Our story begins in 2003 when we opened our initial location in a circa 1920 cottage on idyllic Sullivan's Island, just outside Charleston, South Carolina. The Island is steeped in history having been the site of an important Revolutionary War battle and also playing a key role in the commencement of the Civil War. Drawn to the idea of connecting to the Island's rich heritage we found inspiration for our name from enigmatic writer Edgar Allan Poe, who as an 18-year-old private in the U.S. Army was stationed at Fort Moultrie on the Island's western end in 1827.
Poe would later use Sullivan's Island as the setting for his short story, "The Gold-Bug', a tale of a mystical golden beetle used to locate a pirate treasure chest filled with coins and jewelry, buried alongside two skeletons. His impact on American literature was indelible and profound; one of the first practitioners of the short story, creator of both the detective and horror story genres and a significant contributor to the emergence of science fiction. He achieved his widest acclaim through his poem, "The Raven". Other notable works include: "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Cask of Amontillado", "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "Murders in the Rue Morgue".
"Fill with mingled cream and amber, I will drain that glass again. Such hilarious visions clamber through the chamber of my brain. Quaintest thoughts come to life and fade away. What care I how time advances? I'm drinking ale today." Poe purportedly composed this poem in 1848 at a Massachusetts watering hole in lieu of paying his tab. Accordingly, we're fairly certain he would be proud of (perhaps even honored by) his namesake tavern.
Subsequent chapters of the Poe's Tavern story were written with locations opened in Atlantic Beach, Florida in 2011, Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina in 2015 and Savannah, Georgia in 2022. The renovation of the Savannah location from an old fire station won an AGC Build Georgia Award in 2023 recognizing excellence in construction.