Over the last couple of months, I’ve been following all sorts of changes on the Savannah restaurant scene that I haven’t had occasion to write about in my City Talk columns.
So, in no particular order and with minimal commentary:
Soho South Cafe on Liberty Street has been closed recently. That’s because it has been purchased by some of the same ownership team as Local 11 Ten and The Public Kitchen & Bar (just a stone’s throw away).
I always enjoyed Soho, but the restaurant never really leveraged their use of the space or was promoted effectively. I look forward to seeing what the new owners come up with, and I expect an effort to appeal to the same clientele that kept Soho humming along for years.
Cafe Florie is undergoing some sort of major change, but I don’t have any details:
R.O.S.E. Public House on Broughton closed a while back, as did Sage and VegHeads on Whitaker. The original Vegheads in Asheville remains open.
Restaurants close for a wide variety of reasons, but it’s worth noting that those are all challenging locations. I’m not sure R.O.S.E. ever knew who their primary clientele would be or found the right price point. That space on East Broughton has been a succession of different restaurants; it will be interesting to see who takes a stab at it next.
There’s a large vacant spot across the street too, where The Casbah was before it merged with The Mirage down the street.
I liked Sage a lot, but that small space on Whitaker probably needed to turn the tables over steadily to make serious money. As for VegHeads, I was puzzled that they made so little effort to transform the interior from the latenight fried food hangout that was there previously.
Kapa Cafe is now open on Bull Street, and look for a new tenant soon in the old Brick House space on MLK.
Look for an expanded menu soon at Betty Bombers inside the American Legion Post #135 on Bull just south of Forsyth Park. That’s one of my regular hangouts, and I’m thrilled to see that Betty Bombers has over 1,100 fans on Facebook.