The reason is very simple. It’s time.
For the last 7 or 8 years, we have been lucky enough to have a front row seat to what has become Savannah’s restaurant scene. I’m not going to waste your time with too many tales from memory lane, but forgive me for having a chuckle when I think back to the rumors of a celebrity chef looking to open a restaurant in an old warehouse on Victory Drive that was otherwise used to park campaign signs during election season.
Yes, much has changed in the last 4 or 5 years around here.
If I sat here and put my mind to it, I could likely count close to 2 dozen bars and restaurants that have opened since the Summer of 2014. The season I usually refer to when discussing when everything began to change food-wise in Savannah.
I am regularly asked how I am able to keep track of it all. Yes, it is a more than full time job. I consider myself lucky to have it. But I also know that for the average couple that doesn’t live downtown, it is tough to get to many of these restaurants in a 6 month span. For all of the good intentions in the world, the next thing you know months have gone by and you still haven’t gotten to restaurant X.
The times of the year when people make exceptions to those rules are during the very popular Restaurant Weeks. Restaurant Week isn’t just popular here in Savannah. They exist all over America. Including New York, DC, and Miami (who calls theirs Miami Spice…I happen to find that amusing).
The one thing all of those cities have in common is that their “Restaurant Week” promotions all last a month. Yes, they call it Restaurant Week, but they last a month. Go figure. Something about branding and recognition and lots of smart people stuff that is way above my pay grade. I don’t know, whatever.
What I do know is that for the better part of the last decade, the existing Savannah restaurant week has been welcomed with open arms by diners looking for a deal. Three courses for $30 at any participating restaurant.
I also know that restaurants have been reluctant to participate the last couple of years because of increased costs on their end. They have anyway because they had no other option when it came to Restaurant Week.
Well, now they do.
We decided some months ago to move forward with our Eat It and Like It Restaurant Weeks as part of moving our television show to WTOC-TV. We’ve enjoyed a larger audience in our new home and figured it would be a perfect platform from which to promote such a large culinary ‘event.’
Eat It and Like Its Restaurant Week is 24 days long. Double the existing Restaurant Weeks length. The reason for that is simple. Once upon a time, 12 days was enough time to visit a couple of restaurants when there were only a handful on the scene. Now, with 30-50 legitimate dining options? How on earth can you even process that in 12 days? You can’t. Now you have the time to plan it and equally as important, budget for it.
It should be mentioned that the price point for our Restaurant Weeks are Dinner: 3 courses for $40. Lunch will be offered for 2 courses for $20 and Brunch will be 2 courses for $23. For the very simple reason that the price of food has not gone down in the last ten years
You should also know that the motivation for this project is two-fold. With so many restaurants on the scene and so many more to come, we want the opportunity to welcome travelers in drive markets to come and get a taste of our city. It doesn’t have to be Atlanta or Charlotte or Jacksonville either. Twenty four days gives our friends right over the river in Beaufort or Hilton Head Island an opportunity to make plans to come to Savannah and Eat It and Like It.
We are building this near month-long event with one eye on the future. Five years from now, when we have 60-70 restaurants to enjoy in this town, we will look back and be thankful that we have more time to enjoy a good deal.
We’ve built a brand new website for this project. The future home of Eat It and Like Its Restaurant Weeks and upcoming culinary events will be tasteitsav.com. You can find all the details there. The list will be growing from here.
I cannot begin to tell you how excited we are. To have had restaurants signing up on the spot. Have them tell us how excited they are that someone is looking at building something bigger and better with our food scene in mind.
You will undoubtedly be hearing much more about this as time rolls on.
See you on TV.
Jesse
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