By Vanessa Lantos Daly (Spicy Melon)
June 9, 2025 – He gave me a mischievous smile, a small burst of brightness backed with a knowing look. He was one of those people lit from within by the spark of their own dream.
“Try this,” he said, with the secrecy and pride of a chef offering a taste of his special sauce.
A creamy sweetness overtook me. My eyes widened with instant surprise and delight.
“How did you do this? What’s the recipe? You have to tell me. Bartender to bartender?” I pleaded.
“No way. This one’s coming with me to my bar. Can’t give all the secrets away.”
That moment between Tim and me happened in September 2023. By then, his dream had taken shape. It was clear enough to start materializing, bold enough to begin building.
I met Tim Fitzgerald in 2021, when he first started bartending at Circa 1875. He stopped in one night casually while my husband, Oisín, was behind the bar. After chatting for a bit, Tim decided to become a bartender there. Before long, he was running Circa’s bar as their bar manager. Previously, Tim had moved to Savannah in September 2020 and worked at The Grey.
He has a long history with mixology, from dive bars to fine dining, and previously lived in New York where he was head bartender at the prestigious Per Se, a 3-Michelin-star restaurant.
“My first cocktail bar was The Silver Lining in Tribeca around 2010. I worked for the family of bars that Sasha Petraske started. I had been a bartender for six years prior to working for him.”
Tim had that classic New York charm. A man of few words, with effortless charisma. His service was always impeccable, his smile steady, even in the middle of the usual Circa bar chaos. And many of us have been there, serving champagne while it feels like the water pipes are bursting around us. I bartended at Circa for a couple of months myself, once upon a pandemic.
Tim spent months building relationships: with guests, liquor reps, purveyors, and fellow bartenders. At the same time, he was crafting his signature drink recipes, including a perfected nitro espresso martini.
In late 2023, Tim quit Circa 1875 to dedicate himself to building Joe and Vera’s, located at 23 West Broughton Street. Just across the street from The Paris Market—and funny enough, just steps away from Circa. He split his time between building the bar and picking up bartending shifts at Wexford Irish Pub and Circa.
Joe and Vera’s is named after Tim’s grandparents:
“I come from one of those families where you know you’re Irish because you only know one or two generations back. My grandparents came from big families. Joe was an elevator technician in the Empire State Building, Vera worked behind the counter at a pharmacy across the street. My father was the second youngest of five children. The oldest boy, Michael, was sixteen the year that they both passed. My father was five, his little sister was two or so. New York in the 1930s and ’40s—Queens and the Bronx specifically.”
He continues:
“I’ve wanted to open a bar named Joe & Vera’s for maybe fifteen years or so, and it’s always been intended to be the best parts of all the different rooms I’ve worked in: The casual familiarity of the dives, the more poetic elements of the high-class joints, a place that acknowledges and embraces and works for the meatier parts of human existence and drinking, and approaches drinking as the beautiful ritual that it is and can be and has been since we first figured it out.”
This story has been almost two years in the making. I visited him in April 2024, when the bar was just an empty room, with nothing but illusions hanging from the ceiling.
A 1,300-square-foot cocktail lounge with seating (and standing) capacity for about 60 guests.
It was impossible not to get invested in the story he was creating. Locals followed along, sharing in the excitement.
“Tim’s bar is getting built!”
“Tim’s bar is opening soon!”
“When is Tim’s bar opening again?”
His vision was affordable cocktails at $10 a pop—undercutting the competition, where prices range from $13 to $22 in the area. Small luxurious plates, and a very curated wine list, with just a few options by the glass or bottle.
Additionally, a niche beer list.
“There’s a Belgian pilsner called Bavik that I’ve never seen in this town. I’ve only had it twice, but it is so delicious, and it’s available here. I want to offer stuff I know is great and stuff that I love.”
When I asked about the style he wanted to create, his face instantly lit up.
“I’ve been calling it Caribbean Art Deco, which evokes Paris in the 60s. Stained glass panels are being made for the space.”
On Wednesday, May 21st, I called Tim and got the news:
“I have the liquor license in my hands. We’re opening tonight.”
I had called him the week before, while he waited each day with an anxious staff and an eager crowd, ready to experience the bar in its full glory.
I arrived an hour before opening and could feel the frantic giddiness in Tim.
“I received my first shipment from Savannah Distributing. They ran it over in the back of somebody’s car. It’s cool. I got stuff I can sell. We are open, we are gonna transact some business, and see what the day brings.”
Currently, Joe and Vera’s is open from 5:00 PM to 11:30 PM, Tuesday through Saturday.
The space looks amazing: individually crafted lamps adorn the bar. Velvet yellow curtains. Vintage greens and blues. Nineteenth-century French cabinets furnish both ends of the bar.
“I got those from Jere’s Antiques over on Bay Street. They were traditional sideboard cabinets, but I cut the legs off and screwed them to the walls.”
Joe and Vera’s turned out beautiful. Art Deco details layer the experience in the space, the charm encapsulated inside an unsuspecting minimalist exterior.
Past the bar upon entering, a white hanging sconce light adorns an elevated seating area with banquettes.
“That Deco sconce hanging in the space was in The Silver Lining, the first cocktail bar where I worked for Sasha. The owner mailed it to me. We closed that bar after two years. By that point, Vito Dieterle was the principal owner, and we’ve been friends ever since. When Joe and Vera’s was about to open, he sent it to me as a bar-warming gift. So we have a little piece of that history.”
Tim picked native Savannahian James Kavanaugh as his chef. Previously, James had worked as a bar-back at Peacock Lounge and Starland Yard.
“I wanted to take a little break from cooking and learn the bar side of things, rather than just being a classic consumer,” he shared. “I took the chef position at Joe and Vera’s on November 1st, and we’ve been working on getting this place set up and built ever since. I was part of the opening crew at Brochu’s Family Tradition. That was the last place where I cooked professionally. My job was to perfectly fry chicken, consistently, every single time. That was their mantra—to have one guy for one job and do it perfectly. Similar to the Japanese philosophy of having one guy as the rice maker. I made a lot of great food there, and it was a great experience.”
The menu at Joe and Vera’s features delicacies like American Wagyu steak tartare with chili crunch and crispy shallots, and Steak Frites with peppercorn and chimichurri.
James added:
“I cooked at Husk previously for two and a half years. The bulk of my professional kitchen skills came from there. When Tim approached me and I took the position at Joe and Vera’s, he gave me a rough outline of what they were looking for, which matched what I like to cook and create. With those parameters, I developed the final menu. The offering of local oysters was a must, and very appealing to me. We’re rotating Tybee Island salt bombs and South Carolina May River oysters. We’re currently serving food until 10 PM, and if there’s a more active late-night crowd, we’ll assess later hours for quality bites.”
We tried the Vera’s tea sandwiches: Sixby milk bread, mortadella, egg jam, and confit tomato. The only complaint? They were too good and not nearly enough. These should be sold by the platter.
Not surprisingly, Joe and Vera’s attracted an amazing cast of four local bartenders: Mel Grignol, Chris Stark, Daniel Dameron, and Andrew Yoast.
I’ve known Mel for years from bartending at Circa. She was at Husk for a long time, so it was an amazing surprise to find her here.
“I wanted to work at a place where the only expectation was to have a good time, eat food you want to eat, and have a good time with your friends.”
I met Andrew for the first time here at Joe and Vera’s. He shared:
“I’ve lived in Savannah for almost three years. Moved here from upstate New York. I bartended at Starland Yard for two years. I met Tim twice: At The Grey while visiting Savannah, and then again on a trip here with my fiancée. I met him again while he was bartending at Circa on Halloween night, when she accidentally broke the absinthe fountain. So Tim has been indirectly part of my Savannah experience from the very beginning.”
There’s a lot of love for Tim and the concept of this bar.
Daniel shared:
“I worked at Alley Cat, ran that place for a few years. I also worked as with the opening team at The Grey, became their bar manager a couple of years later, and I opened The Wayward after that. I came to work here because of Tim. His style is super classic, very old-school New York. This feels like a neighborhood drinkery with craft cocktails.”
Chris added:
“I’ve known Tim for the past four years, and I love the energy he brings to the space. I’ve been in the industry for 16 years. I’ve lived in Savannah my whole life—I was born and raised here. I was the kitchen manager at the Crab Shack for two years, then bartended at The Bohemian, St. Neo’s Brasserie, and Circa as well.”
Currently, Joe and Vera’s has received nothing but praise and positive energy. The clientele is mostly local and enchanted with the affordable luxury of the offerings.
Tim shares:
“Joe & Vera died early in life, having worked hard and accomplished much, in their children, in what they left behind. And rather than let that slip away into the kind of dry documents that usually represent a genealogy, I’ve spent a lot of effort considering what kind of room they would appreciate, what kind of room they would like to represent, what kind of room I would like to entertain them in. And the fact is that it’s for everyone.”
If coming down to Broughton Street sounds like a hassle in the summer heat and tourist crowds, I promise you this is so worth it.
Love always,
Vanessa
If you find value in this website, please consider contributing above or via Paypal to help cover the costs. You can also send contributions via Venmo @Savannah_Agenda. Your support, no matter how much you give, is appreciated and will help ensure the future viability of this community resource. You can also show your support by subscribing below and sharing Savannah Agenda with others via email or social media. Increasing readership is critical to the long-term success of this site.
More by Vanessa
