Belford's is situated in a beautiful old brick building in the heart of Savannah's National Landmark Historic District. The building is listed in Historic Savannah Foundation's architectural inventory as a notable example of its style and is praised in architectural surveys for its arched windows, exposed brick walls and doorways with semicircular, segmental arched toplights.

The design is attributed to Hyman W. Witcover, a practicing architect in Savannah from 1897 to 1923, who also designed Savannah's City Hall, the Main Library Building on Bull Street and many of the fine residences located in the Chatham Crescent section of Savannah's Ardsley Park. Witcover, a member of the American Institute of Architects, was the first president of the Savannah Society of Architects.

The structure was completed in 1902 for Savannah's Hebrew Congregation. In 1913, the Congregation sold the building to W.T. Belford for $23,000. In the hands of the Belford family, whose early 1900's portrait hangs on the West wall of our main dining room, the building became an important wholesale food company in Savannah. The Belford signs painted on the west side of the building and under the front awning remain to this day, faded by years of weather.

The Belford's Wholesale Food company was an active and integral part of The City Market, the bustling social and commercial heart of early Savannah. The actual market, a splendid edifice with soaring brick arches and open-air stalls for the sale of produce, fish, meat and baked goods, was located in the area now occupied by the City Market Parking Garage on Ellis Square. The demolition of that market in the late 1950's was a tragedy in the eyes of local preservationists and was the catalyst that began the preservation and restoration movement in Savannah. Ironically, the demolition of the original City Market probably saved four blocks of surrounding feed, seed, grain and produce warehouses - collectively now known as City Market - including the Belford building, now known as Belford's Savannah.

Belford's has hosted a number of notable figures, including well-known Hollywood personalities Clint Eastwood, Debra Winger, Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Robert Altman and Garrison Keilor of Lake Woebegone fame who have delighted in the atmosphere of bygone days and incomparable cuisine. Wonderful wines accompany Belford's fine food in surroundings that whisper their history on both sides of the arched windows.

Look around you. The walls carry framed photographs of the area as it appeared during the hey-day of Belford's Wholesale Foods, many of which were provided by the Belford family. There is no experience like it in Savannah ... perhaps, anywhere.