Southern Foods
Southern food isn’t just cuisine — it’s a living history lesson on a plate. Every dish tells the story of the people who shaped this region: the Native Americans who introduced corn, beans, and squash to early settlers; the West African enslaved people who brought okra, black-eyed peas, and deep-frying techniques that gave the world fried chicken; the Spanish who introduced pigs and seeded the BBQ tradition; the French and Haitian Creoles who conjured gumbo from a marriage of cultures; and the Appalachian mountain folk who perfected the art of foraging and farm-to-table living long before it became trendy. The result is one of the most distinctive and beloved culinary traditions in the world.
Southern cooking also varies dramatically by region. Lowcountry cooking along the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina leans on rice, shrimp, and Gullah-Geechee traditions. Cajun and Creole cooking in Louisiana is its own universe of spice and technique. Appalachian cuisine is hearty and rooted in what the land provides. And Soul Food — born from African-American culture in the South — is perhaps the most emotionally resonant of all, every dish carrying generations of resilience, creativity, and love.
Fried Chicken BBQ Cornbread
Shrimp & Grits Collard Greens
Biscuits & Gravy Pecan Pie
Southern Writers
Celestine Sibley (1914–1999) — A renowned Southern author, journalist, and syndicated columnist, Sibley reported for the Atlanta Constitution from 1941 to 1999 — nearly six decades — writing more than 10,000 columns of astonishing range, from state politics and courtroom drama to Southern culture and homespun features. She was one of the first female editors at the Constitution, covering the Georgia General Assembly for two decades, interviewing presidents, and writing nearly thirty books — including a beloved mystery series. The press gallery at the Georgia State Capitol is named in her honor. Warm, sharp, and endlessly curious, Sibley embodied the best of Southern journalism: rooted in place, honest in observation, and always deeply human.
Lewis Grizzard (1946–1994) — Born in Fort Benning and raised in Moreland, Georgia, Grizzard became the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s most beloved humorist — his column syndicated in more than 400 newspapers nationwide at its peak. He was the poet laureate of the suburban South: a man who could make you laugh about divorce, University of Georgia football, heart surgery, and the peculiarities of being Southern in a world that didn’t always understand what that meant. He published 25 books, became a popular stand-up comedian, and captured the voice of a generation of white Southerners navigating modernity without losing their roots. He died at 47 after his fourth open-heart surgery, and Georgia has never quite replaced him.
Conrad Aiken (1889–1973)
One of America’s most celebrated poets and a Pulitzer Prize winner, Aiken was born and raised in Savannah, and the city shaped him profoundly — both its beauty and its darkness. His childhood home on Oglethorpe Avenue is now a memorial garden, and his grave in Bonaventure Cemetery has become a literary pilgrimage site. Visitors leave pennies on his bench-shaped gravestone, a nod to Aiken’s own love of watching the ships pass on the river
Eugenia Price (1916–1996)
While on a book tour in 1962, Price discovered St. Simons Island and fell in love with it — and spent the rest of her life writing about the area. She moved to the island permanently in 1965 and produced a series of meticulously researched historical novels — the St. Simons Trilogy and the Georgia Trilogy — that brought the island’s colonial and antebellum history to vivid life. A New York Times bestselling author, Price is buried at Christ Church Frederica, and her fans make pilgrimages to the island from across the country. The Golden Isles Touring Company even offers a dedicated Eugenia Price tour of her most beloved settings.
Pat Conroy (1955–2016)
Pat Conroy (1945–2016) — No writer is more synonymous with Beaufort than Pat Conroy. After graduating from The Citadel, Conroy moved to Beaufort to work as a high school English teacher, living in a house at 403 Hancock Street in The Point neighborhood. The Lowcountry became the beating heart of his work — the salt marshes, the tidal rivers, and the complicated families of the South run through The Great Santini, The Prince of Tides, and The Water Is Wide like a current. Conroy once wrote of Beaufort: “I’ve come home to the place I was always writing about… She was proud to have me call her my hometown.” He returned to Beaufort in 2012 and lived there until his death in 2016. His legacy lives on at the Pat Conroy Literary Center on Bay Street, which hosts author events, writing retreats, and an annual literary festival in his honor.
Southern Architecture
Stand in front of a grand Southern home and you’re standing in front of a story — sometimes beautiful, often complicated, always revealing. Southern architecture is one of the most visually distinctive in the country, shaped by climate, culture, wealth, and the complicated legacy of the antebellum era.
The major styles that define the Southern built landscape:
Greek Revival & Antebellum (1830s–1860s) — The iconic image of the South: towering white columns, sweeping verandas, symmetrical facades, and grand staircases. Inspired by ancient Greek temples and popularized as a symbol of prosperity in the pre-Civil War South, these plantation homes were built to impress — and were built on the labor of enslaved people. Today, only about 20% survive. Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana and Stanton Hall in Natchez, Mississippi are among the most famous examples.
Charleston Single House — One of the most charming and practical architectural inventions in American history, the Charleston Single House is just one room wide, built perpendicular to the street with a long side piazza facing the prevailing breeze. It’s a masterclass in climate-responsive design — elegant, efficient, and unmistakably Southern.
Victorian & Queen Anne (late 1800s) — After the Civil War, architecture shifted toward ornate woodwork, vivid colors, bay windows, turrets, and steeply pitched roofs. The gingerbread cottages of Savannah’s historic squares and Cape May, New Jersey are beloved examples of this era’s exuberant spirit.
Craftsman Bungalow (early 1900s) — Low-slung, welcoming, and built to last, the Craftsman bungalow spread across the South in the early 20th century. Wide front porches, exposed wooden beams, built-in bookcases, and natural materials give these homes a warmth that’s impossible to fake.
The Southern Cottage — At the heart of Southernly Escape’s mission is the enduring charm of the Southern cottage: modest in scale but rich in character, with rocking-chair porches, heart pine floors, and a connection to the landscape that modern construction rarely achieves. These are the homes worth preserving — and worth escaping to.
Southern Travel
The American South is one of the most rewarding travel regions in the world — and one of the most underestimated. In a single road trip, you can move from the mist-covered peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Spanish moss-draped squares of Savannah to the white sand beaches of the Gulf Coast. The South doesn’t just have one landscape or one story. It has dozens, and they’re all within driving distance of each other.
The Deep South Road Trip
Charleston to New Orleans is one of the great American drives, threading through Atlanta, Nashville, and Memphis along the way. Music history, culinary history, civil rights history — this route touches all of it with depth and power.
The North Georgia Mountains
Ellijay, Blue Ridge, and the surrounding peaks offer apple orchards, mountain vineyards, waterfall hikes, and river tubing all within a couple hours of Atlanta. This is the South’s best-kept secret for weekend escapes.
The Lowcountry
From Beaufort, SC to Brunswick, GA to the Golden Isles, the coastal South offers a completely different kind of beauty: vast salt marshes glowing at sunset, Spanish moss in every direction, barrier islands accessible only by boat, and a Gullah-Geechee cultural heritage unlike anywhere else in America.
Southern Artists
The American South has produced some of the most original artistic voices in the country — artists who drew directly from the land, the culture, the pain, and the beauty of this singular region. Southern art defies easy categorization. It ranges from formally trained masters to self-taught folk artists working with house paint on tin, from Gullah-inspired textile traditions to cutting-edge contemporary painters and sculptors reshaping national conversations. What ties it all together is a deep rootedness in place and story. Beyond these names, the South is home to a flourishing contemporary art scene in cities like Charleston, Asheville, Savannah, and New Orleans — where galleries, street murals, and working artist studios make creativity a part of daily life.
Thornton Dial (1928–2016, Alabama)
A self-taught artist from Bessemer, Alabama, Dial spent decades making sculpture and assemblage from scrap metal, rope, carpet, and found objects — while working factory jobs and raising a family. His work, which tackles racial oppression, justice, and the American experience, eventually found its way into the collections of major museums and private collectors including Jane Fonda. He is one of the most important American artists of the 20th century, full stop.
Clementine Hunter (1887–1988, Louisiana)
Born on a cotton plantation in Natchez, Louisiana, Hunter didn’t pick up a paintbrush until she was in her 50s. What followed was a decades-long outpouring of memory paintings on canvas, wood, jugs, and cast iron skillets, depicting plantation life, religious scenes, and the rhythms of Black Southern life with joyful, vivid color. Her work is held at the Smithsonian and the American Folk Art Museum, and she is widely considered one of the most celebrated self-taught painters in American history.
Benny Andrews (1930–2006, Georgia)
Born in Madison, Georgia, the son of a sharecropper, Andrews became a prominent figurative painter and civil rights activist whose powerful work examined race, inequality, and Southern identity. His legacy continues to inspire.
Southern Lodging
There’s a reason people talk about Southern hospitality like it’s a force of nature. The tradition of welcoming strangers with warmth, a good meal, and genuine care is woven into the fabric of this region — and nowhere does that tradition come alive more fully than in the South’s beloved bed and breakfasts, historic inns, and cozy cottages.
Staying in a Southern B&B or cottage is fundamentally different from a hotel stay. The innkeeper greets you by name. Breakfast is made from scratch — think heirloom grits, fresh-baked biscuits, local honey, farm eggs, and seasonal fruit. The room might have four-poster beds, handmade quilts, or creaking hardwood floors that tell you exactly how old the house is. And the front porch — with its rocking chairs and evening light — will have you reconsidering your entire approach to leisure.
What makes Southern lodging special:
- Historic properties — Many Southern B&Bs occupy homes listed on the National Register of Historic Places, from Antebellum mansions to Victorian manors to Colonial Revival estates
- Farm-fresh breakfasts — Locally sourced, seasonally inspired morning meals that are often guests’ most-remembered experience
- Personal service — Innkeepers who live on-site, share local knowledge freely, and treat guests like extended family
- Architecture as experience — Staying in a 200-year-old home is itself a form of time travel
- The porch — A cultural institution.
No Southern lodging experience is complete without time spent on a wraparound porch, coffee in hand, watching the world move at its proper pace
At Southernly Escape, this is exactly the kind of experience we believe in — cozy cottages with character, in towns worth discovering, where the stay is as much the destination as anywhere you might go.
