Georgia Magazine - July 2011 - (Page 20)

Above right: Jodee Sadowsky, owner of the Breakfast Club on Tybee, serves up smiley meals as diners line up at peak season to experience this dining institution. Right: Delicacies like fresh-caught Georgia shrimp are an everyday ingredient on Tybee. Lower right: Ofﬁcers’ Row on Tybee’s North Beach is an echo of a peacetime military presence in former days, even as nearby historic forts remind visitors of the island’s strategic importance in wartime. Background: Fishing the backwaters is just an excuse to watch the fabulous sunsets CHRISTOPHER HORNADAY dolphins play in the wake. Jarrell, looking beatiﬁc as ever nesses shutter, the island’s tourism appeal takes a hit, in the Georgia sun, lets Lannie worry about the boat. She fueling a vicious cycle. Jarrell has thus far convinced knows where it’s headed. owners of the vacation homes she manages not to walk This is just one of hundreds of sorties Jarrell has away from a mortgage or sell out cheap to real estate arranged for visitors. She and Atlanta public relations speculators. maven Toren Anderson built a well-oiled promotion ma“We’re doing all this work because it’s the bare minichine here. Anderson, drawing on connections, brought mum the owners of my houses need to hang on right trendsetters and tastemakers to the island. Jarrell made now. And if we can help them hang on just a little lonsure they had such a good time, they’d be back soon ger, they can make it through this storm,” she says. with friends. So Jarrell battened down the hatches as only a Boat trips are just a small part of a comprehensive Southern belle knows how: with hospitality. Guest lists strategy of small-scale investments to ﬁll beds at a time at the 60-plus dinner parties she has thrown at their when tourist dollars are hard to come by. family home overlooking Tybee Creek have included As the owner of Oceanfront Cottage Rentals, a Tybee more than 200 journalists, an undisclosed number of Island company managing some of celebrities (Tybee never tells) and the ﬁnest vacation homes on the the pastors of nine Atlanta-area Georgia coast, Jarrell can explain megachurches (staffs and families exactly why Tybee has managed to included). In her kitchen, Jarrell feel the same squeeze as everyone and friends cooked each dinner, else without getting crushed. served alongside Lannie’s famous “If we had lost the top houses Low Country boil. in Tybee,” she explains, “that When the Jarrells look like would have had a disastrous effect they’re playing, they’re probably on the island’s whole economy.” working. The nonstop party her If the homeowners leave, the guests experience is just the ﬁnhomes are empty of the steady ished product. What lies beneath Tybee Island boasts bunches of gorgeous beach ﬂow of renters and friends who is a huge investment of personal houses—from new to old and historic. support local businesses. If busiresources, time, energy and to20 CHRISTOPHER HORNADAY More online at www.georgiamagazine.org CHRISTOPHER HORNADAY CHRISTOPHER HORNADAY GEORGIA MAGAZINE CHRISTOPHER HORNADAY ‘Tybee is unhurried and uncrowded,” raves best-selling author Mary Kay Andrews, who owns a beach cottage on the island and has written several popular novels about Tybee. “Tybee Island is the perfect place to go when you crave a slower, simpler pace.’ http://www.georgiamagazine.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - July 2011

Georgia Magazine - July 2011
Contents
Viewpoint
Mailbox
Picture This?
Georgia News
Calendar
Currents
Georgia’s Energy Outlook
Special Energy Report
A Jewel Against the Sea
“A Special Blessing”
Your Own Backyard
Around Georgia
My Georgia
Gardens
Georgia Cooks
Cookbook of the Month
Snapshot

Georgia Magazine - July 2011