Barnes has cooked on Waters Avenue for over 45 years by its own count. It describes pit-cooked barbecue with a homemade secret sauce and fresh, regional Southern food prepared daily. It is a daytime room that closes at 4.
BowTie calls itself a scratch kitchen, a whiskey bar and a neighborhood institution, and says the sauces, rubs and sides are all made by hand on Waters Avenue. It carries forward recipes from Johnny Harris Restaurant, the Savannah barbecue house with roots going back to 1924 ... including a batterless fried chicken the venue describes as naturally gluten-free. It opens at 7am daily and runs food trucks for events. The site does not name the wood.
Carey Hilliard hitchhiked to Savannah from Jesup and opened his first restaurant in 1960 in a converted root beer stand, where he and his wife Kathleen kept curbside service going instead of switching to a drive-thru. The company calls itself Savannah's oldest family-owned restaurant. This Southside room opened in 1976 near Savannah Mall, with tall booths, a neon sign and a banquet hall behind it for 60 to 250 guests. It serves until midnight every day.
Erica Davis Lowcountry is a dine-in and takeout room on East Victory Drive that grew out of a catering business. The family's seafood trade goes back to 1946, when Erica's grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Russo, sold fresh seafood to Savannah. Erica and Dwight carry it on with Lowcountry boils, oyster roasts, barbecue and Southern home cooking, and the site lists Best of Savannah awards for 2022, 2023 and 2024.
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Which wood, which cut and which sauce a Savannah pit says it cooks, and what it is known for once the tray hits the table.
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13 spots
Barnes has cooked on Waters Avenue for over 45 years by its own count. It describes pit-cooked barbecue with a homemade secret sauce and fresh, regional Southern food prepared daily. It is a daytime room that closes at 4.
BowTie calls itself a scratch kitchen, a whiskey bar and a neighborhood institution, and says the sauces, rubs and sides are all made by hand on Waters Avenue. It carries forward recipes from Johnny Harris Restaurant, the Savannah barbecue house with roots going back to 1924 ... including a batterless fried chicken the venue describes as naturally gluten-free. It opens at 7am daily and runs food trucks for events. The site does not name the wood.
Carey Hilliard hitchhiked to Savannah from Jesup and opened his first restaurant in 1960 in a converted root beer stand, where he and his wife Kathleen kept curbside service going instead of switching to a drive-thru. The company calls itself Savannah's oldest family-owned restaurant. This Southside room opened in 1976 near Savannah Mall, with tall booths, a neon sign and a banquet hall behind it for 60 to 250 guests. It serves until midnight every day.
Erica Davis Lowcountry is a dine-in and takeout room on East Victory Drive that grew out of a catering business. The family's seafood trade goes back to 1946, when Erica's grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Russo, sold fresh seafood to Savannah. Erica and Dwight carry it on with Lowcountry boils, oyster roasts, barbecue and Southern home cooking, and the site lists Best of Savannah awards for 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Randy's is a walk-up barbecue window on Wheaton Street known for ribs and chicken with a tangy mustard-style sauce. Listings describe it as cash only, open midday, and often sold out before mid-afternoon.
Owner Keith Latture describes the style as Savannah barbecue with Memphis influences. Meats are smoked over pecan and hickory and come with three sauces: a sweet Memphis-style, a mustard-based Savannah sauce and a spicy vinegar sauce in the western North Carolina manner. The Brunswick stew gets singled out in the reviews the site quotes. The site notes that its downtown Streamliner diner location has closed and points everyone to Ferguson Avenue.
Savannah Smokehouse is a counter-service barbecue room downtown on West State Street. Its site says the meats are hand rubbed, hand sliced and smoked on site daily, with homemade sides and craft beer. The venue's site does not name a style or a wood.
Pitmaster Terren Williams is a Savannah native who cooked in Atlanta kitchens, then spent ten years in Dallas, Texas learning to smoke meat before coming home. His site says he burns a blend of oak and pecan and buys from local farmers. After about three years as a food truck and a short stay on Waters Avenue, Slow Fire is building a permanent room in a former gas station at 37th and Habersham, the old Baby's space, and serves from the truck there Thursday through Saturday in the meantime.
Starland Yard is a food park with a full bar, three built-in kitchens and rotating food trucks, made for groups who cannot agree on what to eat. Pizzeria Vittoria is Kyle Jacovino's naturally leavened pizza, fermented up to 48 hours and baked in a Moretti Forni hearth oven. Uncle June's is Reid Henninger's sandwich counter and T-Rex Barbecue smokes on site. Savannah Magazine sends families here for giant Jenga on artificial turf, cornhole and, in summer, a small blow-up water slide.
T-Rex Barbecue is one of three built-in kitchens at Starland Yard and the sibling of the sandwich counter Uncle June's. Starland Yard says everything is smoked daily on site in a 500-gallon wood-fired pit ... beef brisket, smoked wings, a fried chicken sandwich ... and served with Tex-Mex sides of rice, beans, fresh salsas and tortillas. The venue does not name the wood.
The Crab Shack is the creekside seafood yard on Chimney Creek whose motto is 'Where the Elite Eat in Their Bare Feet'. The signature order is Captain Crab's Sampler Platter ... crab legs, Georgia shrimp, mussels, crawfish, corn, sausage and potatoes. The grounds hold a gator lagoon the site says has 78 baby alligators, an aviary of rescued and adopted birds, a game room and a gift shop. Boats can tie up, parking is free, and leashed pets are welcome outside. No reservations ... the site says just show up and grab a seat.
Trick's is on its third address in two years. It cooked for years out of an old gas station at 2601 Bull Street in Starland, moved to 1902 Bay Street after that property sold in summer 2024, lost that lease at the end of December 2025, and reopened in 2026 at 1218 Waters Avenue at Henry Street. Eat It and Like It says it is cash only and sells until the meat is gone, usually before dinner. No source read here names the wood or the style.
Wiley and Janet McCrary spent nearly two decades on the competition barbecue circuit before opening in a strip mall on US 80. The site describes the style as St. Louis-style barbecue. Rachel and Eric Traub and their team run it now. The site cites a Southern Living readers' poll that ranked it first in Georgia and second in the country, and Savannah Magazine's Best Savannah BBQ seven years running.
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