Tucked beside the animal habitats of the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo in Gulf Shores sits one of the more unusual dining rooms on the Alabama coast, a restaurant where wall-to-wall windows look out on the zoo grounds and guests can eat lunch a stone’s throw from the exhibits. The space, now known as Safari and Vine, has had a remarkable short history — an African-themed dining room that opened as Savanna, earned a devoted following under a well-traveled chef, and passed to new owners in 2026.
A Chef’s Long Road to the Zoo
When the restaurant opened as Savanna on Labor Day weekend in 2023, it was the work of chef and owner John Davis, a self-described beach guy who grew up on the West Coast and built his career along the water. Davis trained in culinary school in Charleston, South Carolina, and served as catering director at Coastal Carolina University in Myrtle Beach before stints in Atlanta hotels and restaurants, where he opened a Hawaiian-themed cafe. He later helped launch a hotel company in Islamorada in the Florida Keys and ran catering and business dining for Mississippi State University in Starkville.
The pandemic upended that trajectory. Unemployed and unsure of what came next, Davis found a position as chef at the Sunset Cork Room in Gulf Shores after his wife took a job managing a hotel at The Wharf in Orange Beach. When that restaurant’s owner retired and the building sold, Davis spent months searching for a new home for the concept and found it at the zoo, in a dining space that had operated as the Safari Club.
Because of the room’s African decor — wooden walls, animal sculptures, masks and rock art — the Cork Room name would not fit. Savanna was the obvious replacement, an ode to one of the South’s oldest cities and a tribute to Davis’s daughter of the same name. The private dining room and event space carried the Sunset Cork Room name, and the Wine Spectator Awards of Excellence the concept had won were displayed near the entrance. The menu leaned toward bright, personal cooking: fried goat cheese with arugula and sun-dried tomato vinaigrette, French onion soup with gruyere, and salads built on granny smith apples, blue cheese and walnuts. The zoo restaurant was open to the public without zoo admission, with lunch seven days a week and dinner Tuesday through Saturday, plus weekend brunch.
A Changing of the Guard
In May 2025, after nearly two years in business, Savanna closed its doors. The announcement thanked loyal customers and staff but offered no dramatic explanation. The closing marked the end of one of Gulf Shores’ most distinctive dining experiments — fine dining in a zoo.
The space did not stay dark for long. Rich and Pam Lee, the owners of Portabella’s in Foley, proposed a new concept for the room and won the zoo’s approval. In February 2026, the Gulf Shores City Council approved their alcohol license, and the following month Safari and Vine opened in the former Savanna space. The Lees built a global-inspired menu — sandwiches, salads, shareables and entrees that range from Australian comfort food to wings seasoned with African spices — alongside an extensive drink list that includes cocktails guests are permitted to carry into the zoo itself, a first for the property.
Safari and Vine sits right by the zoo entrance, requires no admission ticket to dine in, and is open daily for lunch from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., with dinner from 4 to 8 p.m. on weekdays and until 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The Lees, who also run Portabella’s up the road, have framed the restaurant as part of the zoo’s conservation mission — a way to draw visitors in and connect them to the zoo’s work protecting animals.
A Zoo Worth the Trip
The restaurant’s home is itself a success story. The Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo, once known nationally as the “Little Zoo That Could” for rebuilding after a string of hurricanes, operates a modern campus in Gulf Shores with hundreds of animals, and the addition of a full-service restaurant has made it easier for visitors to spend half a day on the grounds. For Baldwin County diners, the room’s wall of windows and outside deck make it one of the few places on the coast where lunch comes with an unobstructed view of the natural world.
Two concepts, one dining room. Savanna’s run proved that a zoo restaurant on the Alabama coast could attract serious food; Safari and Vine is now carrying the idea forward with a broader menu and a conservation bent. Either way, the trip south on Highway 59 ends in one of the more surprising dining rooms in Baldwin County.