Pizza, to me, is an extremely personal choice.
Me? Honestly, I like ‘em all — every odd stop between the recognized styles of New York and deep dish Chicago pies.
My youth was filled with rural interpretations of pizza. I vividly recall the first pizza place I entered, the smells, the dinging pinball machine. The crust was thin, cracker-crisp and the toppings tainted by well-meaning Midwesterners who were doing their best in a time and place where tomatoes came in cans most of the year and pepperoni was a specialty, gourmet food…

By Tim A. Rutherford
After a long, hot day on being “on” for the people around us, the thing Miss T.J. and I wanted most was a quiet, relaxing dinner. Nothing too heavy, we agreed on that, but still, we longed for adventurous food.
The twinkling lights surrounding the al fresco dining area of Chiriya’s Thai Cuisine beckoned. On a cooler night, we would have happily grabbed seats here to watch the zipping traffic and hustling commerce of busy Abercorn Street, Tonight, however, air-conditioning seemed a good idea.
Chiriya Moore owns this little …

By Tim A. Rutherford
To select and highlight a single Savannah restaurant in this annual “Best Of” issue is like asking a mother to name her favorite child.
The city’s restaurants, the men and women who mange them and cook the food and wait the tables are as uniquely distinct as siblings. Some have individual strengths, others are immensely talented in all areas. Regardless, all of the good ones – like well-behaved children – have commendable traits.
So, for this “Best Of” issue, Savannah Magazine Art Director Michelle Karner and I embarked on …

Kao Thai Cuisine
By Tim A. Rutherford
Trimas Wasan never wanted to be in the restaurant business.
The native of Bangkok, Thailand, grew up in a restaurant family, often rising long before school to help his mother prep for the day’s meals.
“That was before blenders,” Wasan said. “And I would be up at 5:30 crushing peppers over and over again. I could never imagine working in a restaurant as an adult.”
But upon moving to America, Wasan found himself in a restaurant kitchen again – this time as a dishwasher.
“I really didn’t like that,” …

By Tim A. Rutherford
Oooh, when I was a little boy,
Only one or two.
The first thing I did enjoy
Was a plate of barbeque.
- “Barbeque,” by Robert Earl Keen
Barbeque. Bar-b-que. BBQ.
Regardless of the spelling, – I prefer barbecue – the mere hint at the word sets mouths to watering and noses sniffing for telltale hints of delicious hickory smoke.
In our beloved South, barbecue means one thing – slow cooking pork over low heat with plenty of smoke. Blasphemers confuse barbecuing with “grilling out,” which means high, searing heat for a brief period …