Eating In Translation

Willie's Wee-Nee Wagon

Had one wee-nee; I prefer dogs with more snap and buns that are less all-enveloping. Willie's is also locally famous for its boneless pork-chop sandwich, served on a hero-style roll with mustard and grilled onions; I opted for a curiously named variation.

Swapping in sauerkraut for the onions, this "Rue Ban" (pronounced like any other rueben, $6.15, including sweet tea) sported a pair of peperoncini, too. How did it get a toehold in Georgia? According to the fellow at the serving window, the original owner (Willie, presumably) moved down from Chicago; the rueben's customary corned beef, Swiss cheese, and Russian dressing, it seems, didn't make the trip. Even so, sliced grilled pork on a big soft roll made for a good now-and-later sandwich, half of it hot, in the afternoon, half of it cold, as a before-bedtime snack.

Willie's Wee-Nee Wagon
3599 Altama Ave. (at 6th St.), Brunswick, Georgia
912-264-1146
Closed Sunday

Jones Kitchen

Pulling into the parking lot just before the stated opening hour, I found it already half-full. The dining room was all a-murmur, too. My timing was fine, the cashier reassured me, as she directed me to a seat at one of the communal benches: Jones Kitchen often opens 15 to 20 minutes early when the buffet is ready and folks are waiting outside. Given the variety and the value (all you can eat, $9, including a pitcher of sweet tea or the like), I'm glad I didn't dawdle on the drive down.

Shown: vegetables, meats, desserts. The first and most interesting round also squeezed in a biscuit and a scoop of stuffing. For the second and third I was tapping on the brakes; another (smaller) lunch was in the offing.

Jones Kitchen
526 West Cherry St. (North 3rd St.-North 3rd St. Ln.), Jesup, Georgia
912-427-4100
Open Monday to Saturday, 11:00-2:00 (though doors may open early if the buffet is ready)

John Houstoun McIntosh Sugarhouse

Built in the late 1820s, this sugarhouse was the first to employ a horizontal mill powered by cattle, according to John Houstoun McIntosh's colleague Thomas Spaulding. By the time of the Civil War the building was employed to produce arrowroot starch as well; when and why it fell into disuse is unknown. See also this 1844 comparison of sugar-production technologies (horizontal trumps vertical) and this 1985 report on archeological testing at the site.

McIntosh's building is also colloquially known as the Tabby Sugar Works, owing to its use of a particular local concrete. To build permanent structures, early settlers on the coasts of what would become Georgia and South Carolina had trees, but no stones or clay — only extensive middens of empty shells, "the accumulation of countless past oyster roasts." European settlers, in this instance, had to make do with Native American leftovers.

John Houstoun McIntosh Sugarhouse
3600 Charlie Smith Sr. Highway (at Georgia Spur 40), St. Mary's, Georgia

B. Matthews

West African pea fritters have many relations in the Americas. Easily the most lavish is the Brazilian acarajé (ah-cah-rah-Jeh), which might be stuffed with vatapá, a creamy paste flavored with seafood and nuts; caruru de quiabo, an onion-and-ginger-laced okra gumbo; bacalao salad; and the inevitable shrimp. In Brazil's northeastern state of Bahia, the acarajé is a street-food favorite.

By comparison, at first blush my black-eyed pea cake sandwich ($7.75) seemed rather reserved, especially in the company of a side salad. (I might have had fries instead.) Closer inspection, however, revealed the shrewd use of twin fritters, one for each half of the sandwich; while I started on the first, the second remained crisp outside, warm and delightfully moist inside. Each pea cake rested on lettuce, tomato, and pickled red onion, was draped in pepperjack cheese, and got an extra zing from spicy remoulade that was spread, above and below, across the wheatberry bread. This sandwich may not samba, but from where I was sitting, it worked together very nicely.

B. Matthews
325 East Bay St. (at Habersham St.), Savannah, Georgia
912-233-1319
www.BMatthewsEatery.com

Factors Walk

The city of Savannah began as an encampment on a 40-foot bluff overlooking the Savannah River. Between the mid-1700s and mid-1800s, the city became one of the country's busiest ports, principally for cotton but also for locally grown rice. The bluff, however, presented a challenge to doing business along the riverfront. The solution, developed over the course of a century or so, incorporated warehouses (not shown here) facing the water at river level, and offices built atop them for the business agents, or factors. Stairways and cobbled paths lead from the riverfront to the top of the bluff; walkways like these connect the bluff to the offices.

Today the offices are occupied by antique dealers and the like; the riverside is lined mainly with bar-restaurants, candy stores, and souvenir shops.

Factors Walk
Between Bay St. and River St., Savannah, Georgia

Sisters of the New South

This "meat and three," though not explicitly labeled as such, featured oxtails ($12.49) with a supporting cast of cabbage, lima beans, red rice, and (largely out of frame) cornbread. Typical for this sort of Southern combo, the sides were less than heart-healthy: The cabbage was cooked with loads of butter, and the rice, my substitute for the 86'ed okra and tomatoes, was laden with little bits of pork. I refilled my bottomless sweet tea ($1.99) at least twice nonetheless.

Sisters of the New South
110 Mall Blvd. (Abercorn St.-Hodgson Memorial Dr.), Savannah, Georgia
912-355-1330
(One of several locations)
www.TheSistersOfTheNewSouth.com

Woolworth's

Former site of a five-and-dime whose lunch counter was one of many in downtown Savannah targeted by sit-ins and boycotts a half-century ago. Today this corner is occupied by a Subway. As best as I can tell, all trace of the Woolworth's lunch counter itself is long gone; only the terrazzo entryway remains.

Woolworth's
Surviving signage at 131 East Broughton St. (at Abercorn St.), Savannah, Georgia

Narobia's Grits & Gravy

This grilled shrimp platter ($7.50) was even more filling than appearances suggest. The grits were firm enough to be cut and speared with a fork; what looked at first to be a pool of grits was closer in texture to a grits cake. With onions, peppers, two over easy, and a very buttery biscuit.

Narobia's Grits & Gravy
2019 Habersham St. (East 36th-East 37th Sts., Savannah, Georgia
912-231-0563
Breakfast and lunch only; closed Sunday

Leopold's Ice Cream

This creamy, rum-scented cup of tutti frutti ($4) was laden with candied fruit — the green and orange bits are less evident than the red — and bits of Georgia pecans, too.

Leopold's Ice Cream
212 East Broughton St. (Abercorn-Lincoln Sts.), Savannah, Georgia
912-234-4442
www.LeopoldsIceCream.com

Sunbeam Bread

Surviving signage repurposed (some time ago) for a hair salon
Savannah, Georgia