Farace's Finest: The Restaurant Week Spotlight You Shouldn't Skip

Tybee Restaurant Week wraps August 17, and if you only make it to one new spot before it does, we'd point you to Farace's Finest. It's the newest name on this year's participant list, and one we didn't need Restaurant Week as an excuse to recommend.

What it is

Farace's Finest is a pizza, sandwich, and salad spot at 1605 Inlet Ave, on Tybee's south end. It opened in March 2025, which makes it one of the newer restaurants on the island, but it doesn't run like a new restaurant — the owner spent 20 years at Atlanta's SweetWater Brewery before moving to Tybee and opening this place, and that kind of hospitality background shows in how dialed-in the operation already is for something barely a year and a half old.

Twenty years at a brewery the size of SweetWater means twenty years of thinking about consistency, quality control, and how to run a kitchen that has to perform the same way on a slow Tuesday as it does on a packed Saturday in August. That's not a small thing to bring to a new restaurant — a lot of first-year spots are still figuring out their systems by the time Farace's already had its operations dialed in. It shows in the small, easy-to-miss details: the dough proofs consistently, the marinara tastes the same visit to visit, and the kitchen hasn't had the rocky opening months a lot of new restaurants go through in public.

The kitchen makes its own dough and its own marinara in-house, not from a distributor, and finishes every pie with fresh-grated parmesan reggiano rather than a pre-shredded blend. That's a small detail, but it's the kind of thing that separates a pizza place from a place that happens to sell pizza — the dough and the sauce are the two things a pizzeria can't fake, and Farace's makes both from scratch. Sandwiches and salads round out the rest of the menu, built with the same from-scratch approach rather than treated as an afterthought next to the pizza.

Why it's worth the trip

The pizza is the headline, but the sandwiches and salads round out a menu that works for a group with mixed appetites — not everyone wants pizza on a beach trip, and Farace's doesn't force the issue. It's a to-go-first setup: there's no inside seating, which keeps the operation lean and the focus on the food rather than a dining room. What it does have instead is a patio that's been expanding since opening and is genuinely one of the better ones on the island — the kind of outdoor setup that makes "getting food to go" feel more like an actual sit-down meal than a consolation prize.

It's also dog-friendly, which matters more on Tybee than most places — a lot of visitors bring their dog, and not every restaurant on the island makes that easy. If you're traveling with one, Farace's patio is a real option rather than a workaround. We're able to say the same thing about our own property — pets are available upon request at Dunes Inn & Suites — so a stop at Farace's pairs naturally with a stay here if your trip includes a dog.

During Restaurant Week specifically, that's a meaningful reason to go now rather than "eventually." Whatever the special is — ask when you order, since it's not always posted out front — you're getting Farace's normal from-scratch cooking with a Restaurant Week-specific reason to try it for the first time. For a restaurant this new, Restaurant Week is also a genuine opportunity for it to reach visitors who might not have found it otherwise; the south end of the island sees plenty of foot traffic headed to the pier and the beach, but Inlet Avenue itself isn't on the main path unless you're specifically looking for it.

What's on the menu

Pizza is the anchor, with the from-scratch dough and marinara doing the heavy lifting behind whatever toppings you order, finished with fresh-grated parmesan reggiano rather than the pre-shredded blend most casual pizza spots default to. Sandwiches and salads sit alongside the pizza menu for anyone who wants something lighter or isn't in the mood for a whole pie — a genuinely useful option on a beach trip where not everyone in a group wants the same kind of meal two nights in a row. Because it's counter-service and to-go focused, ordering is straightforward: you're not working through a server-driven multi-course experience, just picking what you want off a menu built around a handful of things done well rather than a long list done adequately.

Practical: hours, location, parking

Farace's is open Monday, and Wednesday through Saturday, 11:30am to 9pm — closed Tuesdays, which is worth knowing before you plan a visit around it. It's on Inlet Avenue on the south end, a several-block walk from our Butler Ave address rather than a next-door stop, so budget ten to fifteen minutes on foot or a couple minutes by car or golf cart. Parking on that stretch of the island is metered in season like the rest of Tybee, so bring a card or the parking app if you're driving over.

Since there's no inside seating, weather is part of the planning — the patio is the whole dining experience here, so an evening with a passing summer storm might mean taking it back to the room instead. That's not a knock on the place; it's just the honest logistics of a to-go-focused spot with outdoor seating, and worth building into your plan rather than discovering it when a cloud rolls in over dinner.

There's no formal price tier posted beyond what's on the counter menu itself, and no fine-dining markup you'd expect from a made-to-order pizza kitchen with this level of ingredient care — it's priced like a casual, counter-service pizza spot, which is part of what makes it an easy, repeatable stop on a multi-day trip rather than a once-per-visit splurge.

Tips locals know

Go a little before or after the core lunch and dinner rushes — 11:30 to noon, or after 7 — if you want a patio table without a wait, especially on a Restaurant Week weekend when a newer, well-reviewed spot is getting extra attention. If you're ordering for a group, get a couple of different pies rather than one large — the dough-to-topping ratio holds up better split across smaller pizzas than stretched across one giant one, and it gives everyone a chance to try more of the menu.

Know the format going in: it's counter/to-go ordering even with the patio, not table service. You order, you wait for your number, and you seat yourselves outside — knowing that up front beats standing around waiting for a server who isn't coming.

If you're visiting with a dog, the patio setup means you don't have to choose between eating well and keeping your dog with you, which is a real constraint at several of the sit-down spots elsewhere on the island. Bring water for the dog regardless — August afternoons on an uncovered or partially covered patio get warm fast, and it's on you to manage that, not the restaurant.

Because the restaurant is closed Tuesdays, it's easy to plan around a multi-day stay wrong if you're not paying attention to the calendar — double-check the day of the week before you build an evening around it, especially if your trip includes a Tuesday and you'd assumed every restaurant on Tybee keeps the same seven-day schedule the beach does.

What's nearby that pairs well

Farace's sits in the same south-end cluster as several other Restaurant Week spots — Windrose and The Surfing Goat are both on nearby Tybrisa Street, and Sand Cat Coffee and Sugar Shack are a short walk over on 1st Street. It's realistic to treat Farace's as one stop in a bigger south-end afternoon: a coffee or bagel earlier in the day, Farace's for lunch or an early dinner, then a walk over to Sugar Shack for dessert. The pier itself is close enough to walk to afterward if you want to close out the visit with a sunset stroll.

If you're building a longer Restaurant Week trip, we've laid out a full weekend itinerary that weaves Farace's and several of the other seven participants into a normal Tybee Saturday and Sunday, and our dining page has our regular, non-Restaurant-Week recommendations for the rest of the year.

Don't wait

Restaurant Week ends August 17 — Farace's from-scratch dough and marinara aren't going anywhere after that, but whatever specific Restaurant Week special is running is a limited-time reason to go this week instead of "next time we're on Tybee." If you're staying with us on Butler Ave, it's a short drive or a solid walk, and worth the trip either way.

Dunes Inn & Suites is part of the Tybee Lodging Group family of inns, along with Admiral's Inn, Sandcastle Inn, Sea and Breeze Hotel and Condo, and Atlantis Inn — each a short trip from Farace's if you end up staying elsewhere on the island.

Check availability if you want a Butler Ave base for the rest of Restaurant Week — our rooms page has the full lineup, including a kitchenette room if you're planning to mix home-cooked meals with stops like this one.