The Olde Pink House

The building was a house, then a bank, then law offices before it became a restaurant. The city's Historic Savannah Inventory card for 23 Abercorn Street says Joseph Clay financed and built it in 1789 as a home for his cousin, James Habersham Jr., and that a lawsuit on file at the Chatham County courthouse establishes those facts. Habersham died in 1799. His widow sold the house in 1802, and in 1812 it became the Planters' Bank of Georgia, which added the portico. After the Civil War it became lawyers' offices.

You can still read that history in the rooms. The private conference room is the one added in 1812, when the house became the bank. The Purple Room was the main bedroom. The cellar bar is called Planters Tavern.

How old is it, really?

Most guides, and Old Town Trolley's page on the house, say James Habersham Jr. began building it in 1771. The city's inventory card says 1789 and points to the court record behind that date. We go with the card.

Why it's pink

Visit Savannah tells the story this way: the house is brick under white stucco, the red bled through, and owners painted over it for years. Then a woman who opened a tearoom in the house in the 1920s gave up and painted the whole thing pink. The inventory card confirms the brick-and-stucco part. The rest is the house's legend, so enjoy it as one.

What to order, and what it costs

The menus on the restaurant's site are image files labeled May 2026, and the restaurant says prices can change. Read them the week you go.

The dish to know is the crispy scored flounder: apricot shallot sauce, stone-ground grits and collard greens, $45.95 at dinner. The Low Country she-crab soup is $13.95. Chef's fried chicken with macaroni and cheese is $37.95, the deep-dish chicken pot pie $31.95, and the top of the list is a $72 filet mignon. Starters run $13 to $28.95, sides are ordered separately at $3.25 to $24.95, and cocktails are $13 to $18.

Two people having a soup or starter each and two mains will spend about $110 to $140 before drinks, tax and tip.

Lunch is the cheaper way in

Lunch runs Tuesday to Saturday from 11 to 2:30, in the same house, with a shorter and cheaper menu. Shrimp and grits with country ham gravy is $25.95, the crab cake $24.95, Max's fried chicken $37.95, and sandwiches $14.95 to $22.95. The flounder isn't on the lunch menu, but the Arches Bar serves it on its afternoon menu at the dinner price.

Booking, and the two bars

Dinner reservations go through OpenTable, linked from the restaurant's home page. The restaurant doesn't publish how far ahead tables open, so book as soon as your dates are fixed, especially for a Friday or Saturday.

The house has two bars. The Arches Bar has its own afternoon menu: Caesar salad with cornbread oysters or grilled shrimp ($19.95), the she-crab soup, the cheeseburger ($20.95) and the flounder ($45.95). Planters Tavern is the cellar bar, and the private-dining team books a single table for two in its wine vault. Neither bar's hours or walk-in rules appear on the website. If OpenTable is empty for your night, call (912) 232-4286 and ask whether the bars are seating without a booking.

Is it haunted?

The ghost tours think so. Old Town Trolley's page on the house mentions its haunted reputation, and at least one self-guided ghost tour starts beside Reynolds Square and makes the house its first stop. The restaurant's own website doesn't mention ghosts at all. If you want the stories told properly, take an evening walk from our ghost tours guide and eat here before or after.

Is it worth it?

Book it if the house is the reason you came. You eat in the rooms of a 1789 house, from a menu that sticks to Southern standards: the flounder, she-crab soup, fried chicken, shrimp and grits. Book it, too, if a fixed table at a set time suits your trip.

Skip the dinner booking if you want the city's most ambitious cooking; our restaurant guide points you to The Grey for that. If the price is the obstacle, come for lunch instead. You get the same house and the shrimp and grits for $25.95.

Getting there

The house faces Reynolds Square on Abercorn Street, between the river and Broughton Street. Bryan Street Garage at 100 East Bryan Street is about a minute's walk away. City rates there drop to a $2 flat after 5 p.m. on weekdays and $5 flat from 5 p.m. on Fridays, and Saturday and Sunday cost $5 all day; the parking guide has event-day rates.

If you're spending the day on the Old Town Hop-On Hop-Off Trolley Tour (from $46 · 1 day · ★4.7 (1,872)), lunch here fits the loop, because an Old Town stop is a short walk from the house. From the door, River Street and City Market are both a few blocks away, and the Historic District guide covers the squares in between.