The second location of Sandfly BBQ is now open at 120 W. Henry St. in SCAD’s old Streamliner Diner.
The vintage diner car proves an excellent space for an established brand like Sandfly BBQ. The original wood, the cozy booths, the line of stools at the counter, the ample windows and other design elements make the space inviting, and the historical echoes create a perfect home for the moon pies and Fanta soda.
Sandfly BBQ has had a winning menu at its Ferguson Avenue location since 2007, and owner Keith Latture has merely tweaked things for the new Henry Street location.
I dropped by last week for the smoked sausage plate ($11). What a hearty lunch.
Sandfly’s sausage is wonderful, especially served with grilled onions, and I made good choices for my sides — collards and mac & cheese.
Other plates include pulled pork, beef brisket, smoked chicken, pulled chicken, chicken salad and ribs. Sandfly BBQ also serves a variety of sandwiches ($4.50 to $8.50), as well as salads and Brunswick stew.
New to the downtown menu is The Wally ($7), a sandwich with duck fat fried chicken fingers, pickles, red cabbage slaw and buttermilk ranch. I’m looking forward to trying that one.
Sandfly BBQ had only been open a few days when I popped in, but the cozy interior and established menu made the restaurant feel like an old friend.
The new restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. There is a fair amount of on-street parking in the immediate neighborhood, and the restaurant has reserved off-street spaces along Barnard Street, just steps from the entrance.
It looks like more parking could easily be added on Barnard Street if it becomes necessary.
SCAD’s Eckburg Hall is right across the street from the new location of Sandfly BBQ. The Queen Anne Revival style building was built in 1892 as an elementary school.
It’s literally impossible to imagine that any of our modern elementary schools will eventually be repurposed for college instruction – it’s impossible to imagine that any of our modern schools will even be standing in 120 years.
Eckburg houses the college’s fashion department, which is one reason the block of Henry Street between Whitaker and Barnard streets offers some of the most interesting people watching you’ll find in the downtown area.
Photographer Mangue Banzima is now based in New York City, but you’ll see many images taken near Eckburg Hall on Qui Style, his blog devoted to street fashion.
Eckburg Hall is one of the most beautiful buildings among SCAD’s impressive holdings. When the American Planning Association recently selected Savannah’s Victorian District as one of the nation’s great neighborhoods for 2014, the organization cited the old school in the list of local assets.
If the APA were honoring the Victorian District in 2015, Sandfly BBQ just might warrant a mention too.
We are in the midst of some good years for Savannah’s Victorian District.
The Victorian District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, has a long, important history. Forsyth Park — half of which lies in the Victorian District — is one of the city’s crown jewels.
But some of the more recent developments are cementing the sense of neighborhood. The American Planning Association’s designation cited the presence of some unique entities, including the headquarters of the Savannah Bicycle Campaign (SBC), Georgia Bikes and Healthy Savannah.
The APA also observed that the American Legion Post 135 “complex serves as an excellent example of adaptive reuse; as a local neighborhood hangout it draws a diverse crowd with local shops, bars and a variety of restaurant options.”
As I’ve noted in this space before, data from the 2000 and 2010 censuses show that nearby neighborhoods are seeing rapid demographic change. Longtime residents, including me, would like to see the neighborhood improve without quite so much turnover, but Savannah officials seem to have no plan for addressing the core issues that are causing so many people to move out and so many other people to move in.
Sandfly BBQ is in census tract 113, which was fairly evenly balanced between black and white residents in 2010. Between 2000 and 2010, however, the number of white residents nearly doubled while the number of black residents declined by a third. Those trends appear to have continued in the five years since the last census.
But you won’t be thinking about any of these underlying trends when you’re sitting at Sandfly BBQ — you’ll just be thinking about that plate of good food in front of you.
City Talk appears every Tuesday and Sunday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 East 32nd St., Savannah, Ga. 31401.
By Bill Dawers