Reporting by Beth Logan, For The Savannah Morning News
Lone Wolf Lounge owners Andrew Ripley and Tom Worley saw potential in an unassuming brick building at the corner of 41st and Lincoln when it came on the market in 2018.
Located on the edge of Starland and home to an insurance company, the space was frozen in a 1970’s time warp, complete with avocado-green carpet, wood paneling, and drop ceilings.
Today, it still embraces some of that former funkiness: the carpet and drop ceilings are gone but the wood paneling remains, and the building has been transformed into an unpretentious, yet hip neighborhood bar known for its excellent cocktails.
Those cocktails helped earn Lone Wolf Lounge a place as a 2025 James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Bar.
Now it is getting national attention again as on July 29, USA TODAY has named it one of the 38 USA TODAY Bars of the Year for 2026.
“We appreciate the attention to our city,” Ripley said when told his bar had received this distinction. “The Starland District neighborhood has become a hotbed for locally owned food and beverage spots. You could spend a whole Savannah vacation just in this neighborhood.”
What makes Lone Wolf Lounge special
In 2005 Worley came to Savannah from Calhoun, Georgia, to study at SCAD before spending a decade bartending at River Street’s Bayou Café, while Minnesota-born Ripley, a classically trained oboist, came to play with the former Savannah Symphony and later with the Savannah Philharmonic Orchestra while bartending around town.
The two met at the sadly missed Sparetime bar on MLK Jr. Boulevard and eventually became business partners in Lone Wolf Lounge and its surrounding properties and later at Sea Wolf Tybee restaurant.
Their vision for Lone Wolf was always that it should retain its slightly worn vibe (Ripley wanted to share the “nostalgia of my background in Wisconsin’s neighborhood bars where the lighting’s good and the music’s good”) and that cocktails should have a Caribbean feel, referencing the Savannah Caribbean trade routes established in the 1700’s.
“But its Midwestern Caribbean,” jokes the bewhiskered Worley.
What to order at the Wolf
The resulting menu, charmingly illustrated by bartender Clayton, features their twist on all the classics, shots, wines, beers and eight house cocktails.
All priced at $10 or less (with tax covered if you pay in cash) the house cocktails are wittily named: The Knights in White Denim is made with lime and coconut crème, exotic wood-aged cachaca, and chili infused vodka, and the Blinded by Science, originally created during a bar takeover at fellow 2025 James Beard Award-nominated Common Thread, introduces a sake-based Japanese vermouth.
Ripley whips up his top seller – the $10 Zippah, a clever concoction dating back to his Sparetime bartending days. He pours 3/4oz simple syrup,1/4 oz grapefruit juice, 1/2oz lemon juice, 1/4oz Suze gentian liqueur, 1 3/4oz Leopold’s American Gin, and a half dropper of St. George Absinthe Verte, adds ice, and vigorously shakes before straining the pale-yellow deliciousness into a dainty coupe glass. But note that this is an unassuming and unpretentious bar, and the menu states, “We can discreetly substitute glassware for insecure men.”
During the Covid shutdown, the two friends transformed their wood paneled storage room into a small event space named the Cobra Room because of its super-retro, super-sexy door upholstered with quilted and studded brown leather and opened with the most fabulous brass handle shaped like a cobra.
Every Sunday, when the bar is closed, it hosts rehearsals for Worley (on drums and vocals) and Ripley (on bass and vocals) and their classic country cover band, The Intracoastal Playboys. Other band members include their architect Kevin Rose, their electrician Igor Fiksman, and fellow bar maestro Matt Garappolo, co-owner of The Original Pinkie Masters who, serendipitously, was the first to tell them that their corner property was up for sale.
“Being able to acquire this property allows everyone to experience one of the last truly local places,” Worley said, reflecting on the past eight years. He speaks fondly of his tenants and neighboring businesses – Natasha Gaskill of the acclaimed bakery and café Sixby and former roommate Phil Musen of Cute Tomatoes Gallery.
Very intentionally, Lone Wolf Lounge is a neighborhood bar with exceptionally reasonably priced, elevated cocktails.
“We don’t want folks to have to save up for a special occasion,” he says. “Our whole plan is to have people come in every day.”
Details: 2429 Lincoln St.; lonewolfsav.com and @lonewolfsav on Instagram
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News.
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