Heading toward north Florida for a conference, we crossed through Savannah a little late for the places I wanted to stop for lunch.  But I had this place in Shellman Bluff on my list, that had been there for years.  And when I pulled it up on the interwebs, they were closing before we could get there.  But there was another place in Shellman Bluff, with good reviews – Hunter’s Cafe.  I plugged the address into the GPS and onward we went.  We saw the sign below, out front, as we parked on the water, across the street from the restaurant.

Open since 1951, the original buildings were bought as surplus army barracks from Fort Stewart. vThe bar (below) was added in the 70s, about the same time as the porch where we dined was screened in.

What you can’t see well in the picture is that this place was festooned with dollar bills, stapled to the walls.  That was one festive bar!  On this Saturday, they had grouper, shrimp and oysters all caught that morning.  We made our choices accordingly. I chose a fried grouper and fried oyster platter, with french fries.

First, let’s talk about the fries.  There’s this thing they do along the Georgia and Florida coast, where they batter the potatoes before frying them.  I love those fries.  And these were they (them?  they?  those?).  The oysters were good – I’m not the biggest fan of oysters, but I occasionally give them a try, hoping “today is the day”.  It wasn’t today. The fried grouper was excellent – thin sliced, lightly battered, flesh and flaky.

As we were leaving the restaurant, my beloved snapped this photo of the shells from the table behind us.  And then we watched as the waitress took the shells to the walkway on the waterway and dropped them in the water to allow the next batch – apparently oyster shells are often recycled as bedding for oyster spats (baby oysters) – to begin their journey to the table.