Visiting historic restaurants and America's oldest candy shop | The Dish Full Episode

[Music] I'm Jeff glore from CBS Saturday morning welcome to the dish restaurants come and go but few establishments truly stand the test of time in this episode we explore cherish institutions with Rich histories tied to the cities they call home we head to Philadelphia where the new owners of a beloved downtown restaurant have transformed it into a j Beard award winning eery and we visit America's oldest candy company still making sweets the oldfashioned way but we begin with a storied hurn restaurant in the historic city of Savannah Georgia at The Old Pink House patrons flocked from across the country for a seat in one of the 13 unique dining spaces Dana Jacobson was lucky enough to grab a [Music] table Savannah Georgia best known for its Southern Charm and [Music] Hospitality one place that embodies it all nestled in the historic district is The Old Pink House first time at The Old Pink House awesome that you're here Craig jeffris has served as general manager for 13 years the colonial Mansion turned restaurant has become a dining destination with the home itself as much of a draw as the food wow and Welcome to our grand ballroom oh this is amazing so a grand ballroom back in the day yes just another one of the great rooms inside this home that we invite friends over every night to have dinner the first thing people usually notice when they come in of course of the chandeliers and the Sparkle and then they of course notice the scenery in the hand painted wallpaper here while the original home had just five rooms the restaurant is made up of 13 unique dining spaces which room is this welcome to the master bedroom from 1771 in the Oink house built by James Habersham Jr a colonial Merchant the building's one constant in its 252e history has been the unmistakable pink exterior due to its original red clay bricks the wife of habam uh Jr said all the wealthy people in town their homes are stucco please cover our home in Stucco so as a good husband he covered his home in stuckle what they didn't understand is that everything in south Georgia sweats in the summertime including the r clay bricks right so they're gorgeous stco home turned pink over and over and over again it's in the home now don't fight it don't fight it it won't work out for you inside the culinary offerings live up to The Old Pink House distinction and this smells amazing in both taste and presentation we started our lunch with a simple but iconic offering cheese straws they are made by hand every day really happy to get that reaction to you just had love to hear that snap and it just has the right amount of flavors and seasoning to it as did everything we tried from signature Southern dishes Savannah is known for like shrimp and grits we make a tasso ham gravy and then of course it's not complete without those tender sweet Georgia white shrimp it's like this giant hash brown almost that's what I kept thinking to items that add a modern twist a roasted sweet potato with pecan vanilla butter and The BLT Sal with fried green tomatoes candied bacon and a buttermilk time dressing that tartness from the Green Tomato it kicks in just as it should it's not the BLT you were thinking about but I'll tell you what it certainly does deliver I will take a BLT like this anytime their signature dish a crispy scored flounder battered and fried with an apricot chocolate glaze on top and that apricot that glaze oh my God it's been on the menu for over 30 years that is magnificent magnificent I get why that is Iconic do not ever take that off the no no no no each bite flavored with the atmosphere of the room in which it's served each room has so much character to it whether it's you know through the color the lighting the fireplace the chandelier each one of them speaks to you in its own way so the pork chop in this room of course it's the same pork chop as in the ballroom but the ballroom says hello to you in a little different way than this room same food different environment and and it greets you differently are there people that will come and want to eat in each room oh gosh we had some guests they came to dine with us one night they enjoyed it so much and they toured their home they extended their vacation so they could have a meal in every room in the house of course no meal is complete without a little dessert which at The Old Pink House means a praline basket well listen we're in the South so please don't be shy all right have I been shy so far well maybe not maybe not yeah the basket is filled with vanilla bean ice cream fresh berries and mango puree along with a touch of chocolate sauce and the crunch from the basket the crunch from I think that's what makes it for me if I may yeah you like how it's not offering it to you oh my God I'm so rude you could say Just Like Home you know you talk about it it's a home and that is the idea behind it that's literally how you greet people when they come in through that front door without a doubt I think it's it's so important to set the tone from that moment of hey welcome it's so good to see you my name is Craig and yours Kelly Kelly everyone's a guest in our home treat them as such all that is Hospitality that's the goal every single day is to show through our efforts what you taste the staff that you encounter the way you're treated as you wander throughout the home that speaks to who we are and what we how much we value you as one of our guests The Old Pink House way appreciated by tourists and locals alike with those those who call Savannah home returning a bit more often not to the front door but to the basement the restaurant's Tavern it's a place where locals come first all the rooms hug you but this one here it really puts a hug on you when you walk in here I could hang out here all day and night and sleep on the floor probably after that you wouldn't be the first you wouldn't be the first it's a very very comfortable space [Music] night and what was originally the kitchen in laundry guests can catch live music seven nights a week and if you're lucky or not like all truly proper historic Savannah spots a ghost story or two about four years ago one of our guests was here and having a great time in the tavern at this table here okay taking photographs throughout her meal yeah so this is what she sent me oh my God these two people are sitting right here right that's a real person's on that's a person but there's no one standing there total chills oh my God no one's standing there and I can't explain it other than it's a ghost Mr habam comeing to check on us the character of the House character of the home for sure it's part of being at home I guess it is it is it's started as a home so it always will be in some way shape or form so we treat it as such and so maybe Mr Ham's just coming to check on his house he needs a drink listen we got him covered we got him covered up next how an innovative tasting menu updated a neighborhood Hotpot in Philly nestled in Philadelphia's writtenhouse Square sits restaurant Friday Saturday Sunday a neighborhood favorite for more than 40 years Chad and Hannah Williams bought the space in 2015 and reimagined it by changing everything but the name Michelle Miller sat down with the husband wife Duo to learn how they created a James Beard award winner firing four sweet bread one is a celery root He's a Philly born and raised Chef Yi with truffles Bar 23 she's a former waitress now manager crispy sweet breads with a mushroom and plantain Ragu egg yolk jam and mushroom and bl together Hannah and Chad Williams are the power couple behind Friday Saturday Sunday one of the city's longest running restaurants how does the partnership work it's a collaborative effort you know ideas go back and forth between us I jump into her area she doesn't like it she jumps into mine I don't like it but at the end of the day it's somebody you you really trust that trust allowed them to have a difference of opinion when they first set foot inside the restaurant I walked out I was like no way I took the video and I like laughed and I was like this isn't it but Hannah saw things differently restaurant itself like in its first iteration kind of held significance for a lot of people in its day day it was definitely known as like the most romantic restaurant in in the city and I think it needed some updating certainly but we wanted to put our own mark on it and that's what they did in 2014 the couple risked it all by buying it gutting it and with little to spare got married in the kitchen so is it true that the contractor you brought in actually married the did we planned a wedding and we were eight months behind schedule with the restaurant trying to find every dollar possible to get open and we put on our suits came down there were construction workers here and we kicked everybody out for more than four decades Friday Saturday Sunday has been a staple in Philly this neighborhood looks pretty old it's writtenhouse Philadelphia one of the oldest neighborhoods here and you know one of the wealthiest as you can see like the architecture just really gives the neighborhood such a great feel so not a bad spot to be in no we have some great regulars I'll say that those regulars had a hard time when the couple changed everything but the name she got cursed out of the door a couple times I mean people walk out crying they had attachments it took folks a little bit of time to get used to us change is hard and especially when you know you're keeping the name people then assume that okay new ownership is coming in and you know we're going to be able to go back and have that cream of mushion soup we've been having for 40 years and when they can't get that people get upset you know change is hard one of the biggest Chang came during the pandemic when they had to Pivot to a tasting menu so our first course here is a tuna tart you could open a 25% capacity I mean look around 25% capacity for us is that was four tables we had to make a decision to do something that we could potentially try to make a living at charcoal grilled qu when food hits your table it's not the same bite from the first to the last and a lot of that magic happens in that 3 4 minutes I got to take taste some of that magic starting with Ember Tomatoes served with corn pudding and corn butter yeah so they're grilled really really lightly so you get that Smoky Aroma and then the fresh really like aromatic corn and the row really pops little pops yeah yeah wow next was the Beet anola with buttermilk sauce and grilled blackberries a little sweet a little earthiness from the the beets so that one hits kind of all the notes there oh my goodness it's really good also part of the meal roasted potato nooki grilled Quail New York strip steak served with cabbage and oxtail then for dessert red summer fruit goats milk Trace Lee and roasted Berry ice cream with a little fermented uh Blackberry powder so spring summer and fall I would imagine are just an abundance of seasonal Delight all the vegetables and fruits just really come at you so fast it really brings like a certain energy to the kitchen star walking 89 the business of cooking was a left turn for Williams when you think about your influences how much did your home cooking inside the home impact you well my mother would want me to say a ton and the truth is no we joke about it all the time she didn't cook she worked she was a teacher and so was my father during his time at Howard University Williams started working at a Caribbean restaurant and never looked back between my Junior and senior year in school I worked every day seven days a week and I said if I still like this after like wasting the summer you know in this kitchen in said I having fun I'll do it he had to call his mom to tell her he wasn't going back to school tell me that conversation she cried for years she would call my boss and tell him to fire me weekly every week a call from there he went on to work at Michelin starred restaurants like 11 Madison Park and Mana before returning to his is roots in Philly whales walking 2139 what did you learn there that you brought in here it was always taste you know so much of cooking now can be like a visual exercise because it's in social media and you kind of you see the food before you eat it pretty food pretty food you know we we make things pretty but always at the base of it is this care for the product that you receive our final Savory course tonight this is prime New York strip steak that effort from Chad and Hannah led to this magical moment in Chicago at the James Beard Awards do you remember the night you won they announced your name I don't think any of us actually heard that it's big night for this town yeah that's all we heard that's what that's what we heard and everybody you didn't hear anything else big night for this town Friday Saturday Sunday I watched it probably 177,000 times cuz again I I don't believe that it happened to us I get to wake up next this woman every day and it is the best gift that life has given me I love you and Longevity only happens with something special there's something to be said about places that have lasted the test of time so what inspires you knowing that that it is possible a very simple Neighborhood Restaurant when we open and the city and our guests that watched us grow and they they pushed us so we want to just fulfill that that dream that we've been blessed with and see how far we can take all right walking to fish 39 after the break indulging our sweet tooth at America's oldest candy company at y old pepper company in Salem Massachusetts candy might as well be the sixth food group the owners of the family run business make candy just as the founder did more than 200 years ago Dana Jacobson got a taste at Halloween Salem Massachusetts may as well be the North Pole at Christmas trickle tree why is this so special around Halloween I think it's the glamour of being the what they consider the witch City the people that come they're all dressed up they're happy they're having a great time Bob birkenshaw and Jackie Russell okay just need a signature here are at the center of it all this is raspberry jelly Snowbell cream as owners of Salem's Ye Old pepper company candy store a lot of good stuff usually the lines are endless the father daughter Duo are third and fourth generation candy makers who still make the same Sweet Temptations as their company's founder the history is very important that's where we came from that's where our company started even the equipment that we use dates back to the 1800s that's how far back Ye Old pepper company traces its history to an English woman named Mary Spencer who arrived in America in 1806 after being Shipwrecked she was destitute she landed in Salem and her neighbors asked if there was anything they could do for her and she said if you could give me some sugar I can make some candy and I can start to support myself so they donated a barrel of sugar to her and she started making her jalter she started selling them on the church steps soon turning her jalter into what's believed to be the country 's first commercially sold candy confectioner George pepper bought the business and by 1830 created a companion treat and he decided that the Gibralter was sort of a feminine piece of candy dainty it was made dainty it was made in lemon and Petman flavors so he decided to make a candy called the Blackjack made from black strap molasses more manly this was more Manish birkens Shaw's grandfather bought the company from pepper at the turn of the 20th century birkens Shaw's father would later take it over and move production into the family basement from like 4 years old all you could smell through the whole house was candy that's a like a kid's dream yeah all the neighborhood kids used to come over and they'd all hang around the windows looking for the samples to come out which my father used to always you know pass out the window to them so how young were you then when you learned to make candy I would say maybe around 10 and he's still making it today now the kitchen sits adjacent to the store's shop allowing its sugary Aroma to entice customers birkenshaw passing on recipes to his son-in-law just as his father and grandfather had done before like lemon drops made the oldfashioned way and of course there are the Gibralter Mary Spencer's same recipe made as she would have back in the 1800s isn't there an easier way to do it though now oh there is definitely an easier way this is not a business to be in if you're looking for an easy business an easy way to work but there's something about maintaining that history and that tradition and that's what makes us keep going ready yeah and while the historic Confections remain Ye Old pepper company's biggest sellers the candy business is one of creativity and Innovation we're always trying to come up with something different something to go with the seasons or just new ideas creativity is also what helped keep the business going when the pandemic hit we laid everybody off we shut everything down and my father and I went to work and tried to figure out exactly what we were going to do and we were a little panicked well I have all this Easter candy and I I actually called my son school I said to them you know would you mind you know putting out an email to the parents we will make baskets from scratch they basically saved us at the beginning they were the reason we were able to continue going Mary Spencer started this because the community reached out and gave her sugar right so she could do this in your time of need you reached out to the community right yes St Michaels was our Lifeline y just like the jalter which started it All Ye Old pepper company continues to stand the test of time I don't see candy going out anytime soon but you know fingers crossed father made it through the Great Depression and he lost everything but he still he still kept going good job you got it I you hired I'm hoping to continue it for my son someday ultimately it's his decision but I'm keeping it running right now so that someday he has the option same way your dad did yep it's truly in our blood yeah it's in our blood with every jalter and blackjack you eat right true for more stories like these and live coverage of breaking news 24/7 stream us right here on CBS News I'm Jeff glore we'll see you next time for another helping of the dish

Channel: CBS Mornings

Views: 43,208

Keywords: The Dish, full episode, CBS News, video, live news, streaming, CBS Mornings, CBS Saturday Morning, cooking, food, chef, cuisine, philadelphia, friday saturday sunday, salem, Massachusetts, candy shop

Id: 4vMeQRNcUcs

Length: 20min 11sec (1211 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 26 2023