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:

• Bar Julian reaches higher heights ith new look and new menu 🍹🌆

• Get Tickets to the Connect Savannah Fall Festival! 🍁🍂

• Pumkpin Chocolate Chip Cake perfect for Halloween 🎃🍫

• Green Truck Neighborhood Pub: Burgers, Fries, and Beers 🍻🍔

THE MAIN DISH

Bar Julian reaches higher heights with new look and new menu 🍹🍕🌆

As I live and eat, no Hollywood producer is looking at Jennifer Lawrence thinking, “Yeah, she just needs to fix her chin.”

In the same vein, no modern musicologist is listening to the entirety of Purple Rain and noting the ‘flaws’ in each track, and no one who gazes upon Botticelli’s Venus would question the hues he used for the goddess’s hair.

Any dramaturg who dares alter one word in Act Five of Hamlet should be hoisted on his own petard. 

We all know the maxims that begin “never mess with” and “if it ain’t broke,” but there is something to be said for and duly respected about a restaurant that refuses to rest on its well-earned laurels.

Though Bar Julian turned just three back in August, the Thompson Savannah’s food and beverage team took what was already an impeccably designed drink-and-dine destination and implemented an intentional refresh, a few thoughtful nips and tucks to the airy aerie’s layout, decor, and food offerings, all pointed in a decidedly more Mediterranean direction.

If you have not ridden the elevator to the top floor in a few months, head down to Eastern Wharf soon to see and to taste what is new because this raised bar has raised the bar yet again.

CONNECT SAVANNAH FALL FESTIVAL

Savannah, GA — Dust off your cozy sweaters and get ready for a day of fun! Connect Savannah is hosting its highly anticipated Fall Festival at Red Gate Farms on Sunday, October 27, 2024, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. This year’s festival promises a jam-packed day of activities, perfect for families and residents looking to celebrate the beauty of the fall season. 

From exciting pony rides to colorful face painting, there’s something for everyone to enjoy. Want to show off your competitive side? Jump into the sack races for a chance to win prizes, or join the classic cake walk and see if you can walk away with a sweet treat! For those feeling creative, grab a brush and paint a pumpkin at the mini pumpkin painting station, or hop on a carriage ride and take in the beautiful scenery at Red Gate Farms. 

But that’s not all! There will be live music filling the air, inflatables for the little ones to jump around in, and a variety of local vendors and craft booths offering unique treasures. Hungry? Several food trucks will be on-site, serving up delicious options to satisfy your cravings (note: food and vendor purchases are not included in the ticket price). If you're excited about pony rides, you can secure your spot in advance for an additional $5 to guarantee a time slot. 

“This festival is all about bringing people together and celebrating the best of what fall has to offer,” says Erica Baskin, a representative of Connect Savannah. “It’s a great opportunity for people to connect, have fun, and create lasting memories.” 

Red Gate Farms, located on the outskirts of Savannah, provides the perfect backdrop for the day’s festivities. Its spacious fields and scenic views create an ideal setting for families to explore, relax, and enjoy all the fun activities the festival has to offer. 

So, mark your calendars, grab your family and friends, and get ready for an unforgettable day! Tickets are available online, and parking at Red Gate Farms will be free for all guests. Be sure to arrive early to make the most of this exciting day. 

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https://www.showclix.com/tickets/connect-savannah-fall-festival-2024-9yckwm2, and follow Connect Savannah on social media for the latest updates! 

Special thanks to our sponsors: Jamie Casino Injury Attorney, United Community Bank, Chatterbox Pediatric Therapy, Savannah Blinds, and Renewal by Andersen. 

ABOUT CONNECT SAVANNAH
Connect Savannah is a leading source for local events and entertainment in Savannah, dedicated to creating memorable community experiences. Through its festivals, forums, and media platforms, Connect Savannah celebrates the city’s vibrant culture and fosters connections among its residents. 

For further inquiries, please contact Erica Baskin at Connect Savannah. 

TRIED, TASTED, TRUE

Pumpkin chocolate chip cake 🎃🍫

THE STORY BEHIND THE RECIPE

Those of you who like these chilly mornings and evenings, bite your frozen tongues. The first twenty years of our lives were spent shoveling snow and skidding through salty gray slush. Trust me: cold weather is a novelty at best.

My wife and I moved to Savannah for 95 and muggy. 

The only saving graces of October’s temperature drop are my strong sweater game and the return of pumpkin-flavored everything, even though I have never really understood why that flavor disappears from Thanksgiving to Indigenous Peoples’ Day each year. Would a pumpkin scone or a slice of pumpkin roll or a pumpkin spice latte possibly taste worse in April?

A rite of autumn, cans of pumpkin purée are packed on grocery store shelves once again, and every October, I stock up so that I have a few for non-fall use.

The week after my advisees finish their lunchroom cleanup stint, I bake for them, and I often bring in something that tests their taste buds. Last week, leaning into the coolish climate, I made my mom’s amazing pumpkin chocolate chip cake, a bundt bake whose very aroma smells like the season. 

More than twenty years ago, my dad included the recipe in an email he sent to me, in between holiday news and an update on his alma mater Alfred’ University’s basketball team. I treasure that rather oil-stained and batter-smeared printout, even though Mom cannot remember which of her longtime best friends from Fairport’s First Congregational Church shared the recipe with her. 

For safety’s sake and to give all these amazing ladies a mention, we chose to attribute the cake to Martha Bowman, Joyce Cowden, and Shirley Sumner equally, proof that friends in food are friends for life.

Like many spectacular cakes, this one comes together quite quickly and simply. I use an electric mixer, but the batter blends fine with just a balloon whisk.

My only alterations to the original recipe are the addition of one egg yolk, subbing in a half cup of brown sugar for white, paring down the cinnamon by putting in some pumpkin pie spice, and upping the chocolate chips.

Some modern home bakers might blanche at a cake whose base calls for so many eggs and so much sugar and oil, but c’mon. It’s cake, and you’re not eating the whole thing.

That written, if I ever bake this cake for myself, I would toss in pecan or walnut pieces.

Start by mixing the eggs and extra yolk, oil, and sugars until custardy and light. Fold in a full can of pumpkin. Take the time to sift the flour into a separate and whisk in the baking powder and baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice.

So that they do not all sink during the actual bake, toss the chocolate chips into the flour mixture until they are evenly distributed and then fold the chippy flour into the wet base in batches, scraping from the sides and bottom inward.

Confession: I did not ‘discover’ Baker’s Joy until I moved to Savannah. (Thank you, David Nash.) Prior to, I used to butter a bundt pan and lightly coat it with flour, but this method did not ensure a smooth release. With Baker’s Joy, the baked cake has not stuck once.   

The church ladies’ recipe says one hour at 350°, but I start checking mine after 45 minutes. More often than not, a bamboo skewer comes out clean before 50.

Use the tea towel trick to turned the cake out onto a large plate. A generous snowfall of powdered sugar is all the topping this moist and spicy dessert needs. Welcome back, Autumn.

-Neil Gabbey

THE RECIPE

HARD GOODS 

• 1 cup (200 grams) white sugar

• ½ cup (100 grams) brown sugar

• 2 ½ cups (320 grams) all-purpose flour, sifted

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• ½ teaspoon kosher salt

• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice blend 🎃

• 8 ounces (230 grams) semisweet chocolate chips 🍫

• 1-2 tablespoons powdered sugar

WET GOODS

• 4 eggs plus 1 egg yolk 🥚

• 1 cup canola or vegetable oil 🫒

• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin purée

DO THIS

1. Preheat an oven to 350° and set a rack in the middle third

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice

3. In another large bowl, use an electric hand mixer or balloon whisk to whip together the eggs and extra yolk, oil, and sugar until creamy like loose custard

4. Fold the pumpkin purée into the wet base, scraping the sides and bottom, until fully incorporated and uniformly orange

5. Toss the chocolate chips in the flour mixture, coating each chip and evenly distributing them

6. In small batches, fold the flour and chocolate chips into the wet base until fully incorporated

7. Spray a bundt pan (or tube pan) with a light coat of Baker’s Joy

8. With one hand, slowly pour the batter into the bundt pan while slowly rotating the pan with the other hand

9. When all of the batter is in the bundt pan, gently tap the pan on a countertop ten times to make sure that all of the batter has settled

10. Bake for 45 minutes and then begin checking for doneness until a bamboo skewer comes out almost entirely clean 

11. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before inverting the pan onto a plate to slide the cake out

12. Cover with a tea towel and allow to cool for another 30 minutes before dusting the surface with powdered sugar

BEEN THERE. ATE THAT.

Green Truck Neighborhood Pub 🥬🍅🍟

Not only because it is just eight blocks from our house, the city’s standard-bearer for burgers should have been the subject of a BTAT column before now. I suppose that I was holding onto this one knowing that Green Truck Neighborhood Pub needed no pub from me. 

Since it opened in 2010, Josh and Whitney Shephard Yates’s community-oriented farm-fresh burger bar has won enough ‘Best of’ accolades to create that border that runs the length of the restaurant’s south wall. 

Though some prices have risen with the times, not much has changed on the front-and-back menu of starters, salads, sandwiches, and signature burgers, nor should it have: Hunter Cattle Company (Brooklet, Georgia) grass-fed beef, humane-certified chicken, locally sourced vegetables, small-batch brews, and those fantastic fries.

I would be lying if I did not admit that I was not wholly sold on Green Truck when we first moved to town. I loved that it was blocks from our house, but its popularity kept us from eating there more often, a lengthy line often queued up even before six o’clock. For years, I wished it had expanded with an outdoor patio to meet obvious demand.

Also, I was not a fan of the homemade ketchup, sorry, and I had fallen head over bun for Circa 1875’s burger, the thick patty with the green peppercorn gravy. 

During what were the most difficult times for folks in the food and beverage industry, we began eating at Green Truck more often in 2020 not because we are altruists but because the Yateses were able to start serving outside. At least once a month, takeaway burgers and fries were edible solace. 

Plans for a large-scale renovation that were announced last spring were put on hold, but the food has remained reliably remarkable.  

When in dinner doubt, Green Truck has become one of our more common go-tos, and we sit under the little tent, eating quickly before the flies descend. On inclement evenings, we steal stools at the bar.

A few weeks back, my wife and I did just that as the clouds gathered late one sleepy Saturday afternoon. Still early, there were plenty of seats both out front and in the dining room, but we sat at the bar, a wise move as rain began to fall just a few minutes later.

We are nothing if not creatures of eating habit, and because we are not at Green Truck more than once every couple months, our orders are usuals: a Classic (cooked) topped with pimento cheese, lettuce, tomato, and onion and a side of fries for me ($15.50) and just an order of fries ($4.75) for my wife, always served in a tall beer glass. One of these days, we will go rogue and try another of the creative sandwiches or huge salads.

We always ask for the fries to be crispy, and we happily pay the extra six bits for two sides of really great house-made ranch, which beats the brakes off the custom ketchup, though my wife has started to appreciate its uniqueness. 

Just one of the mouthwatering merits of a Greek Truck burger is its obviously handcrafted origin: no two patties are ever alike. That night, my Classic was noticeably thicker, and the generous helping of pimento cheese was even thicker still, slowly melting from the meat’s residual heat. I cannot help but wish this was a shredduce place, but that is my personal preference.

Thanks to both the Hunter Cattle beef and how it is cooked, it is a great burger, and yet again, the fries were perfectly crispy. 

By ten to six, the dining room was packed, and only one bar seat was unoccupied. As “Off the Wall,” the King of Pop’s most underrated song, segued into Rick James’s “Give It To Me, Baby,” I polished off the final bite of burger.

Again, Green Truck needs no additional affirmation from me, but we will eat there once a month as long as we live in Savannah.

-Neil Gabbey