Skip to main content

Mrs Wilkes' Dining Room


We ate at Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room during our visit to Savannah in 2010 and I really wanted to go back so I could blog about it because it's one of those experiences you don't want to forget.  I also really wanted to go back because the food was so good, a true Southern experience.  They say that Mrs. Wilkes has the best fried chicken in the South.  And I believe it.


All the food is served family style with 10 people at a table.  



You will know everybody at your table because they don't take reservations and only serve from 11:00-2:00 pm daily for lunch so you must stand in line and you get to know everyone since you're standing in line for about 1 to 1-1/2 hours.


Mrs. Wilkes took over the boarding house in 1943 and kept feeding hungry patrons right up to her death in 2002 at the age of 95.  It has continued with her family now running it.  President Obama ate here when he came to Savannah in 2010 and there are photos displayed from his visit.



My blog has a couple of Mrs. Wilkes recipes because I bought her cookbook last time I was here. One of my favorites is her Broccoli Salad which I've made many times since I got her cookbook. And, of course, Cheese Grits which I absolutely LOVE.  Today, they did not serve either one of these dishes, but you never know what they will be serving since it changes daily.  However, they usually have the staples of fried chicken which is fresh, crisp and hot but not greasy at all.  Today, they also had beef stew, meatloaf, barbecue ribs and chicken and dumplings.


They include all the Southern deliciousness of creamed corn


 yams


 black-eyed peas


baked beans


collard greens


and don't forget the biscuits and cornbread with syrup handy to pour over.


Other items not pictured are the mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, Savannah red rice, okra, green beans, lima beans, macaroni salad with beverage included of Southern sweet tea.  Dessert was passed around at the end.  I had the banana pudding


 and Bruce had the peach cobbler.


The all inclusive meal was $20.00, collected at the cash register as you left.  I sat next to a lady from Savannah who eats at Mrs. Wilkes' a lot, more times than she can count, she told me.  She said that when Mrs. Wilkes was running the boardinghouse, the public could also come eat at her dinning room.  She said that pretty soon more people were coming to eat in the dinning room and she was getting more business that way so she closed the boardinghouse. 


The woman had all her favorites, especially the sweet tea. She said on a daily basis, she will drink 10 glasses a day, she just loves it.  A true Southerner, I guess.  She was a well-dressed, fit and trim looking lady who just came by herself to eat at Mrs. Wilkes'.  It's such a welcoming, feel-at-home place.  I already want to come back and be a true Southern lady, too.




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meatloaf by Mark Bittman

Once again, I turned on the television yesterday and saw that Mark Bittman was on the Today show and was making his version of  meatloaf .  This must be meatloaf season.  It was surprisingly similar to the  Pioneer Woman's version  who was also recently on.   I was a little surprised of his version because Mark Bittman is into healthy eating and has lost a lot of weight and improved his health by changing his diet which he writes about in his book,  Food Matters .  His meatloaf recipe also included bacon and cheese!  I must be doing something wrong.  The thing to remember, which he writes about in his book, is that you can eat healthy without going extreme or changing your whole life.    If you don't know who Mark Bittman is, he is a food writer and a four star chef with multiple cookbooks who loves to eat but changed his food philosophy to improve his health.  He tells his story in Food Matters and provides ...
4 comments
Read more

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free.  But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one.  My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations  and we all loved them. My friend lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends.  We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop.  She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots.  We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.)   The views are always quite lovely, too.  Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception.  I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, t...
2 comments
Read more

Waking Up in Vegas

and just like that...we were Waking Up in Vegas.   Just like the Katy Perry song. We went to her 78th performance which was her second-to-last Las Vegas residency show entitled "Play".  That was perfect for us because we went to Vegas simply to play.  Her concert was a great finale for us because it was high energy and full of silliness, just the way Katy Perry is.  And we were feeling it after three nights in Las Vegas. "Get up, and shake the gutter off your clothes now, That's what you get for waking up in Vegas".    Here's what she said about her show: "I created this show after the birth of my daughter, Daisy Dove. When I met her, it was like all the love I was ever searching for finally showed up. This show is for everyone’s inner child and for the hope that maybe if we could all see life through the eyes of a child, we would be free. Because never forget, love is and will always be the key,” she said. We went to Vegas spur of the moment because Br...
Post a Comment
Read more