If you didn’t know who he was, frankly, you wouldn’t mistake him for any sort of bigger than life figure. He walks around with a book bag of sorts. Not a whole lot in there except a notebook and a Macbook. He is an incredibly accomplished chef, but doesn’t do much cooking anymore. He’s a cookbook author, he’s a husband, he’s a dad to two girls and he’s a restaurant owner. One of those restaurants happens to be here in Savannah.
When The Florence opened in June of 2014, there was a good bit of hype associated with it. Hugh Acheson was already well known to fans of the very popular “Top Chef” television show. Which combined with a well received cookbook “A New Turn in The South” helped create a buzz in Savannah that we hadn’t seen in quite some time. Fans of the show couldn’t wait to get to his new Italian restaurant in Savannah. For the first few weeks, getting a table was next to impossible. That hype fed itself around Savannah and created an expectation. Expectations that have both been met,
When we found out there was a “Celebrity Chef” opening an Italian restaurant in Savannah, the city braced itself for a Godzilla-like footprint on Victory Drive. Celebrity Chef? My goodness, look at what Paula Deen did for this city! It’s going to be the same thing! Lines down the street! The best food you’ve ever eaten. Then the doors opened and we got Black Bucatini with local clams and shrimp. We got Whole Egg Yolk Ravioli, with puffed parm, ham broth, onions, fennel pollen and prosciutto and we got the best pizza in Savannah topped with things like burrata, calabrian chilies and ricotta. If you stood out in the street long enough, you could hear a collective “Huh?” coming from all kinds of people who decided to pay a visit to this renovated ice warehouse that sat on the corner where all we used to see where signs during political seasons.
I’ve heard it all in the year since The Florence opened. I’ve heard from people who probably expected an elegant, fancy pants, white tablecloth restaurant who have walked away saying “Who does he think he is?” I’ve heard from the people who knew better than to expect Fettuccini Alfredo (add chicken or shrimp) and thought it was some of the best food in the city. And, yes, I’ve likely heard everything else in between. “It’s been a little tougher nut to crack”, Acheson admits to me during a recent conversation. “Ultimately, I know we are doing great food. I know we have a great wine list, and I know the people that get it, enjoy it.” That’s where The Florence finds itself one year in, walking a line between making the people who “get it” happy and trying to introduce some, who may not, to something different. “We are in this for the long haul”, Acheson says. “It’s going to take some time to build upon what we are doing but Savannah is coming along, Savannah is maturing. The Victory Drive corridor is growing. We are excited about where everything is going.”
Acheson says the same was the case in Athens when he opened the very popular 5&10. There was no overnight success. It wasn’t until two years in at that location when the first nod came along, that was Food and Wine Magazine’s “Best New Chef” in 2002. Five years later, Acheson opened The National, also in Athens. “It all takes time”, he says with this standard casual demeanor. You get the impression that Hugh Acheson sees the big picture as well, if not better than anyone he employs. The masses say it’s too pricey? Well, it is what it is, and it isn’t going to change.
Quite possibly the biggest complaint you hear about not only The Florence, but other new restaurants in town, is the cost. It’s too expensive! It’s a rip off! Overpriced! I’ve personally heard it all in twelve months and have to shake my head. “Our ticket averages here at The Florence are about $34.00”, Acheson tells me. “That is close to $20 less than any of my other restaurants. What many people don’t understand is that we are using the best ingredients we can find. If we find some great chicken that has been treated humanely, that is better for you, but it happens to cost double, then we are going to use it”, he adds. And of course, that cost is passed along to you, but guess what? It will taste better and it will be better for you. “I like to use the example of frozen pizza”, he says. “Those things are getting topped with cheese that isn’t even real food. Artificial cheese that could even have some elements of plastic in it.” You make the choice. Real cheese from a real cheese maker or farmer, or something bland and likely not very good for you? If you go a traditional route, it’s going to cost you a little more as well.
Hugh doesn’t get down to Savannah as much as he’d like. Most of his restaurants are within an hour of each other in Athens (where he lives) and Atlanta. The four plus hour drive to the coast isn’t as easy as you would think (“that’s the most boring drive ever”) because he spends 20-25 days a month on the road. Rattling off his stops in the month of June alone: “Napa, San Francisco, Austin, New York, Atlanta, home for a day, then back to Austin”, and on and on. A lot of it has been work on the road promoting his new book, “The Broad Fork”, but he also makes time to promote healthy eating whenever he can. He’s even part of an initiative in Athens-Clarke County to introduce a new healthy lifestyle curriculum to students there. “We have to teach them that meals shouldn’t only consist of Cheetos and Chicken Nuggets”, he says. The outline he shared for the courses (which has already been approved for grades 4-6 in Athens) shows kids the differences between fresh and processed foods. Shows them how to cook them and includes other life skills like how to read a contract. It’s a full time job in and of itself. How in the world does he find time to run four restaurants? “My job is to put the best team in place that I can and let them do their thing”, he says. “I learned along the way to find people who are better than me to run the show when I can’t be there and step out of the way.” He’s made it pretty clear to his staff, more than half of which, he says, are still in place since day one, that they should tune out the “noise” and focus on what they do best. “Kyle (Exec Chef Jacovino) is making exceptional pizzas. The dough work is incredible”, he says. “If someone wants to say Mellow Mushroom is better, that’s fine. I like Mellow Mushroom but these are just made differently.”
In the last year, we’ve seen movie nights on Sundays, we’ve seen Saturday morning yoga on the deck, we’ve seen some lunch sandwich specials and we’ve even seen (in the last three weeks) brunch service at The Florence “It give some people who have never been here a chance to see the restaurant and try it”, Acheson says. Seeing this space developing as it has, serves as a reminder to what this restaurant was always intended to be, a spot for locals to enjoy a croissant and coffee in the morning, a pizza for lunch or a higher end dinner. With anything and everything in between.
All of that said, Hugh Acheson makes no apologies. None at all. Truth be told, the quiet confidence that he walked into town with could be misinterpreted as arrogance. There were no Chamber of Commerce ribbon cuttings, there were no marching bands up and down Victory Drive, there were no phone calls to celebrity chef pals asking them to show up in town for promotional photo ops. I think there may have been a tweet or two that day they opened, but knowing what I know now? Probably not. And that “celebrity chef” status everyone likes to talk about, it kind of gets tossed aside. “I’m not a chef anymore”, he says. “I’m a restauranteur. I check in on them daily and make sure they all run smoothly. As long as we are putting out great food, running a clean, buttoned up shop and Kyle and (General Manager) Allie Crumpton are happy about what we are doing every day, then we are good.”
