Georgia on His Mind
Little Miss Sunshine's Greg Kinnear loves walking
with the ghosts in Savannah. His dog? Not so much. . Photographs by
Sheryl Nields.
Greg Kinnear found Savannah, that legendary Georgia city spared by
General William Sherman and later immortalized in a novel, like
most people find Savannah: by chance and good luck.
Kinnear and his wife were driving a rental car down to visit
friends in a small Georgia town, and they had a week or two to
spare. "We just went on a crazy sort of Southern road trip," he
says. "And we made it through Savannah and a few other cities.
That's really when I first kind of started digging Georgia in
general."
He fell particularly hard for Savannah. Already rich in history,
the coastal city became a global tourist destination with the
publication in 1994 of John Berendt's best-selling book
Midnight
in the Garden of Good and Evil; tourism increased 46 percent
and spun off
Midnight tours, a movie, and more. Kinnear
really got to know Savannah six years ago, while he was in town
filming
The Gift, and marveled at the city's beauty, spirit,
and lore.
This month, the actor, who lives in
Los Angeles, is a member of the
ensemble cast of
Little Miss Sunshine, which follows the
six-member Hoover family as they trek from their home in
Albuquerque to enter seven-year-old Olive in the Little Miss
Sunshine pageant in
Redondo Beach,
California. Here's the real-life
trek
Greg Kinnear took that led him through the most original city
in the South.
So tell me what you discovered in Savannah. Well, it has
incredible history to it. And you feel that the moment you get
there, particularly in the downtown area. You know, it was sort of
where the old Georgia colony was established. Everything today
that's downtown Savannah is sort of an offshoot of its design when
the first settlers started to colonize it. This guy, General James
Oglethorpe, designed it all, and there are all sorts of
Oglethorpian references - monuments, streets, Oglethorpe burgers. I
don't know if there's an Oglethorpe burger, but there's a lot of
that kind of imagery of this guy. He was the designer, the lead
guy, when they established the town. He created that thing where
they would start with a park and then build out from there. Today,
there are more than 20 of those parks all over the city.
The squares of Savannah, right? And most famous is Monterey
Square, home of the late Jim Williams, the main character of
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. In the book,
Berendt described Monterey Square as "the most elegant of
Savannah's many tree-lined squares." Monterey Square is
probably the most famous. There's Forsyth Park, but that's a
different thing. That's sort of like, you know,
Central Park for
Savannahians, if there is such a term. That's really cool, and it's
kind of the focal point of downtown. But branching out from all
that are these little squares. Everything grows beautifully down
there. But they pay for it in the summer, when it's 100 degrees
with heavy humidity.
It's on the river, right? That's right. River Street, which
does run along the river, is filled with these little cobblestone
streets with little cafés and bars and restaurants. Quite frankly,
that area is a little touristy, the way that some of the streets
around the
Eiffel Tower are touristy, but it's still kind of cool.
And they still get a huge amount of people, particularly on the
weekends, and these people aren't afraid to party down in the
South, if you know what I'm saying.
Did you do the Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
tour, since the book put the city on the map for so many
millions? Well, you know, the first thing you learn when you're
in Savannah is the locals kind of roll their eyes when they hear
the whole
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil thing.
That [the murder at the heart of the book] was a real scandal in
that town. But how it ever got unleashed into the sort of mythic
proportions it did was only because there was a really good writer
behind it. But still, there are some very cool aspects of that.
Like the Mercer Williams House, home of the late antiques dealer
Jim Williams, who shot his young lover, Danny Hansford. Do they do
tours through that now? Sure. But I don't think they like it
when you ask about "that," though. They don't like you talking
about the murder or something. They get a little weird on that. I
saw it from the outside. It's kind of creepy-looking only because
of, you know, the history of the whole thing. But it's really
beautiful. All of the houses down in that area, if you're into
architecture, are really fantastic. There are a lot of different
architectural influences: Italianate, classical, Greek Revival.
It's a real mix. You think there are going to be these sort of
antebellum mansions there, and they're really not.
For breakfast, I understand, it's Clary's Café, where John
Berendt found so many great characters. Clary's is, like, the
oldest joint there. It's not just breakfast. You can also get
dinner. But it's kind of known for its breakfast. My wife said she
had the best Georgia-pecan pancakes she ever had in her entire life
there. They also do real traditional stuff. I'm not a
biscuits-and-gravy kind of guy, but that is where I sampled
biscuits and gravy, and it can make a believer out of you.
What's one main attraction of Savannah? Well, Bonaventure
Cemetery is the place that housed the statue the
Bird Girl,
which is a very famous, if not slightly disturbing, statue [now
housed in the Telfair Museum of Art]. It was originally
photographed by Jack Leigh, who has a gallery there. I've been to
the gallery. It's a really kind of famous place to go. They have
really good art for sale.
So what did you do in the cemetery? Or what did you see?
They have, I think, 60, maybe 70 ghost tours down in Savannah. If
that's what floats your boat, you've hit the jackpot in terms of
the spirit world. I don't think there are as many ghosts in the
world as they have these tours for them. It's a big business. They
will definitely take you around these various cemeteries and give
you the history. But people are spotting the paranormal activity
going on pretty much in every corner of the city.
I've heard there are haunting tours, Old Town trolleys, Savannah
spirits, a pub crawl … Every kind of creepy, paranormal,
freaky, spooky experience you'd want to have is available. For a
price. The cemetery I remember best is Colonial Park. The history
there is amazing because it's not like Los Angeles, where you see,
you know, here lies so-and-so from 1935 to '74. This is all, like,
eighteenth-century stuff. The weird thing is that a lot of the
locals in the evening hour will show up there in the park with
their dogs and allow the dogs to run free and kind of get their
evening exercise - and the locals will pop open a canteen of their
favorite evening cocktail. They are very, very nice people, and
they all sit around and have a cocktail and watch the dogs running
around in the cemetery. It's one of the more surreal dog parks in
the country, if not the world. My dog, actually, was not used to
gravestones in the parks that he plays in and ran headfirst into a
gravestone at about 20 miles an hour. We had to take him to a local
vet with the help of some friendly Savannah citizens.
Do you think he was chasing a ghost or something? Could have
been. You never know with my dog. He's been seeing ghosts ever
since he was born.
Okay, that's enough about ghosts. Is there any shopping in
Savannah that you'd like to speak about? They've really got
incredible antiques, and the art scene is very, very cool. There's
SCAD, which is the Savannah College of Art and Design. So they have
always got pieces by young up-and-coming artists on display
throughout the downtown area. In fact, I bought a painting there. I
saw a painting called
The Horrible Dog that I really liked
and decided to buy it the next day. It was just a freaky-looking
hound. I did one of those things where I said, "Yeah, I'll wait
until tomorrow." I showed up the next day, and it had the dreaded
red dot on it. It had been purchased. I was, like, "You're kidding
me. Who bought this?!" And the woman said, "Well, I believe it was
Keanu Reeves," who was doing
The Gift as well. He had come
in that morning, just totally coincidentally, and bought it. So, of
course, I was sad. I was bemoaning the fact that he had stolen this
incredible painting,
The Horrible Dog, right out from
underneath me. But on the last day of shooting, wrapped up in my
trailer with a little bow on it was
The Horrible Dog. Just
to give you some indication of what a decent fellow Mr. Reeves
is.
Where can you find the spirit of the city? A cool area
downtown is called City Market, right on the river. It used to be a
bunch of warehouses, kind of cotton mills and stuff, which they
essentially transformed into these little studios and galleries,
shops, restaurants, some nightclubs. It's a big area. They have a
great Sunday market that's mostly local vendors who have great
little arts and crafts, things like that. River Street, that's
another kind of thing. They have something called First Saturday,
which is kind of like a bazaar of local people who sell different
things. It's a great way to burn off a Saturday morning with a cup
of coffee. And if you have a hangover, that's okay too.
Where did you eat? There are a couple of great places. Il
Pasticcio, which is on Broughton Street, is a great Italian spot.
It's very loved down there now, but I was there when it had kind of
just opened. I'd like to point out to the jury that I was loving it
way before the food critics jumped on board and said they were
loving it. Everything is very fresh, and it's very contemporary
Italian. They were always playing around with dishes that were
just a little ahead of a conventional
Italian restaurant. Sapphire
Grill - that's a great place to get a drink, and also it has very
good food. Sapphire Grill is darker; it has a really cool
atmosphere, great music, and American
cuisine.
Savannah is legendary for its carefree spirit. Did you discover
any great bars or taverns? Moon River Brewing Company. They
brew their own beer. I think it's one of the biggest breweries in
the South. Just a real eclectic mix of great beer and ale, if
you're into that, which I kind of am. That was a spot we would
frequent.
Is there a place to get near the water outside of town? I
almost took a house at a place called Tybee Island, this fantastic
island that is out on the coast. There's a great lighthouse there,
Tybee Island Light Station - historic, one of the oldest in the
country. It's beautiful, and you can tour it. Not to get "Henry
historical" here, but when they settled the place, they almost were
going to make that the first part of the settlement. But it's all
very marshy and wet, so that's why they came in on the river about
15 miles and settled Savannah where it is now. But Tybee Island has
these incredible chalk-white beaches and great old houses. I mean,
they are just absolutely beautiful. You can jet-ski, you can fish.
I'm into kayaking a little bit, and there are a few great rental
spots where you can get kayaks and shoot out any which way. You
have to be a little careful.
Where else do you like to go outside of Savannah? Another
great day trip from Savannah is to Beaufort,
South Carolina, where
they filmed
The Big Chill. I went to the house where the
movie was filmed, because I love that movie, and the house sits
right on a big bluff. That's a beautiful little town, probably only
35 minutes up the road. We had lunch overlooking the water. Then we
went on to do what was really important -
golf - which was another
10-minute drive onto Hilton Head Island. They have a huge PGA event
there, the Harbour Town Golf Links at Sea Pines Resort - an
unbelievable course set up on the inland coast. If you're a golfer,
Hilton Head Island is one of the top golf destinations in the
country. I don't know how many courses there are, but they are all
pretty staggering. Mostly par-fours. If you don't have a decent
56-degree wedge in your bag, do not stop at this course. It's not
tremendously long, but it demands real skill. Which is why I hate
it.
Anything else? They have fantastic deep-sea fishing off the
coast. In less than 15 minutes, you can be in some very active
water.
Did you do it? Oh yeah. And I caught a 385-pound tuna.
Did you really? No, but it would be a great story.
Why Savannah Looks Like Savannah
The architecture there is really unique. You can see why it
captured the imagination of people when they did
Midnight in the
Garden of Good and Evil. The city has burned down a bunch of
times. But back in the 1950s, I guess, they were starting to do
what they're doing in beautiful little cities and towns across the
country, which is to go in and blow up their old buildings and put
up parking lots and condominiums. And there were these seven women
who formed this group called the Historic Savannah Foundation, and
they started raising money. They raised, like, $22,000. When they
were about to tear down the 1820 Isaiah Davenport House, which is a
pretty famous place, the group jumped in and bought the property.
Subsequently, the Davenport House was saved from the wrecking ball.
They had such success with that, they didn't stop. To this day,
whenever an old structure comes up for sale, rather than let it get
into the hands of somebody who might rob the city of its history
and architectural legacy, this group will step in and buy it and
find a way to preserve it. That's why Savannah still looks like
Savannah.
He Said…
Where Savannah's spirits took Greg Kinnear
DINING
Clary's Café, American, inexpensive, (912) 351-0302
Il Pasticcio Restaurant and Wine Bar, Italian, expensive,
(912) 231-8888
Sapphire Grill, American, expensive, (912) 443-9962
SIGHTS
Bonaventure Cemetery, 330 Bonaventure Road, (912) 651-6843
City Market, (912) 232-4903, www.savannahcitymarket.com
Colonial Park Cemetery, Abercorn Street and Oglethorpe
Avenue
Forsyth Park, (912) 351-3837
Jack Leigh Gallery, (912) 234-6449
Mercer Williams House, (877) 430-6352
River Street, (912) 234-0295,
www.riverstreetsavannah.com
Savannah College of Art and Design, (912) 525-5000
Tidalholm (the Big Chill house), 1 Laurens Street, Beaufort,
South Carolina
Tybee Island Light Station, (912) 786-5801,
www.tybeelighthouse.org
GHOST TOURS
Hauntings Tour, (912) 234-3571
Savannah Spirits Pub Crawl, (912) 604-3007
GOLF
Harbour Town Golf Links at Sea Pines Resort, (888) 807-6873
NIGHTLIFE
Moon River Brewing Company, brewpub,
(912) 447-0943
We Said… Where Savannah's spirits took us
LODGING
Azalea Inn & Gardens, moderate, (912) 236-2707. Gardens
are synonymous with Savannah, and the lush landscaping at this
circa-1889 Italianate inn does not disappoint. Neither do any of
its 10 well-appointed rooms, some with two-person tubs, private
patios overlooking the pool, gas fireplaces, and more. Ask about
their special biz rates.
Thunderbird Inn, inexpensive, (912) 232-2661. The name, and
even the sign, suggests one of the roadside motels
Tom Cruise and
Dustin Hoffman might have stayed in on their cross-country Rain Man
trek. But the Thunderbird has been reworked for the aughts and now
features chic all-white linens on its pillow-top beds, free in-room
Internet access, and the like.
DINING
Queeny's to Go-Go, inexpensive to moderate, (912) 443-0888.
We're sold on
soul food, particularly Queeny's owner John H. Baker
III's flavorful fare, from the fried green tomatoes with goat
cheese and roasted red-pepper sauce to the shrimp and grits with
ham gravy. But don't let the name fool you; there's both indoor and
outdoor seating at this former filling station.
Soho South Café, inexpensive, (912) 233-1633. At the pace a
meal moves here, you might think Savannah was on an island in the
Caribbean, but we prefer to think of it as having plenty of time to
savor Soho's yummy menu items, like the tomato-basil bisque,
meatloaf sandwich, and banana pudding. Located inside the Savannah
Fine Arts Gallery, Soho South lives up to its claim, "Where food is
an art."
SHOPPING
ShopSCAD, (912) 525-5180. Kinnear mentioned the Savannah College of Art and Design, which comprises more than 50 buildings scattered throughout the historic district, but we love its fabulous boutique — featuring the work of SCAD students, faculty, and alumni — so much that we thought it was worth singling out. (FYI: Can’t make it to campus? Check them out online at www.shopscadonline.com.)
ATTRACTIONS
Skidaway Island Institute of Oceanography, (912) 598-2400. Just 16 miles south of downtown is an area of estuaries, marshes, and barrier islands that house this leading research institute. Tours of SkIO’s laboratories and, when it’s in port, its 92-foot research vessel, are offered on the last Friday of most months.
OUTDOORS
McQueen’s Island Historic Trail, (912) 652-6780. Lace up your jogging shoes or strap on your bike helmet for a trip along this scenic six-mile pathway, which happens to have been Georgia’s first rails-to-trails conversion.