Jesse is joined by Kenny Lyons, President of the Neighborhood Dining Group, the group behind Husk as well as a new Modern Steakhouse set to open in Savannah Spring of 2026. It’s called Marbled and Fin and it will very likely set a new standard for excellence in the Hostess City.

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Jesse Blanco: Welcome back to the Eat It and Like It podcast. You know, if you follow along on the wonderful adventures of where we eat and like and travel to, then you know that right here in Savannah, we’re expecting a flood of new restaurants over 2026 and into 2027. And one of them that I’m actually probably most looking forward to is called Marbled and Fin. Joining us now to chat a little bit more about what we can expect from this modern steakhouse, as they call it, is Kenny Lyons. He’s the President with the Neighborhood Dining Group, the ownership group behind Husk, others, but also Marbled and Fin. First of all, good day sir, how are ya? 

Kenny Lyons: I’m doing well, Jesse, thank you. Thanks for having me. 

JB: Thanks for taking a few minutes to chat with us. So as I just mentioned, the ownership group, you guys have Husk here in Savannah, you have Husk obviously in Charleston, there was a Marbled and Fin in Charleston. Before we get into what we can expect here, tell us what has been the plan behind this new concept in Charleston? Was it always to try to expand into Savannah? 

KL: Yeah, we’ve been talking about doing a steakhouse since McCrady’s days, honestly. Prior to COVID, we had actually converted McCrady’s restaurant into two concepts in that one building, and that was McCrady’s Tavern and McCrady’s Tasting Room. And even during, kind of, that transitionary period, we were interested in exploring and talking about a steakhouse. So we walked into the space on East Bay here, and it was an old dry cleaner, actually, that we used to hand deliver our linens for McCrady’s tasting room to be laundered. And just so happened, [it] went out of business, had been there for 20 plus years and had been completely cleaned out, taken down to the studs. And [so we] walked into the space, and there’s just really nothing in Charleston that really felt like Marbled and Fin, because it’s a big, giant– almost ballroom type feeling, not dissimilar to Husk Savannah, honestly, in the bar upstairs there, and 18 foot ceilings, and just this big open space that felt nothing like anything else downtown, outside of maybe The Ordinary. And so, we really kind of had a blank canvas and a big open space to do what we wanted. 

JB: Quick aside, I find it ironic that when I walked in for dinner the other night, there’s a dry cleaner right next door. 

KL: There is, yes. And it’s funny you say that, because we’ve been pleasantly surprised, and I think it was a little bit of a hidden marketing thing we didn’t even realize was going to be so beneficial to us, but cars drive in and out, everyone that lives downtown goes to that dry cleaners, and it’s just a rotation thing every day. They drive in, it’s free branding and marketing for us, our sign is right there, and so they’re constantly reminded where they need to come eat. So it’s been great. 

JB: A year and a half, I was told, 18 or so months you guys have had that spot there in Charleston? 

KL: Yeah, we opened in June of ‘24. We had been working on it since about the second quarter of ‘22, so it was over two years in the making, and we’ve been working on Marbled and Fin Savannah with Mike Wakely since early 2023, actually. So it’s in the work for now three years, and we’ll be opening up in the near future. 

JB: Was that always the plan, to [say], “hey, let’s get this one rolling here, and then we’ll try our hand in Savannah,” or was this something that came up later? 

KL: Well, it’s kind of twofolds. We love working with Michael, he’s the owner and was our general contractor at the Husk property. He’s just an amazing guy, real personality, and is always telling us to come down there and open up more spots with him. So we get a phone call from him, David Howard particularly, quite regularly, trying to get us to do more things with him. But this property is, you know, seven, eight blocks down the street from husk on East Oglethorpe, and had just been kind of sitting there dilapidated for years, and there was a lady that owned it, and [they] eventually knocked on her door, and Michael was able to work some magic to get the spot. It’s been a long development process, but I think the outcome of what you’re going to see at 520 East Oglethorpe is pretty special.

JB: You guys are a modern steakhouse, which very much is, I love the menu, I love how you divided wet aged cuts with dry aged cuts. I mean, it’s a steakhouse for serious steakhouse people, and I am actually one of them, so I really enjoyed that. But there’s a beautiful emphasis on seafood, and seafood towers, and oysters. You’re not ignoring the seafood thing, you jumped all in on it. 

KL: Yeah. Leaned in hard. Yeah, for sure. 

JB: Yeah, yeah, yeah, was that always part of the vision?

KL: It was, you know, I think that, for those that have followed along in the journey of it, I think that making sure that we present a format for a steakhouse that got us excited, right? And whether it was Husk or Minero or Delaney Oyster House, we tried to push a little bit, and think outside of the box of just your standard, copy/paste format of what those Southern restaurants could be, Mexican restaurants could be, in this context, being a steakhouse. And when you think of steakhouses, you think of kind of a clubby feel, dark, mahogany, tufted booths, low ceilings, kind of that intimate, to some extent, boys club. And we really didn’t want to do that at all. We wanted to open a space that was energetic, verdant, bright… light could be great during the day and/or night, and we’ve done a lot with that with lighting. We’ve done a lot with that with sound. But you walk into the space and it feels as big as it is. It still feels cozy because of the warm lights and large chandeliers.

And I think we’ve really created an environment that feels fresh. It does feel modern compared to what you would typically look into for a steakhouse. And then we have really leaned into the seafood component, trying to be something that can, you know, be good for a group of girls, be good for a group of guys, anyone can show up and get whatever they want and feel satisfied. They don’t have to come get a big 22oz ribeye, they don’t have to come get A5 wagyu, they can get a piece of salmon, right? And they can also get a piece of tuna, they can get Branzino, but also they can stick to raw bar items and just snack around the menu a bit, depending on how they’re feeling each day. We got a big bar, and the bar in Savannah is going to be similar in size. And so, whether you’re in the mood to kind of come and do a three hour meal and have three bottles of wine with a group of eight people, or if you just want to pop into the bar and have some snacks and bites, we do that too. 

JB: Yeah, I gotta say—and I say this from the fact that I’ve lived here in Savannah over 20 years now, and I travel everywhere and I go to the big steakhouses and the big cities and all that, and it was the first time that I saw a place–this was at the Charleston property–that I saw a place that I knew was coming to Savannah, that felt really big city. And the reason why was very simple–well, a lot of reasons, but the servers and bartenders were in their green coats. Which is very, Peter Luger, it’s very Smith and Wollensky, it’s very big city vibe, and I love that. And I pointed out to my wife, she goes, “yeah, yeah, this is gonna be exciting for Savannah.” That obviously will continue here, right? 

KL: It will, yeah. We had many heated debates about our uniforms and attire, we actually had kind of like a peachy/coral jacket, which was our first version, and that kind of went by the wayside. And I was like, we have so much green in this space. It’s so beautiful. This is what we’re going for, we’re going for this alive, verdant situation. Let’s not go Masters green, but let’s put them in something a little bit darker. They’ll kind of blend in, but also stand out at the same time. And people have really loved it, so we’ve been thrilled with–we’ve been working with Cayson designs for many, many years in a lot of our chef coats and chef aprons, and we did some custom work for them with these jackets.

JB: How big will this property be in Savannah? 

KL: Property in Savannah is actually gonna be about a third bigger than here. We got about 5,700 square feet here, but Savannah is gonna be about 8,700 square feet. So, it’s on two levels, the whole first floor will be bar-centric, big, kind of horseshoe bar, tables surrounding it, and the big windows. I don’t know if you’ve walked by the property recently, but pretty amazing floor-to-ceiling windows. And then the second floor will be all dining. We’ve got two private dining rooms, there’ll be one that can seat up to about 30 or 40 guests, and then kind of a smaller one up in the front of the space on Oglethorpe itself, that’ll probably be about a 16 to 20 seat room, all in. But it’s really, really cool up there because you’re basically surrounded by this canopy of Live Oaks out the window, and so you really feel like you’re sitting in a tree house almost when you’re upstairs.

JB: Yeah, yeah, yeah. For those who aren’t familiar with where it is, it’s at Oglethorpe and Houston, near the shopping strip where E-Tang and Screamin’ Mimis and Ta-Ca Sushi are, down on that end of…

KL: And Limestone Wines, which our old song from Husk, Jamie Krotz, opened, which we love him. And he texted me the other day that he’s going to be scratching and clawing at the door to come in, so we’re excited to have him. 

JB: So it sounds like the downstairs—I sat in the bar area in Charleston, and there were a lot of high tops and that kind of vibe going on, that’s going to dominate downstairs and the true “dining dining” is going to be primarily upstairs? 

KL: Yeah, there’ll be roughly 20 to 22 seats at the bar, depending on where it ends up with spacing. And then on the front Oglethorpe side, there will be four or five high tops like you saw in Charleston. But then to the right and on the right side of Houston will be some kind of cozier booths that won’t be the same vibe as the high tops. And then there’ll be a nice little corner pocket table as well that’ll be able to seat about six people, so there’ll be a good diversity in terms of table selection, and high/low, etc. 

JB: Nice. No–obviously I know the answer to this question, but people are going to ask, there’s no designated parking. It’s a neighborhood, right? 

KL: Correct. Yep. Street parking. We do have parking on the backside of the building, that will be reserved for kind of smaller utility vehicles, scooters, bikes, and those sorts of things. But yeah, most of it–honestly, we talk about this all the time, the Park Savannah, the way that Savannah has their parking set up is so superior to any other city we operate, the app, everything about it is just night and day better and more user friendly. So, yeah, we love that. 

JB: I agree. And I will add, since we talk about this sitting in a more residential part of the historic district downtown, I have some friends who live over that way and they’ve spoken to you guys when construction was first getting going, you guys were engaged with the neighborhood, trying to let everybody know, hey, this is what it’s going to be, and that kind of thing. And I heard from more than one person that you guys were forthcoming with any questions that anybody in the neighborhood had. You wanted everybody to be on board with this. And so the neighborhood has welcomed you. So there should not be any drama. 

KL: Absolutely, yes. Everyone has been lovely to Michael and David and myself and the rest of the team that’s on the ground there. So we’ve been welcomed with open arms, which is greatly appreciated and we’re grateful for. 

JB: Very good. Okay, so Savannah’s getting itself a beautiful, big old modern steakhouse with all the bells and whistles that we can all look forward to here in 2026. And the final magic question is, when? 

KL: We are within 60 days of striking distance. 

JB: Really?

KL: Yes. We are right around the corner. We’ve got—we’ll leave names unnamed at the moment, the PR team’s working on this, but we’ve got our general manager, assistant general manager, executive chef… pretty much all of our managers hired or soon to be starting. And hourly employees are being interviewed and all of those things, right now actively. And so our goal is to get training going in March, and opening will be sometime soon after that. We’ll spend two and a half, three weeks to get everything tightened and going, and we’ll be off to the races. So yeah, we’ll open conservatively, our method is to open allowing 50 or so reservations. And once we feel good about that, ramp it up from there. We don’t want to–you know, we plan to be there long-term. We don’t want to rush to get the hinges knocked off the door and do a bad job, so, patience as we’re getting going to get people in the building is always appreciated. And we’re extremely excited. 

JB: Yes, as am I, having a front row seat here to all the growth in Savannah’s food scene. We had some nice additions in ‘25, but I’ve been telling some people, “hey, ‘25, was very good, but I think ‘26 and even into ‘27 is going to be crazy, crazy good,” knowing that you guys were coming. We’ve got an upscale Italian that’s coming to Broughton Street, there’s a spinoff from the same group that owns the Obstinate Daughter going in down the street from you guys as well…

KL: Yeah. Jacques. Yep. He’s a great, he’s a truly great guy. 

JB: Yeah, and so you look at, yeah, okay, we’ve got some great additions to the scene, but just these three that I mentioned right now makes you go, okay, this is now talking next level. And I for one, and I know a lot of other people [are] very, very excited about it. By the way, I gotta mention, the wine list was spectacularly large. My goodness. 

KL: Thank you. Yeah. Well, I’ll tell you a little, so that’s one of my babies. Ever since I started with the company, I’ve been in Husk Nashville and built the initial list out up there, and have done pretty much all the restaurants that we’ve opened since then. And we’ll start out with a healthy chunk in inventory and we’ve got a great, beautiful, similar to Charleston, wine display room that–well, it’s actually not just display, it’s used regularly and we’ll have a lot of wine stored in there. And it’s a good showpiece where people can come in and check things out. And we also have a big whiskey list too, which is another passion of mine and a couple of our other team members, Kevin King, who’s our project director, who’s on the ground there all the time, and Rory O’Connell, who’s our director of operations, which, he kind of jumps in when Kevin moves out after the project’s rocking and rolling. So yeah, we’re excited. Wine list is going to be good. And, you know, there’s so many, there’s so many good relationships that we’ve built there over the years since 2018 when we opened Husk, and the portfolios there are truly great. So we’re excited. 

JB: Very good, very good. Well, Kenny Lyons with Neighborhood Dining Group, owners of Husk, a series of other restaurants, but also Marbled and Fin coming to Savannah here this spring. We are very much looking forward to it. And I don’t know that I’ll be first in line, but you can count me in the top 20. Very good. Thank you, sir. You have a good day. We’ll talk soon. See you.

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