Plan
Tybee eats what the boats bring in. Wild Georgia shrimp comes off the trawlers you can see from the bridge, and almost every menu on the island is built around it — fried, boiled, or piled peel-and-eat on butcher paper.
The strip beside the pier is where you eat with sand on your feet: crab stew, hushpuppies, fried flounder baskets and low-country boil with corn, red potatoes and smoked sausage. Most places are counter-service or first-come, and the wait at seven on a July Saturday is real — eat at five or at nine.
Out by the boat ramps on the way onto the island, the creekside decks serve roasted oysters, she-crab soup and shrimp straight off the dock while the fleet unloads behind you. Sunset here is quieter than the pier and the parking is easier.
Butler Avenue handles mornings: biscuits and gravy, shrimp and grits, strong coffee and pastries to take to the beach. Get there before nine on weekends or you'll be behind a fishing crew and two families of eight.
Tybee is an early island — most kitchens stop seating around 9:30pm, and the grocery options are limited to one small market and a handful of convenience stores. Stock the cottage on the way in from Savannah, and pick up a pound of raw shrimp from a dockside seller if you want to boil your own.