One quiet night last week, a friend and I checked out Persepolis, the new restaurant at 41 Whitaker St., just north of Broughton.
It’s worth noting right off the bat that Persepolis isn’t entirely new. The restaurant is the latest incarnation of Middle Eastern Cuisine, which occupied a space on Montgomery Street across from the courthouse complex.
But with the new name, new location, elegant décor and fantastic menu, Persepolis sure feels like a brand new entry on the downtown scene.
We tried a couple of appetizers. The calamari was good enough that I wouldn’t hesitate to order it again, but the hummus with warm pita knocked our socks off.
My entrée of spanakopita, which I ordered at our server’s suggestion, was pretty much a perfect combination of luscious pastry and flavorful spinach filling.
My friend’s kabob, which included a mix of grilled meats, was excellent too. Both entrees were served with sautéed vegetables and our choice of several varieties of rice.
The ground level of Persepolis has a comfortable bar and a smattering of tables, with additional seating on the balcony overlooking the entrance.
Sushi Zen had a successful run in the space before relocating to Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard less than six years ago. At least four other restaurants have come and gone at 41 Whitaker St. since then.
The location is tricky. The Whitaker Street sidewalk gets only a fraction of the pedestrian traffic of nearby streets like Broughton and Congress.
Since vehicular traffic is one-way, many drivers would never see Persepolis until they were headed out of town.
But both the bar and restaurant across the street at Circa 1875 are buzzing with activity pretty much every night. So it’s certainly possible to prosper on that stretch of Whitaker, even in the face of the obvious obstacles.
Persepolis serves lunch and dinner. It becomes a hookah lounge later at night.
Should bars be open on Sunday?
Legislation allowing Savannah bars to open on the Sunday before St. Patrick’s Day sailed through the Georgia House last week.
The bill could still stall in the Senate or be vetoed by Gov. Nathan Deal. And some sort of local opposition could suddenly materialize the next time City Council takes up the measure.
But it sure looks like bars in Savannah will be allowed to open on Sunday, March 16.
With St. Patrick’s Day on a Monday, we will have tens of thousands of visitors in town for the weekend leading up to the holiday.
Many of those folks will want to drink alcohol on Sunday, especially in the downtown area. We obviously have many restaurants that serve alcohol and are open on Sunday, but some of those could get overwhelmed with crowds if bars are not also open.
And it’s hardly fair to bars and their employees if restaurants are the only establishments that will get a crack at that Sunday business.
Of course, that same argument can apply to every Sunday.
Some of us have pretty hectic Sunday nights when our minds are on the work pressures of Monday morning. But Savannah has many Sunday visitors, and many area workers have their lightest days early in the week.
Why shouldn’t all those people be able to go to a bar on a Sunday night?
There are other fairly straightforward arguments for allowing Sunday sales in bars, but there’s another issue worth emphasizing.
The touring bands that this paper covers so extensively are on the road on Sundays. Many of those acts are trying to maximize their time by performing every night of the week.
But several of our key music venues are bars and are not allowed to open on Sunday. If a band has a gig booked in Charleston or Jacksonville on a Saturday night, it would obviously make sense if they could make the short drive to Savannah for a Sunday night gig.
We know there’s demand for music on off nights. The Wormhole had at least 100 guests at $20 apiece for the show by Martin Sexton last Wednesday. The Jinx sold out several weeks in advance of Lucero’s recent Monday night show.
If those artists had been looking for Sunday night gigs in Savannah, they likely would have been out of luck. And Savannah would have been out of luck too.
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.