Maggie is back to talk about where she has been eating and liking the last few months. Including a Restaurant Week visit to Ombra, a new discovery in the Mexican food department and a special kind of off the beaten track brunch. Ombra’s Veal pictured above.

Jesse Blanco: Hey, hey, hey everybody, welcome to Monday mornings with Maggie Crenshaw. My name is Jesse Blanco, host of not only this podcast, but Eat It and Like It with Jesse Blanco, you can find that weekends on WJCL television. On the other end of this situation is my dear friend Margaret, we call her Maggie Crenshaw. You know, Maggie, it’s like we hibernated and it’s starting to warm up and you’re seeing the flowers blooming and all of that, and here you are.

Margaret Crenshaw: Here we are! Good morning.

JB: How are you?

MC: I’m doing well, how about you?

JB: I’m good. It’s good to see you, it’s good to hear from you. I’ve been chugging along, but we’ve been on a little bit of a winter solstice–no solstice is the wrong word. What is the word I’m looking for? Winter…

MC: Hiatus.

JB: Hiatus, hiatus. There you go. See, that’s why you’re the smart one of the group. We’ve been chatting, but you’ve been cooking, you’ve been doing this, you’ve been doing that, but we have largely been staying indoors, yeah?

MC: Yes, as you know, I work from home, so it’s all about when it’s cold outside, just hunker down and show up and do the work every day.

JB: Yeah, yeah. Do people want to see homes when it’s cold out? Like it’s been–first of all, would you agree that it’s been colder for longer over this winter than we’ve had in the last few years?

MC: Yes. Yes, definitely. Definitely.

JB: Yeah. Obviously last year we had the ice and all that, but we’ve had more cold days this winter. So do people want to go look at homes when it’s this cold?

MC: I mean, I’ve been very busy. I’ve been far busier since the calendar turned to 2026 than I was in the last few months of 2025. But that’s sort of typical, you know, things start to ramp up moving towards the spring. Sellers getting their homes ready to put on the market, and we’ve had some buyers pent up waiting to see kind of where things were going. And now there’s some movement, and I have things under contract… everything’s looking up.

JB: Good, good, up is good, up is good. And in doing so, we have both been running around eating–me personally, I haven’t been eating out in the month of January as much as I normally do, for a thousand reasons we don’t need to get into right now, I had restaurant week, I had cooking demos, all kinds of stuff. But you’ve been making the rounds on your island, you’re telling me. Here, there and everywhere, huh?

MC: It’s been a lot of eating out, despite not wanting to go out into cold weather. But yes, yes, I have dined in some really great places.

JB: All right, well, let’s start at the top. Do you have a favorite meal of the last five weeks? Is that fair to put that word in your mouth?

MC: Well, you know, we haven’t really caught up since restaurant week, and I wanted to let you know my experience at Ombra during restaurant week. My colleague Beth, shout out to Beth. Hi Beth!

JB: Hi Beth!

MC: Beth and I were treated to a very nice evening at Ombra by our team leaders, and she and I both ordered off of the restaurant week menu. The other two did not. So it was kind of like you could if you wanted to, but you didn’t have to. I had the veal marsala, it was spot on. I had a lobster bisque right before that. And I had zabaglione, which is something I would never order for dessert, but it seemed like the healthier, less decadent option, and we were already just so full. The appetizers, we did a charcuterie board that was unbelievable. I could have stopped there, but we carried on, we went on.

JB: Ombra, I love eating there. It’s been a minute for me. When was the last time you had been there? We haven’t talked about them in a long, long time, I would guess it was over a year.

MC: Over a year, for sure. For sure. 

JB: Yeah. It’s funny how we have so many great options for Italian that you end up at this one or that one with a friend who wants to go, or you have friends in town or whatever. Next thing you know, a year or two goes by and you haven’t been to a place that you very much like. That happens quite a bit. Well, I’m glad you got there, and I’m glad it’s as wonderful as ever. Because that—you know, I made a big four. My big four would be, Ombra, no particular order, Michael Anthony’s, Pomodori, and I added Coastal Capri last year. Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s my big four. Other good ones, sure. But that’s, that’s my Mount Rushmore. But yeah. So you enjoyed it. I’m glad, very glad to hear that. Everybody enjoyed theirs as well?

MC: Yes, I mean, I saw on the table there was a delicious beet salad. Someone had the gnocchi, which looked decadent and wonderful. Another had a veal scallopini, like a bone-in veal scallopini situation that was amazing looking.

JB: Yeah, that sounds like it flipped Fred Flintstone’s car kind of thing. (laughing)

MC: Yes! Yeah.

JB: Very good. Okay, where else did you go? Tell us about this Mexican experience.

MC: Well, you know, I discovered something! So I have a friend who was like, “have you ever been to this La Cabanita? It’s on Dillon Road.” And I was like, “no, I didn’t even know it existed.” And so we met there for lunch. It’s very unassuming, they just serve food. They’re not doing anything else. They’re not, you know, trying to win a decor award or anything of that nature. But I had a steak burrito, which is not something I would normally order. 

JB: Doesn’t sound like you. 

MC: No, no, but I was in the mood for some good protein. Anyway, it was delicious. I mean, it had rice and beans in it like normal, avocado, but also lettuce and tomato and fresh shredded cheese. It wasn’t all hot and melty, it was also very sandwichy, which I liked! I really liked the cool crisp lettuce, you don’t normally get that. At least it’s not been my experience. And then my lunch mate had the enchilada suizas, which were good, I tasted them, very good, very good. Refried beans, the whole thing, the whole situation. Just great food.

JB: There are a couple—I would say that I know of two, maybe three? Two. I’m comfortable saying two, little dives on the island. I could get into Bluffton and that number would probably double or triple, but there are two on the island that are little–you would never know unless you know. You know, I usually describe these little dives as, you better come packing some Spanish, just some kind of, at least, you know, defend yourself kind of Spanish, you don’t need to be fluent. But those are the best, and they exist if you know where they are. They exist on the island, and it sounds like you found one. Obviously there was no language barrier there, right? It was good, language-wise?

MC: It was very good. Well, I mean, the server couldn’t understand my English or my Spanish. (laughing)

JB: Okay! (laughing) Those are the best ones.

MC: Luckily, their menu is in Spanish, but there is English translation. 

JB: That’s what I’m talking about.

MC: So we did pretty good. Sign language is all.

JB: That’s what I’m talking about. That’s what I’m talking about. Good. Yeah, those are the best ones. Those are the best ones. Bring somebody with you that can at least, hablo un poquito de español and you have a fighting chance to get exactly what you want, how you want it. So I’m glad there’s one more. I’m gonna be over there for Seafood Festival, which we’ll talk about in a minute, but I’m gonna have to check this out. It’s called La Cabanita?

MC: La Cabanita, on Dillon Road.

JB: La Cabanita on Dillon Road. Very good. Okay. And then one more that you hit that you were very impressed with?

MC: So there’s a restaurant behind Santa Fe Cafe. And it used to be a little Italian place where I had been, and I can’t remember the name of what it was. But my friend Mary, shout out to Mary. Hi, Mary!

JB: Hi Mary!

MC: She wanted to meet, and the restaurant that is now in that space is breakfast and lunch, and they close at like 2, and it’s called GT International Cafe. And I had never been, and she said, “it’s so good, let me take you there.” And so it was lunchtime, but we both opted for breakfast items, and I had a benedict with salmon, not lox, but like a cooked piece of salmon. 

JB: Nice! Do we know what the GT stands for?

MC: No, and I meant to ask!

JB: We could probably find out in a Google.

MC: It was delicious. I had hash browns with it that were super crispy, I didn’t have to say please make the hash browns crispy, you know, sometimes you have to tell them you want them extra crispy. It was delicious. Little fruit on the side. I felt healthy.

JB: Wow. Very good. Whoa, look at that. Did you see that? For those of you who are listening and not watching, Maggie leaned back in her chair and a ray of sunshine just blew in through the window behind her, and it was an incredibly angelic moment. Very nice. Nicely done. 

MC: That’s me, I’m angelic.

JB: Nicely done as we roll through this unofficial holiday, yes, as we sit here and chat, it is President’s Day, but it’s also February 16th. Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room opens for the first time today for the season here in Savannah. Did you tell me you went there a hundred years ago, or you’ve not been there?

MC: Well, I used to go there all the time. Back when we first lived on the island, there weren’t that many restaurants. And when we had folks visit us, my dad would take everybody to Savannah, see all the historic things, and go to Mrs. Wilkes. But I haven’t been in years.

JB: Yeah, they close now. Well, they used to always close for January. That was a thing, because it was tumbleweed around here once upon a time. Now there’s more activity in January. It’s still very slow by comparison to March, April, and May, obviously. But they’ve gotten deeper into February, they used to reopen February 1st, February 3rd, February 5th, February 8th. But now they’ve settled in the last couple of years right around now, President’s Day weekend. So they opened today, which I’m going to go over there and say hi to everybody. It’s kind of become a tradition where I go over there for opening day. There’s nobody there. You might get 20 people in line, which everybody sits down immediately, so it’s a good time to go. Anyone who’s never been, it’s Southern cooking, it’s the best Southern cooking in Savannah by far. Family style, right there in the heart of the historic district on Jones Street, yeah, it’s really good. But today is opening day and a fine time will be had. The lines will start lining up. I drive by it almost every day and season. It’s around the block and the whole thing. Yes, it is that good. Cash only, cash only, cash only. (laughing) That’s how they roll. So yeah, so it’s time to get back to get back to some eating. Told some people a couple of weeks ago, I had restaurant week obviously here in Savannah and I was locked down. My January was just cooking demos and restaurant week. And then on Friday, February the 6th, I was actually sitting here in my office and I thought, okay. I kind of feel this exhale where I can turn my attention to the rest of the calendar, including the Hilton Head Seafood Festival, which is coming up. I’ll be over there all week next week and all kinds of fun things that I wasn’t obligated to in the month of January. So I feel like I can actually move about the country if that makes sense. Haven’t been over to the island… I was there last Saturday for a quick photo shoot over in Sea Pine, stopped by to see Amanda and Robin quickly and then raced home. But other than that little quick visit, I think I was on the island for two hours, I haven’t been over there since before Christmas.

MC: Wow! I’ve noticed.

JB: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s how it goes. But for the reasons I said, I had a cooking demo in Orlando if you remember, I had one here in Savannah, and cooking demo weekends, and then restaurant week. So I’m ready to get back at it, and looking forward to spending an entire week on your lovely Island next week for the Hilton Head Seafood Festival, which will be a good time.

MC: Can’t wait! 

JB: Yes, yes, yes. For anyone who’s curious, that is the 23rd through March the 1st. You can find all you need to know at HiltonHeadSeafoodFestival.com and they have everything in all price ranges. Cooking demos with Marcus Samuelsson and Kardea Brown and BJ Dennis and all kinds of stuff all week long. So check out the website. There you go. You have any plans to eat out this week?

MC: I don’t, not yet. 

JB: Well. That’s how it be sometimes.

MC: It’s only Monday morning.

JB: Yeah, right? (laughing) Yeah. It’ll come upon you real quick. “Hey, we’re going to blah, blah. Let’s go. Bring some Spanish.”

MC: That’s right.

JB: All right, then we can get out of here. Tell us where we can find you if we’d like to plan to list our home.

MC: I am on the Kiser Jetton team at EXP Realty, and you can check out listings for sale at my website margaretcrenshaw.com 

JB: Sounds like a plan. It is good to see you. It’s good to hear from you. 

MC: Good to see you.

JB: We are, what is it that they call it? In baseball, hope springs eternal where everybody’s all renewed and reinvigorated to seize the day and the weeks and the months ahead.

MC: That’s right, bring on the spring!

JB: Yes, yes, you know it’s going to be this coming weekend—I’m actually going to be over there for the Gullah Geechee celebration. They’re doing an event at a Michellville Freedom Park on Saturday. I’ll be there as a judge for that, but it’s going to be 80 degrees, yo. Right? 

MC: Yay, pack your swimsuit.

JB: Yeah, I gotta go toss my chest of drawers to find my tank top and Speedo.

MC: That’s right. (laughing) Wardrobe change!

JB: (laughing) Yeah, right? All right. On that note, I’ll leave everybody with that visual. We’ll bid you a wonderful rest of your day and your week, and we’ll see you next week or next time, whenever we get back together.