So I got a text one night back a few months ago. It read “call me tomorrow, I have an idea.” Ok. Fair enough. The next day I find myself having a chat with Joe Marinelli, President of Visit Savannah. For those of you who don’t know, Visit Savannah is essentially our Convention and Visitors Bureau. Their job is to get people here to our area to enjoy everything wonderful about our great city. You know all those lists Savannah finds itself on every year? Most romantic city…..Bike friendly….Dog friendly, Walking city…Haunted City….Healthiest City….Best place for a Destination wedding? Even most recently Best Ice Cream City by Travel and Leisure Magazine. These things done just happen, they are the by-product of a lot of planning, smiling and frankly….bragging. Mr. Marinelli tells me that Sunday afternoon he has an idea for an episode of Eat It and Like It that I might find interesting. Every year, Visit Savannah visits New York City. It’s typically a 4 day or so trip to basically meet and greet national media. The purpose? To keep publications like Travel and Leisure Magazine, Conde Naste, and the New York
Times up to date on what is new and great in Savannah and Coastal Georgia. They’ve been making the trip every year for the last five. This time, it came with a twist. And some great food.
The Dish on Savannah
Standard operating procedure in the past had been make the rounds to as many of these places as time would allow in New York. Share some gifts from our area, tell publishers how wonderful everything is here and repeat. This time though, it was going to be different. It was centered around food and Visit Savannah was bringing it to New York. The end result was a cocktail party/press gathering in the heart of Midtown Manhattan. On hand in the Big Apple? Chef Darin Sehnert of 700 Kitchen Cooking School -Trip Advisor’s #1 thing to do in Savannah. Chef Joe Randall who has his own cooking school on Waters Avenue and Cheryl and Grif Day of Back in the Day Bakery. Rather than hire caterers to attempt to imitate our best culinary offerings, Visit brought some of our area’s best to them and put it all on display in a rented studio kitchen used to shoot some cooking segments for Food Network, Cooking Channel and all of that great programming you have probably seen. They called their party “The Dish on Savannah” and a fine time was had by all. The best part? Eat It and Like It was there with them to document it all. Was the guest list a real “Who’s Who?” What do New Yorkers really think of our food? What was on the menu? I will just say it was extensive, well crafted and absolutely delicious.
As seen on TV
I wouldn’t be sharing all of this with you in this valuable space, if we weren’t ready to share the episode. We will take you behind the scenes of Visit Savannah’s trip to New York City. How it came together, how it was planned, who showed up and what was prepared for the occasion. We certainly can’t forget the food. After all, this is Eat It and Like It right? You can catch ‘Eat It and Like It -The Dish on Savannah’ beginning Monday, December 24th on SGTV (Comcast Channel 8) as well as the full episode at Eat It and Like It.com
Quick Bytes
##Need a last minute gift idea? (I know I do). Check out Chocolat by Adam Turnoi on Broughton Street. They can make up a beautiful gift arrangment. They are all handmade and all perfectly delicious. How about hiring a private chef to prepare a romantic dinner for two? Pantryelf.com is offering gift certificates so you use that Christmas gift anytime of the year.
##Don’t forget to follow us Facebook and Twitter @eatitandlikeit for regular updates and happenings in our food scene.
##Finally, we wanted to wish you all a wonderful and peaceful holiday season. May your stocking be chock full of plenty of things to Eat and Like.
See you on TV
Jesse
