A little bit over a decade ago, Tony Seichrist decided that he was going to leave the confines of the big city of Atlanta and go in search of something new and exciting down here in Savannah.

He wound up taking an old space, renovating it beautifully. And now all these years later, he has one of the most popular spots in town. The place is called The Wyld Dock Bar.   It has become synonymous with outdoor eats in Savannah.

This month marks The Wyld’s 10th year on the scene.   Tony and his crew are cooking up a celebration party and everyone is invited.  I caught up with him this week to reflect on how quickly 10 years have flown by and what you can expect from the day long celebration on the marsh next week.   The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity. 

JB: 10 years for you guys already, hard to believe isn’t it?

TS: Yeah, honestly, my business partner Brad and I had a discussion. was like, didn’t we pass 10 like five years ago? I was really sort of out of my timeline there. But yeah, it’s been 10 years.

JB: Tell us without going too far down the rabbit hole once upon a time, what was the original motivation for you to come here.  You worked with some great chefs in Altanta.  What was the motivation to come here of all places?

TS: Well, I felt at the time, Atlanta was home for me and you kind of always want to go out and try new things obviously, but Atlanta kind of had everything. I honestly couldn’t think of something to do in Atlanta that felt like it needed to be there. What could I bring to the table at that point? Everybody had already sort of done everything there. So I wanted greener pastures and wanted a smaller community with more neighborhood restaurants and room to grow. And I think that’s what we found in Savannah. Now this is home for me. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. I love it here. yeah, just happy to be here after 10 years.

JB: Were you looking for something out on the water? Was that part of the motivation to come to Savannah?

TS: Not originally, however, I am a water guy. I live on the water, I fish all the time. It’s a big part of what The Wyld is and I couldn’t imagine not being on the water now. This is an unfortunate event that has now tied me to the water.

JB: I totally get it.  So for those who are not familiar, the space where The Wyld Dock Bar is now used to be very, very popular here in Savannah. was called Bonna Bella Yacht Club. It was kind of a, and my words not yours, it was a little bit of a redneck yacht club kind of dive place.  It was very popular.

TS: I don’t know we’re that far off of it now, but we just tried to elevate what they had and they had some really great bones and we kind of put our touches on it. Obviously we redid the menu and everything like that and sort of brought more local sensibilities and we’ve always been a restaurant that’s tried to go out and find the best of what’s around, close by. I think we’ve managed to do a pretty good job of that whilst getting busy and doing high volume so that was a big part of what we were trying to do and you know I think they had they had started it and they got a good way through it and I think we kind of finished it.

JB: I would agree with that. The first few years was it tough? Was there a steady climb, until you got some traction and popularity and all that?

TS: Well, you know, we started off with a slightly different concept. It was a little more fine dining. And as we got more popular and busier, that concept was harder to keep up. So what we tried to do is take all the best things from what we did there and do it faster. And I think that’s sort of where we are now.

There’s a few things that we aren’t really able to do in peak season, but we try to do that in the off season, so we get a little more. We did the King Cat thing this past winter, and that was really fun. So every year we try to do something fun in the off season where we get to flex those muscles that we used to use a little bit more, I guess.

JB: For those who are not familiar with The Wyld Dock Bar, it’s on the marsh.  In Savannah it has access to the water and eventually the ocean. Do you get boaters who roll through kind of same time every year?

TS: We get so many boaters. I think we’re one of two places left in Savannah that will actually take boats. But we’re one of two places that can actually get boats and we can, how many can we do? 20 footers, can probably get 20 boats, 30 boats if we’re really packing them in. But yeah, we got a lot of boaters.

JB: People who don’t live in Savannah who are passing through? 

TS: We do get a few of those, yeah. And actually in the wintertime we have sailboats that are doing the Great Loop. I don’t know if you guys are familiar. Basically you just go all the way up and all the way around, come down the Mississippi and basically do a giant loop. But they come by and they’ll stop by for three or four days, they’ll reprovision. And we saw one couple twice. So guess we saw them on the way up and maybe they turned around. But yeah, we do see a little bit of that.

JB: That great loop being around the peninsula of Florida?

TS: Yep, yep. All the way up the East Coast and somehow you get, you go up into Canada and come back around. I don’t know, it’s a hell of a trip.

JB: Wow. yeah, sounds like it. A little too maritime for me, but more power to them.

JB:  I do want to mention, you know, people don’t realize, the ones that don’t know, you yeah, you’ve got a seafood heavy-ish menu. Like you said, you try to do it fast. Some of the best fried shrimp in Savannah. But I’ve always been, as you know, fascinated with the quality of your burger. You don’t have to take it as seriously as you do, but you do. Why is that?

TS: Well, again, I think it’s back to our original philosophy, which is just, you know, find the best thing you can, you know, the best products you can, and do as little to them as possible. And that’s kind of it. You know, we don’t make a fancy burger. It’s kind of a normal smash burger, but our beef is, I mean, I think it’s unbeatable in Savannah. I think we’re the only ones that carry the Savage Creek Farm, and it’s an F1 cross between a Wagyu cow and a Black Angus. So we get the best of the added fat and tenderness from the Wagyu, and we get that super beefy flavor from the Angus.  I think we got the best burger meat in town.

JB: I can always count on you to get a little bit geeky when it comes to the quality of the burger meat.

TS: A little bit, a little bit, yeah, a little bit. And these cows are, I think they’re the only ones that I’ve seen that are born, bred, and butchered all in Georgia. That’s a pretty tough thing to find anymore, yeah. Yeah, so big shout out to Savage Creek Farms. They do an amazing job.

JB: What would you say has been the biggest part of the evolution of what The Wyld Dock Bar has become over 10 years?

TS: Well, during COVID, I hate to say that because it sounds silly, COVID really kind of changed how we operated. We were always in outdoor space, so it made sense that we could adapt to that pretty easily during COVID. But we changed how we did our ordering system. And we kind of went to the fish shack model, I guess, for lack of a better term. And that sped things up a little bit and allowed us to serve more people ultimately. So that was kind of a big, I think that was a big evolution in just how we did business. That really did make us have to move faster.

JB: Yeah, and I know you still, because I get the complaints from people like, what do you want me to do? But you now order at the register and everybody wanted the server service, but.

TS: And I understand that and it would be really cool if we could figure out a way to do that but honestly the business runs better, we get food out faster, we can serve more people. So it’s hard to argue going back.

And ultimately we’d be able to serve less people. This way we’re able to maximize what we can do. We used to have lines that would go out into the street, and we still do from time to time. But those people were unhappy with me. They really wanted to come in and eat. And if you sit in a line for two hours just to be told, sorry, we’re closed, that sucks. So that’s kind of, I think, why we stayed with this change. Ultimately, we can serve more food.

JB: You do more and more and more and more private events every year.  I see it.  Sorry, closed private event. How many days a year would you say you’re shut?

TS: So we’re trying to do that less and less. We’re trying to keep it to the off season as much as possible. Usually right around now-ish. They start tapering off so that we can get into our real season and then concentrate on our guests. But I think I’ve got one or two left for the season, and that’s kind of it. So we’re trying to make that work for both sides.

JB: The last special event we will discuss is your 10th birthday. You have an anniversary party coming up on the 19th, yes? What can we expect?

TS: Yep, yep. We’re gonna do a public oyster roast. We got bands playing. We’re gonna just try and have a big party and gonna do some special menu items from the original menu. So the quail and rabbit sausage will be coming back for those of you that were big cult fans of that. Maybe a few other little things yet to be decided. But we’re gonna try and make it a fun celebration of, you know, being an old restaurant, which is…Kind of fun to say, so yeah. It will be on April 19th beginning at noon and going all day.

You can hear our entire conversation including the types of boaters that like to roll through The Wyld on our Podcast…..here

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