Instead, we are headed out to Leoci’s spots, the one’s that exists as local favorites and late night refuges for the service industry sector, as we get to know more about the man who has found himself thrust to the forefront of Italian cuisine in Savannah. We sneak out the door of Pacci’s sweet air conditioning and head off into the Savannah night, which, depending on who you ask, can range from balmy to oppressive. The mood is instantly less frantic, as the downtown streets offer the sanctity of a low-key evening, basked in that familiar orange streetlight. To avoid any ghost or pony tours, we cut through one of the many back alley’s. Between our steps around some garbage, Leoci starts off with the genesis of how this- the two restaurants, the food line, and the rising star, came about. “I actually used to sell ink for a company with some large name brands. But I was too young for the corporate world.. you know, here I was with a phone and a car, and it was just easy money. But my passion was eating on the expense account! It was this job that exposed to me different things to try: tripe, oysters, arugula. My parents, well really, my dad, was too cheap to buy any of that stuff. We mostly ate canned tuna with tomato sauce.” “It’s good, I promise!” We arrive at our first stop, Zunzi’s on Whitaker, where Leoci has become friend with the bartender. Sadly, Todd the bartender is off, but it doesn’t stop the entire staff from greeting Leoci with the love one gives away like water in the south. “On the house!” a woman yells to the bartender, pointing towards Leoci, as she keeps squeezing him, big bear hug style. The air smells like falafel and Leoci gets a jack and coke. I refer back to eating well - very well, on the corporate account. Leoci laughs, and swears it was all for a research. One could assume such research might run one into a bad end, but it was the diversity of food that caused him to give up the corporate life and go into the food industry, starting from the bottom. He ran the gamut of positions, slowly transitioning to his role in the kitchen where the kid soon became the big time chef and creator of homemade prosciutto, an endeavor that only recently began to pay off. -Continued on Next Page
“I just don’t want Savannah to lose what it is. I can’t really name it, but it’s that something, that thing you don’t find in other cities. It’s a specialness, a weirdness...”