Savannah: Gottlieb's Restaurant & Dessert Bar

Gottlieb's Restaurant & Dessert Bar
1 West Broughton Street
Savannah, GA 31412
912-234-7447



When we are on vacation we always look for one upscale eatery. After reading a few reviews and then taking a peek at their menu, I knew Gottlieb's was going to be it. The restaurant is housed in an old department store on the corner of Broughton and Bull streets. The inside of Gottlieb's is brighter and airier than expected. The walls are a light mocha color and the ceiling has been painted a dark brown, which adds even more height to the already tall dining room. The design is very Manhattan-like. I should have taken more photos, but I was too excited to eat :)

Here is the lobby which looks right into the kitchen...


Gottlieb's was recently named a AAA Four Diamond Restaurant - and I couldn't agree more. The chef's amuse bouche, a tiny gift to kick off the meal, came about 15 minutes into the wait.... a miniature biscuit round topped with a bite of crispy fried chicken and country gravy. Just a bite or two, but it certainly got the taste buds working. (before I knew it I was sopping up the last bit of gravy with a piece of bread and hadn't taken a photo)

Oh, speaking of bread. Gottlieb's was originally a bakery and they still are today, even with the addition of the restaurant. To showcase their talents each diner is given a sampler of their breads... rye, two types of pumpernickel, a miniature popover, and an onion roll. I admit it, I ate every bite of them all... damn you delicious carbs.

But I digress - back to the food...

The appetizers on this menu are so hard to choose from because looking over the menu they all sounded so good.

Appetizers

Fritto Misto with calamari, lemons, vinegar peppers, proscuitto & provolone
(hands down the best calamari I have ever had)


Carpaccio of seared prime beef tenderloin, tomato, cheddar cheese, red onion, cornichons, baby arugula, & horseradish cream


Entrees

I ordered a second appetizer as my entree since it sounded just too good... Pecan pesto gnocchi with sauteed savannah sweet shrimp (the photo doesn't do it justice - so good)


Brunswick stew with braised rabbit and wild mushrooms (Pat, do you take orders? how about some small-small game!?)


Dessert

Thanks to the awesome waffle maker we got from AR/UR, we will definitely be trying to recreate this at home... Georgia butter pecan icecream on a belgian waffle with caramel sauce


Chocolate chip cookie sandwich with cream cheese cookie dough ice cream


I can't sing the praises of Gottlieb's loud enough. It is the type of restaurant that once you sample the menu items, there is little doubt you will return.

Overall
- This is certainly the case of "you get what you pay for"
- The service was ok. We were aquainted with our server before we got there (long story), so we may have gotten some special attention. We saw a few tables waiting a while for their drinks/food and they seemed annoyed. I think you need to realize this is not an in-and-out restaurant. You are there for an amazing culinary experience, not a slab of grub from outback-chili-burger-grill.
- The presentations are just mouthwatering and the food is even better

Hmmm, do you think I liked it :)

Savannah: Garibaldi's Cafe

Garibaldi's Cafe
315 West Congress Street
Savannah, Georgia 31401
912-232-7118

Garibaldi's Cafe is located on the outskirts of the City Market not too far from Paula Dean's restaurant, The Lady & Sons. If you can fight your way past the flocks of people waiting two and a half hours on the sidewalk to eat her fried chicken, you will find the two story Garibaldi's Cafe. We had 7pm reservations and were promptly seated at a table for two overlooking Congress Street. I liked the atmosphere of the restaurant - it was elegant, but unpretentious and comfortable at the same time (does that even make sense?)

While we looked over the menu we ordered a bottle of wine and snacked on their homemade bread... both were very good.



The bread was crusty with a topping of salt that reminded me of the kind they put on soft pretzels.


Appetizers

Grilled Tomato Stack ~ tomato slices layered with asiago cheese and spinach.
(This dish was drizzled with a thin creamy-garlic dressing that was outstanding. Craig was sure to help me soak up as much as possible not to have it go to waste.)


Denver Lamb Ribs ~ sweet ginger soy sauce with a pear cabbage relish.
(almost as good as Mom's, but not quite)




Entrees

Linguini primavera with a steamed lobster tail and a pat of goat cheese.
(I wasn't wow'd by this dish. Don't get me wrong, it was fine, but besides the giant lobster tail it was just average.)


Crispy Duck with mushroom risotto and green beans.
(Although the risotto was tasty, this was probably the most disappointing dish of the night ~ the duck was very dry.)


Dessert

Kentucky Derby Cake
(All Craig needed to know was this dessert was soaked with bourbon and he was sold.)


Flourless Chocolate Cake with unsweetened whipped cream (Before)


Flourless Chocolate Cake (After)


Overall...
- nice atmosphere.
- decent food ~ not genuine Italian, but hey this is Georgia.
- staff was attentive and seemed genuinely nice.
- somewhat expensive.
- if I was a local I would probably go back, but I won't be putting it on our list for our next road trip to Savannah.

Savannah: Random Eats

Breakfast at J. Christophers
122 East Liberty
Savannah, GA 31401



A beer sampler at Moon River Brewery
21 W. Bay St.
Savannah, Ga 31401

Browsing at Savannah's Candy Kitchen
225 East River Street
Savannah, Georgia 31401-1220





A pint at Murphy's Law Public House
409 Congress Street
Savannah, GA

Weekend Away

This afternoon Craig and I will be leaving for a weekend trip to Savannah, Georgia. The blog will probably be quiet until we get back on Sunday. Have a great memorial day weekend!!


Map courtesy of www.mapquest.com

All that remained from a good night

When I came downstairs this morning, I had to laugh when I looked at the table and all that remained from last night. For some reason I don't think this is what most people have on their tables when they play dominos (or maybe it is)



Who knew Champagne and Chateauneuf du Pape went so well with gummy bears!

Onion and Fontina Batter Beer Bread

Went looking for a recipe to use up some leftover fontina cheese. Decided on a recipe from Cooking Light... Onion and Fontina Batter Beer Bread.

I have a before picture, but I didn't take a picture of the after (sorry)

The flavor was great, but when I made it I added more onions and cheese than originally called for and that cause it to be a little too moist inside. Very tasty though.



Click Here for Printable Recipe

Onion and Fontina Beer Batter Bread
Adapted from Cooking Light, January 2006

ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup diced onion
3 cups all-purpose flour (about 13 1/2 ounces)
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (4 ounces) grated fontina cheese
1 (12-ounce) bottle beer
Cooking spray
1/4 cup butter, melted and divided

directions
Preheat oven to 375°.

Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion, and sauté 6 minutes or until tender. Cool to room temperature.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Add onion, cheese, and beer; stir just until moist.

Spoon batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray; drizzle evenly with 2 tablespoons butter. Bake at 375° for 35 minutes; brush with remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Bake an additional 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Spinach Ricotta Ravioli

Are you sick of my homemade ravioli posts yet?

Semolina pasta with a spinach and ricotta filling and a simple thyme butter sauce over the top.

Egg In A Hole

Breakfast is definitely not one of my kitchen strengths, but I gave it a shot today and tried making Egg-In-A-Hole. It was ok, but I should probably just continue to let Craig handle making breafast.

Sweets for my sweet

I had bookmarked this recipe from the latest edition of Food & Wine magazine and with nothing else to do last night I decided to give it a try. I changed it slightly given what I had on hand, but they were still great. In an effort not to eat them all myself, I sent Craig to work with a big tupperware full - hopefully his coworkers will help us finish them!

Click Here for Printable Version

Two-Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Food & Wine Magazine; Recipe by Lisa Yockelson
June 2006 (pg 65)

ingredients
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup white-chocolate chips
3/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut

directions
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter with the brown sugar at medium speed until blended. Beat in the granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the whole egg, egg white and vanilla. At low speed, beat in the dry ingredients, in 2 additions. With a large wooden spoon, mix in the oats, semisweet and white-chocolate chips and the coconut. Cover the cookie dough and refrigerate for 1 hour, until chilled.



Preheat the oven to 375°. Line 3 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a rounded tablespoon, spoon mounds of dough onto the baking sheets, at least 3 inches apart. Bake the cookies for about 14 minutes, until golden and just set. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a rack to cool completely.

Grilled Chicken & Fontina Sandwich

Dinner Tonight: Grilled chicken sandwiches with fontina cheese, grilled onions & roasted tomatoes.

Ready for the grill. I butterflied the chicken and let it marinate for about an hour with olive oil, minced garlic, and salt/pepper.


Closeup - Red onion and plum tomato slices with olive oil, fresh thyme, salt/pepper and just a few drops of balsamic vinegar.


From bottom to top - fontina cheese, sliced chicken, grilled onions, roasted tomatoes, salt/pepper, and just a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic.


Can you believe it - a sandwich that Craig did NOT put mayo on!!

Baked Venison Chili Nachos

We got in late so leftovers were in order. We reworked the venison chili I made Sunday into baked chili nachos. (Ok, not the healthiest dinner, but at least we were late because we were at the gym).



Another thank-you to Pat & Jeanne for the special venison delivery - we are really enjoying it. For the chili I diced a pound of the vension steak and mixed it with a pound of diced beef and made a big pot of chunky chili with beans. Definitely a winner.

Homemade Nooks and Crannies

The dogs had me up early on Saturday morning so I thought I would experiment and make English Muffins from scratch. This wasn't just out of the blue, I had bought the ring molds and have been meaning to give this a try for a while. There are a lot of recipes out there, but I based mine on Alton Brown's from Food Network (see below for recipe).

They are made with a yeast mixture - in between a thick batter and a really sticky dough .


The muffins are shaped in round molds and can either be cooked on a griddle or in the oven.


Here is one of the first ones made


Forked open ~ Success! nooks & crannies!


Toasted and slathered with butter


Click Here For Printable Recipe
(do you guys like this idea? including printable recipe files? let me know!)

English Muffins Recipe courtesy Alton Brown
Show: Good Eats Episode: The Muffin Man

1/2 cup non-fat powdered milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon shortening
1 cup hot water
1 envelope dry yeast
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup warm water
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
Non-stick vegetable spray

In a bowl combine the powdered milk, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, shortening, and hot water, stir until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Let cool. In a separate bowl combine the yeast and 1/8 teaspoon of sugar in 1/3 cup of warm water and rest until yeast has dissolved. Add this to the dry milk mixture. Add the sifted flour and beat thoroughly with wooden spoon. Cover the bowl and let it rest in a warm spot for 30 minutes. Preheat the griddle to 300 degrees F.

Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt to mixture and beat thoroughly. Place metal rings onto the griddle and coat lightly with vegetable spray. Using #20 ice cream scoop, place 2 scoops into each ring and cover with a pot lid or cookie sheet and cook for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove the lid and flip rings using tongs. Cover with the lid and cook for another 5 to 6 minutes or until golden brown. Place on a cooling rack, remove rings and cool. Split with fork and serve .

Five Cheese Ravioli

Yet another batch of ravioli. If you haven't already guessed I am having a lot of fun making them. I was going to try and take a lot more pictures and document the recipe from start to finish, but then it was getting late (and we were getting hungry)! This started out as Four Cheese Ravioli until I opened what I thought was a container of ricotta - Surprise - I forgot I had used an old ricotta container to put left over potato salad. Time to improvise!! Well, lets start at the beginning.

First the dough takes shape.




For a little color I chopped some basil and kneaded it into the dough.


While the dough rested I started throwing ingredients together for the filling. It started with some chopped shallots and a little bit of everything from the herb garden.



Now the cheese. Mozzerella, Fontina, Romano, Farmers, and to take the place of the missing ricotta - Cream Cheese!

Here is the finished product. I'm not sure the basil added much flavor to the dough, but I thought it looked neat.

Meatballs (continued)

Scott's masterpiece meatball sub with shredded mozz & romano cheese. The rest of the meatballs went in the freezer (most likely to end up as a spaghetti & meatball dinner).

Air freshener

Who needs an air freshener when you can have these? Nothing makes the house smell better!

Beef, Pork & Veal Meatballs ready to be cooked.