Concierge.com's insider take:

The menu at Bowens—a local institution near Folly Beach—couldn't be simpler: fried seafood year-round and fire-roasted oysters when the chill hits the Lowcountry salt marshes. The local favorite had the ultimate roller-coaster year in 2006, when owner Robert Barber accepted a James Beard award as an American culinary classic, and the old cinder-block structure that housed the restaurant caught fire and burned to the ground. The temporary digs—essentially a huge screened-in boathouse—make for magical evenings in warmer weather. (A full-scale renovation of the main building is expected to be completed in the spring of 2009.) Get a beer and hang out on the docks anytime around sunset and watch water-skiers skim by as shrimp boats chug along the dockside canal. Until they rebuild the old dining space, the waterfront work-around will do just fine.

Open Tuesdays through Saturdays 5 to 10 pm.