Wilmot Greene felt St. Simons needed a place to get a nice cocktail and some dessert — or nibbles — and listen to samba or bossa nova, Costello or Krall. A dark place with a low-key vibe, think Newport mixed with Bahamas. A hole in the wall, where locals, or those lucky folks who just happen to walk by an island bar, could wander in, sit down, order a memorable pour with a name like Sazerac, served in a Nick and Nora.
Meet East Beach Yacht Club, or EBYC for those who vibe on initials. EBYC doesn’t offer a proper dinner. Instead, settle into charcuterie plates, fancy hot dogs, desserts, and the old-school cocktail party circuit staple, Ritz crackers.
“I tell people jokingly, if you want to have a big dinner and two drinks, you should go somewhere else. If you want to have three drinks and a bit of food, you should come here,” shares Greene.
“We want our neighborhood, the South End and the East Beach neighborhoods, to be able to have a cocktail party where no one is actually hosting. It’s almost like a neighborhood rec room, or a neighborhood cocktail party.”
Wilmot Greene, Co-owner, East Beach Yacht Club
Atmosphere matters: there are no TVs, but back to the Sazerac.
“They’re so small, you really have to sip it,” opines Greene. “It’s not on ice. Just having to take those small sips in a dark room, sitting next to a stranger is exactly what we had in mind.”
Cameron Gilbert, East Beach Yacht Club Bartender, prepares the perfect Sazerac in a Nick & Nora
With this hyper local lounge spirit, Greene and his business partner Griffin Bufkin opened East Beach Yacht Club on Beachview Drive in February 2026, exceeding all expectations. As if the island were thirsty again for something nostalgic, timeless, and utterly classic. Something in the spirit of Poor Stephens and The Binnacle for long-time Islanders who remember evenings that began promptly at 5:00 and lasted longer than sundown.
Greene, a musician, turned businessman, turned sailor, likens East Beach Yacht Club to a Caribbean “chill spot,” a laid-back waterfront bar. The kind of place he and his wife Tori wandered into during their two-year sailing journey on their sailboat Felina. The couple sailed “the Thorny Path” — a journey down the East Coast to Grenada or Trinidad, where they spent hurricane season before returning.
“I’ve been to all these islands, and I’ve been to the chill spot,” he shares. “They don’t call them bars further down in the Caribbean. So, I’ve been to hundreds of chill spots and people take it seriously.”
He adds, “At the end of the day, everybody makes it to the chill spot, and you chill together. Hell yeah! That’s what we are trying to accomplish at the Yacht Club. If you want to watch the game and scream, you should go somewhere else. If you want to have a conversation and a cocktail, that’s what we are here for.”
