Summer. It turns me upside down. For a good number of restaurant owners out at the beach, I’m sure it feels every bit like a merry go-round.
I had to laugh when I grabbed my copy of the Savannah Morning News only to see the front page say tourism is estimated to bring Tybee Island $93 million a year. Hey now, that’s a whole lot of Miller High Life, y’all. For real.
Strictly by coincidence, I had a chat this week with Kurtis Schumm, owner of now three restaurants on the island. Tybee Island Social Club, Tybee Island Fish Camp and the brand spanking new Bo Bien Hut, an Asian “street food” style spot down near Tybrisa.
Our chat ranged from his opinion on the number of vacation rentals on the island, all the way to how much the smell of fresh tobacco reminds him of his childhood in Kentucky.
Yeah, we covered quite a bit.
At the end of the day, he’s a Tybee Islander by choice — 11 years and counting. He leaves the island every day, but not by choice.
“We have no banks here,” he says. “I just run up to Wilmington and come back.”
You would think that with three restaurants, he’d own a golf cart and would spend all of his time zipping between them, but he doesn’t. Yes, he visits the others, especially the new one, but he tells me he spends a large majority of his time at one spot. Essentially on lockdown. Which one? Tybee Island Fish Camp.
When the place opened in June of last year, I thought, and still do think, it was a great idea.
I’ve mentioned many, many times in this space that seafood drives the bus here along the coast and we really didn’t have a signature seafood spot.
There are a number of places that do a nice job with some seafood dishes, but a place that really tried to push the envelope with seafood? On Tybee Island? Sure enough, here we are a year later, and Fish Camp is making its mark on the Tybee Island food scene.
“There are only two places on the island that take reservations,” Schumm tells me. The other being Sundae Café. “On the weekends, we are full most of the time. Three days out, we are at 75 percent capacity. Then the morning of, we fill up.”
We discuss the menu a little bit when he tells me he sold out of Uni one night recently. Uni is sea urchin and if you’ve seen our sushi episode of “Eat It and Like It,” you got a good laugh at me attempting to eat some.
It’s a very popular dish, but I would have never guessed anyone could sell 30 orders of it a night on Tybee Island. I really hate to sound like I’m being unfair to our friends on the island with their choices in food, but of all the pizzas, oysters, fried shrimp and other items you hear people talking about that they love to eat when they make it out to the beach, Uni sure as heck isn’t one of them.
My, how times have changed.
“The barley risotto is by far the most popular,” he says. “If I tried to take it off of the menu, people will revolt.”
In fact, he says, that risotto dish with lobster, mushrooms, parmesan and bacon is the only dish that was on the menu from day one. “Everything else has changed,” he says.
“We are really trying to do some good stuff. I’m tired of people suffering from GMO ailments that they didn’t have 40 years ago.”
Yeah, there’s a bit of an environmentalist in there — Kurtis will fill your notebook about any subject he’s passionate about. Whether it be the island, his taste in wine or simply the desire to deliver great food to Tybee Islanders, no matter if they are tourists or permanent residents.
He tells me he is always looking for the freshest fish he can find. All restaurateurs say that, and a good many of them, frankly, mean it, but this place is different. I’ve popped in on a couple of different occasions and enjoyed it both times. Lately, I’m hearing some consistently good things coming out of there. That wasn’t the case close to a year ago. Knowing the Schumms, they wouldn’t have taken on a new spot at the other end of the island if things weren’t rockin’ and rollin’ at Tybee Island Fish Camp.
Ultimately, to do the types of dishes they are doing like Tybee shrimp, black rice, heirloom tomatoes and green curry, they had better be good. Consistently good.
He admits to me there has been a learning curve this first year out, but he’s more than OK with that.
“We are in it for the long haul. Not just a quick buck.”
And he’s even offered cooking lessons to Girl Scouts on his day off. What a guy. One more reason to drive out to the beach.
See you on TV.
Jesse
