Subscribe via RSS Feed

A Seat at Mrs. Wilkes Table

October 31, 2010 0 Comments

A long line announced that we had arrived at Mrs. Wilkes house in Savanna, Georgia. As a child Brian ate at Mrs. Wilkes with his family. He said we had to return! So we took our place at the back of the line and waited our turn to enter the communal dinning room. The line inched forward as we chatted with our fellow hungry patrons, constantly being reassured by finished dinners as the emerged from the side door and announced “it is well worth the wait.”

Mrs. Wilkes has been a part of Savanna’s dining history for over seventy years.  Originally as a boarding house the goal of the home was to provide a quite place to rest and some good home cooking. Even non-residents enjoy the family style meals. Sitting next to a stranger is part of the boarding house experience– good food will bring people together.

The Wilkes family is still turning out great food. Though they no longer board the upstairs rooms, the family’s hospitality and that of the staff makes this an outstanding dining experience. And the delicious food helps too!

After a bit of a wait we were ushered in to the dim, low ceiling dinning room at the bottom of the old boarding house and took our seats at an oval table at the front of the room. Followed by our dinning companions we all quickly settled down with our glasses of sweet tea and waited, just a moment, for the food that inspired such a long line outside the door.

A team of severs descended on the table with a variety of steaming hot plates and bowls. We were informed that the food had be blessed already back in the kitchen and to dig in!

It was all Brian and I could do keep up with the rest our dinning party, passing dishes to the left–dish after dish trying to fit a taste of everything onto our plate!

Finally we took our first bite!

All the southern classics covered my plate: turnip greens, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, rutabaga, fried chicken, beef stew, beef barbeque, okra tomato salad, black eyed peas, baked beans, collard greens, corn, and more brought a smile to my face. In total I counted twenty six different items and that was not counting the fresh cornbread and biscuits. This meal was well worth the wait!

The beef stew offered chucks of well-cooked meat in a thick gravy with carrots and onions, while a beef brisket that was covered in a sweet and slightly sticky barbeque sauce with a robust flavor of smoke was great!

The baked beans were fabulous–loaded with pork flavor and thick tomato-like sauce the beans had a pleasant bite still left to them. The slightly bitter turnip greens topped with translucent onions had just enough of a bite left to their leaves to give them texture.

The biscuits were perfect!  The biscuits at Mrs. Wilkes was everything a biscuit should be. The biscuits were tender as could be, everything a biscuit hopes to be but never really is. They were layered with butter, a little sweet, and just salty enough to where the dough just melts in your mouth!

Once no one at the table could eat another bite one of our sever brought out a tray of desserts! Keeping with the Southern theme we were offered a choice of peach cobbler with cream or banana pudding. Brian took one while I took the other, this way we could share easily!

Though the dishes stayed true to their southern roots, I found them too sweet for my personal liking. The tender peaches were floating in a sugar syrup and topped with a nicely acidic cream. The pudding didn’t have a very strong banana flavor.  Instead it had more of a cream flavor, but it was a nice consistency.

By the end of the meal our dinning companions were no longer strangers. Our bellies were full and happy with the satisfaction of a good meal. This large meal turned out to be more then enough to hold us for the rest of the day.

The experience of the hospitality at Mrs. Wilkes is well worth the trip to this historical landmark. Don’t let the line scare you, soon the people from your table will be new friends and you will share a tastefully good time together.

About the Author:

Leave a Reply