Dorothy's Cocktail & Oyster Bar — Restaurant in Georgia

Last night, we gave up on finding a meal that wasn’t fried and touristy here in Jekyll Island. We knew it was closing time soon for most restaurants around, and literally researched 20 restaurants just in the short drive from Jekyll and had accepted our fate of cheap, fried food and warm beer. We drove a little out towards St. Simons and then we found this place! We didn’t have a reservation and just knew this restaurant wouldn’t get us in but fortunately, they had seats open at the oyster bar and I am more than grateful the server let us sit.

They’re just a small cocktail and oyster bar in a small shopping center coming out of Jekyll. These guys were genuinely impressive.

Their servers were dressed well, knew the menu, knew how to sell and pushed us on up sales with the most professional subtlety, and knew their beverage. Their steps of service were definitely well trained. It was like an orchestra of service where one server would set down a water glass, then the next right behind them with a plate and another server behind them with silverware and a menu. It was almost like a movie scene where you see them setting the table around you. The cocktails and food were fantastic. The only critique I would have on the food is the shrimp ceviche and shaved Brussels salad needed a touch more salt and the shrimp toast wasn’t my favorite. I can see where the chef’s mind was when creating this dish and it was full of smoky umami but I feel it needed some acidity to balance that. Be that as it may, I can still appreciate the concept of the dish even though it wasn’t for me.

There was nothing fine dining about this restaurant, and the owners certainly didn’t spend 4 million dollars on every shiny toy in the build out. What they did capture though was passion for service. This small cocktail and oyster bar is the glaring example of what all restaurants need to be. Just because it’s simple, doesn’t mean it has to be simple. They literally took oysters and small plate tapas and through their service, curated an unforgettable experience.

Small details like printing separate menus for oysters, cocktails and the food, sourcing complimenting plates instead of just buying cheap China, to providing chop sticks for a noodle dish is what makes restaurants like these stand out.

These are the restaurants we look for when we travel. Restaurants who haven’t forgotten the importance of the guests’ experience and to portray passion rather than chasing a dollar.

In a world today where your dollar needs to go as far as possible, stop wasting it on cheap food and cheap service. If you don’t search for passion, you’ll never find it. Do yourself a favor and check this place out. They can show you what passion looks like and...

Is Dorothy’s good? I will most likely never know! I am so disappointed in our experience there today! We were very excited to get to try the cocktail and oyster bar after seeing how great it looked online. We arrived on time for our two o’clock reservation, ready for some cocktails! Hostess was nice and let us pick where we sat as it was not super crowded. The inside is adorable and I immediately snapped pics to send my friends! I was so excited! We were seated and waited a bit for our waitress but she was closing out another table so we didn’t mind the wait. We ordered two different cocktails and the tuna tartare. My husband ordered the noodles and she informed us that they were out of them. No big deal, it happens but I do wish we would have been told when we sat down. The tuna came out within minutes and was delicious! After about 15 minutes though, we still didn’t have our drinks. I asked our waitress and she said they would be right out. About 5 minutes later, she returned and said they were out of the cucumber for my drink so asked if I wanted something different. She did not mention my husbands drink. I ordered something else and at this point we were almost done with the tuna and still did not have our drinks. Finally, our waitress asked another guy behind the bar to make our drinks and he did. Whew! Our waitress was nice and offered us oysters for our wait. I then asked the waitress if they were out of anything else so we’d know before ordering our lunch. She said no and we ordered. At this point, we had been there for 40 minutes and were just getting to have the first sip of our drinks. They were pretty and good but not worth the wait. Five minutes later, our waitress returned to tell us that they were out of the fish, which I had ordered. At this point all we could do was laugh! We decided today was not our day at Dorothy’s and asked for the check. Our waitress was apologetic and nice but I was shocked that a manager or anyone else did not come over to apologize. We frequent the island about 8 times a year and was really excited for a new spot in our rotation. Instead, we left incredibly disappointed and out $55 without even having lunch. Overall, we felt it was...

Wow!

My husband and I read the write up about Dorothy's in Elegant Island Living and knew we had to try it out when we visited Sea Island.

Our extraordinary experience started the moment we walked through the door. Our party of four was warmly greeted by the staff and ushered to our table.

Cocktails were the first thing we tried and they did not disappoint. I had the Keemala Bungalow - a little heat and a little sweet - just the right combination. The others at the table tried The Monkey's Business, Smoke on the Boarder and a classic Vesper. ALL WERE AMAZING.

Next for the evening was choosing what to eat - Definitely a hard decision since everything sounded amazing. Between the four of us we had the following: raw oysters, charred oysters, and fried oysters (yum) Aquachili (to die for), Salmon Belly, Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad (fresh and crisp), Dorothy Burger with fries (definitely worth the carbs), Kushiyaki Pork Belly, Arctic Char, Crispy Grouper Sandwich (husband can't stop talking about it) and Crack Cucumbers. EVERY dish was executed and served perfectly.

Speaking of service, I cannot begin to convey how sweet and attentive the staff were. Each person we came in contact with took their time answering our questions and helped us make our decisions. They are an amazing team who are excited to see Dorothy's thrive.

Daniel Auffenberg, the creative talent - chef and genius along with his wife Claire are the owners behind Dorothy's, and we will definitely be following this amazing duo. Their talent seems endless and their ...