Gravy · Southern Foodways Alliance

A Taste of the Other Georgia in Pensacola

March 18, 2026·23 min·1 clip

George Lazi recalls neighbors raising chickens on apartment balconies after Georgia’s 1991 independence crisis.

1. Gravy presents Martin Padgett’s account of George Lazi’s Georgian culinary heritage in Pensacola, Florida. 2. Reporter Martin Padgett profiles chef and restaurant owner George Lazi, while Luba matters as his wife and business partner. 3. The episode asks how Lazi carried Georgian hospitality and food traditions from Tbilisi to Florida’s Gulf Coast. 4. Lazi says Georgia’s 1991 independence coincided with an economic collapse that left communities without reliable electricity, heat, or transportation. 5. He recalls apartment residents in Tbilisi raising chickens and keeping animals on balconies after their professional lives changed abruptly. 6. Lazi says Georgian families gathered to share scarce food, sing, raise wine glasses, and keep something on the table. 7. A family Khansi, a drinking horn inherited through generations, became Lazi’s symbol of hospitality and community. 8. Lazi’s mother emigrated to the United States as a pediatrician and sent $100 or $200 home to support food and utility bills. 9. Lazi’s father had been a tea taster and purchaser for a tea factory before the Soviet collapse ended his employment. 10. Lazi left dentistry, studied at Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island, and discovered that kitchen work suited him. 11. At Ben’s Best Deli in Queens, Lazi encountered kosher deli food, corned beef, and an immigrant community that made kitchen work feel right. 12. Jean-Georges taught Lazi professionalism, expertise, and the demanding choreography of Michelin-starred food. 13. Lazi met Luba while working at Bergdorf Goodman’s restaurants, where she worked in fashion merchandising. 14. The couple moved to Pensacola in 2013 and opened George Bistro downtown with family help in 2015. 15. George Bistro combined continental technique with Southern ingredients before moving to a larger location in 2018. 16. Pearl and Horn’s name links pearls and oysters to Gulf waters while connecting horns to land-based foods such as bison, elk, and lamb. 17. Lazi uses Khmeli Suneli, a Georgian blend of fenugreek, coriander, and marigold, on red snapper collar. 18. Vicki Park describes Pearl and Horn as a Pensacola recommendation for oysters, red snapper collar, and pappardelle. 19. Listeners interested in Georgian food and immigrant restaurants. 20. Listeners seeking celebrity interviews or technical cooking tutorials.

As heard by us

A warm Gulf Coast story about Georgian food, family migration, and making a home in Pensacola.

Gravy follows George Lazi and his wife, Luba, in Pensacola, where Georgian cooking from the former Soviet Republic meets the Florida Gulf Coast.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

A Soviet Georgian chef builds not one but two dream restaurants in a Florida city nobody expected him to pick.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Gravy