![\"(upt)own\"](\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1211\/1472341773_f2e9670c29.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nUptown is this restaurant on Main Street that’s kind of in the tradition of trendy New York bistros, where things are black and glossy and stylish and asymmetrical and that sort of thing. I’d eaten there once before when it was fairly new, and I remember being unimpressed. But that’s because I had a stick up my ass and felt ridiculous even being in Savannah. <\/p>\n
Said stick has been more or less removed. I’m trying to not be such a jerk about my hometown and sort of drink it in and appreciate it for what it is. (I do not extend this generous line of thought to any time spent in Wal-Mart.) <\/p>\n
Anyhoo, yesterday evening, as the sun was setting on the river, mom and I stopped by Uptown for dinner. The weather was beautiful, so we asked to sit on the deck. I asked for the wine list with glee — only recently did Savannah finally pass a liquor-by-the-drink law that allowed booze in restaurants — and was relieved that it wasn’t all Yellowtail and Sutter Home. And Franzia. Mom ordered the glazed salmon and sweet-potato fries, and I ordered the chunky chicken salad sandwich (with cranberries!). <\/p>\n
I almost danced a little jig when they brought out mom’s salad. It was a real salad — you know with romaine and olives and parmesan and all that good stuff. Not just iceberg lettuce, carrot strips and bacon bits. <\/p>\n
Seriously, I can’t express to you how bad the standard fare is in Savannah. You’ve got your caste of fast food, of course — McDonald’s, Taco Bell, KFC, Wendy’s, Burger King, etc. — but then just above that are the so-called restaurants that, honestly, don’t serve food that’s much more sophisticated than a sackful of Krystal burgers. These places pretty much rely on Sysco for their food supplies, so everything tastes like something you probably ate in your middle school cafeteria. Sure, you can probably get some decent soul food-type stuff if you’re okay with everything being fried and drenched in cheese and ranch dressing, but it sucks to have to eat chicken-fried chicken or fried chicken strips or fried steak or any of that crap when you want to go out to a nice dinner that includes non-breaded items.<\/p>\n
So, enter Uptown, which has been around for at least five years. The menu isn’t huge, which probably turns a lot of people off. It’s fairly pricey (our tab for two was $40). And the menu offers a lot of items that probably freak the more xenophobic Hardin Countians out (pot stickers, anyone?). Plus, the general aesthetic of the place is very anti-redneck. Shit, it seems very anti-Savannah. <\/p>\n
Which — surprise! — is why I guess I enjoyed myself so much. It was like a little slice of urbanity in a big fat Southern-fried pie. And Savannah needs that diversity. I mean, I enjoy going to the River Heights Cafe and inhaling the scent of greasy, fried catfish while whooping it up with the family, but I also really like kicking back with my mom and eating fantastic<\/i><\/a> and beautifully prepared<\/a> food with pretty silverware while drinking wine on the deck of a sidewalk bistro. <\/p>\n It’s about freaking time Savannah offered that option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve still not gotten over the irrational love\/hate\/mostly hate thing I have for Savannah, but never did I expect to find something in Savannah I can actually gush about and say that I really, really like. Uptown is this restaurant on Main Street that’s kind of in the tradition of trendy New York bistros, where things are black and glossy and stylish and asymmetrical and that sort of thing. I’d eaten there once before when… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1jWWl-qV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theogeo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theogeo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theogeo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theogeo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theogeo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theogeo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theogeo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theogeo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theogeo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}