SEPTEMBER 2019 WORLD’S BEST RESTAURANTS 31
spent part of her childhood in Savan-
nah before moving to New York City
at age 11. And she’s taken her own
family history, combined it with the
tangled history of Southern food,
and added the influences of her time
training in France, her life in New
York, and the legendary chef Edna
Lewis. The results are stunning.
Foie gras and grits could devolve
into a parody of Southern excess in
another cook’s hands. In Bailey’s,
the dish is luxuriant and soulful,
mainly because these are the best
grits you are ever likely to eat: thick,
rich, and brightened by mostarda
and red wine gravy.
Bailey is telling stories with this
cooking, choosing ingredients not
just for their deliciousness but also
for their cultural importance. The
staple ingredients of historic African
American foodways are highlighted
IS THERE ANOTHER restaurant in
America as handsome as The Grey?
Savannah’s former Greyhound
station, which opened in 1938, has
been painstakingly restored and
transformed. The front bar and back
dining room are both dreams of Art
Deco design, all polished metal and
geometric shapes and buttery leather.
In the dining room, the numbers for
the bus departure gates still indicate
where passengers once boarded.
While history provides much of the
inspiration for this glorious design,
it also provides a deeper context to
the restaurant, what is being served
there, and who is doing the cooking.
When the bus station opened it was a
segregated space. In The Grey we see
that space reclaimed.
In fact, what has elevated the
restaurant to another level entirely
is its chef, Mashama Bailey. Bailey
and celebrated in almost every dish.
Ragù is made with field peas and
sweet corn; a rosy duck breast comes
with loquat butter and sugarcane
gastrique, highlighting the historical
ties between the sugar industry
and slavery.
It’s this amalgamation of fac-
tors that earns The Grey a spot on
this list: its ability to revitalize the
foodways of this part of the world,
put them into a modern but thought-
ful context, and deliver them in a
space that is not only beautiful but
full of historical resonance. If there’s
one restaurant that will help you
understand the South as it was, as it
is today, and what it is becoming, The
Grey is that place.
THE GREY
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA, USA
HIGHLY COMMENDED
At Oriole in Chicago, brilliant
wine pairings thrillingly enhanced
my meal. A 2012 Sottimano
Currá Barbaresco paired with a
capellini with Périgord truffles
was stunning, the tannins enrich-
ing the pasta’s umami and vice
versa. The vision of a chef and
the talents of the wine staff
rarely meld so seamlessly.
The Grey chef
Mashama Bailey.
PHOTOGRAPHY: PETER FRANK EDWARDS/REDUX
