Part 1 of 3

Living in the south, you don’t have to go far to find great food. I had a super busy week both socially and for business, which included exquisite meals most every day of this week.

Starting with last Friday we got a surprise call announcing a last minute visit from Sean’s parents as they were headed our direction driving home from Virginia to Florida. Grampa always enjoys the sweet local shrimp pulled fresh daily from our Savannah waters, Bubba Gumbos topped the list for dinner. Located right at the docks of the Tybee Marina, you can’t get seafood any more fresh than this.Caitlin Burns hooked us up with some tasty shrimp appetizers and I had a huge portion of crispy fried flounder, which was an excellent choice!

Saturday I was hired for 8 hours photographing a wedding at Beachview B&B. A big perk to wedding photography is being able to partake in some wonderful wedding meals. This one was no different. A plate was set down in front of me prepared by Chef Erin and Frank Kelly with melt in your mouth filet mignon, grilled vegetables and gravy topped roasted mashed potatoes. There’s always a smashing good wedding cake baked and decorated by North Beach Bar And Grill’s very own Kathryn Williams. The bride had specifically requested a crepe bar before the night was over. Beachview owner, Karen Kelly and I both indulged in this make your own crepe station with cream sweet ricotta and succulent blackberries topped with hot fudge chocolate sauce. We both decided that more wedding need a late night crepe station.

Sunday was Tybee’s annual bicycle poker run, which meant we chowed on hucapoos pizza in the rain to balance out the day’s beer consumption at the final stop and event party.

Tybee and Savannah have recently become a hotbed for Hollywood movies. In the four years since we’ve been here, Tybee movies has grown its impressive list, including titles as Magic Mike XXL starring Channing Tatum, Dirty Grampa with Robert Dinero and Zach Efron, Sponge Bob 2 with Antonio Banderas. This summer Adam Sandler and David Spade were spotted throughout the island filming their latest comedy “The Do Over”

On Monday, Sean and I were chosen as extras in a new movie coming out called “Gifted” starring Chris Evans (aka Captain America)
This is being filmed simultaneous with a new Prohibition Era Ben Affleck flick. We actually had to make sure we were checking into the right movie call time since there were two production base camps going on in this small 3 mile space.

Most of being a movie extra is pretty boring and uneventful, a lot of “hurrying up and waiting” for hours on end. I don’t watch many movies and haven’t had a TV in over seven years, so I am very behind the times when it comes to entertainment. I have to rely on those around me to alert me when a star is in the room.

Even though working as a movie extra can be as boring as watching paint dry, it was a fun day and rather surreal to see our beloved Hucapoos bar transformed into a movie set, surrounded by some of my favorite people being directed by the big wigs from Hollywood. A funny moment was when a director instructed my best bar buddy, Carolyn Williams and I to take a seat at the bar and “act” like we were enjoying a cold beer after a day at work. There were a few giggles from the crowd as Sean said he thought we had just been typecast. Our tybee stars Danielle and Danny were serving us lukewarm tap water in budlight bottles instead of our normal frosty cold Miller light. Just for the record, I enjoy the frosty Miller Lite much more!

Have you ever wondered why movie ticket prices are so expensive? Part of the reason is these big production companies take good care of everyone on set. Including all meals and snacks for the day. Every meal and coffee break was catered by top talent. Full buffet spreads were laid out at the YMCA that had been converted into the actor’s and crew’s base camp. Thick juicy hamburgers, turkey burgers, roasted chicken, vegetable lasagna were just a few of the plethora of choices. As wonderful as our food line up was, it was still separated from the real stars and crews selection, which was gourmet all the way.

Continued in part 2