‘Raise Your Glass to President Carter:’ Savannah Bar He Made Famous Pays Tribute to Jimmy Carter

“Everyone’s got a drink?” bellowed Matt Garappolo from behind the bar at The Original Pinkie Masters on Monday afternoon.

Throngs of regulars packed the tiny one-room tavern not just to drink cheap PBRs, but to pay tribute to a special visitor from long ago: former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at 100.

The cash-only establishment might look like any old dive bar in downtown Savannah, if it weren’t for the bronze plaque bearing Carter’s face.

Bolted onto the wooden bar itself, it marks the very spot where the then-president delivered a surprise speech in 1978: on Saint Patrick’s Day, Carter snuck out of his room at the DeSoto Hotel across the street and absconded to Pinkie’s, hopping atop the bar to eulogize its founder: a man by the name of — you guessed it — Pinkie Masters.

Born Luis Christopher Masterpolis, Masters was a kingmaker in Savannah politics and an early supporter of Carter’s campaigns for both governor and president.

Forty-six years later, current owner Garappolo returned the favor: “Raise your glass to President Carter [and] to Pinkie Masters!” he shouted. “And let’s celebrate all the good things these guys did.”