Joe Bowers arrives at his small Glenwood Avenue restaurant at 4 a.m. He makes his food fresh from scratch, and the prep, baking, and mixing takes time and expertise.
The St. Louis-style barbecue ribs take five hours to smoke. The chicken marinates for eight. Bowers bakes all the red velvet and pound cakes. The black-eyed peas, shrimp, and grits are all cooked in-house before the restaurant opens at 11 a.m. At Savannah Joe’s, the results are well worth the visit.
Bowers grew up in Savannah, Ga. As a child, he cut the centers out of canned biscuits and sold them on the corner as doughnuts. While in his late teens, he moved to Youngstown to live with an aunt and uncle.
Following his culinary instincts, Bowers landed his first job at Wendy’s. “I worked there for 14 years,” Bowers says, “at every level, from cook to manager.” From there he held manager positions at Bennington’s and Ryan’s Steakhouse. He also ran a successful catering business for 20 years, but his dream was to own a restaurant. The call of home pulled at him. Bowers eventually moved back to Savannah, but found that he missed family in Youngstown. Bowers ultimately pursued his dream of owning a restaurant, and the result is Savannah Joe’s, located in a refurbished strip plaza on Glenwood Avenue in Youngstown.
Every entree and side at Savannah Joe’s come from home. Candied yams swim in a syrup of butter, sugar, and vanilla. The grits are rich, thick and cheesy and served with either shrimp or fish ($17.99).
“These are all my mother’s recipes,” Bowers says, “all of them are my mother’s and grandmother’s.” Bowers’ grandmother, “Big Momma” as he used to call her, encouraged her precocious grandson to cook, an effort that reflected the sense of community Bowers is now working toward himself.
“She fed the entire neighborhood,” Bowers recalls and adds, “The trashman could eat. The mailman could eat.” His mother was a school “lunch lady,” and Bowers—who is proud that he earned his stars without the constraints of a culinary schooling—continues his family tradition with recipes perfected over a lifetime of restaurant work.
The menu at Savannah Joe’s is surprisingly large, including grilled salmon ($15.99); haddock ($17.99); Cajun salmon and shrimp Alfredo ($23.99); burgers, sandwiches (catfish, chicken, or pulled pork, $10.99 to $11.99); and the restaurant’s single biggest seller, fried catfish ($11.99). The menu also includes fried pork chops ($18.99); fried chicken, white or dark ($10.99 to $11.99); a fried shrimp basket ($12.49); and chicken and sausage gumbo ($8.99).
For the health conscious, the menu also sports a turkey burger ($8.99), and for the vegetarian diner, a Beyond Veggie burger ($14.99) or a dinner house or dinner Caesar salad ($10.99). Every entrée is accompanied by two sides and a square of cornbread that is so moist and buttery it is more akin to cake than bread.
Sides ala carte run $4.99 an item, and include true Southern favorites like collard greens, macaroni and cheese, and smashed potatoes. Appetizers also include Southern favorites like fried okra ($7.99) and fried green tomatoes ($8.99). The coleslaw is spicy with onions, and the baked beans are tangy and sweet.
“My favorite are the low-country crab cakes,” Bowers said. This is a particular spicy Southern recipe made with blue crab caught along the Georgia coast and served in an open crab shell.
For dessert, in addition to the red velvet and pound cakes, Savannah Joe’s serves peach cobbler and banana pudding.
Bowers has named a sandwich after himself, the “Joe’s Cristo,” but it’s the po’boy sandwich ($12.99) that steals the show. A soft hoagie is heaped with fried shrimp, crisscrossed with a “Creole-inspired creamy remoulade sauce,” according to the website, and garnished with lettuce and tomato. Eating this monster takes skillful use of the knife and fork. Eating by hand is not advised without a bib. Bower’s favorite is the smothered pork chop.
Food is served on unpretentious tableware like one would find at home or, for takeout, in Styrofoam containers and to-go paper bags with plastic ware. Seating is limited to three booths and several two-seater tables, but this does not seem to be an issue during peak hours, even though Savannah Joe’s does a brisk business.
In the near future, Savannah Joe’s plans to add meatloaf and oxtail beef, a catering menu for large events, and outside seating to complement the small, bright café interior with its pictures of Savannah and Southern landscapes on the walls. Savannah Joe’s will also deliver. Patrons can order online. And Bowers is also planning on expanding to a local chain.
Yet for all the good eating, what’s most important for Bowers is revitalizing the Glenwood corridor. “This is bigger than me,” Bowers says, referring to his restaurant. “Because of where the restaurant is, the inner city, I am able to pour back into the community and to give to some of the young people in this area who would otherwise don’t have transportation to get to work. Many of my employees don’t have a car, but they are able to walk here. And I am able to teach them a trade that’s going to be around forever because people always love to eat.”
The eatery is also an example of how the community, and Youngstown overall, can follow the path of revitalization. “The plaza has truly exceeded our expectations,” says Jack Daugherty of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC). “Just two and a half years ago it was just another empty building with an uncertain future.” It was vacant for more than two decades when YNDC took over the property and refurbished the building. These days the plaza sports an urgent care center and the Glenwood Fresh Market, a healthy-food outlet for financially challenged families.
“Now the plaza has become one of the busiest hubs of neighborhood activity in this part of the city,” says Daugherty. “The plaza demonstrates the power and impact of centering economic development around the needs of our local entrepreneurs and the priorities of residents.”
Savannah Joe’s is part of this renewal, and customers will be glad if they take part.
Savannah Joe’s – 2905 Glenwood Ave., Youngstown 44511. 330-333-4405. Website: www.savannahjoes.com….
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