Savannah Food Crawls now available for pre-order: October 1st release date

And just like that, Savannah Food Crawls, my first published book, will hit store shelves and your mailbox beginning October 1st.

It is (both printed and digital copies) now available for pre-order via Amazon by clicking here.

Funny thing happened on the way to this release date. Through some confusion with my publisher, I was under the impression that the release had been moved to April of 2024. Only to find out just before Labor Day weekend that it was already available for pre-order, with a release date of October 1st. I’ll take it.

What’s this whole thing about? Read on… from February of this year…an explanation

On my side of the street, Summer 2022 was our busiest in the now 12 years that we’ve been doing Eat It and Like It. I can remember a time when Summer was slower than molasses running up hill in the winter around here. At least when it came to producing a television show and all of the stuffs that go along with it.

This year has been very different. Back in June I was fortunate enough to be invited on a press tour of Greece where we visited several Feta cheese production facilities all over the country. One of the top experiences of my career. I’ll share the cheesy details on that deeper into the Fall.

All of that fun aside, waiting for me when I got back from Europe was a book I was hired to write documenting Savannah’s food scene. Research actually started for this project back in May, but I was waiting for a few new ribbons to arrive for my typewriter before I jumped in and began riffing about all of the good eats we have to share here in the Hostess City of the South.

The book will be called Savannah Food Crawls. The assignment was to break downtown Savannah into sections and create over a dozen ‘food crawls’ in those sections. The stops could be food-centric or drink-centric or a combination of both. The idea was to string several of these stops together in each neighborhood or section of downtown to make up a substantial crawl.

I submitted the book this week featuring 16 such crawls. That came at the end of countless hours of research, discussions with fellow foodies around town and ultimately well over a hundred hours of writing, tweaking, deleting and starting over.

The good news is I can honestly say I know the food scene down here as well as anyone in town, so it just flowed once I started tapping keys. The bad news is, it was impossible to include everyone I wanted to. I hate that.

The assignment was pretty specific in that we wanted to create approachable (as in affordable) crawls. Sending everyone to my favorite fine dining eats was a big no no. I was allowed to include some of our higher-end eats, but I had to make it fit within the scope of the crawl.

Think about it, a Friday evening crawl from Elizabeth on 37^th to Common Thread to La Scala to Cotton and Rye would make for a pretty amazing evening. You won’t find it in my book.

Hop Atomica to Al Salaam Deli to Green Truck Pub to Lone Wolf Lounge to Over Yonder to Ardsley Station is the speed I was tasked with traveling at. Which is actually one of our crawls and a damn good one if you ask me.

Sprinkled in along the entire book are food tips, historic facts and relevant quotes related to a reader’s journey through Savannah. I even managed to squeeze in an homage to Sex and the City. I’m hoping that and my shout out to Randy’s BBQ sticks once my editor runs through it.

I actually learned quite a bit about Savannah in putting this book together. A lot of it I shared, some of it I didn’t. But one thing will be absolutely true about the finished product: anyone showing up here in Savannah with no knowledge of what we are about, will read that book and have a pretty comprehensive feel for our food scene.

And to-go cups.

Ultimately, it gives me no greater pleasure than to shine a light on the hard working people of food and beverage in this town. I’ve seen it first hand so many times. Owning a restaurant is often a thankless job. They bust their butts, miss family holidays and gatherings and string it all together as best they can, just to feed you. Just. To. Feed. You. That is never lost on me and I’m honored to be able to help however we can.

Finally, I want to publicly thank my friend Stratton Leopold for contributing a foreward to the book. It’s a wonderful perspective on where Savannah has been food-wise and where he believes we are going.

Meanwhile, check us out….Season 14 of Eat It and Like It with Jesse Blanco begins September 10th at 12:30pm on WJCL-TV. Read more here.

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