Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil | Jim Williams | really good writer | John Berendt

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.