The opening of the downtown location of Pie Society is another exciting development for foodies in Savannah.
The traditional British bakery has been filling up folks in Pooler since January 2013. The second location of Pie Society is located at the southwest corner of Jefferson and West Bryan streets in City Market. The small, bright, cheery spot was recently occupied by an ice cream parlor.
I popped in for a late lunch one day last week in between rain showers.
Despite the unsettled weather, there was a steady stream of patrons while I was there, including locals who obviously knew what they wanted, tourists perusing the unexpected menu and several folks who had a lot of questions.
I opted for a steak and ale pie, which was served quickly and warm. It was deliciously filling, with rich pastry wrapped around the tender meat and flavorful gravy.
Pie Society offers counter service, and the small dining area likely means that the bulk of the business will be takeout.
While seating is limited, there are a couple of long tables and a number of stools at a counter facing the big windows that look north and east.
With a parking garage and a parking lot on two other corners of the intersection of Jefferson and Bryan streets, it’s not one of the city’s best views, but there are horses along Bryan Street much of the time and clear sight lines that offer views of a number of historic buildings.
At one point during my lunch, I could see the top of a freighter as it slowly rolled into port.
In addition to the savory pies, baked dishes, quiches, pasties and rolls, Pie Society also serves desserts. I wasn’t hungry after the steak and ale pie, but I grabbed a custard tart to go, which turned out to be great too.
Check out Pie Society’s website (http://thebritishpiecompany.com) or Facebook page for more details.
More good news for the local labor market
According to estimates released last week by the Georgia Department of Labor, the unemployment rate for the Savannah metro area (Chatham, Effingham and Bryan counties) was 7.4 percent in June, down fairly sharply from 8.3 percent in June 2013.
The rate was markedly higher than the 6.9 percent unemployment in May, but data for individual metro areas are not adjusted for seasonality. The unemployment rate typically jumps in the summer, as seasonal employees are laid off and many students enter the labor market.
The numbers behind the latest estimate look pretty good too. The metro Savannah civilian labor force grew by almost 700 over the past 12 months, and the number of people who reported they are working increased by nearly 2,300.
Those are fairly strong numbers.
Of course, it’s worth keeping things in perspective. While the labor market is healing relatively rapidly, we’re far from what any of us would call “normal.” By historical standards, the local unemployment rate is still very high, and thousands of area families continue to struggle to overcome the effects of the deep 2007-09 recession and the painfully slow recovery since then.
It’s worth adding that the labor market recovery for residents of the city of Savannah is lagging the metro area. The unemployment rate in the Savannah city limits was 9.2 percent in June, down from an even higher 10.1 percent in June 2013.
By contrast, the unemployment rate for all of Chatham County was estimated at just 7.8 percent in June. That gap reflects a trend that we see across the country, but it should still worry city officials.
Even if the local, state and national economies continue to improve, we might still be two or three years away from “full employment” in the metro area.
By the way, among Georgia cities with populations of more than 25,000, Statesboro had the worst unemployment rate in June at 11.9 percent.
The unemployment rate was more than 9 percent in June through a ring of counties just outside the designated Savannah metro area, including Screven, Bulloch, Candler, Tattnall, Liberty and McIntosh. Unemployment is even worse across a broad swath of south and middle Georgia.
Beyond the human toll, such a prolonged economic downturn in rural areas seems likely to be having dramatic demographic impacts, but we might not be able to quantify the damage for a number of years.
City Talk appears every Tuesday and Sunday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 E 32nd St., Savannah, GA 31401.
By Bill Dawers