Chef’s Table: The Grey Area

THE GREY AREA

A lesson in how food unites us, from Chef Mashama Bailey and Johno Morisano of The Grey, in Savannah.

by Noemi Florea

ANCHORED IN DOWNTOWN SAVANNAH, The Grey is a renowned restaurant serving culinary specialties steeped in regional flavors, locally-sourced ingredients, and classic dishes from the American South. With founding chef Mashama Bailey and cofounding business partner Johno Morisano at the helm, The Grey has been noted as a Food & Wine “Restaurant of The Year,” a TIME Magazine’s “The World’s Greatest Places” and a semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation’s “Best New Restaurant” award. Built in an historic, Jim Crow-era Greyhound bus terminal operating under segregation from 1938 to 1964, today The Grey symbolizes a new collective vision for the American Dream.

This past year, Bailey and Morisano collaborated on Black, White, and The Grey, which tells their story as business partners and the greater influences which stemmed from uniting cultural and racial differences. As Bailey writes in her prologue, “Little did I know that our partnership would test this theory. It would test the basic differences in American culture and how we coexist.” As an added bonus, each chapter is concluded with recipes of the “food we like to eat and, more importantly, food we have shared with each other, our friends, and loved ones.”

In early 2021, Bailey, who was born in New York, returned to the City as a resident chef at Intersect by Lexus, a restaurant, lounge, and event space on 14th Street. Offering a selection of The Grey’s signature collard greens, pickles and homemade bread paired with handcrafted cocktails such as the Father John Manhattan, Bailey’s selections will be available through mid-April at Intersect, where guests can make a reservation at intersect-nyc.com. DT

FOOD IS CULTURE Awardwinning chef Masham Bailey and business partner Johno Morisano serve up a new take on Southern food in a former Greyhound station in Savannah.