Tybee
Popular coastal destination is having a culinary moment.
Photo: Many of the original early American beach front homes, seen along the north end of the island undisturbed by high rise hotels and condominiums. Photo: Curtis Compton
Visits to beach towns like Tybee Island often conjure memories of childhood vacations when my extended family and friends would double up in crowded beach houses and spend all day playing in the ocean until our cheeks turned bright pink. At night, we would gorge on fried seafood platters, and later we might go for ice cream cones or play a round of miniature golf or stroll along the pier.
In an era when buttoned-up resorts tastefully appointed in earth tones and restricted beach access seem to dominate the coastal travel industry, it’s nice to know there are still places that families and friends on a budget can go for a casual beach vacation, a place where there is a “main strip” and it’s lined with beach shops selling brightly colored inflatables, flip-flops and puka shell necklaces, a place where beer is sold by the case and girls walk around the IGA in their bikinis.
Except for mini golf, Tybee seems to have everything my old vacation haunt did, but there is one thing it does much better. There is no reason to eat fried seafood platters every night because the island appears to be having a culinary moment, thanks in large part to Kurtis Schumm, 33, executive chef for three of the island’s restaurants.
If you make it to only one, go to Tybee Island Fish Camp. The name fits the restaurant exterior — a modest white house with a small weathered deck strung with lights visible from U.S. 80. But inside it is casual-chic with a minimalist touch that highlights the chef’s large paintings of stylized bathing beauties that occupy the wall space.
Baked Oysters Pulaski, prepared with bacon, andouille sausage and seasonal greens, is a specialty of executive chef Kurtis Schumm at his restaurant Tybee Island Fish Camp. Photo: Kurtis Schumm
It is a small restaurant, serving just 30 people inside. Behind a white stone counter topped with lotus leaf place mats, bar manager Will Canepa whips up sublime craft cocktails using fresh fruits, herbs and infused liquors. The small, mostly seafood menu changes nightly except for two popular standards: a lobster and shrimp risotto made from barley and the baked oysters Pulaski, my new favorite comfort food combining plump, juicy bivalves with bacon, Andouille sausage, seasonal greens and a touch of jalapeño.
Executive chef Kurtis Schumm. Photo: Jon Waits
The home-taught chef, who names Atlanta’s Miller Union chef Steven Satterfield as a friend and mentor, also owns Bo Bien Hut, a Vietnamese carryout and sushi bar that reopens later this summer. The less ambitious but convivial Tybee Island Social Club, serving burgers and tacos, rounds out Schumm’s trio of eateries.
Photo: A series of extensive sand dunes seperates most of the developed resort area, residential, commericial, and publicly owned property, from the sea on Tybee Island. Photo: Curtis Compton
Finally, get up early or prepare to wait in line for a crave-worthy morning meal from the venerable Breakfast Club, a small, dimly lit diner serving hefty Philly steak omelets, toasty pecan waffles and crispy hash browns prepared to order with your choice of onions, mushrooms, cheese, bacon and/or jalapeños. The sausage and salsa are made in-house. Eat here once and you will definitely want to return.
Looking back on my recent visit to Tybee Island, I realize I never had a seafood platter, not even for old time’s sake. I didn’t miss it a bit.
A Yellow Rumped Warbler perches on the limb of a cedar tree at Tybee Island. All photos below by Curtis Compton
Cockspur Lighthouse, Georgia's smallest, is surrounded by water at high tide on a small piece of land that is actually a part of CockspurIsland, site of Fort Pulaski.
A mixed flock of Herons are bathed in golden light at sunset as they fly over Tybee Island.
A pair of Great Egrets come in for a treetop landing next to a Wood Stork overlooking the tidal marsh on the northern end of Tybee Island.
A Common Tern makes its way down the beach on the northern end of Tybee Island.
American Oystercatchers line up at low tide on a oyster rake along the Bull River at Little Tybee Island.
Sanderlings in winter plumage retreat in unison from an advancing wave as they feed along the surf during low tide on the south end of Tybee Island.
The sun bursts through the clouds at sunrise over Tybee Island.
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