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:

• Total reno on the river 🌉 

• Chef’s Cravings: Late Air’s favorite local pastries, burgers, and more!

• Learn how to make homemade Sicilian Pizza 🍕 

• Loaded Guacamole & Flunch at Bull Street Taco 🍍 

THE MAIN DISH

Bohemian Hotel opens Coastal 15 with Executive Chef Luke Wolf at the helm 🦪 🍋 

Do not think for a minute that what was Rocks on the River for the last fifteen years has undergone a simple rebranding and splash-dash paint job.

When Coastal 15 cranks open its brand-new garage doors and reveals itself to the River Street throngs on March 7, it will be clear that this is a completely new rez-de-chaussée restaurant at The Bohemian Hotel Savannah Riverfront.

The strategic closure of Rocks on the River back in December ushered in a wholesale changeover of concept, physical space, and culinary crew, and leading the reborn resto and overseeing food operations throughout the posh property is executive chef Luke Wolf.

“I feel great,” said Wolf, who came onboard in late December, quickly admitting that “there is a lot going on: opening a new restaurant, building new systems, hiring and getting to know an entire staff.”

Much of this massive renovation happened before he took the mantle, and Wolf credited Coastal 15’s menu to The Kessler Collection’s Corporate Director of Culinary Kyle Lipetzky, who previously served as executive chef of JW Marriott Plant Riverside. 

“All of this was in motion many months before I was in the picture,” added Wolf, who anticipates incorporating his own dishes over the next several months.

CHEF’S CRAVINGS

Late Air - Colin Breland, Madeline Ott, and Juan Stevenson 🍸

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 phenomenal folks behind the bites and the pours at Late Air 🍷, husband-and-wife owners Colin Breland and Madeline Ott and Executive Chef Juan Stevenson.

MO: I feel like Juany should go first.

JS: I love E-TANG. I get the same thing over there, pork soup dumplings, spicy crispy chicken, stir-fried green beans, and dan dan noodles. I’ll smash that by myself, honestly. My wife’s out of town for a week right now, so I’m probably going to eat that two or three days in a row.

CB: Ditto E-TANG. The crispy spicy fish filets are my favorite thing on the planet. It’s just fried tilapia tossed in Szechuan peppercorns and chiles 🌶, but it’s the best thing I’ve ever had.

JS: Their special bean curd sauce sea bass is fantastic. I think an underrated thing, in Savannah and in general, is a whole fish, bone-in, tail-on. That’s such an experience.

MO: This is a hard one for us because we eat for convenience most of the time. We have one day off, and it can be hard. I will throw out Saigon Bistro. 

CB: Yeah, we love to get pho and a Coke there. I think that’s a solid combo. 

JS: Aside from that, I love me an Over Yonder doublestack burger with the loaded fries 🍔 

MO: Yes! Always.

JS: We have a tradition in our kitchen right now. Whatever night the full staff is working in the back, we’ll go there, have a couple shots with the bartenders, and get a couple burgers.

CB: Another banger lunch option that we really enjoy is Taqueria El San Luis.

MO: It’s so good.

JS: That’s a great spot! I just started going there. Colin and a couple friends recommended it. Fantastic.

MO: They make their own tortillas.

CB: Usually, it’s a trio of tacos. Al Pastor, always, barbacoa, and a chicken taco. They’ve got great burritos, too.

MO: I’ve been eating a lot of pastries from Stevedore. I love it. I would also say C + L and Savoy, great places to get a martini and a pickled egg.

CB: Pickle game is strong at both of those places. If you like pickles, go there.

And for a special occasion?

MO: I have a group of friends who frequent ‘old haunts’ here, like 17Hundred90.

JS: Oh, Bella’s Italian Cafe in Habersham Village! Sleeper.

CB: We should have all mentioned that. Love that place. Spaghetti and meatballs: dynamite. 🍝 

JS: They have an antipasto pizza which is…flames 🔥

CB: Breadsticks 🥖on the house, in a terra cotta flower pot.

JS: House marinara is fantastic. House herb butter.

CB: That’s a resounding ‘Yes!’

MO: Common Thread, too. We went to their ramen pop-up recently, and that was awesome. That’s a group of people that I really enjoyed their food and getting to know because they’re very supportive and kind.

-Neil Gabbey

TRIED, TASTED, TRUE

Sicilian pizza 👨🏼‍🍳 🍅 

THE STORY BEHIND THE RECIPE

In a few prior columns, I have referred not too humbly, I fear, to making my own pizza. While a plethora of primo pies are now proximate, if I plan ahead just a little, I prepare one at home that I would put up against any of the pros’ products.

Though I have a big round pizza stone and a seasoned peel, more often than not, I choose to make my spin on a Sicilian. There is a waiting game with this preparation, but it is nothing when compared to the crust’s outcome.

The base recipe comes courtesy of Forza Pizza, purveyor of equipment and tools for the professional parlor, with a few tweaks I have made over the last decade. As printed, Forza’s Simple Sicilian Pizza Dough belies its name, producing an airy bready crust that stands tall beneath whatever toppings you choose.

Because bread flour is expensive and I do not have room in our tiny house for a fifty-pound bag of Caputo Tipo 00, I blend some of the former with a quality APF. To augment the texture, I add some Dixie Lily stone ground cornmeal, the medium enriched white and not the self-rising version, and a bit of brown sugar that imparts the subtlest sweetness.

The night before or before your day begins, mix a batch up and let it rest in the fridge for several hours. If you want the dough to proof into pullability by dinnertime, put the bowl on your kitchen counter four hours prior to when you plan on eating your pizza. 🍕

As I do with all yeasted doughs, I prepare this one using a faux autolyse step: I do not add the salt until the flour, yeast, water, olive oil, and brown sugar have been mixed into a smooth ball that then rests for at least thirty minutes. The Forza recipe calls for 5 grams of active dry yeast, which is closer to 1.5 teaspoons, but 2 scant teaspoons of SAF-Instant Red have never done me wrong.

If you need to knead, I am not going to stop you, but that step is not necessary with two separate five-minute dough-hook spins with a hand mixer, one pre and one post salt.

The only trying steps in the entire process happen in the final proof. Once the dough has reached room temperature, you will scrape it into a heavily olive-oiled 12” x 18” sheet pan with one-inch sides. Without stressing yourself or it, gently press and stretch the dough to each side and corner. Over perhaps a half hour, you will need to do this three times, covering the dough with plastic wrap and a tea towel in between.

Olive oil is your bestie in this recipe 🫒 After the final dough calisthenics, let it rest and rise for another ten minutes before topping it with sauce, cheese, and sundries.

Almost every Sicilian pizza recipe you will find online recommends a blind parbake (i.e. untopped) so that the toppings do not burn before the crust crisps up. I do not simply because those pizzas taste like they have been twice-baked. The bread’s texture tightens up, and the toppings never completely commingle with the crust, clearly ‘baked-on’ and not ‘baked-in’.

If you bake it between 400 and 425, the dough will be done right when the cheese begins to brown.

My pizza sauce is a much shorter walk and will make you wonder why anyone buys a jar of Rao’s. One 14-ounce can of crushed tomatoes 🍅 and a few fixins’ will be ready to spread in less than fifteen minutes. More oregano than basil plus a pinch of brown sugar and a splash of red wine vinegar will ensure that it tastes like pizza sauce and not like marinara.

Having grown up outside of Rochester, NY, I was raised on non-chain family parlors’ pizzas, the majority of which featured a thicker, breadier crust that is far more Sicilian than Neapolitan. Lighter and airer, my pie is not a facsimile of Martino’s or Pontillo’s, and it is not as dense as a Detroit-style pizza. Though still supple, it is crisp on the top and along the edges and has just the right chew.

My wife and I have long invoked the maxim printed on all of those generic brown boxes: “Pizza…It’s the greatest!” If you are eating a slice from such a box, probably not. Do not waste the money and the calories on any old inferior pie. Make your own.

-Neil Gabbey

THE RECIPE

HARD GOODS 

• 580 total grams of dry flours (alterable)

  • 400 grams bread flour

  • 150 grams all-purpose flour

  • 30 grams Dixie Lily Stone Ground Corn Meal (white)

• 2 scant t. instant dry yeast (or active dry)

• 2 t. + a pinch (to taste) kosher salt 🧂 

• 14-ounce can crushed tomatoes (no salt or herbs added) 🍅

• 1 small garlic clove, minced 🧄 

• 1 t. dried oregano (or 1 T. fresh, minced)

• ½  t. dried basil (or 1 t. Fresh, minced)

• 1 T. + 1 t. light brown sugar (divided)

• ½ t. ground cumin

• 1 T. light brown sugar

• TOPPINGS: 12 ounces shredded mozzarella, ¼ c. freshly grated Parmesan 🧀, 2 ounces pepperoni or crumbled Italian sausage, 6 ounces thinly sliced mushrooms 🍄, etc.

WET GOODS

• 380 grams tepid water

• 25 to 28 grams + 4 T. olive oil (divided)

• 1 t. red wine vinegar

DO THIS

1. The night before or early the day of: put the flours, cornmeal, 1 T. of brown sugar, and yeast in a large mixing bowl 🥣 

2. Add the water and 25-28 grams of olive oil

3. Using dough hooks on a hand mixer, mix for five minutes, occasionally scraping down the bowl’s sides

4. Once the dough has a smooth, unified structure, cover the bowl with a large plate and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes

5. Add the 2 t. salt and mix for another five minutes

6. Lightly oil the bowl and turn the dough ball over to coat

7. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in the fridge for as many as 12 hours

8. At least four hours before mealtime, remove the bowl from the fridge and let the dough warm to room temperature

9. While waiting, heat 1 T. olive oil in a small saucepan over low heat

10. Add the minced garlic and sweat for 30 seconds

11. With a wooden spoon, gently stir the tomatoes

12. Turn the heat up to medium, cover, and simmer for five minutes

13. Uncover the sauce and stir in the herbs and 1 t. of brown sugar

14. Reduce to low heat and continue simmering for ten minutes

15. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the red wine vinegar

16. Prepare a 12” x 18” half sheet pan with a generous drizzle of olive oil and/or olive oil cooking spray

17. Scrape the dough ball onto the pan

18. Preheat the oven to 425°

19. Alternate gently pressing and stretching the dough to the four sides and corners

20. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and a tea towel and let it rest

21. Press and stretch the dough, perhaps two more times, over the next 30 minutes

22. Let the dough rest for a final 10 minutes before topping it

23. Top the dough with the reserved pizza sauce, cheese, chosen meats and/or vegetables 🫑 

24. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan

25. Bake for 16 minutes

26. OPTIONAL: for a browner bottom crust, place the half sheet pan over two burners set to medium for five minutes

27. Let the pizza rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving ⏰

BEEN THERE. ATE THAT.

Bull Street Taco 🌮 🌺

On a warm weekday evening, sitting on the covered side patio at Bull Street Taco is sublime, especially for those like us who do not mind eating dinner before its five p.m. Happy Hour terminus.

A recent windy cold Saturday found us in that neighborhood after some errands, so we turned the outing into a ‘flunch’ (fun + lunch), though this time, we huddled into a booth in the newish barside dining room on what must have been Take Your Toddlers for Tacos Day.

As is our want and our wont, we started with the Loaded Guacamole Bowl ($9.50), whose price runs neck-and-neck with every other Tex-Mex menu in town but beats all. Flecked with toasted pistachios and diced white onion, the tastiest trademarks are the slivers of fresh radish and the chile oil moat that skirts the not-whipped but also not-chunky guacamole mound.

Scoop from the outside in 🥑

I like a basic guac, but this uniquely colorful and chock-full version is fantastic. You will need the free chip refill.

Unless you happen to be in St. Augustine and have crossed the Bridge of Lions onto Anastasia Island and are sitting at Osprey Tacos devouring a San Diego, you cannot do better than a Chum’s Taco or two at BST.

At its Happy Hour, two Chum’s Tacos for $5 might be the best meal deal steal in the city, but one is often plenty ($4.50). Served on a locally made newspaper-thin Mitla tortilla, supple and just slightly browned, what is at heart a ground beef taco might not seem oh-so special.

Oh, but it is.

Invariably, the beef abounds, merrily too much for one tortilla, and each batch varies a bit in the heat imparted by the El Toro sauce. On this last visit, it had a kick. Dressed with ‘shredduce’ and dots of cotija cheese, this is what those homespun 1980s Old El Paso ground beef taco nights aspired to be.

This exceptionally tasty taco is named after Gerry ‘Chum’ Cournoyer, the father of BST boss Jon Massey’s former business partner, Mike Cournoyer. Seventy-nine at the time, ‘Chum’ was instrumental in the taco shop’s build-out.

“He only liked beef, cheese, and flour tortillas,” Massey shared, “so we named a taco after him.”

“He’s got an open tab any time he wants to come eat,” he added. 

My wife’s gleeful go-to is BST’s chicken taco, served on a corn tortilla with a drizzle of basil crema, strips of hibiscus pickled onions 🧅, and cotija ($4.50).

Whenever we eat here, the friendly and attentive staff always impresses, and the more open barside with its wide front windows makes it seem like a whole new restaurant. 

While we stick with our usuals, I wish that I were young again and could tackle the Street Taco Combo (three tacos and a side for $15).

All three of mine would be Chum’s.

-Neil Gabbey