Tybee Business Spotlight: Treylor Park Beach Party
Treylor Park restaurant group will soon open Beach Party location on Tybee
Treylor Park restaurant group has made waves in the Lowcountry culinary scene with their inventive menus, eclectic interiors and energetic vibe. With six popular locations, each with their own unique feel, between Georgia and Florida, their seventh will open soon on Tybee, but more on that in just a bit.
Treylor Park’s flagship location opened on Bay Street in October of 2014, so the restaurant group is celebrating a decade in business this year. The original and subsequent locations represent the culmination of cofounder Trey Wilder’s experience in the restaurant industry. Originally from Perry, Georgia, Wilder relocated to New York after college and got into the food and beverage scene there.
“I started working with the W Hotels at their bars . . . and [had] about five years of hotel food and beverage, and then I got out of the hotels and started doing mom-and-pop restaurants and bars,” said Wilder. “One of the last bars that I was managing, one of the bartenders, one of his things was he gave everybody nicknames. And so me being from Georgia still having a Southern drawl and my name being Trey, he nicknamed me Treylor Park.”
Right around that time, Wilder began thinking about opening up his own place since he had amassed such an intimate understanding of the restaurant space. He started thinking about branding and began bouncing ideas off of a bartender who ended up becoming a business partner in the restaurant group.
“At the time, I was managing and he was the head bartender so I was throwing around ideas to him and we trickled down to a concept. In New York, there was a bar called Trailer Park. . . It was a dive bar. It was grungy. It was what you would expect a trailer park bar to be. I didn’t want [our place] to seem like a seedy dive bar that somebody wouldn’t want to approach,” said Wilder.
That’s when he got the idea for their iconic logo: the airstream.
“In my opinion an airstream is an upscale RV,” he said.
Since he had the name down and a logo, he needed a slogan, which came just as organically. He and his wife had taken a trip to Thailand and enjoyed the country’s national beer, the tagline of which is ‘Drink Sensibly.’ From that inspiration, Wilder came up with ‘Live Sensibly’ for Treylor Park. With everything required for a successful brand settled, Wilder opened the Bay Street location, which would ultimately lead to a total of seven establishments within the restaurant group between Georgia and Florida.
The latest restaurant, Treylor Park Beach Party, is expected to open up on Tybee around the end of October. Proximal to the iconic Pier and Pavilion, Beach Party is located 1311 Butler Ave., where the shuttered Tybee Island Social Club used to be. Wilder spent four years living on Tybee and remembers the social club fondly. They’ve made some updates to the building since it was last occupied but still wanted to maintain the essence of the social club.
“I wanted to keep it where, if you walked in, you would still remember it as the space that I remember it as, as Tybee Social. I didn’t want to lose any of the character,” he said.
Renovations include an expanded deck, better parking, and an extended bar, among other things. In addition to indoor and outdoor seating, Beach Party will have a walk-up window for pedestrians coming from the beach.
“What we’re going to be doing on the inside is to sit down in the restaurant, and on the outside, it will be kind of help yourself, walk up to the window. You take your order to get your food, and you can go out and sit down at the tables out front,” said Wilder. “And then on one side, we have a big sandbox for the kids to play in while the parents are eating so they can enjoy themselves.”
Like the location, the menu is a curated blend of the old and new, featuring a few Treylor Park signatures along with a few options more tailored to the beachy vibe.
“On the inside, it’s a nice beach-style interior, and that’s where the menu is going as well. You’ll still have the dishes that Treylor Park is known for — the nachos, the chicken and pancake tacos, the shrimp and grits tacos, the peanut butter and jelly chicken wings, the avocado fries, the banana pepper rings — but you will see some new additions to the menu in regards to seafood,” said Wilder. “There will be some newer cocktails as well, but we wanted to keep the backbone of the Treylor Park that we’re known for while also bringing in some different, unique items for the demographic.”
In paying further homage to the former social club, Wilder and his team plan to host a weekend brunch with live music. Several of their other locations host live music, and they plan to bring that same energy to Beach Party.
“We’ve got some good performers here who I know would be happy to go out to Tybee,” he said.
Wilder encourages locals and tourists alike to come see what Beach Party is all about.
“I know people on Tybee have been hearing about Treylor Park for a long time. We’ve been working on this project for two years, and so I think people are very excited about not having to drive down to Savannah for the Treylor Park experience,” he said. “We’re going to be right down the street. The food is going to be fantastic and consistent. We’re going to have a lot of good music, a lot of good energy. It’s going to bring a fresh vibe to Tybee.”
Treylor Park Beach Party will soon open on Tybee. For updates related to the official opening, follow Treylor Park on social media @treylorparkrestaurants. Visit treylorpark.com/ for more information.
