Betty Bombers, Savannah GA

Last month, we went back down to south Georgia for a few days and, as we like to stop for a meal in Savannah, we left very early and made it to Betty Bombers on Bull Street for lunch. It’s a fabulous little room in the American Legion Hall, which is completely gorgeous. It was built in 1913 and served as the home of the Chatham Artillery for some decades.

The first thing guests will see as they enter the restaurant are rows of framed World War Two-era posters and newspapers, and the second thing that guests will notice is that the girls who are working the counter are wearing vintage dresses, with period hairstyles. When we arrived, we also couldn’t help but notice that the four customers who arrived before us were all dressed in matching uniforms of tan shirts and olive pants. Turned out they were all employees of some Chatham County municipal service on their lunch break, but for just a minute, they sure looked like off-duty joes in a south Pacific army base in ’44 enjoying some R & R, and I said to Marie that this wasn’t the first place we’ve been to where the staff had a period look, but it was certainly the first place where the customers did as well!

At Betty Bombers, they’re serving up burgers and fries and shakes, and they’re excellent. These are high-quality, eight-to-ten dollar burgers, about the equivalent in value and experience to the small Savannah chain B & D Burgers, which we sampled a couple of years ago. B & D is excellent, and we enjoyed the one lunch we had there better than the offerings at quite a few big-name Atlanta burger chains. We enjoyed this lunch every bit as much as the one at B & D, and it wasn’t just me getting distracted by cute servers with ’40s pin-up girl hair (I’m such a sucker for that look); Marie and the children were also really pleased with their meals. In time-honored tradition, the four year-old was too busy playing with our little American flag toothpicks – what a nice touch! – to register much of an opinion, but he ate all of his all-beef dog and enjoyed his Fanta Cherry soda.

Some of the burgers and sandwiches here are pretty silly and fun, with over-the-top mixes of toppings. They have several spicy varieties, and since Marie and our daughter ordered the basic, with lettuce, tomatoes, and other traditional fixings, I went with the “Fire in the Hole,” which piles on jalapenos and spicy cheese sauce.

That seemed like a much more sensible idea than a monster called “The Deep Burn,” about which the menu says: “Our South Carolina Neighbors at the Puckerbutt Pepper Co. created the World’s Hottest Pepper: The Carolina Reaper. We combine it with a Roasted Tomato Puree and serve it on our Classic Burger with American Cheese. Super Hot!! Not for the faint of heart.“ I figured my heart was faint and passed on that, but I looked it up and indeed, two years ago, the Guinness people did agree that Carolina Reapers are the hottest peppers on Earth. Wowza. We’ll stick with jalapeno peppers, thanks!

You can see all the restaurants that we have visited for our blog on this map, with links back to the original blog posts. It’s a terrific resource for anybody planning a road trip through the southeast!