Dinner at The Lady and Sons & Celebrity Sighting

We drove to Savannah yesterday, a full day in the car. It wasn't too bad, actually. We had been looking forward to a night in Savannah, and most especially a good dinner. We had planned to go to Uncle Bubba's Oyster House, one of Paula Deen's restaurants, but we couldn't find it and Big J and I got a little short with each other. Well, actually my low blood sugar got the best of me and I was just a little on the grouchy side. Since we couldn't find it, we decided to go to The Lady and Sons.

It is in a beautifully renovated building in downtown Savannah and the restaurant is on three floors. We were seated on the third floor. After ordering wine for Big J and me and the most delicious homemade lemonade for little j we preceded to make our dinner selection. little j chose the buffet which had a salad bar, fried chicken, green beans, black eyed peas, mashed potatoes, and sweet potatoes. Big J and I both had a salad and then he chose the crab cakes served with black beans and rice and friend collard greens. I had the shrimp and grits. Big J's crab cakes were to die for. The shrimp and grits, I'm sorry to say, left a little to be desired. The whole dish was slightly underseasoned, and I would have platted the dish a little differently. As it came it was more like a grits soup with shrimp and a white wine cream sauce. I think I would have mounded the grits in the center and made a little well to hold the peppers and onions, then place the shrimp along the top of the ring of grits, then finish it off with the sauce around the outside of the grits. It had potential, but I wasn't blown away.

It was a completely different story with the Oreo Brownie that came with little j's buffet. Holy crap it was good. I think they must put crack in it because I couldn't stop eating it -- good thing little j only wanted a couple bites.

As we were finishing our dinner Big J looked over at the buffet and he said, "Hey, who is that guy at the buffet?" He looked totally familiar, but neither of us could place him. Then we saw Bobby Deen (one of the sons). Our waiter came back a few minutes later and he had been in the "VIP room" and told us the guy's name was Gordon Elliott, a regular on the Food Network.