Across the marsh just before Folly Beach sits a tiny island with a restaurant that’s become a Lowcountry icon: Bowen’s Island. Its family-run atmosphere and fresh, local oysters have cemented its place as a critical stop on anyone’s Charleston checklist.
Oysters are as “Charleston” as she-crab soup and Rainbow Row, and those harvested in the tidal creeks surrounding Bowen’s Island are carefully selected and harvested before they wind up on your plate at the restaurant.
Founded in 1946 as a fish camp by Jimmy and May Bowen, Bowen’s Island has a culture permit giving them access to parcels of land where they alone can harvest oysters. And no one knows how to harvest them better than Bowen’s Island oyster picker Adrian Wallace…