Ever since my extended family moved to St. Simon’s Island eight or so years ago, I have loved the small town beach. Locals are friendly and everything has the distinct saltwater aroma. My friend Elizabeth’s family has a beach house here so we have gone nearly every year since high school. When we got to college, we started the tradition of going every MLK weekend.
I arrived in town late Friday afternoon after an interesting adventure at Hostel in the Forest (more on that in another post). For dinner, we hit up one of my SSI favorites: Bubba Garcia’s. I love eating here for the knicknacky decor (I may have made that word up), heaping portions of Mexican food, and mason jar margaritas. And if Mexican isn’t your taste, the BG crew also owns Gnat’s Landing across the shopping center.
On Saturday morning, we woke up hungry and rushed to Sweet Mama’s for some breakfast. I typically get a sausage biscuit, chocolate chip cookie for the road, and a Coke, but got there too late for a biscuit. Instead, I settled for pork pops, which sound sinister, but are a more biscuity version of sausage balls. After chowing down, we headed back home for some lunch. The rain didn’t stop most of the afternoon, so we found napping inside to be the perfect diversion. For dinner, we opted for an island institution. Brogen’s is right in the village and is supposed to have some of the best burgers anywhere (although I am guilty of always ordering shrimp instead). University of Georgia frat boys crowd around the shuffleboard table, which apparently isn’t the kind your grandparents play on their Carnival cruise. It looked more akin to beer pong.
Sunday morning, I needed to do at least a little bit of shopping. The weather had much improved by this point. We stopped into Beachview Books where I found an amazing copy of James Beard’s Beard on Pasta for $7 (below).
Elizabeth found this very fitting shirt at an outdoor store. Of course a trip to the island wouldn’t be complete without a visit to Christ Church.
It was late by the time we got lunch, so we stopped by Southern Soul Barbecue, which is housed in an old fish market/gas station. I not only became obsessed with the delicious barbecue (and 4 sauces!!!), but they also had vintage soda like NeHi and Cheerwine in glass bottles. Never had a Cheerwine? I must urge you to find a way to get your hands on some. Dinnertime came late but we ravaged our food at The Crab Trap. Then we stopped in across the street at Saltwater Cowboy for a drink.
Then I very slowly made my way back to Charleston. More on that later. In the interest of not rambling, here are other places I recommend:
Moondance Vintage (St. Simon’s)
Jekyll Island (blog post forthcoming)
Cumberland Island
This post is as scatterbrained as I am right now. Figures.
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