The Last Seafood Shack on the River

Simple Southern fish shacks - food caught and cooked by coastal families are disappearing throughout our region.

Long before the era of Paula Deen, before the culinary heights of Elizabeth Terry, and even before the communal tables of Mrs. Wilkes, there was Williams Seafood.

Today, a rusted neon sign is all that remains of this Savannah institution—a ghost standing guard over an empty lot. At its peak, Williams was a regional empire, so famous that its signature deviled crabs were stocked in grocery stores across the South. To this day, I still miss them.

This story on the golden era of seafood shacks is for paid subscribers.