It’s 7:20 on a Monday night in Georgetown, South Carolina, and I’m sitting at the bar at the Independent, the restaurant inside the George Hotel. It’s not just crowded, but rocking: Locals are table-hopping, friends are toasting, and next to me, a young couple dressed for a night out sip martinis as they wait for a table.
Until recently, I wouldn’t have dreamed this scene would be taking place in Georgetown. Though the nearly three-hundred-year-old city is undeniably beautiful—tidal marshes, long oak allées, and beautifully restored eighteenth-century homes and churches are all within walking distance of the downtown waterfront—it’s always felt a little…sleepy.
That all changed with the opening of the George in early 2024. Now, new shops, restaurants, coffeehouses, and even a brewery are interspersed around Front Street with museums, art galleries, a bookstore, and even a guitar shop. “The hotel has been an anchor,” says Sabrina Query, the twenty-year Georgetown resident who owns Whimsy Roost and the Whimsy Warehouse gift shops. “We’re seeing people now from not just Columbia and Charleston but the Midwest and Europe.”
Happily, some things in town haven’t changed. Beatrice and her dog Harper Lee are around to welcome you to the Gullah Museum; the Rice Museum’s collection of local art is wide and varied; you can still get corned beef hash at the counter at Thomas Café, and the pork chops, collards, and sweet potato pie at Aunny’s taste just the way you want them to. The Wooden Boat Show draws crowds each fall and the Indigo Choral Society’s Fourth of July concert at Kaminski House remains a summer staple.
Here are a few more reasons to visit Georgetown:
Pecky cypress walls; lush, jewel-toned fabrics; and local crafts and artworks greet visitors to the George, Front Street’s first new hotel in almost fifty years. A highlight is the oversized archway mural that depicts a Lowcountry marine forest filled with whimsical birds. There’s live music on weekends at the hotel’s outdoor bar, Eliza’s, which sits at the edge of the Sampit River.
This bustling restaurant adjoining the George takes its name from a beloved seafood market that closed in 2023. Seafood-focused dishes—blackened red drum with a pilau of crab, andouille sausage, and okra; crab cakes with mustard sauce and a tangle of fresh fennel—are delicious and well balanced. The wine list shines, but it’s hard to beat the house old fashioned.
Georgetown native Leldon McClary Elmer and her husband, Sam, took their love of shared plates and big flavors and created Frank’s on Front (her parents own the popular Frank’s restaurant in Pawleys Island). Perch on one of the shell-shaped velvet stools that line the bar or grab a waterfront table out back for grilled quail with a sriracha drizzle, a fresh tuna poke stack, or local shrimp in a red Thai curry sauce, which has just the right spicy swagger. There’s Veuve Cliquot by the glass, too.
Locals flock to this friendly bar for happy hour; afterwards, you can feast on creative bar fare like homemade meatballs over cheese grits, or move to the other side of the menu for crispy Brussels sprouts brightened with citrusy Ponzu or blackened grouper with grits and fresh spinach.
Set on a waterfront bluff at the very end of Front Street, this quirky restaurant, which takes its name from a James Dickey poem, is filled with local art, including several pieces crafted by the original owner. The menu lists crowd-pleasing favorites, but do try the Brice’s Country Store—fried bologna topped with cheese and a fried egg.
Beth Doar Ness has lived in Georgetown nearly her entire life. Today, she and her daughter Sara own this colorful shop where you can pick up everything from pretty serving trays and wine glasses to coffee table books and original art.
