Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Seafood Shacks
241
Bowen's Island Restaurant
The World's Their Oyster
Charleston, South Carolina
If you never got down to the original Bow-
en's Island Restaurant, you really missed
something. This rambling cinderblock
shack set on a marshy inlet, at the end of a
dirt road on the way to Folly Beach, far
from downtown Charleston—well, it didn't
look like destination dining. Inside, every
wall was covered with graffiti, the tables
were covered in newspapers, dead televi-
sion sets stared blankly from the walls.
Inside the “oyster room”—where you
couldn't sit unless you were ordering the
all-you-can-eat roast oysters—a cook at
the far end sweated over a huge oyster pit
fireplace, where local oysters, fresh-picked
that day, were roasted under wet burlap
sacks (the restaurant has its own oyster-
catchers who haul in their fresh catch
daily, dug from the tidal mud just past the
dock). When their ridged shells cracked
open, they were shoveled up—yes, with a
shovel—and deposited on the tables.
Hungry customers, armed with a knife, a
rag, and some cocktail sauce, attacked the
bivalves with gusto, dropping their empty
shells in a bucket, washing it all down per-
haps with ice-cold beer.
But this quirky little restaurant—founded
as a fish camp in the mid-1940s by May and
Jimmy Bowen and run today by May's
grandson Robert Barber—burned to the
ground in 2006, ironically only a few month
after it was honored with an America's
Classic citation from the James Beard
Foundation. Robert Barber has reopened
the place, though so far it's just the cov-
ered deck area; the original oyster room is
next to be rebuilt. All the favorite dishes
are back—the roasted oysters, the fabu-
lous fried shrimp, the shrimp and grits, the
Frogmore Stew (a Lowcountry specialty, a
seafood boil of corn, potatoes, sausage,
and shrimp)—along with the hush puppies
and french fries and coleslaw, the inevita-
ble accompaniments to every entree. They
serve dinner only, it's closed Sunday and
Monday, and they don't take plastic. For
these prices (currently $20 for the oyster
pig-out), you can probably manage the
cash.
If oysters are what you plan to order
(and you should), be sure to go during oys-
ter season, September through April. Oh,
and don't forget to tip the oyster cook.
1870 Bowen's Island Rd., Charleston
( & 843/795-2757; www.bowensisland
restaurant.com).
(
Charlestown
International
(10
miles/16km).
L $$$ Planter's Inn, 112 N. Market St.
( & 800/845-7082 or 843/722-2345; www.
plantersinn.com). $$ The Rutledge Vic-
torian Guest House, 114 Rutledge Ave.
( & 888/722-7553 or 843/722-7551; www.
charlestonvictorian.com).
 
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