Savannah magazine January/February 2020

Page 79

TASTE

Ready, Set, Auction For Johno Morisano, stakes and spirits ran high at one unforgettable dinner party “DO I HEAR twenty-thousand dollars?” the auctioneer asked. It was a brisk February night last year in Forsyth Park, but the hundreds of attendees at Savannah’s swankiest fundraiser, the Telfair Museums’ annual Telfair Ball, were plenty toasty in their tuxedos and evening gowns. The opulent tent, which seemed the size of a football field, had heaters, champagne, and hors d’oeuvres on hand to warm everyone’s bellies and flush their faces “Yes! Twenty-thousand,” she boomed, pointing toward a handsome gentleman, “coming from the good sir on the left.” She turned to her right, “That’s twentyone thousand to you, ma’am,” she gently demanded of an elegant woman in a glittering white floor-length gown. Without hesitation, and with all the hundreds of sets of eyes locked upon her,

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the woman nonchalantly raised her paddle, as if she did this all the time. Onlookers cheered like we were at a football game rather than a philanthropic fundraiser. My wife, Carol, and I, also dressed in our finest, sweated bullets as we bore witness to the mood overtaking the room. The auctioneer, expecting the move, quickly turned back to the gentleman, “Twenty-two thousand to you, good sir.” But his paddle remained in his lap. The room fell silent. “Twenty-one thousand going once,” said the auctioneer. “Going twice,” — yadda, yadda, yadda, you know the rest. I excused myself from the table and stepped outside to dial my business partner, Mashama Bailey. When she answered, I could barely

hear her over the sound of a busy Saturday night dinner service in the kitchen of The Grey, the restaurant we own together. “The dinner we donated to the Telfair just sold at the auction,” I said. “For 21 grand.” Silence for a few seconds, and then she uttered two unprintable words. Eight months later, the winners of the auction, Leslie and Angus Littlejohn, Schuyler and Charlie Hinnant and Cathy and Doug Johnston (and their son AJ), along with their friends Chuck Chewning, Tommy Gennuso and Karon and Rick Meyer, came to the downtown Savannah home Carol and I share to claim their prize: a private dinner cooked by Mashama, who just a bit later that year would go on to win the James Beard Foundation Award for best chef in the Southeast. But this not a story about well-to-do

Photography by GEOFF L. JOHNSON


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