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We never learned the cat's name, but he didn’t belong to the inn, since they booted him out when he escaped our room and ran down the long stairs to the public area on the first floor. But the cat came back.

There are only four tables in the basement of a double wide.

No less than sixteen bowls of home cooking was served to the ten of us family style:
Mashed yams and raisins
Lima beans
Peas and noodles (English)
Collard greens
Fruit
Brunswick stew of ground beef, corn, tomatoes
BBQ beef
Okra, tomato and ground meat
Beef casserole
Biscuits and cornbread muffins
Gravy and syrup
Fried chicken
Beets
Potato salad
String beans and ham hocks
Sue’s Potato a gratin w/vinegar
Brown beans made with mayonnaise, mustard and onion
Macaroni and cheese
Banana pudding
Apple peach tart

You are seated family style around a long table of about 16 to 20. Great fun!

I had a delicious shrimp sandwich, and Susan had a ham sandwich. Both of us had a crème base vegetable soup with potato, corn, etc. I enjoyed a memorable, flavorful Earl Grey, since the weather was bone chilling and rainy all day. For dessert, I had a German chocolate cheesecake that was all white with chocolate syrup drizzled over and about the plate. It was very good—like nothing I have ever enjoyed. It was not like German chocolate cake. Susan had lemon cake. [$30]

Nita's always smiling, filling the plates at the steam table. Miss Mary is in the kitchen keeping the food hot and in good supply.

The menu is simple -- usually a choice of three entrees and six to eight vegetables, cornbread and dessert.

That day there were collards, okra, corn and tomato mix, squash casserole, macaroni and cheese, rutabagas, potato salad and possibly the best red rice in town. The vegetables are cooked the way many Southern cooks do, with a little sugar to enhance the sweetness.

We both had jambalaya of shrimp and sausage over white rice and grits plus fantastic sweet potatoes!

Do not fail to eat here!

We shared tuna salad on a biscuit, egg salad on toast, tomato, and finely chopped watercrest on bread with crème cheese spread. All very good. Then: Crème cheese and diced cucumber sandwich, scones with lots of whipping crème, a 2½-inch quiche tart with a touch of brown sugar sprinkled on the top, which made it heavenly, and a circular croissant roll-up of Havarti cheese and bacon. All garnished with edible flowers, which I pressed in the spiral notepad I wrote these memories in. Topped off with Saffron sorbet. [$34]

(Check out a book: "Midwestern Tea Room Pleasures" by Joyce Decherd.)

It does look like a Jewish house of worship (although there is no standard). The floor plan is actually laid out like a cross with the cross arm and architecturally appears like a church with a pointed spire. It is the oldest now practicing Reform Judaism Synagogue in the US founded by Spanish Portuguese Jews on July 11, 1733, five months after establishment of the colony of Georgia. There is a modest Jewish star above the entrance, which I didn’t notice. I walked over to read the historic plaque. (Everything in Savannah has a historic plaque in front of it!) I mentioned to someone at the entrance that I was Jewish and he invited me in.

I was wearing my plaid "sherbet" short sleeve shirt and my photographer’s vest and chino slacks! I was directed to a "seater" along the south wall who found a seat at the very front of the front row on a folding chair! I felt awkward since most everyone was very dressed up. The women wore elegant dresses and quite a few wore elegant stylish hats reminiscent of classic Coco Chanel of the classic fifties. One woman had a smashing black hat with a wide brim with a white rib around the rim. It reminded me of a classic Irving Penn photograph.

The interior glowed in a blaze of light filtered through tall stained glass windows upon crème walls.