Commercial Truck Insurance in Savannah, GA

ChefChef Juan Stevenson has always shied away from self promotion. On the opening night of his first culinary project, which is fully his own, he had to be coaxed out into the bustling, crowded streamliner, which is normally home to Mexican-flared Strangebird (1220 Barnard Street, Savannah). All booths and stools were lined with people beaming at Stevenson. High fives and words of affirmation rained down on the reluctant chef.

Juju’s Street Eats, the Indonesian pop-up helmed by Stevenson and his collaborative team of Ryan Jones, Steffan Rost, and Nicole West, made a splash on its first night selling out of everything on the menu. For Stevenson, Juju’s primary goals are to bring awareness to Indonesian cuisine and allow him to cook from his childhood. The first menu featured family favorites, including pangsit goreng, a fried blue crab dumpling with green onion and garlic; gado gado, a tempeh salad with potato, spinach, cucumber, and peanuts; as well as multiple satays and other savory snacks.

Stevenson does not have a long professional culinary history but truly knows his identity. His first executive sous chef position was in 2019, under Rost, at former Savannah favorite Atlantic. Most recently, he became the executive chef of Late Air (2805 Bull Street), helping open the natural wine bar in December of 2023. Stevenson accredits his culinary prowess to his parents’ home cooking and their desire to expose him and his siblings to anything and everything in the food world. His mother, born and raised in Indonesia, regularly cooked Indonesian and Indian Chinese dishes. His American stepfather made French-American and French-Italian dishes.

Juju is Stevenson's palate and memory of his past, converging with the ability to express it with his current knowledge and skills. According to Stevenson, “I have always been afraid to cook Indonesian food, as most of my time cooking and testing is from flavor memory and personal research. My mother always shared tidbits of ingredients and processes, though it was mainly cooking through instinct.”

“I’ve always been a firm believer in power within a small unit and high-quality communication,” says Stevenson. The Juju’s team is close and tight. “I’ve personally worked with everyone in multiple spots, and we’ve all worked together in a handful of places as well. It also helps that everyone involved is a close and dear friend of mine.”

Jones is a skilled pastry chef trained in classic French pastries. Stevenson worked alongside Jones at various spots, where she was a pastry chef at Atlantic and lead baker at Big Bon Bodega (2011 Bull Street). Rost was formerly Stevenson’s chef de cuisine at Atlantic when they first met, and they have grown to become close friends. How they operate in kitchens may differ at times, though their successes with working with each other fill the spots where they both may be lacking. West has been one of Stevenson’s longest-lasting friends in Savannah; they worked with each other at Atlantic and Common Thread (122 East 37th Street). She is a skilled sommelier and holds down customer experience and service.

To Stevenson, the genesis of the pop-up is the most exciting part, while the execution of the first one is probably the most nerve-racking. Stevenson said his biggest worries were the ones everyone at pop-ups has. Do we have enough prepped food? Are people going to show up? Will customers enjoy the food? The short answer to all these questions is yes.

“Unlike a regular service restaurant, which is open multiple days in a week, you’re gambling on potential guests for one night within a short window of time. The main thing I learned for the next pop-up is to make more sauce; people could not get enough of accompanied sauces,” says Stevenson. “The beauty of many Indonesian sauces is that they can accompany almost anything, and the guests enjoyed that. The dumpling vinegars went well with dipped satay, and the peanut sauce for satay went well with the nasi uduk, aromatic steamed rice.”

Juju’s will pop up a few more times in Savannah In April, but as Stevenson says, “Juju’s isn’t something that is strictly rooted to Savannah; it will follow me wherever I go.”

The Savannah Music Festival (SMF) – renowned for its high-energy mix of jazz, classical, blues, Americana and global roots music programs – will delight local residents and visitors with live music performances presented in iconic venues across Savannah’s National Historic Landmark District from Thursday, March 28 through Saturday, April 13. The 35th annual Savannah Music Festival will present nearly 100 live performances by acclaimed artists from across the country and around the world.

Tickets to the 2024 Savannah Music Festival are currently available online at savannahmusicfestival.org, by phone at 912.525.5050 or in person at the Savannah Box Office, located at 216 E. Broughton St.

“We’re thrilled to bring incredible live performances to Savannah throughout the spring, offering a world of music in one city,” said Savannah Music Festival Ex- ecutive Director Gene Dobbs Bradford. “Savannah Music Festival has a deep commitment to the local community and to expanding access to live music. We invite everyone to enjoy their favorite musicians and to discover exciting new artists at the 2024 festival.”

During the 17-day festival, top artists from around the world will converge in Savannah, Ga., including bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, world-renowned soprano Renée Fleming, eminent classical pianist Emanuel Ax and GRAMMY Award-winning composer and singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash, who will return to the SMF stage for the first time in six years with her husband and longtime creative partner John Leventhal. In addition, talented musicians from India, South Africa, Ireland, Cuba, Sweden, Portugal, Mali, Colombia, France, Argentina and Spain will take center stage for the 2024 festival.

“The 2024 Savannah Music Festival will feature renowned GRAMMY Award-winning artists as well as rising stars in classical, jazz, Americana and global roots music,” says SMF Artistic Director Ryan McMaken. “We can’t wait to present unforgettable live performances that will delight audiences in stunning venues throughout historic downtown Savannah.”

Additional festival highlights include Cajun Dance Parties and Latin Dance Parties on April 6 as well as live performances by GRAMMY Award-winning Malian Wassoulou singer Oumou Sangaré on March 28, Afro-Cuban jazz pioneer Chucho Valdés on March 30 and GRAMMY Award-winning guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Christone “Kingfish” Ingram on April 6. Attendees can also enjoy high-energy Southern rockers North Mississippi Allstars with blues icon Bobby Rush on April 10, acclaimed singer songwriter-guitarist Madison Cunningham on April 11, bluegrass supergroup Mighty Poplar on April 12 and jazz wunderkind Matthew Whitaker on April 12, among others.

SMF 2024 attendees will be the first to hear new chamber music works by Terence Blanchard, Rhiannon Giddens, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate and David Balakrishnan, co-commissioned by SMF, performed by Turtle Island Quartet on April 13. The co-commissioned “Quintet in the Key of Blue” by Stefan L. Smith will be performed by the Dubhe Ensemble featuring Savannah, Ga. native and Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Bassist Joseph Conyers on March 30.

In addition to live music, SMF will present a series of free Encounters Artist Talks. The series will begin with Renée Fleming’s Music & Mind, a public discussion about the intersection of the arts and mental health on April 1. SMF’s long-time photographer Frank Stewart will discuss his life and work with Dr. Walter Evans on April 2. Author Ted Olson will emcee Doc at 100, a public discussion about Doc Watson’s musical history with stories and songs shared by Jack Lawrence, Wayne Henderson and Jack Hinshelwood on April 5.

Dedicated to exposing students to world-class music, SMF is bringing back the successful Explorer Pass program, which offers free tickets to general admission performances to Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools students and a family member or chaperone. Additional discounted programming includes $20 tickets for most classical concerts at Trinity United Methodist Church for patrons age 40 or younger.

The 2024 festival will conclude on April 13 with a resounding performance by the GRAMMY Award-winning Rebirth Brass Band and Eddie 9V at the Metal Building at Trustees’ Garden.

Though my wife and I go downtown, quite often it seems compared to most locals, we do not find ourselves as far as River Street more than a couple times a year. Until last week, our only meal at one of The Bohemian Hotel Savannah Riverfront’s outlets was a Christmas Eve dinner on the rooftop a couple years before we moved to town.

Of course, I knew of the boutique hotel’s quayside restaurant, Rocks on the River, but figured that it was, as are most River Street options, primarily for the masses from Miami, Milwaukee and Mobile.

Without having any experience at the former for comparison, Coastal 15 has made an immediate impression in the same spot, another property in The Kessler Collection coterie that has upped the dining ante on the city’s most strolled strip.

Under the direction of executive chef Luke Wolf, the menus are part and parcel of a total transformation of concept, physical space, and culinary crew and accurately represent the restaurant’s sumptuous Southern style and cuisine that “stays in touch with Savannah.”

The majority of this stem-to-stern renovation happened prior to Wolf’s appointment, and he credited much of Coastal 15’s menu to The Kessler Collection’s Corporate Director of Culinary Kyle Lipetzky.

In keeping with the seafood-chophouse hybrid, the current dinner entrée rota breaks down appropriately to two steaks, one chicken dish, one pork, one pasta, and four seafood mains, plus more than a dozen total Chilled & Raw offerings, Small Plates, and salads. As behooves a River Street eatery, there is something for everyone without being common.

Compared to its predecessor in the property, Coastal 15’s concept aims to be more refined without losing sight of Savannah cuisine.

Fare with Savannah Savoir-faire

My wife and I cannot eat like we used to, so instead of sampling several starters and entrées, we shared a few Small Plates and one Signature dish, each delicious and distinctively Savannahian in savvy touches.

A restaurant’s in-house bread program is always a reliable litmus test, and the Parker House rolls ($9) passed with flying flavors. A hexagon of pull-apart wedges with baked-in everything seasoning, the pillowy buns are served with a quenelle drumlin of salted chive butter that make the rolls even better. We had to pace ourselves to save one each to go with our main course.

If a kitchen of this quality has hush puppies on the menu, it is your fault if you do not order them. Coastal 15’s lobster rendition ($16) is a pyramid of five perfect ochre orbs atop a sizable schmear of sorghum butter, barely sweet to back up the sweeter corn and lobster in the dumplings perfectly. With plenty of corn flavor, these are grown-up hush puppies.

Though the pimento cheese headlines another starter ($14), its chicken crisp companions are this dish’s star. Enough already: every restaurant needs to make these. This is not an altogether different paté of the South, which is not at all a bad thing, and packs a little heat on the back end thanks to spicy pimentón. What makes this preparation peerless are those chicken crisps, a.k.a flash-fried chicken skins, drizzled with hot honey served in the tiniest honey bear bottle.

As I said to our server, the hush puppies and chicken crisps should be served in Home Depot buckets filled to the brim.

My wife and I wavered between the Chicken & Dumplings ($34), in which ricotta gnocchi playfully takes the part of the co-star starch, and the Agnolotti ($36) with Georgia shrimp. We were certainly happy with the latter, the sweet shrimp seared superbly with just a kiss of Old Bay. The hearty house-made pasta packets are stuffed with ricotta but are still light, balanced by more sweetness from fresh corn kernels and cubelettes of smoky chorizo that uplift the entire dish.

Raising expectations on River Street

A Savannah restaurant through and through, Coastal 15 is new and unfamiliar in all the right ways, especially for its situation along the city’s riverfront.

Clearly Kessler classy, the interior is stunning with iridescent tea green banquettes and an oyster shell chandelier over a center table flanked by semicircular plush navy couches. Between the dining room proper and the trapezoidal bar, gleaming in black-and-gray agate and rich reclaimed wood, leather wingbacks invite loungy drinking and noshing. Along the riverwalk are three new garage doors that promise to bring the outside ambience into Coastal 15.

It was a great sign that Phoenix’s “All Eyes On Me” came through the speakers as we finished our first bites.

All in all, the space is appointed to a tee, elegant but still coastal comfy, and the entire concept elevates River Street far above its accustomed restaurant sea level. Other options for blocks to either side are ‘fine’, aspirated with a resigned sigh. Coastal 15 is fine dining while recognizing where it is on the actual map.

Put on something nice. Drive downtown. Pony up for valet parking. This is a special night out but still order the chicken crisps and eat them with your hands.

Coastal 15 (102 West Bay Street in The Bohemian Hotel Savannah Riverfront) is open daily for breakfast (7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.), lunch (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.), and dinner (5 p.m. to 10 p.m.), plus bar service available 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Savannah Ghost Pirates have begun the Goalie shuffle. On Saturday, March 23rd, The Vegas Golden Knights’ starting Goalie, Adin Hill, was injured during their game against the Columbus Blue Jackets in the third period. Adin’s’ injury brought out Logan Thompson, who has started his Villian Era and is now on a hot streak. However, Adin remains on the Injured list, causing Vegas to call up Jiri Patera from the Henderson Silver Knights.

With Patera called up by the Golden Knights, Savannah sees Goalie Jesper Vikman called up to the Henderson Silver Knights. Vikman, a fifth-round draft pick in 2020, signed with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023 to a three-year entry-level contract and was assigned to Savanna on January 9th, 2024. Vikman has played 15 games in the Ghost Pirates uniform and has a 7-7-0 record, with a GAA of 3.01 and SV% 0.899.

That leaves Savannah with active Goaltender Jordan Papirny and fresh off the Injured list Michael Bullion. Bullion was out with undisclosed injuries, resulting in his last game being March 2nd against the Rapid City Rush, where he earned Warrior Hockeys Goaltender of the Week for his outstanding gameplay. Bullion signed with the ECHL in 2021 and spent those years back and forth between Norfolk Admiral and Savannah Ghost Pirates. He made his AHL debut when AHLs Henderson Silver Knights summoned him in January of this year; after Vegas’s Adin Hill was injured again, the Silver Knights had to rely on Savannah. Bullion has suited up 27 times for Savannah this season with 12 wins, a GAA of 2.93, and an SV% of 0.905.

Fun Fact: the Golden Knights and their affiliated teams, the Henderson Silver Knights and Savannah Ghost Pirates, have two Goalies from the same hometown, Anchorage, Alaska: Isaiah Saville and Michael Bullion.

Savannah visits Orlando Solar Bears on Friday, March 29th. The Silver Knights face Bakersfield Condors on Friday, March 29th, and the Vegas Golden Knights face Nashville Predators on March 26th in Nashville.

SAVANNAH, Ga. —

Update: 11:30 p.m. - March 27

The fire off Ogeechee Road has been burning for more than 4o hours.

WJCL 22 News' Tia Maggio returned to the scene of the day and a half fire. She saw two engines at the site; one was leaving.

Savannah Fire Department (SFD) said at this point it is not dosing anymore water on the fire. It is bulldozing around it to ensure it does not spread.

SFD Public Information Officer Brian Gallagher said the reason it's taking so long to put fire out is because the materials surrounding it catch fire easily.

"It is a lumbered debris yard. So, it's basically a large fire pit," Gallagher said, "So we just want everyone in the public to know that there is no immediate danger. You will see a lot of smoke in the area, but it is under control."

Update: 5:50 a.m.- March 27

WJCL 22 News' Kyron Neveaux returned to the scene where the blazes continued nearly 24 hours after igniting.

Savannah Fire Department (SFD) officials say there aren't any new details regarding the fire at the moment.

Neveaux spotted one fire engine at the scene.

SFD is planning to release details later Wednesday.

Update: 10:30 p.m.

The fire off Ogeechee Road has been burning for more than 15 hours.

According to Savannah Fire Department Public Information Officer Brian Gallagher, the fire has spread from where it started Tuesday morning.

Gallagher said there is 12 fire units currently on the scene.

Fire crews are working to contain a brush fire in Savannah Tuesday afternoon.

Heavy smoke can be seen bellowing from a wooded area behind an apartment complex in the 4000 block of Ogeechee Road.

Reports of the fire came into the WJCL 22 newsroom around 11:30 a.m.

The Savannah Fire Department says an unintentional fire started and is now burning lumber and debris.

Hearst OwnedChris Smyth

At this time, there is no danger to any nearby structures.

There are also no injuries to report.

Check back for updates on this breaking news story.