JAMES BEARD NOMINATIONS: SAVANNAH’S FOOD ACCOLADES KEEP ROLLING IN

The Grey honored once again

Unforgettable Bakery & Cafe nominated for first time

Savannah’s Unforgettable Bakery and Cafe (238 Eisenhower Dr.) and renowned restaurant The Grey (109 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd) have both been nominated for coveted 2023 James Beard Awards, considered the Academy Awards of the food world.

UNFORGETTABLE BAKERY & CAFE: OUTSTANDING BAKERY

Unforgettable Bakery & Cafe is being recognized in the Outstanding Bakery category. This is owner Belinda Baptiste’s first ever James Beard Award nomination (out of only 20 nationwide), in the first year that bakeries are being recognized. Honorees for this award are nominated for “exemplary breads, pastries, or desserts.” Baptiste and her bakery are best known for the cakes they sell.

“People know us for our cakes,” said Baptiste in a 2020 interview with Connect Savannah.

The cafe and bakery also strives to support the community it serves, so she started a nonprofit called the Unforgettable Dream Fund.

“I want to make a difference in the life of one person or one family at a time. Maybe that one family will one day help someone else. That’s what I want to do, to give back. Giving back doesn’t have to be a lot, you just have to be the leader where you are placed,” she said in the same interview.

A portion of sales goes to provide scholarships to students in underserved communities. According to the mission statement at unforgettabledreamfund.org, their goal “is to change lives, one student at a time, by raising funds for underserved students to attend historically Black colleges or universities.”

THE GREY: OUTSTANDING RESTAURANT

Not new to the James Beard Awards is Savannah restaurant stalwart The Grey, nominated in the Outstanding Restaurant category. Chef Mashama Bailey, who co-owns the restaurant with the managing partner and friend Johno Morisano, took the top honor of the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef in 2022.

Known for her port city Southern cuisine, Chef Bailey has been serving thoughtful, artful dishes at The Grey since the tail end of 2014. Over the years, Bailey and her business partner, John O. Morisano, have taken the fine-dining world by storm, firmly etching an indelible spot for Savannah on the national culinary map. With numerous accolades and awards under her belt, she also received the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast in 2019.

According to the James Beard Awards, each nominee will be compared and ranked by a panel of three judges to determine the five finalists. Those finalists are scheduled to be revealed on March 29. Then, the winners of the James Beard Awards will be announced at a gala in Chicago, IL on June 5.

EAT IT & LIKE IT (CONTINUED)

Dottie’s Market should be open this Spring.

And, of course, there are more.

That doesn’t make everyone happy. I most certainly get that.

If I had a nickel for every time someone said “I miss old Savannah.”

From my seat though, change is good. Growth is good. Progress is good. Without it, we’d still be waiting for a guy to pull up on a horse twice a week with correspondence from your long lost relative in Garden City.

Count me among the crowd who is excited about what is happening in our city. I’ve seen it from almost the ground up since arriving in 1999. I live downtown. I see the ‘visitors’ regularly. Yes, I’m irritated when they stand in the middle of the street taking pictures at Chippewa Square without any regard to vehicular traffic. I get it.

But I am also glad they are here. Spending their money here in one of the most picturesque neighborhoods in America. That is a fact.

Is that going to help some of you feel better about what is happening in Savannah right now? Probably not.

And that’s OK.

As long at the people in charge of responsible growth do what they are tasked with doing, I think we are going to be just fine.

What’s in store for Savannah in the next 5-10 years is going to be wonderful and I can’t wait.

CULTURE

WHAT ARE WE READING?

PRESENTED AND

Curated

BY E. SHAVER, BOOKSELLER

February is the month of love, and what better way to celebrate than by diving into a good book? Here are three must-reads that feature romance and love as central themes. These books are sure to make your heart flutter. So, grab a cozy blanket, a cup of tea, and get ready to fall in love with these stories!

LETTERS OF NOTE: LOVE COMPILED

BY SHAUN USHER

the book based on the beloved website of the same name, became an instant classic on publication in 2013, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. This new edition sees the collection of the world’s most entertaining, inspiring and unusual letters updated with fourteen riveting new missives and a new introduction from curator Shaun Usher.

From Virginia Woolf’s heart-breaking suicide letter to Queen Elizabeth II’s recipe for drop scones sent to President Eisenhower; from the first recorded use of the expression ‘OMG’ in a letter to Winston Churchill, to Gandhi’s appeal for calm to Hitler; and from Iggy Pop’s beautiful letter of advice to a troubled young fan, to Leonardo da Vinci’s remarkable job application letter, Letters of Note is a celebration of the power of written correspondence which captures the humour, seriousness, sadness and brilliance that make up all of our lives.

Two Wrongs Make A Right

BY CHLOE LIESE

Jamie Westenberg and Bea Wilmot have nothing in common except a meet-disaster and the mutual understanding that they couldn’t be more wrong for each other. But when the people closest to them play Cupid and trick them into going on a date, Jamie and Bea realize they have something else in common after all—an undeniable need for revenge.

Soon their plan is in place: Fake date obnoxiously and convince the meddlers they’re madly in love. Then, break up spectacularly and dash everyone’s hopes, putting an end to the matchmaking madness once and for all.

To convince everyone that they’ve fallen for each other, Jamie and Bea will have to nail the performance of their lives. But as their final act nears and playing lovers becomes easier than not, they begin to wonder: What if Cupid’s arrow wasn’t so off the mark? And what if two wrongs do make a right?

Written In The Stars

BY ALEXANDRIA BELLEFLEUR

After a disastrous blind date, Darcy Lowell is desperate to stop her well-meaning brother from playing matchmaker ever again. Love—and the inevitable heartbreak—is the last thing she wants. So she fibs and says her latest set up was a success. Darcy doesn’t expect her lie to bite her in the ass.

Elle Jones, one of the astrologers behind the popular Twitter account Oh My Stars, dreams of finding her soul mate. But she knows it is most assuredly not Darcy... a no-nonsense stick-in-the-mud, who is way too analytical, punctual, and skeptical for someone as free-spirited as Elle. When Darcy’s brother—and Elle’s new business partner—expresses how happy he is that they hit it off, Elle is baffled. Was Darcy on the same date? Because... awkward.

Darcy begs Elle to play along and she agrees to pretend they’re dating. But with a few conditions: Darcy must help Elle navigate her own overbearing family during the holidays and their arrangement expires on New Year’s Eve. The last thing they expect is to develop real feelings during a faux relationship. But maybe opposites can attract when true love is written in the stars?