It would be most fair to say it isn’t inexpensive, but it is far from cheap.
Savannah’s newest Mexican restaurant opened quietly last week at the Kessler-owned JW Marriott Plant Riverside District. There were no ribbons to cut, there were no Mariachi bands welcoming the new venue. Nope. They just opened the doors and let the masses in to Eat It and Like It.
I’m guessing they did.
“The first few guests migrated to the bar area.” Says Shahin Afsharian, Executive Sous Chef for the entire Plant Riverside property. “After that, we were full all day until we closed at 11pm.”
The word was out. Even if it was pouring rain all weekend long.
Savannah Tequila Company is the next to the last venue to open in this massive ‘Disney-esque’ complex along Savannah’s riverfront. That venue will feature poolside bites, burgers, sandwiches and sushi. The type of menu that won’t require nearly the attention to detail that this latest one did. Why? Everything is being made in house.
Stop me if you’ve heard that before. Of course we all have. But this is different.
“We were all most excited about this menu.”
Chef Shahin’s story-and the path to this new menu-goes back to his arrival in Savannah roughly 3 years ago. He was offered a position at The Cooking School at The Mansion on Forsyth Park. He accepted that position having never been to Savannah because he wanted to be a part of what was eventually going to go up on along the Savannah River.
The project we now know as Plant Riverside. An authentic Mexican venue was always part of the plan. Chef grew up in Mexico City, but had yet to be involved in the development of a brand new Mexican restaurant.
“I wanted to do that.” he says.
Originally the thought was this was going to be a little more ‘higher end’ Mexican food. But as he and Executive Chef Kyle Lipetzky discussed the concept a little more, they realized there was going to need to be some compromise with the marketplace.
“When we were doing tastings well over a year ago” chef says, “Kyle spent a long time in Arizona. I spent a long time in Colorado. That’s when we said let’s think about what American people are expecting. Then we can introduce the Mexican tradition to it too.”
“We knew we wanted to make the tortillas from scratch.” he says. “That was the main inspiration for everything.”
Indeed they do. I watched them run the masa through a machine that was spitting out perfectly round tortillas. From there they went straight to a flat top for a light toasting and they were ready to go.
“We did a little over 650 tortillas between Saturday and Sunday.” Says Chef de Cuisine Victor Sejas, also of Mexican descent. He was brought up from Miami to run the show here in this space.
For the most part, you are going to see a lot of the same dishes you will see at most Mexican restaurants around town. The ‘mainstream’ ones at any rate.
Burrito? There is one. The burrito can be tied to a couple of different regions in Mexico, so they let that one slide. What you won’t find are sizzling piles of fajitas. You also won’t find bottomless baskets of chips and salsa.
This is not that kind of Mexican restaurant. A three salsa (all delicious) sampler and chips will run you $9.
“We consulted with an agency to help us find our cooks.” Chef says “All of our cooks are Mexican. They all know the flavors. Flavors that we grew up with.”
“We aren’t cutting any corners. For example, we couldn’t find a chorizo that we loved. So one of our cooks offered to make some for us. That’s what we are using.” he says.
The carnitas in my taco, complete with house made chicharrón, was absolutely delicious. “Those chicharrones (fried pork rinds) are taking us about a week to make.” chef says.
A walk through the kitchen tells me it’s the biggest kitchen on the property. I’m told it probably is. “This building is a new building. We weren’t limited by the size of the power plant here.”
It’s a good thing, too. Because every inch of the space in this rather large kitchen is being used to prep. There are bins full of dried beans, giant packages of dried chilies, spices, pots, pans, you name it. This is my grandmother’s kitchen on steroids. The massive pot of simmering Chicken Tinga ahead of tomorrow was proof. It smelled like it too.
“When we first did our tasting for Kessler Corporate, they gave us full freedom. There was no push back. At all.” Chef says. “The only, basically, control that they had was costs.”
“Apart from that, they loved what we introduced. They gave us the freedom to portray…and provide something different for Savannah.”
It is fair to say they have. Downtown anyway. About once a quarter, I escape to beautiful downtown Hardeeville, South Carolina for lunch for a sampling of these kinds of flavors. They’ve got it on lock down out there. Of course, if you know where to go.
I’ve got the hook up.
Back down on the waterfront, aside from your tacos and dips and array of salsas, you will find a handful of specialties. Included in that was their Carne Asada. Prime skirt steak. Sliced and served with some of their guacamole, beans, chilaquiles and some of their fresh tortillas. I loved it.
Seafood? Yeah, there’s a little. “Nothing ever frozen.” Chef tells me. “All of it coming from Russo’s Seafood.”
On the cocktail side over a 100 different spirits curated by Chelsea DeMark, Tequilier for STC. Of course there are going to be over 100. That’s why it’s called Savannah Tequila Company. That was always part of the vision. We will be talking to Chelsea in a few weeks.
Chef Shahin’s passion for what they are doing here is more than obvious just talking to him about the inspiration for the menu. This menu has been decades in the making really. He hopes to introduce more of his traditional dishes like moles and tamales down the road.
First things first. You need to give the new guy a try.
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