A taste of la dolce vita livens up Old Town Bluffton. Joelle Italian Restaurant & Bar opened last month and is already a must-see spot for locals and Savannah interlopers. Expect Italian essentials (handmade pastas, brick-oven pizzas), coastal Carolina staples (grilled shrimp with polenta, catch of the day), and a robust but unpretentious bar menu.

A stone’s throw from Factor’s Walk, Arco, part of the Rhino Hospitality family, is one of the sexiest spots to sip a sunset cocktail by the river. Though it’s most often a place to start or end an evening, Arco can be the main event if you choose. Live entertainment and tapas like baby octopus, Chilean sea bass, and Savannah blue crab cakes make lingering longer than expected easy.

St. Neo’s, located in the Drayton Hotel, enters its next era with executive chef Stephen Sleyo in charge. The new, seasonally-driven menu includes fusion-focused delights like the braised short rib sitting atop celery root puree and fig bordelaise, arriving at the table tender and steaming. Diver scallops with local pea succotash and tomato au jus, and the seafood plateaux are other standouts. Raw bar lovers will appreciate the opportunity to belly up to Savannah’s only true seafood bar and sip some sparkling as St. Neo’s oyster shuckers smile and serve up fresh shellfish. 

The E-Tang empire continues to expand with the opening of a new noodle bar on Whitaker Street across from Circa 1875. Favorites from the original location, like xiao long bao, hot chili wontons, and braised eggplant, are served along Korean hot pots, and an extended offering of noodle soups just in time for the weather to slip below 70 in Savannah.

Husk is redefining regional culinary pride. A new partnership with North Carolina’s Osetra caviar purveyor, Marshallberg Farm, brings the restaurant one step closer to its goal of offering a fully Southeastern-sourced raw bar. Sommelier Jamie Crotts is also adding a range of wines from Georgia’s Cane Creek Vineyard for summer.

Atlanta’s empanada authority, Belen de la Cruz, has a new Savannah location in the North Historic District. The petite bakery only has a few seats but offers paid parking to facilitate painless pickup for anyone bringing emergency cheesy beef empanadas, tres leches squares, and other delights back to hungover friends at the Airbnb.

Cuban Window Cafe has some downtown competition. Casa Guava Cuban Cafe opened quietly this past month in the heart of the city on Drayton Street. After five years with Southern Cross Hospitality Group (i.e., the Collins Quarter Empire), Miami-raised chef Joaquin Montesino is now doing his own thing. The Cuban is perhaps the best North of Miami and enough to feed two. With no menu item tipping above $15, Casa Guava Cuban Cafe is the spot for a filling and frugal lunch worth lingering over.

700 Hundred Drayton Street has a sexy new makeover. Inspired by the leisurely luxury of the Sardinian coast, Saint Bibiana is effortlessly Savannah’s most glamorous restaurant in its first month of opening. Chef Derek Simcik leads the kitchen, preparing and plating gorgeous Southern Italian and Sardinian dishes. Standouts include saffron arancini stuffed with tomato-braised pork, campenelle with octopus puttanesca and pork crackling, and duck rotolo. This welcome, high-end addition to Forsyth Park’s dining scene is ideal for birthdays, anniversaries, or any random weeknight when you want to feel famous. 

Savannah’s long-standing pastry pundit now has a brick-and-mortar. After a decade of providing desserts to the city’s most admired restaurants and a splendid spell as the Grey’s executive pastry chef, Natasha Gaskill opened her sit-down cafe/bakery, Sixby, in Starland. The shifting but always gratifying breakfast and lunch menus offer seasonal sandwiches, sweets, and more. Evening snacks and $8 happy hour wines are now available on the patio from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

For five years, Eden has been an industry favorite serving in-the-know Savannahains with pop-ups and private chef experiences. Now, culinary partners Jared Jackson and Nicole Priore bring that community-first supper club ethos to their permanent residency at 2603 Whitaker Street (previously the Garage at Victory North). This season’s standouts include the burrata and fire-grilled bread, mussel escabeche, and the Eden lasagna.