt and pepper and 1 tablespoon of the remaining thyme leaves

8. While the vegetables are cooking, pull-shred the chicken by hand and set aside

9. Add ½ cup of flour and stir to coat the vegetables, about 3 minutes

10. Increase the heat to medium

11. Add 2 cups of the reserved stock and stir, scraping up and dissolving any flour so that no lumps remain

12. Cook until the gravy thickens and the vegetables are fork-tender

13. For the dumplings:

    • In a mixing bowl, whisk together 2 cups of flour, baking powder, baking soda

    • Add the buttermilk, shredded cheese, and chives

    • Use a spurtle or rubber spatula to combine 

14. Add the reserved shredded chicken, peas, and heavy cream to which you may add another ¼ cup of flour if the gravy does not look thick enough

15. Stir the chicken and cream into the stew and continue to heat as it thickens

16. Season with salt and pepper

17. Reduce the heat to low

18. Using a soup spoon, drop dollops of the dumpling batter in concentric circles atop the stew, leaving just a little room between each (between 16 and 20 total)

19. Cover the skillet and let the dumplings steam, checking for doneness after at least 10 minutes

20. Ladle portions into large bowls and top with reserved parsley leaves

BEEN THERE. ATE THAT.

Treylor Park

More than a decade ago, the original Treylor Park opened on Bay Street, and by design, the brand captured the homophone in innovative diner food served on tin trays. It must have been on our third trip to Savannah that my wife and I first sidled into the hip-hot eatery, and in our early years as residents, we ate there often and regularly took visiting friends for funky, messy, modern takes on Southern fare.

Whenever possible, we sat on the pocket-sized back patio that remains one of the city’s cutest spots for al fresco eats. Though we are unabashedly 80s kids, especially when it comes to music, the heavy lean into the decade’s entertainment kitsch was lost on us (see: Stripes running on a loop on the dining room big screen).

Still, the atmosphere was unique, and the food was really good if not truly great and not just for its flair. 

Because Treylor Park was so deservedly popular, scoring a table sometimes proved a challenge, so we were happy when Hitch opened in 2016, ostensibly a carbon-copy restaurant “for the locals” who did not want to drive the extra half mile toward the river.

Rick Kunzi and Trey Wilder’s second Savannah outpost served our favorite Treylor Park eats, and we liked sitting outside on Liberty Street nearly as much as we did the progenitor’s patio. If only any server had been able to turn down Kenny Loggins.  

It had been more than a year since my wife and I had ducked back into either retro restaurant, though we did enjoy our first visits to Pizza Party after the group opened up its pie-based concept in the Victorian District late last summer.

We found ourselves on Bay Street this past Friday evening and figured that a return to Treylor Park was long overdue, especially if there was an open table out back. Just after 5:30, the interior tables were nearly full, but two four-tops and a few bar stools were available on the patio.

For reference: we noticed the ‘new’ retractable clear roof, which was closed due to a few raindrops; that shows you how long it had been since we were last there.

The service was quick and friendly, and our favorites were still on a menu that has been largely reworked in the past few years as the group has expanded with five more locations, including two in North Florida and the most recent on Tybee.

Anticipating weekend leftovers, I ordered both the Cheesesteak Egg Rolls ($14) and the Roasted Turkey BLT on Brioche ($16). My wife went with the Avocado Fries ($14), which we would have split as an app had she also gone with her go-to: Shrimp & Grits Tacos ($18).

Spoiler alert: I wish that we had stuck with our guts, literally, and ordered those tacos and the always amazing Southern Sloppy Joe ($18), but I prudently pivoted from what would have been a ribeye-venison combo meal at the last second.

Other than the prices, the avocado fries and egg rolls had not changed one bit, the former perfectly panko-fried, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. The latter duo is a guilty pleasure, indeed, integrating the unctuous components of a cheesesteak in fried wonton wrappers, all dunkable in house-made beer-cheese dip.

For a few reasons, the turkey BLT was underwhelming and not remotely worth sixteen bucks. The grilled brioche toast was the highlight, bookending mostly lettuce, one unripe tomato slice, undercooked bacon, and four thin slices of turkey that looked a little long in the snood. The waffle fry portion was ample but undercooked, blond and not at all crispy, tasting of having sat out a while. 

In no way did this perfunctory sandwich look like the Grilled Apple Pie with Chicken plates that were served to the neighboring table. A happily converted Southern eater, I cling to the Northern ideal of a deli sandwich piled high with thinly sliced meat.

Right as the rain cleared, the roof retracted, the sun peeked through the rooftops, and an unreleased track from Bombay Bicycle Club’s debut album played over the speakers. Strangely, Richard Marx’s “Should’ve Known Better” followed, TARDISing us back to the bad 80s.

A decade after our first meal at Treylor Park, I remain a huge fan of the founders and their brand. I completely understand that their expansion has necessitated streamlining menus to standardize their convoy of restaurants. It stands to reason for every aspect, primarily identity and quality control.

At the same time, I wonder if replicating the formulae has resulted in a relative degree of formulaic effects.  

-Neil Gabbey