Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

http://www.mrswilkes.com/
Mrs Wilkes is pretty good for southern cooking.

If you go just one place, go to Elizabeth on 37th. I had one of the best experiences of my entire gastrolife there, and that's saying something. The building itself is fascinating - take a walk around first to look at the troughs of interesting herbs and greens growing in the gardens. The interior is an old Victorian house, not too fusty but not incongruously modernized either. (Love the bathrooms!)

I went there with my mother, and we instantly knew that asking our sommelier to pair wines would be a good idea. The food was already extremely good - definitely Southern in its roots, but with inspired takes. But the wine - with pairings that surprised us - really transformed everything. A sneaky top-up pour was often given, which was a nice little fillip. We were expecting to see quite a hefty wine tab at the end, but no glass was more than $13, and we tasted some truly special things.

We were given a salad in between our appetizers and entrees. "Great, a sald," we thought, and took a forkful each. Then we realized that all kinds of ridiculous things were going on in our mouths - things we'd never tasted before. Our waitress came over and gave us a quick lesson on what was what - mind you, this is my mother and I, two English women who have eaten out all around the world and grow our own veggies - and we learned about many herbs and leaves that we'd either never heard of, or certainly wouldn't have considered eating in a salad. A while later she came back to our table with a handful of other herbs she'd picked and washed jsut for us to try.

At the end of the meal, the sommelier gave us a bottle of wine to take back to our hotel - a rep from a vineyard was in earlier, tasting it, and had left a case. They wanted to know what we thought!

I rarely rant and rave about the brilliance of any restaurant, knowing that in many cases, one person's amazing experience might be another thing entirely for another person. But in the gorgeous Savannah, when you will probably stumble across a few sub-par meals if you follow popular recommendations, I truly urge you to give this place a try.

Thank you so much for all of your recommendations! I need to map them out and see if I can get to them w/o a car.

A bit disappointed about Lady & Sons and still might give them a try :)

I'll second the recommendations for Elizabeth's and Mrs. Wilkes. You could always stop by Lady & Sons to buy a cookbook or something, but the best old-time, Southern brunch/lunch is at Mrs. Wilkes.

alas the Mrs. Wilkes place is closed till February :(

I'm probably too late, here, but I was going to join the chorus saying ""Wilkes," and add a recommendation that you try Despositos, which I just read about here: http://www.oneforthetable.com/oftt/restaurants/savannah-ga-3.html. Both are very on on my list for our March trip southward.