Discover more from The Diary of Southern Lifestyle Author Pat Branning
Seafood Dreams at Bowens Island
A shanty chic seafood dive with oysters piled high and plenty of cold beer.
At Bowens Island Restaurant, a defiantly gritty riverside joint 8 miles, —and many worlds, —from downtown Charleston in Folly Beach, jagged, clusters of oysters are steamed under burlap sacks and served in metal buckets encrusted with pluff mud. Stop beside the fire pit to pick up a few. Pry ‘em open with a worn knife and a rag, then wash ‘em down with beer.
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Just outside Charleston Bowens Island has served as an oyster lovers’ dream for nearly 80 years - this thirteen-acre hammock island holds the promise of piles of steaming oysters with plenty of cold beer.
Head south out of Charleston and take a left onto Folly Road toward the beach. A sign for Bowens Seafood, just a little beyond another sign that welcomes motorists to the “Edge of America,” will take you onto a narrow, rutted dirt road across a large expanse of marshland. Bowens Island is not an island at all, but rather the end of a desolate peninsula surrounded by the creeks and coastal marshes of the Lowcountry. Roll the windows down, inhale the warm salty breezes, and immediately turn all thoughts to succulent oysters.
Drive right up to the front of the shack and park under an ancient live oak. Although Charleston is only 20 minutes north, this place is remote and scarcely looks like a place to eat. The restaurant itself is a coastal shack construction, two levels with outside stairs and decks that look slapped together from well-weathered, faded wood. While the main building is to the left, walk across the oyster shell parking lot to a screened-in dining deck extending out to the Folly River. There you’re likely to meet the owner, the Bowens’ grandson, Robert Barber. “Ours are local oysters,” he’ll tell you, “Most come to us from within 500 yards to a mile from here.”
Most days men go out in small flat-bottomed boats to pick oysters. They get down in the pluff mud to gather them off the banks using a hammer to break up the clusters. They leave the smaller ones behind to give the newly born oysters a hard surface to cling to. The oyster starts its life as a squiggly, squirmy character. It takes almost two years until it gets decent-sized. Barber’s oysters are the same species that grow in the Gulf and elsewhere up and down the East Coast, but exactly where they grow and the constitution of their beds determines their cluster form and their flavor. Some call it their “ terroir.”
Be sure to grab a beer and hang out by the fire pit where oysters steam each night under burlap sacks. Sit a while and be transfixed before a crackling fire and enjoy a brilliant sunset casting orange and scarlet hues across the golden marsh.
A few hearty souls shovel oysters onto a warped sheet of steel suspended over open flames. The oysters hiss and sizzle beneath a soaked croaker sack, steam dancing across the cinder blocks beneath. The cooking process takes only a few minutes and infuses the meat of the oyster with its juices, concentrating the flavor. Washcloths and dull knives are provided for prying the shells open and cutting the meat loose. Paper cups full of a cocktail sauce made tangy and hot with horseradish and Texas Pete further enhance the flavor.
The cocktail sauce recipe comes from Barber’s grandmother, May Bowen, who, with her husband, Jimmy, started the restaurant at their fish camp in 1946. When they bought it, there was no road out there and no causeway. Folks had to wait until high tide and take a boat. The place soon became a favorite spot for those looking for fresh-off-the-boat oysters and shrimp. Before the humble cinder block fish camp burned down in 2006, the main restaurant was covered in decades’ worth of graffiti scrawled by loyal customers.
In July 2010, it reopened in a large, screened-in room on 18-foot stilts with one of the best marsh views around.
Known for its no-frills service, creek-side sunset views, and oyster room, the restaurant won the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award in 2006. It was named one of eight “American Classic Restaurants” that boasts timeless appeal and quality food that reflects the history and character of its community. Owner Robert Barber accepted the award in New York City, wearing a tuxedo and white shrimping boots.
May this special place live on forever, bringing joy to oyster lovers everywhere who are lucky enough to stumble upon this slice of seafood heaven.