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Eat It and Like It Foodie Awards at Year Three

You probably know that I am a pretty big sports fan. I spent 15 of my 23 years in television in the sports department of various newsrooms across the country. So it shouldn’t surprise you really, when I tell you that the idea for the Eat It and Like It Foodie Awards came to be while I was very lazily watching ESPN one night. To be honest, I don’t watch much ESPN anymore. I watch events, sure, but Sportscenter and a lot of the other shtick they air? Hardly. I guess I’ve grown out of their target demo, and frankly, I am pretty OK with that. It was, however, during one night of watching ESPN College Football Analyst Kirk Herbstreit name his best in College Football that year that I thought it might just be time to name Savannah’s best in food.  Herbstreit calls his awards The Herbies, which I thought was clever. Ours will be The Foodies.

Now, three very short years later, we are days away from naming what we believe is Savannah and The Low Country’s best in food. Once we do that, we are going to invite all of the winners to The Brice Hotel downtown Savannah for a party. A fantastic party. Just ask anyone who has attended either of the previous two. Before we get to the party, though, there is a process.

To say I am proud of the list of nominees we compile would be a dramatic understatement. Ultimately, nominees in each category go up for discussion between myself, Eat It and Like It Co-Founder Senea Crystal, and our contributors. Sometimes, the winners aren’t my favorite. Sometimes, I am out-voted. Sometimes someone who favors one nominee in a particular category over another needs to make their case. Yes, like an attorney in court. You really believe the best sandwich in Savannah is this one? Ok, why? Many many times the discussions come down to things like the consistency and quality of a particular burger’s bun, for example. It gets pretty heated sometimes. Round and round we go through all of the 35 or so categories we have carried every year. Best Sandwich, Best Fried Shrimp, Best Dessert, Best Sushi, Best Fried Chicken You Don’t Have To Wait In Line For, and Best Pizza are just some of the categories we award. Do you really think any other of this area’s ‘best of’ awards invest that kind of time into who is ultimately name Savannah’s best? No, I don’t either.

This year, the party moves to The Brice Hotel on Sunday night, May 22nd. If you haven’t made it down there yet, The Brice is the old Mulberry Inn on the corner of Houston and Bay Streets downtown Savannah. I have attended a couple of different events there including a poolside event during the Savannah Food and Wine Festival. The Brice is one of this city’s more beautiful venues. The scene at The Brice fits pretty well with our theme this year, which is South Beach, Miami. Food will be provided by Dusty Grove. Dusty is the new Executive Chef at Pacci Savannah inside of The Brice. We have consulted with Dusty on the menu and while I won’t share exactly what we have in store, I can tell you that you will absolutely Eat It and Like It.  Dusty is a Savannah native. We told him what we were looking for and he ran with it.

I actually had a young lady ask me last week how the food can be any good if we only charge $35 per ticket. The answer to that was simple, we aren’t looking to break the bank with The Foodie Awards. We never have. Do we really think I am going to spend an entire year talking about good food then actually host a party with bad food? No chance. Or serve average food to Savannah’s chefs and restaurant owners? No way. The goal from day one has been to throw a party for Savannah’s best in food and not ask them for a single thing. I’ve had to laugh when I’ve had a couple of winners over the last two years approach me and ask “What’s the catch with this whole thing?”. Clearly they were looking for one and couldn’t find it. That’s because it doesn’t exist. “Nope”, I say every time. “This party is for all of you to enjoy courtesy of Eat It and Like It and our supporters who provide the product that our host has prepared for you.” That will be my answer every single time. That said,  you know we’ve made a point when some of the first people to buy tickets have been restaurant owners and chefs who have no idea whether or not they’ve won anything. It is quite an honor. As I have mentioned in the past, clearly advertisers with our television show are still eligible to win, but that doesn’t guarantee that they will.  We’ve had advertisers not win in the past. We’ve had a couple come on board as advertisers after they have won, but there is no guarantee of either scenario and we are more than OK with that.

One thing I have to say about the selection of winners is the fact that is absolutely getting tougher to pick winners. We spend our entire year eating around town. Whether it’s me or anyone on our staff. I can tell you that two years ago picking one particular winner was pretty easy. This year, same category, it was tough. Very tough. That is just an indicator of the amount of good food we have coming into town. We talk about that almost every week here, so naturally, when it comes time to pick what we think is the ‘best’ it can be a tall order. That’s fine. It’s what we are here for, right? We are constantly asking about our friend’s experiences. There is no question we are keeping score all year long. Certainly not literally, but if five friends tell me they each enjoyed great food but questionable service somewhere, then we know if it happens to us, it wasn’t an accident. We take awarding these statuettes very seriously. My reward? Sitting down for dinner at Elizabeth on 37th, for example, and seeing their Eat It and Like It Foodie Award trophies on display in a china cabinet.

So the stage is set for The Brice on the 22nd. Yes, it is a Sunday night this year, but so are the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. If we get our way, it will continue to be on a Sunday going forward. That has always been the vision. Many restaurants in our city are closed on Sundays or a good number of staffers are off. This was the best night to get most of our winners out. They have more than turned out in years one and two, but this year is setting up to be our best yet. Frankly, it is our biggest joy when we see so many chefs who maybe haven’t seen each other in a while catching up, snapping photographs and having a genuinely good time. With zero strings attached. The public, of course, is invited to this party. You can find tickets online right now at eatitandlikeit.com. The $35 ticket includes a tremendous food spread and two drink tickets for beer and wine. After that, The Brice is providing a cash bar with some specialty cocktails (and prices) planned for the evening. We’ve sold out our first two years. We will sell out again this year. Tickets have been available for about two weeks now and we have trending way ahead of the first two. Last year we sold out with four days to go. If you’d like to join us and help us celebrate Savannah’s best, don’t delay. It will be a great way to kick off our summer. Next thing you know, Football season will be right around the corner.

You can purchase tickets by clicking the photo below.

See you at The Brice!

Jesse

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