Did You Know?

We went looking for the story behind every restaurant on this site. Some of what we found is useful, some of it is just good — a bar built on a trailer to dodge a code, a diner bought as a birthday present, a restaurant standing on a century of oyster shells. Here’s the best of it.

1. Hudson’s The ground under your table is made of oyster shells. Shuckers threw them off these docks starting in 1912, and over the decades the pile became the peninsula the restaurant sits on.
2. Fish Camp on Broad Creek Simmons Road is named for Charlie Simmons Sr., the Gullah boatman who was the island’s only link to Savannah before the bridge — three runs a week with crops, livestock and midwives aboard. He built the fish camp in 1955, and his family helped restore it.
3. The Old Oyster Factory Also an oyster house first, from 1925 — bateaux hauled in at low tide, local women shucking hundreds a day. That’s three restaurants on this site standing on the island’s oyster industry.
4. Harold’s Diner Cash only, and the insults are part of the act. Ask for tap water and find out.
5. The Bank A former Bank of America that doesn’t take cash.
6. LagerHead Tavern It’s inside a gated neighborhood, and anyone can eat there. Tell the guard you’re going to LagerHead and they’ll wave you through.
7. Captain Woody’s Started in 1982 as one man selling fish and shrimp off his trawler at Palmetto Bay Marina. Three restaurants feed people on those same docks today.
8. Squat ‘N’ Gobble Paul Riganas bought it in 2001 as a surprise birthday present for his wife while she was out of town. She’s been running it ever since.
9. Mangiamo’s Opened in 2002 with one television and one Ohio State flag. Twenty-three people turned up for the first game.
10. Frosty Frog Five tables in a corner of Coligny, and friends who thought it wouldn’t last.
11. Bad Biscuit Dave Peck bought pizza slices through a Dutch door in this building as a kid. His biscuit shop moved into the same room decades later. The window is still there.
12. The Smokehouse A 2019 fire took the whole building two weeks after its twentieth birthday. The chimney was the only stone left standing — it’s the name of the rooftop bar now.
13. Tin & Tallow Both halves of the name are literal. The food truck wrapped every burger in tin foil, and everything still fries in rendered beef tallow.
14. Giuseppi’s Pizza & Pasta House There are two Giuseppi’s on the island. They split years ago — different owners, different recipes.
15. Truffles Opened in 1983 as a restaurant, bakery, deli and specialty market at once. The market half was too early for the island and got dropped. Forty years later it’s what every town wants.

Last updated August 25, 2026. Things change on this island — if something’s out of date, tell us and we’ll fix it.

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