The Pirate's House
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Savannah has an interesting mixture of eating options. Dining goes all the way from chains through casual to upmarket restaurants. Another category includes restaurants that trade on the history of the city or the building they’re housed in so much of their focus is tapping into the city’s tourist trade.
The Pirate’s House very definitely comes into this category. The restaurant is the result of combining a number of adjacent properties including the oldest house in Savannah, formerly the home of a gardener who worked on the Trustee’s Garden, America’s first experimental garden. As the site was developed an inn was established to take advantage of the site’s proximity to the Savannah River. The restaurant trades on the history associated with sailing and inevitably piracy as Edward Teach (Blackbeard), Stede Bonnet, Mary Read, Anne Bonney and Calico Jack Rackham were all known to have sailed the Eastern seaboard. Savannah features in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and the restaurant claims that some of the action in the book takes place there.
The sprawling property has a mixture of bars, function rooms and dining rooms of varying sizes. We were seated in a small wood panelled room with seven tables for anywhere from two to six diners. The shelves at picture rail height displayed a wide variety of rum bottles interspersed with the occasional skull mug, available in the gift shop upstairs. The restaurant works to be a great place to take kids. Each child is given a heavy glossy paper sheet cut-out with a pirate’s hat, eye-patch and earrings. Additionally, actors in full pirate costume are available to talk to each table about the pirate lifestyle although it was interesting how the accent veered from West Country to Scottish and back again in the course of a sentence. What was good to watch was how the children on an adjacent table lapped it all up. As a final touch, a treasure chest full of lollipops is placed near the exit so kids can help themselves as they leave.
The Pirate’s House very definitely comes into this category. The restaurant is the result of combining a number of adjacent properties including the oldest house in Savannah, formerly the home of a gardener who worked on the Trustee’s Garden, America’s first experimental garden. As the site was developed an inn was established to take advantage of the site’s proximity to the Savannah River. The restaurant trades on the history associated with sailing and inevitably piracy as Edward Teach (Blackbeard), Stede Bonnet, Mary Read, Anne Bonney and Calico Jack Rackham were all known to have sailed the Eastern seaboard. Savannah features in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and the restaurant claims that some of the action in the book takes place there.
The sprawling property has a mixture of bars, function rooms and dining rooms of varying sizes. We were seated in a small wood panelled room with seven tables for anywhere from two to six diners. The shelves at picture rail height displayed a wide variety of rum bottles interspersed with the occasional skull mug, available in the gift shop upstairs. The restaurant works to be a great place to take kids. Each child is given a heavy glossy paper sheet cut-out with a pirate’s hat, eye-patch and earrings. Additionally, actors in full pirate costume are available to talk to each table about the pirate lifestyle although it was interesting how the accent veered from West Country to Scottish and back again in the course of a sentence. What was good to watch was how the children on an adjacent table lapped it all up. As a final touch, a treasure chest full of lollipops is placed near the exit so kids can help themselves as they leave.
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This was not my first visit to the Pirate’s House. We’d visited with my parents 20 years ago when one of the bonuses was a free skull mug if you ordered a cocktail. Unfortunately, that option is no longer on the menu. The lunch menu tends more to the casual than the evening and is based around a mixture of sandwiches and salads. There is a lunch buffet but with the exception of the fried chicken it really didn’t look too tempting.
A basket of cornbread muffins and biscuits, served with whipped butter and marmalade was brought to the table as soon as we ordered. And this was the first surprise of the meal. I’ll happily admit that the general theatre of the place (and the uninviting lunch buffet) meant that our expectation of the food was not high. The cornbread muffin was good but the light fluffy biscuits with their glazed crusts were exceptional (we'd eaten a few before the photo was taken).
A basket of cornbread muffins and biscuits, served with whipped butter and marmalade was brought to the table as soon as we ordered. And this was the first surprise of the meal. I’ll happily admit that the general theatre of the place (and the uninviting lunch buffet) meant that our expectation of the food was not high. The cornbread muffin was good but the light fluffy biscuits with their glazed crusts were exceptional (we'd eaten a few before the photo was taken).
The cup of she-crab soup was unexceptional but a nice enough way to start things off.
Moving onto our dishes of choice, the oyster po-boy had moved from being a regular feature on the menu to the status of a daily special. The soft toasted hoagie roll filled with battered and deep fried oysters, lettuce and tomato was served with a large pickle, a side of fries and tartare sauce. The supporting acts were okay but the most important part of this was the fried oysters and they outshone everything else on the plate. Again the Pirate’s House came up trumps with a generous portion of crisply battered oysters that satisfyingly melted in the mouth with excellent flavour.
To some extent the Pirate’s House confounded expectations. Yes, it panders to the tourist crowd and not all of the food is great. For example, the burger got a very neutral response from my son. However if you choose the right dish then the food could be quite impressive in parts. The biscuits were amongst the best things we ate in Savannah and the fried oysters were a delight.
It was not the best place we ate at in Savannah but we all enjoyed it enough that we would happily go back again. Approach the Pirate’s House in the right frame of mind and it is a perfectly nice way to while away a long lunch break.
Overall Rating - 3/5
It was not the best place we ate at in Savannah but we all enjoyed it enough that we would happily go back again. Approach the Pirate’s House in the right frame of mind and it is a perfectly nice way to while away a long lunch break.
Overall Rating - 3/5
