"Our intention is to honor what the previous owner built while thoughtfully bringing our own creativity and energy into it."
That's Sharon Otto, talking about taking over Wine Body & Soul in Redfern Village after fifteen years under its previous owner. It's a small line from a small business, but if you've lived on St. Simons long enough to notice the island's rhythms, it explains almost everything that's happened to the local food and retail scene over the past year.
Ask anyone who's driven down Ocean Boulevard or through Redfern Village lately and they'll tell you "so much is new." They're right, and they're also missing the actual story. Nothing on this island opened from a blank lot this year. Every name you've seen change belongs to an address that was already doing something else, usually for a decade or longer, before someone new picked it up and kept going.
Same Storefront, New Owner
Wine Body & Soul spent fifteen years at 208 Redfern Village as a wine shop and gift boutique before its founding owner handed it off earlier this year. Sharon Otto took over with her team, Dani and Claire, and rather than gut the concept, they renovated the patio, added warm lighting and new seating, and rebuilt the shop around a phrase Sharon calls "Curated by Mood, Designed for Moments." The wine tastings are still there. So is the walk-up bar in the alley that regulars already knew. What changed is the polish, not the premise.
That pattern shows up again a few minutes away on Ocean Boulevard, where Coastal Coffee and The Southern Peach Artisan Market used to run as two separate small businesses. Both were started by Amy Kreamer, a longtime restaurateur who moved to the island and built each one around the same instinct: give locals a reason to gather and support neighbors doing good work. This spring, the two finally moved under one roof at 1226 Ocean Blvd, Unit #2. Now you can get a small-batch coffee from a roaster just outside Atlanta while browsing handmade jewelry and gifts from more than fifty regional artisans, all without leaving the building. It reads like an expansion. It's really a reunion of two ideas that were always meant to sit next to each other.
The Rooftop That Split Instead of Sold
Ocean Lodge Resort's rooftop had been the island's go-to sunset spot for more than a decade before the resort decided to change how it worked. Rather than close it or hand it to new owners, they split it into two. The Rooftop Beach Pub stayed put on the fifth floor as an open-air bar with sunset happy hour from 5 to 6 p.m. A new concept, The Rooftop Grounded, moved down to the second floor, into what used to be the resort's lobby, and became a quieter, reservation-worthy dining room under chef Matt Schleis. The menu leans into dishes like lobster ravioli and pistachio-crusted sea bass, a step up from the casual food the old rooftop was known for.
What's worth noticing here is what the resort didn't do. It didn't close the original bar to make room for the fancier concept. It kept both, on different floors, serving different moods. If you want the view and a cocktail, you go up. If you want a slower dinner, you go down one floor instead of across town.
A Legacy Two Years Deep
The clearest example of this pattern sits at 117 Mallery Street, where King City Kitchen has spent its first two years quietly leaning on a name most islanders already knew. Before Cat and Chris McDougald opened King City Kitchen, that address was home to Sandcastle Café & Grill, a spot that had fed island families for more than thirty years. Rather than erase that history, the McDougalds built their new restaurant as what they call an homage to "Old St. Simons," pulling family recipes into the new menu, including a crab imperial dish Cat's father used to make. The restaurant marked its first anniversary last October with a ribbon cutting through the Brunswick Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce. This October, it turns two, at the same corner, carrying the same weight the building always had.
Here's how the four line up when you put them side by side.
| Business | What It Was | What It Became | What Carried Over |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wine Body & Soul | 15-year wine shop and boutique, single owner | Same shop, new owner Sharon Otto and team | The tastings, the patio bar, the Redfern Village address |
| Coastal Coffee / Southern Peach | Two separate small businesses, same founder | One combined storefront on Ocean Blvd | Amy Kreamer's original concept for both |
| Ocean Lodge Rooftop | One restaurant, over a decade running | Two venues on two floors | The ocean view and the happy hour crowd |
| King City Kitchen | Sandcastle Café & Grill, 30-plus years | New name, same corner | The role of neighborhood gathering spot |
Why the Island Recycles Instead of Rebuilding
St. Simons doesn't have much room left to build new commercial space. Redfern Village, Mallery Street, and the Ocean Boulevard corridor are close to built out, which means when a business owner is ready to retire or sell, the next owner almost always inherits the walls, the parking, and often the customer base along with them. That's a different economics than a growing suburb where a new restaurant means new construction. Here, growth mostly looks like turnover, and turnover on this island tends to come with an unusual amount of respect for whatever was there before.
If you already live here, this matters for a few practical reasons.
- The Wine Body & Soul patio now hosts more evening gatherings than it used to, so if you haven't been back since the ownership change, the vibe is warmer but the wine list and tastings are familiar.
- Southern Peach's merged space means one stop now covers coffee, breakfast, and gift shopping instead of two separate errands.
- Ocean Lodge now effectively runs two happy hours in the same building, on different floors, which is worth knowing if you're deciding between a casual sunset drink and a slower dinner.
- King City Kitchen's second anniversary this October is worth watching for, since last year's first anniversary came with a Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting open to the public.
None of these four changes required a new lot, a new parking plan, or a new zoning fight. They required someone willing to take over what was already working and add to it instead of starting over. That's a small thing to notice about a food and retail scene, but it says something bigger about how this island treats continuity in general, whether it's a restaurant, a wine shop, or eventually, a house someone's lived in for thirty years and isn't quite ready to let go of.
If you're the kind of islander who tracks these changes because you love this place and want to see it stay itself even as it turns over, that instinct is exactly what makes St. Simons work. And if a day ever comes when you're the one deciding what happens next with a property here, whether that's a home you've owned for decades or one you're hoping to hand off with the same care Sharon Otto and the McDougalds showed their businesses, Coastal Georgia Real Estate is glad to talk through what that looks like. Schedule a free consultation whenever you're ready, no pressure, just a conversation with people who know this island as well as you do.
