Hostess Savannah

Hostess Savannah Uncovering the history, hospitality, and haunts of Savannah, GA. Hostess: A Savannah Podcast streaming now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Patreon!

Wexford Irish Pub in Savannah's City Market overlooking Ellis Square is THE place to go for the best Irish fare in the ...
07/02/2025

Wexford Irish Pub in Savannah's City Market overlooking Ellis Square is THE place to go for the best Irish fare in the city! Not to mention a perfectly poured pint of Guinness.

Opened in 2024 and named for County Wexford, the county where many Savannah Irish families immigrated from in the 1800s, Wexford has quickly made a name for itself, winning the moniker of best restaurant in Georgia!

There are so many scrumptious dishes on the menu, but my absolute favorite is the pigs in a blanket - totally a must! They also have great live music both in the front courtyard and on the 2nd floor stage. Visit Wexford soon to get a taste of Ireland in the Heart of Savannah.

Thank you for being a wonderful sponsor of Hostess: A Savannah Podcast!

📸 photo credit for the first 3 pictures goes to Wexford Irish Pub!

What a difference 150 years makes.Ellis Square was once home to an impressive 33,000 square foot indoor market that was ...
06/30/2025

What a difference 150 years makes.

Ellis Square was once home to an impressive 33,000 square foot indoor market that was built in 1876, although other non- brick structures that served the same purpose were in its place before. Through the first half of the 20th century, the brick market fell into disrepair as fewer and fewer vendors filled the stalls. "Progress" won out, and the city approved the demolition of the building in favor of building a parking garage.

This parking garage stood in place for its full 50-year lease, but thankfully, by the end of the lease, Savannah had realized their mistake of erasing the square and her market.

In 2006, the garage was demolished. An underground garage was constructed below the reconstituted square, and Ellis Square has been the center of Savannah's nightlife and tourism scene for nearly 20 years now!

Learn more about the history of Ellis Square on this week's episode of Hostess: A Savannah Podcast!

If this picture was taken when I was born, it would have been a picture of a parking garage. I've been really excited to...
06/29/2025

If this picture was taken when I was born, it would have been a picture of a parking garage.

I've been really excited to do the Ellis Square episode because of all the rich history that surrounds Savannah's City Market. In this episode, we will also talk about prohibition in Savannah and how the spark of Revolution was lit in Georgia leading up to the Revolutionary War.

Spoiler alert - it happened right here!

Learn about all this and more on this week's episode of Hostess: A Savannah Podcast!




Did you know a guy who perished while aboard the Steamship Pulaski never lived in this house??That's because it wasn't q...
06/28/2025

Did you know a guy who perished while aboard the Steamship Pulaski never lived in this house??

That's because it wasn't quite done yet when Lewis Bird (the guy having this house built) left to escape the hot Georgia summer of 1838 to visit some family up north. While heading north on the Atlantic coast, the engineer who was supposed to be watching the engine let the water inside get too low. He tried to rectify it by pouring more water in, but the water he used was much cooler than the engine, producing way too much steam, which in turn turned it into a bomb. Hot shrapnel ripped through the ship at 11pm while most guests were in their cabins and ripped the ship apart. 128 passengers and crew were lost, and there were only 59 survivors.

Learn more about the Steamship Pulaski disaster on the latest episode of Hostess: A Savannah Podcast.

If you've been following my account for a while, you'll know that I have a problem. It's an almond croissant problem. It...
06/27/2025

If you've been following my account for a while, you'll know that I have a problem.

It's an almond croissant problem.

It's really a Savannah Coffee Roasters almond croissant problem.

I can't get enough.

I have a caffeine sensitivity, so I can't even have coffee, yet I have spent so much of my tour guide earnings on almond croissants here I could invest in the company.

Yes, they have other delicious offerings. Their display case is packed every morning with mouth watering pastries and desserts. They have a bunch of awesome salads and sandwiches. And literally some of the best coffee in the city.

But guys.

The almond croissant.

Learn more about
(Yes, much more than the almond croissant...) on this week's episode of Hostess: A Savannah Podcast!



This is the Bernard Constantine House and the first guy who owned it? A local butcher. Mills Lane IV was a driving force...
06/26/2025

This is the Bernard Constantine House and the first guy who owned it? A local butcher.

Mills Lane IV was a driving force behind the Savannah preservation movement in the 1980s and 1990s. He purchased the home and completely renovated and restored it in the 1970s and ran his restoration business out of the basement.

Learn more about this home and the efforts it took to save it from destruction on this week's episode of Hostess: A Savannah Podcast!

Built in 1916 by the same guy who built our gold domed city hall, The Lorlee (overlooking Pulaski Square) building first...
06/25/2025

Built in 1916 by the same guy who built our gold domed city hall, The Lorlee (overlooking Pulaski Square) building first housed the Jewish Educational Alliance (the JEA), which was essentially like a YMCA for Savannah's Jewish Community. It once held a gymnasium, banquet hall, library, a swimming pool, and much more!

In the 1970s, the building was purchased by a new college that came to town to house some of their students who had their classes a couple streets over in Madison Square.

Yep. This was SCAD's first dorm!

During the Covid pandemic, SCAD students and faculty turned this building into 22 affordable workforce housing units as part of the college's SCAD Serve initiative.

Learn more about this building and its interesting life on this week's episode of Hostess: A Savannah Podcast!



It's National Praline Day, and I'm THRILLED to promote the most recent episode's sponsor today - the World Famous River ...
06/24/2025

It's National Praline Day, and I'm THRILLED to promote the most recent episode's sponsor today - the World Famous River Street Sweets!

Founded in 1973, River Street Sweets has been serving up caramel apples, homemade ice cream, chocolates, candies, and other confections for decades - becoming a staple of Savannah's food scene. Their crumbly, buttery, melt in your mouth pralines are iconic and quintessentially Savannah. You'll smell these wonderful pralines as soon as you walk through their doors, and you'll very likely be offered a free sample! Yes, please!

Starting today, River Street Sweets is celebrating National Praline Day all week long, and 10% of all Praline sales will be donated to the Feeding America Cafe Kids Program! Stop in to support this worthy cause and taste how magical these Pralines truly are.

In Savannah, River Street Sweets has storefronts on River Street and Broughton Street, and they also have a location in Midtown.

Thanks for being a wonderful sponsor of Hostess: A Savannah Podcast!

📸 credit for the first two photos of this post to River Street Sweets.

Originally a grocery store when it was constructed in 1900, the Crystal Beer Parlor on West Jones Street has been servin...
06/23/2025

Originally a grocery store when it was constructed in 1900, the Crystal Beer Parlor on West Jones Street has been serving hearty food and ice cold drinks since 1933, making it Savannah's oldest restaurant.

The grocery store was bought by a husband and wife in the early 1930s and transformed it into The Crystal - a restaurant named for the Crystal Ice Company that stood across the street. However, although the restaurant claimed to have been opened in 1933, it may have operated earlier than that, as the owner, William "Blocko" Manning was suspected of running a speakeasy and illegally running alcohol during Prohibition. It's said that none other than Al Capone visited The Crystal in those early years in an attempt to persuade Blocko to work for him.

The Crystal Beer Parlor is open every day except Monday from 11:00am - 9:00pm. Stop in for some classics like the shrimp and grits or their famous crab stew. Or you can cozy up to the bar that has been kept almost the same since the 1930s for a frosty pint!

Learn more about Crystal Beer Parlor in this week's episode of Hostess: A Savannah Podcast!



New episode tonight! For episode 16 of Hostess: A Savannah Podcast, we will visit my favorite square to sit and gawk at ...
06/22/2025

New episode tonight!

For episode 16 of Hostess: A Savannah Podcast, we will visit my favorite square to sit and gawk at the live oaks, Pulaski Square!

Join me to as I explore the best almond croissant in the city and where to find it, some of the ways SCAD gives back, and, among other things, the absolute BEST Savannah holiday that involves a lot of dogs and a lot of costumes.

Streaming on Patreon, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify!





A second German Memorial Fountain post in the same week?! Sarah, what are you doing?!OK, today I want to talk about thes...
06/21/2025

A second German Memorial Fountain post in the same week?! Sarah, what are you doing?!

OK, today I want to talk about these flowers, but the picture was just too pretty not to post. You're welcome.

Anywhoo, I always get asked what these flowers are during my tours, so I wanted to illuminate their story! These are Lily of the Nile or African Lilies or Agapanthus - all the same flower, just different names for it. It blooms for 2-3 months in the summer, and the name Agapanthus literally translates to "Love Flower." While most variants of these guys are native to southern Africa, there are a few varieties that thrive in warmer and wetter climates (like here) and even some heartier varieties that can do well farther north.

One of my favorite things Savannah's city planners have done is to ensure there's something blooming in the squares during nearly every season. We are reaching the end of our hydrangea blooms, but these African lilies will help us get through our hottest months!

Why is the plaque on this house wrong on so many levels? 1) Lachlan McIntosh didn't live here - his house was over on Te...
06/20/2025

Why is the plaque on this house wrong on so many levels?

1) Lachlan McIntosh didn't live here - his house was over on Telfair Square - that Telfair Square house was where George Washington visited in 1791. There's also sources that say Washington stayed at Brown's Coffee House, which was also near Telfair Square. No historical evidence (other than this plaque) point to any connection between this property and McIntosh.
2) The first constitutional session of the Georgia State Legislature happened in 1777, right after the Georgia Constitution was signed.
3) The "Long Room" referenced here was the second floor of Tondee's Tavern on Broughton Street. This was the seat of Georgia government until 1785 when it officially moved to Augusta.

So why is the plaque hella wrong? Unknown, but when it was placed in 1919, 100+ years after Lachlan McIntosh's death, research capabilities were limited. Plus, Savannah had this thing for burning down, so many of the documents in the city that confirmed the inaccuracies that were taken as truth didn't exist or weren't easily available.


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