Byrd Cookie Company’s long downtown hiatus is over.
The Savannah institution opened a retail store in City Market last weekend, 85 years after founder Benjamin T. Byrd moved the business out of the historic district with his family’s relocation to Sandfly. The shop is the first offsite retail outlet for the company that has gained world renown for its cookies, crackers and other treats.
“Being here 88 years we have become part of the history of Savannah,” Byrd President Geoffrey Repella said. “We want to be a part of the fabric of historic Savannah.”
Byrd was founded just a few blocks east of the new store’s location. Ben Byrd baked his first cookies in the basement of a condemned building at the corner of St. Julian and Habersham streets and operated from the location for four years.
The Byrd family moved to Sandfly in 1927 and relocated the bakery to their property on Norwood Avenue. The company opened its first retail location, the Cookie Shanty, across the road from their home in the 1950s.
Byrd moved to its current location, home to the bakery, a gift shop and a restaurant, on Waters Avenue in 1995.
Byrd’s City Market location measures more than 1,500 square feet with entrances from both the St. Julian Street pedestrian mall and Congress Street. The store will employ a staff of 12.
Byrd will host a grand opening celebration at 11 a.m. Friday.
The new store should help Byrd grow its already popular brand, CEO Stephanie Lindley said.
The Waters Avenue store attracts anywhere from six to 15 tour buses a day, depending on the season. A retail presence in City Market, one of the city’s biggest tourist draws, allows the company to connect with visitors who forego bus tours.
“Most out-of-towners don’t make the connection between the cookie they buy in their local gourmet food shop and Savannah,” said Lindley, the great-granddaughter of the company’s founder. “Having a store down there, where we can tie in the history of the company, should help connect the dots.”
Byrd’s first weekend at City Market demonstrated that potential. The traffic on opening day, Saturday, left Lindley “physically and mentally drained.” When she arrived to open the store on Sunday, customers were waiting at the door.
“They were knocking on the glass saying they were leaving town and wanted to buy something before they go,” Lindley said.
City Market officials are “delighted” to add Byrd as a tenant. Byrd joins Savannah's Candy Kitchen as a specialty food retailer within the shopping, dining and entertainment complex.
“They are a Savannah tradition and bring a nice new variety of unique products to our City Market family,” wrote City Market's assistant director, Kimberly Phillips, in an email.
IF YOU GO
What: Byrd Cookie Co. Grand Opening
When: 11 a.m., Friday
Where: 213 W. St. Julian St., City Market