A Mediterranean Café and Bar in the Savannah Historic District
In 1733, General James Oglethorpe laid out one of the most deliberate urban plans in American history: a grid of streets, squares, and trust lots that gave Savannah its particular quality of light and shade, its rhythm of movement, its sense of being a city designed for people to actually live in. Nearly three centuries later, our restaurant on Ann Street carries his name, and, quietly, some of his ambition.
Little James sits at 110 Ann Street in the Savannah Historic District, adjacent to The Ann Savannah. It opens daily at 7am and closes at 10pm — a café by day and a cocktail and wine bar by night, though it offers more than that. Despite the distance between its setting and its influences, this Mediterranean kitchen and bar in the middle of the American South is both transportive and completely at home here.
WHAT'S ON THE MENU AT LITTLE JAMES
The bar’s list of cocktails leans Italian and Mediterranean influence, but with roots in southern soil.
The Little Sunrise, built from vodka, limoncello, bergamot, fresh lemon, and egg white, opens bright and citrusy, more Amalfi than Ann Street. The Julep in Transit pivots: bourbon, amaro sfumato, lemon oleo, mint; perfect for the porch. There’s also a dedicated section of coffee cocktails that takes the daytime café mood seamlessly through to the evening bar — it’s an easy place to spend a couple of hours.
The food runs the same logic. Breakfast of pastries, coffee, and sandwiches: a Mediterranean pancetta, brie, and ciabatta; or an Egg and Tomato plate with halloumi, hummus, and focaccia. Come lunchtime, try the Burrata with heirloom tomato, balsamic drizzle, pistachio nuts and toasted pita or a Caesar Salad that’s generous with Parmigiano Reggiano and croutons; or flatbreads, the Pig and Fig with prosciutto, arugula, fig jam, mozzarella and garlic oil is everyone’s favorite. And for dessert, the tiramisu is worth finishing on.
WHO YOU'LL FIND THERE ON A WEEKNIGHT
Come on a weeknight and the restaurant has SCAD students at one table, a couple from The Ann at another, someone who walked over from Broughton Street and ended up staying for dinner. Little James sits where the Historic District meets Savannah’s creative quarter — the same passageway The Ann Savannah occupies — and the crowd tends to reflect that mix.
Wine tastings and zero-proof options run alongside the full bar. The glassware is mismatched, the service just as relaxed. Order the Athens salad — cucumber, tomato, feta, marinated olives, Greek vinaigrette — and a Paradise Punch (Diplomatico plano rum, select aperitivo, pineapple, lime, mint), and the room feels less like a hotel restaurant and more like somewhere you found on a side street between two glasses of wine.
THE FRIDAY JAM SESSION
Every Friday, the energy shifts. A weekly jam session brings live music into the space, and Little James becomes something closer to what Oglethorpe’s squares were meant to be: a gathering point for the city, a place in the city that belongs to the city.
The sessions are run by Jacob Evans, 5–8pm. Evans also runs Publiq School, an open mic series that moves between music, poetry, and spoken word — and that sensibility carries into the Friday nights at Little James. SCAD students two blocks up Ann Street, guests from The Ann next door, people who live nearby and treat this as their regular Friday. You might come for dinner and stay for the music; you might come for the music and end up eating.
WHY LITTLE JAMES?
General James Oglethorpe founded Savannah with a plan: the grid of 22 squares that still organizes the city today, the ward systems that gave each neighborhood a center and a purpose. The name Little James is a nod to that legacy — the general at street level, coffee in hand. The brand’s mascot is a small statue of Oglethorpe come to life: eating, drinking, sharing a table with whoever walks in.
Oglethorpe was not just a founder of a city — he designed a way of living in one. Little James does something similar at street level: a place where the rhythms of daily life — morning espresso, a working lunch, an evening glass — have somewhere to land. That it does so through a Mediterranean lens, in a city shaped by live oaks and spanish moss, is not a contradiction. Savannah has always been a port city, always open to what arrives from elsewhere.
The Mediterranean and the American South share more than either tradition usually acknowledges — a culture of long meals, of hospitality extended without agenda, of food that is specific to its soil.
NEED TO KNOW
Guests staying at The Ann Savannah receive a $15 daily credit at Little James as part of their Destination Amenity Fee. Open to all — guests, locals, walk-ins. 110 Ann Street, 7am–10pm daily. Friday jam sessions with Jacob Evans, 5–8pm.