For a restaurant to thrive for 40 years is a feat, but to do so in a city like Savannah, where culinary establishments emerge and vanish with the tide, is truly something to celebrate. Spanky’s Pizza Galley and Saloon on River Street is marking this incredible milestone, a testament to its enduring appeal and place in the heart of Savannah.
Ask Ansley Williams, Alben Yarbrough, and Dusty Yarbrough, the original trio who opened Spanky’s doors back in 1976, and they’ll wholeheartedly affirm that every ounce of hard work and sacrifice was worth it. Their story is one of friendship forged in Thomaston, Georgia, where they grew up playing football and sharing dreams.
“My father passed away when I was a senior in high school,” Williams recounts, explaining his early foray into the working world while studying at Georgia Tech. His initial ambition was to become an airline pilot, but fate had other plans. He took a part-time job at Underground Atlanta’s famed Bucket Shop, renowned for its colossal hamburgers. The restaurant environment captivated him, and it wasn’t long before Alben joined him.
Williams shares his philosophy: “The only way you can grow and move up is to find someone better than you to take your place. And that was Alben. He was much better than me.” Their work felt less like labor and more like amusement. “We were literally getting paid to do something that we would have paid to have done. We loved it. We had more fun than we ever had.”
Their aspirations shifted from bartenders to restaurant managers, honing their skills with stints in Cape Cod and Lake Tahoe. “I like to say that’s when we got our master’s in the restaurant business,” Williams quips. Their path took a turn when the Crowley family, owners of the Bucket Shop, sought their help with O’Leary’s Tavern, their struggling River Street venture. Arriving in Savannah, Williams and Alben discovered a lively spot popular with locals but plagued by financial woes due to staff generosity outweighing revenue.
“Alben and I came into town on New Year’s Eve in 1974, and (O’Leary’s) was loaded up with hippies,” Williams recalls. “They were having a ball. We said, this is going to be fun.” They took on partial ownership, staying for a year and a half, learning the ropes of River Street’s unique rhythm.
Meanwhile, back in Thomaston, Dusty, the elder brother, was on leave from his engineering job, awaiting a new role on the Alaskan Pipeline. In a twist of fate, he decided to lend his brothers a hand in Savannah. “But we still had the dream to do our own, especially after Dusty got out here,” Williams explains. “He strengthened our position significantly.”
Opportunity knocked just down the street from O’Leary’s. Inspired by the Bucket Shop’s half-pound burger success, the trio conceived their own restaurant concept. “In those days, the hamburgers were like the size of McDonald’s,” Williams notes, highlighting the shift in burger expectations over time. Recognizing a gap in the market, they added pizza to the menu. “There were no pizza places downtown, so we knew we also wanted to do pizza.” The name Spanky’s, inspired by “The Little Rascals,” was chosen, and they added “Pizza Galley and Saloon” to reflect their waterfront location. Dusty’s engineering background proved invaluable in designing the interior.
They sourced reclaimed wood from an old barn in Bluffton, South Carolina. “We went out to Bluffton, S.C.,” Williams says. “A guy said he had an old barn that needed to be torn down. We said we’ll come tear it down for you if you give us the wood. So we tore down the barn. These boards came off that old barn in 1976.” These very boards still grace the walls of Spanky’s near the bar, a tangible piece of their history.
Alben points to the back wall, revealing the original rock beneath layers of stucco. “We were working so hard to get this thing open,” Dusty adds, recalling the intense effort. “Some nights my sons spent the night in the corners on their sleeping bags.” Spanky’s on River Street finally opened its doors in December 1976. Alben and Williams were 26, Dusty was 29.
The opening was a glamorous affair. “Everyone came dressed in tuxedos and arrived in limousines,” Alben remembers. “Those were very special times because everybody in the city would come and get dressed up.” From day one, Spanky’s was a hit. “When we opened the doors, they were lined up at lunch, happy hour and night,” Williams says. “We had three shifts for bartenders. We were working 16 hour days, six days a week. We had to regulate the doors because of the fire marshal.” Spanky’s quickly set a new standard for River Street’s nightlife and dining scene. “It set a precedent on River Street that people had never seen,” Alben adds. Dusty describes the immediate impact: “People would leave work and come down here and start drinking and then just decide to stay and not go back to work. I had never seen anything like it.”
Among Spanky’s lasting contributions to Savannah’s culinary landscape is the creation of The Original Chicken Fingers, an innovation attributed to Alben. “We called (Alben) the chicken hawk up in Cape Cod because he loved chicken so much; so we knew we wanted to have a chicken sandwich on the menu,” Williams explains. Dusty elaborates on the accidental invention: chicken breasts were too large, leading to leftover pieces. “Then I remember seeing the special on the menu and thinking, chicken fingers? What’s a chicken finger? And people were coming in asking about it,” Dusty says. Alben seized the opportunity, battering and deep-frying these chicken scraps, and a signature dish was born. The popularity of these chicken fingers was so immediate they quickly overwhelmed their initial equipment.
Key figures from O’Leary’s, Dennis Clements and David Silverman, joined the Spanky’s team. Clements became a kitchen mainstay alongside Alben, while Silverman managed the door. The founders fondly recall Clements’ initial pizza-making experience. “We told him he had to cook the pizza,” Dusty recounts. “Ansley found out the night before we opened, he had never cooked a pizza.” These anecdotes highlight the improvisational and spirited atmosphere of Spanky’s early days. Silverman’s age was another source of amusement. “He looked as old as us,” Dusty laughs. “We’d pay him $10 hour and let him drink all the beer he wanted.” The reality of Silverman’s youth emerged one evening during a customer dispute. “Silverman, how old are you? He said 17. I said, why didn’t you tell me? He said, you didn’t ask me.” Despite the initial surprise, Silverman became an integral part of Spanky’s, eventually a partner, before his passing in 2016 at age 58.
The founders reminisce about the early years with laughter, acknowledging a different era. “It was a great time to be in the bar business,” Alben reflects. “People were scared they were going to miss something if they left.” However, pre-Rousakis Plaza River Street was a different landscape, with St. Patrick’s Day being the major financial event. “It was tough back then from November to March,” Williams admits. “We had slim pickings. We struggled every year to make it to St. Patrick’s Day.”
To boost visibility, Williams took on a public relations role. “So Ansley was in front of the media,” Alben says. “He got be friends with former mayor Rousakis who was mayor for 21 years.” Recognizing the potential of River Street beyond existing events, Williams, involved with the Waterfront Association and later its president, spearheaded initiatives. “Ansley said there is so much more we can do on the waterfront,” Alben notes. “He started Oktoberfest, July 4th fireworks, the Christmas parade. He just kept on going and going.” Williams jokes, “It was easier than cooking.”
Two years after the River Street opening, Spanky’s expanded to the southside. Subsequent locations followed in St. Simons Island, Tybee Island, Athens, Brunswick, and Pooler. Williams’ Live Oak Restaurant Group now encompasses the original Spanky’s on River Street, Tubby’s, Fiddlers, Molly McGuire’s, and Dub’s. Family has been central to Spanky’s enduring success, with cousins, friends, and multiple generations contributing to its legacy, including Dusty’s son, John, now an owner.
“Growing up in this environment was pretty unbelievable,” John reflects. “It wasn’t the average life of a kid. Working downtown was great money and the things you would see…” He smiles at the memories. “I would go to school on Monday, and no one would believe the stories. They would say, don’t you want to join the Cub Scouts? I would say, no, I want to go work on Saturday nights on River Street.” Dusty emphasizes the extended Spanky’s family: “We’ve just had so many people who worked with us and now their kids work with us.”
Alben sums up the core of Spanky’s: “It was built off of fun. Ansley, Dusty and I have a passion for having fun and loving people. You’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with, and we were blessed. God blessed us with the right people at the right time.” Dusty adds the importance of consistency and atmosphere: “A cold Budweiser is the same wherever you go… Food needs to be consistent and you need to have a pretty good product… but one thing you can’t duplicate is the people.” Alben emphatically agrees: “Amen!”
Williams concludes by highlighting the crucial element: “You can’t do any of this other stuff–the food, the service, the atmosphere– you can’t do it without wonderful, good people, and we have been blessed with them. Find what it is that you love, and then do everything you can to do it for a living. If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. Don’t get me wrong, it is hard work, but we enjoy it so much. We had a great opportunity to come together and create something that we had an awful lot of fun and love doing, and it’s just turned out to be an extraordinary experience for all of us,” Williams says. “And we managed to make a living out it. And I love these guys.” Alben reciprocates the sentiment: “It’s very fun growing up through life with your best friends being your heroes.” They collectively acknowledge Savannah’s welcoming spirit in embracing three young entrepreneurs from Thomaston and contributing to Spanky’s success.
Williams recounts a telling early experience while scouting locations. “We were sitting next to this gal and the band was playing and a dozen other people were there… She had this bouffant, redneck hairdo and she turned to us and said, ‘Don’t you like this place?’ and I said, ‘Yes ma’am, we do.’ And she said, ‘This is the best thing that has happened to this town since the bowling alley on Wednesday night.’ And I turned to Alben and said, ‘Son, we’re going to do good in this town.'” The room fills with laughter, a fitting end to a story of enduring friendship and a Savannah institution, Spanky’s on River Street, celebrating 40 years.
