Beaver House

I was going to recommend Beaver House to anyone who wants to take dear old grandma to a nice, polite lunch or supper in Statesboro; but looking around me in the dining rooms, in addition to tables of seniors I saw a young couple on a noon date, local white-collar business people engaged in animated conversations, and groups of tradesmen dressed for work. Yes, it seems like a large cross-section of the local population likes Beaver House. And Beaver House welcomes them all with a sign outside that announces “casual dining” and suggests customers come as they are.

The specific notice that one needn’t dress to dine here no doubt exists because there was a time that to eat in a well-mannered place such as this required you to dress appropriately. Back before the cultural metastases of the mid-20th century, men took off their hats when they came inside. Women’s gloves were an essential part of the going-out wardrobe. Nobody wore jeans except to do manual labor. By etiquette standards once common in decent dining rooms all across America, hardly anybody alive today would be allowed to eat.

Despite relaxation of the dress code, Beaver House is an overwhelmingly genteel sort of place, with a menu to match. “Sunday Dinner every day” is the house motto. A white board in the broad entryway lists everything the kitchen will be serving – family style. It is a roster of unsurprising Dixie square-meal standards: fried chicken and/or pork chops, slews of well-cooked vegetables, very nice scratch biscuits. On weekend nights, you can pay an upcharge and choose either a Lowcountry boil or shrimp and prime rib in lieu of the chicken and pork.

While it’s decent food — exemplary food of a certain Old-South style — my reason for returning will be the place itself and the time-honored dining ritual it honors. The restaurant is located in a grand old home (built in 1911) that has been restored to showroom shape, its dining rooms outfitted with pretty china on tables and on mantelpieces, its floors graced with pleasant rugs, its sideboards arrayed with couth bric-a-brac.

The meal is billed as boarding house style, which means that the staff will bring more of whatever you desire for as long as you have an appetite. “Want seconds?” the menu board asks. We consider it a compliment!” I was happy with a single serving of everything.