Cha Bella's Charm

The cozy dining room at Cha Bella. Photography by Tim A. Rutherford.

MY HUSBAND WANTED me to get away from school and work for a few precious hours so he asked me to join him for soup and salad at Cha Bella.

Honestly I wanted to go straight home from a late night at work and curl up in front of the fireplace.

I'm glad I gave in to his wishes.

Cha Bella has an alluring dining room with a fireplace, and although we didn't get a table in front of it, I got my share of "cozy."

To add an element of the unexpected to the experience, our impromptu tete 'a tete turned into a Savannah Magazine reunion of sorts.

As soon as I walked in the door, I heard someone call out my name and then Laura Latture, a former advertising executive with the magazine, jumped up to greet me with a hug. After we chatted  for a minute with her husband, Keith, owner and chef at Sandfly BBQ, I headed into the bar to retrieve my husband who was chatting with our lovely moonlighting marketing/circulation coordinator here at SavMag, Summer Ivie.

We were seated next to the Lattures', so in between delicious spoonfuls of acorn squash soup with a black scallop on top, Tim and I caught up with our friends.

The soup was perfect, by the way. Although creamy might have been a bad choice for my "weight-release program," I decided that the healthy, organic ingredients cancelled out the calories.

If you want unprocessed, raw, organic foods, Cha Bella is your kind of restaurant. The owners harvest foods from their own farm so they are able to control their ingredients like few others in the city.

Tim and I also shared a small plate of steaming, flavorful vegetables. The tomatoes, mini-asparagras stalks, squash and other delectables were so good it wasn't hard for us to "eat our vegetables!"

On the way out, I spotted Allison Keller, another former advertising exec from the mag, at the bar. Newly engaged and glowing, she introduced me to her future husband Jim. They shared the story of their engagement party at Vics on the River and both of their faces were beaming with excitement and happiness for their bright future.

I know he will want me to write this down on a piece of paper that he can carry in his pocket, but I have to admit that Tim, once again, charmed me with one of his great ideas to get me out and about.

Yours-
Miss T. J.