Reviewed by Josh N · Updated October 27, 2026 · How we verify
Reported Phenomena
- Phantom running footsteps
- Disembodied voices
- Sensed presences
- Child spirit reported
Reported by visitors & local legend. Stories, not verified claims.
Most haunted bars trade on a murder. The Crystal Beer Parlor ghost stories trade on something far more domestic: the sound of a woman running down a hallway to collect her cocktail. The building sits on West Jones Street in Savannah, Georgia, it is the city’s oldest restaurant, and the strangest thing anyone claims to have heard there is footsteps in an apartment that was empty.
Quick orientation. The current structure dates to around 1900, put up to replace an earlier building that burned in a fire. In the early 1900s it housed the Gerken Family Grocery Store, run by Julius Weitz along with his siblings and parents. By the early 1930s it was known simply as The Crystal, and it has been a restaurant and bar, on and off, ever since.
How a Grocery Store Became The Crystal
The name has nothing to do with glassware. The business took it from the Crystal Ice Company, which stood directly across the street. In the early 1930s the place was owned by William “Blocko” Manning and his wife Connie, two names worth remembering, because Connie turns up later in the ghost stories.
The business became Crystal Beer Parlor “legally” in 1933, which is the sort of qualifier that tells you most of what you need to know. It was possibly operating from 1928, in the middle of Prohibition. Nobody has produced a receipt.
Why Al Capone Walked In
Capone visited the establishment around the time of Prohibition. The reason given is not sightseeing: he came hoping to persuade “Blocko” Manning to work for his organization. What was said, and what Manning answered, is not recorded in the available account. The visit is the part that survives, and it is the single most repeated fact about the building.
Closures, an Empty Building, and a Front Page
The Crystal has gone dark more than once. The business was put up for sale at auction around 2000 and no buyers came forward, leaving the building empty for two years. Buddy and Suzanne Kosic reopened it in late 2003. It was on the market again in 2008.
John Nichols bought the business in 2009 and very nearly did not. He threw the flyer advertising its availability straight in the bin, then mentioned it in passing to the staff at his catering company, who told him to think again. The reopening in October 2009 was meant to be a quiet soft launch. The Savannah Morning News sent a reporter and a photographer, and the relaunch was on the front page the following morning.
In November 2025, a fire started in a laundry bin at the restaurant, an echo of the blaze that took the building’s predecessor more than a century earlier.
The Footsteps Above the Bar
Everything reported here is testimony, not record. Treat it accordingly.
In early 2009, before the reopening, Nichols was sitting at the bar with an interior designer. Both of them heard someone running in the apartment above, although the two of them were alone in the building. Nichols has said the sound was so distinct that they were able to track it across the ceiling with their eyes.
The detail that gave the story its shape arrived months afterward. A guest who had spent time in that apartment as a child told Nichols how staff used to carry cocktails upstairs to Connie Manning, and how she would run down the hallway to meet them and take her drink. Whether that memory explains the noise or simply supplied a story to hang on it is a question the account does not settle, and the chronology, sound first, explanation second, is at least the right way round for a story to be interesting.
Sarah, and a Voice That Wanted to Know Where You Were From
Nichols has also described a ghost-hunting group visiting the restaurant and coming away with two characters. One was identified as a young girl named Sarah. The second gave no name. According to Nichols, the group sensed a presence with their equipment and asked who was there. After a long silence, what they reported hearing back was: “Y’all ain’t from around here, is ya?”
That is an anecdote relayed at second hand, with no published recording offered for examination. It is also, by some distance, the best line in Savannah ghost lore.
Visiting the Crystal on West Jones Street
This is a working restaurant and bar, not a tour site, which makes it one of the easier haunted locations in the Historic District to see for yourself: you walk in, you order, you sit under the apartment. There is no admission charge beyond whatever you eat and drink. The reported activity is centered on the floor above the bar rather than the dining room, so anyone hoping for footsteps should know they are listening upward. Hours and menus change, so check the restaurant’s own listings before making the trip.
Address: West Jones Street, Savannah, Georgia
See Crystal Beer Parlor for Yourself
Sources
- Making Yourself At Home (The New York Times)
- "As a city, it would be a tremendous loss": Crystal Beer Parlor faces possible closure
- OUR STORY
- Savannah's Crystal Beer Parlor closing
- Wikipedia: Crystal Beer Parlor
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Crystal Beer Parlor Savannah located?
Crystal Beer Parlor Savannah is located at West Jones Street, Savannah, Georgia.
Can you visit Crystal Beer Parlor Savannah?
Crystal Beer Parlor Savannah is open to the public. Always follow posted rules and respect private property.
Reader sightings
Nobody has reported anything here yet. If you have been, you would be the first.
Report your own visit to Al Capone Came Calling: The Crystal Beer Parlor Ghost
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