North Beach Sun Spring 2018

SPRING 2018

four local restaurants • four amazing seafood dishes

Mike Kelly

volume 124

free!

the exit interview

New Holland

the forgotten heart of Hyde @NORTHBEACHSUN

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Fresh flavors. Fresh ingredients.

Freshly made in the store— every single day.

At Big Buck’s Homemade Ice Cream, all 57 of their mouthwatering ice cream flavors are made from scratch the old fashioned way.

Each creamy, peanut buttery, fudgy bite starts out with a simple base of cream, sugar and milk.

There’s nothing unpronounceable going into the ice cream made at Big Buck’s, just the highest quality chocolate, vanilla bean, nuts, caramel and fresh fruit they can source.

There’s a reason Big Buck’s Homemade Ice Cream is an Outer Banks tradition year after year. It’s because fresh always tastes better.

Order ahead for fresh ice cream cakes!

Waterfront Shops Manteo 252-423-3118

Buccaneer’s Walk MP 4.5, Kitty Hawk 252-715-0779

Timbuck II Corolla 252-453-3188

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ORDER ONLINE!

Like us on Facebook for updates, store hours, specials and more.

Savor breathtaking views of the Manteo waterfront and the Elizabeth II, while enjoying fresh paninis, organic salads, hand-crafted sandwiches and fresh French baguettes in Manteo’s only European-style café. Our mouthwatering selection of imported cheeses brings the flavor of the Old World to one of the oldest ports in America.

New this year – breakfast in Manteo just got better with the Hungry Pirate’s Euro-style espresso and cappuccino bar, fresh bagels and hot croissants.

2016

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Best European Cafe

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CALL AHEAD FOR TO-GO ORDERS!

NORTH BEACH 2018 Located onSUN theSpring Manteo waterfront • 207 Queen Elizabeth Avenue, Manteo • 252-423-3133 • hungrypiratecafe.com

CELEBRATING 16 YEARS!

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The area's finest southern cooking

Great Food. Excellent Service. Relaxed Atmosphere.

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Happy Hour 3-6 Daily

Serving lunch and dinner daily and breakfast saturday and Sunday

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3 0 0 W. E C K N E R , K I T T Y H AW K - L O C AT E D AT S E A S C A P E G O L F L I N K S seascapegolf.com

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NORTH BEACH SUN Spring 2018

@NORTHBEACHSUN

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32

Spring

20

28 30

2018

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From the publisher

10 BUT FIRST...

12 spring EVENTS CALENDAR

outdoors 14 shore science

Engineering challenges for the new Bonner Bridge 16 board banter

Grand legends of the Outer Banks

lifestyle 18 The Groom’s quest

A modern love story

REAL ESTATE

Look Back 28 The forgotten heart of hyde

Remembering the lost town of New Holland

shop talk 30 baby boom

Baby goods made by local moms 32 from cocktails to cardigans

The three generations behind Sisters Boutique

everything else under the sun 34 here today, where tomorrow?

The evolution of some great Outer Banks buildings

food & beverage 19 mike kelly

The exit interview 20 fresh off the docks

Local seafood prepared four different ways 26 behind the lens

Food photography in focus

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NORTH BEACH SUN Spring 2018

about the cover: Good luck resisting the crab salad prepared by chefs Amanda and Randolph Sprinkle at The Saltbox Café in Colington.

Photo by Candace Owens. this page: Photos clockwise from top left courtesy of Brooke Mayo, Cory Godwin, Robert “Bobby” Schmitt / The Mattamuskeet Foundation, and Whitney Norko.

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Learn more about the Wild Horses of the Outer Banks

520B Old Stoney Road, Corolla • corollawildhorses.org • 252-453-8002 Wild Horse Tours • Gift Shop • Fun & Educational Events • Open Year Round

The Corolla Wild Horse Fund is a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charity. All donations are tax deductible as allowed by IRS regulations.

@NORTHBEACHSUN

7

from thE publisher

Staff Publishers

Adam & Cathy Baldwin EDITOR

Amelia Boldaji Art Director

Dave Rollins Graphic Designers

Change - it’s as constant as the tides.

True story: After breakfast on New Year’s Eve, my 10-year-old son Sam sat down to make a list of New Year’s resolutions. They were sweet and thoughtful, with resolutions like “fight less with my sister” and “play more soccer.” My seven-year-old daughter Charlotte asked what he was doing, and I explained that people often make a list of things they want to change or do better in the New Year. I asked if she wanted to make one, too. Her response? “No, thanks. I like how I do things.”

I admired her brazen confidence, but what I wanted to say was: “Oh, sweet babe, change is inevitable. Nothing ever stays the same.”

Take, for instance, Kelly’s Restaurant & Tavern, an Outer Banks establishment that’s part legend, part lore. For more than 30 years, Kelly’s has been a fixture – a nightlife staple, a shag-dancing hangout, a special event venue and a dining destination – up until this past January. On page 19, we say goodbye to Kelly’s in our “Exit Interview” with owner Mike Kelly. But although times are changing for Mike and his restaurant, with two other restaurants to nurture and a successful catering business, he’s not going gently into retirement.

Another one of my favorite pieces in this issue is about the forgotten town of New Holland on page 28. It’s fascinating to me because I had never heard the story before – and it’s quite a remarkable one, at that. More than a century ago, the New Holland Farm Project undertook the spectacular engineering feat of draining Lake Mattamuskeet – all 50,000 acres of it – in order to farm its fertile bottom. After years of fighting nature, the project was abandoned, the town deserted and the lake returned to its natural state.

The twist is, in doing so, Lake Mattamuskeet

has now become a protected natural resource and a draw for ecotourism as part of the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge. It’s a change of events that has truly taken the lake full circle.

Draining a 50,000-acre lake and closing an iconic Outer Banks restaurant are a few examples of large-scale change, but change can also happen in much subtler ways. On page 30, we sat down with moms who are changing their lives and the local mom-economy by launching their own baby product-based businesses; on page 20, we followed five chefs as they experimented with seafood in creative ways, elevating the everyday to the exquisite; and, on page 16, we met with a generation of older surfers – Grand Legends, as they’re known in the surfing world – who are changing the way others see the sport.

We’re undergoing a few changes of our own here at the North Beach Sun. Long before Adam and I took the helm of this publication, the North Beach Sun was a newspaper. Gradually, over the past few years, we’ve morphed into a magazine.

The ad sizes from previous years were throwbacks to traditional newspaper sizing (does the term “column inches” ring a bell?). Our updated ad layouts reflect our shift to a magazine, and it’s made the design cleaner and our ads pop more – and we’re pretty excited about both of those things!

Charlotte may not feel the need to change things, but I do. I love a fresh start. And that’s the beauty of the New Year and the onset of spring.

The slate is wiped clean and we can begin again.

What’s not to love about that?

Enjoy the issue, and happy spring!

NORTH BEACH SUN Spring 2018

Writers

Cathy Baldwin Amelia Boldaji Dawn Church Catherine Kozak Fran Marler Laura Martier Amanda McDanel Arabella Saunders Kyle Tribett Photographers

Cory Godwin Brooke Mayo Elizabeth Neal Whitney Norko Candace Owens Sales Manager

Helen Furr Account Executives

Sue Goodrich Tori Peters Distributor

Bob Baldwin

The North Beach Sun is published quarterly by Access Media Group. All works contained herein are the property of the North Beach Sun and/or its contributors. Opinions, responses, and inquiries are always welcome.

NORTH BEACH SUN 115 West Meadowlark St. Kill Devil Hills, NC 27948

-Cathy Baldwin

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Adam Baldwin Dylan Bush

252.449.4444 editor@northbeachsun.com

The Waterfront Shops • Duck

252-255-0600

The Elizabethan Gardens

Wing it!

April 1-31, 2018

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9

But First...

BBQ sliders are lined up for hungry eaters at the BBQ & Wings Showdown during Taste of the Beach 2017. Photo by Elizabeth Neal.

4 DAYS OF YUM! For more than 30 years now, area restaurants have come together during the spring to celebrate the Outer Banks’ annual Taste of the Beach (TOB). Run by the Outer Banks Restaurant Association (a nonprofit group of restaurant owners and associate members devoted to promoting the industry), TOB went from a one-day to a four-day format in 2008, and has boasted some pretty impressive numbers ever since – proving that food, drink and fun never go out of style.

TASTE OF THE BEACH 2018 FEATURES

MORE THAN

MORE THAN

50 25 AT

EVENTS

LOCATIONS

MORE THAN

27,000 PEOPLE HAVE ENJOYED TASTE OF THE BEACH SINCE 2008

TICKET SALES OF MORE THAN

$1 MIL SINCE 2008

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NORTH BEACH SUN Spring 2018

Try the lionfish.

Beautiful but deadly (to some, at least), lionfish are a non-native

invasive species that have been increasingly overpopulating shipwreck sites in North Carolina waters. To try to combat their effects on healthy native fish populations, the dive program at the N.C. Aquarium on Roanoke Island received a conservation grant last year to survey several wreck sites and harvest as many lionfish as possible.

And, as it turns out, once the line of venomous spikes down their spines are removed, they’re tasty! Next up? While the aquarium won’t go into the business of selling lionfish themselves, they do hope to generate enough interest from local chefs to create a market for the underutilized fish – so that in the future, managing the problem could be as simple as eating up.

Back in the day A visit to the Outer Banks was a decidedly more

affordable affair in the sixties.

The 1965 menu from Port O’ Call featured items like shrimp cocktail for less than a dollar and lobster tails for four bucks. For the heavy hitters, the filet mignon could be had for a whopping $4.25!

Have a little spring! fun this

LIVE HARDWOOD GRILLED STEAKS AND SEAFOOD

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Award winning wine list • Great kids menu

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EASTER BRUNCH

BURGER NIGHT

CUSTOMER APPRECIATION

APRIL 1 Reservations recommended

THURSDAYS Through the spring

SUNDAYS 50% off any bottle of wine all day and night

Timbuck II Shopping Village in Corolla grillroomobx.com • 252-453-4336

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MUSTANGMUSICFESTIVAL.COM Proceeds benefit the Corolla Wild Horse Fund and Mustang Outreach Program

@NORTHBEACHSUN

11

SPRING 2018

EVENTS

calendar

ongoing Magnolia Market Craft Fair Tuesdays

March 22 – April 29

Artwork from students attending First Flight, Manteo and Cape Hatteras High Schools will be on display in the Event Room at Roanoke Island Festival Park in Manteo. roanokeisland.com

Shop the open-air market in downtown Manteo for quality handmade items, including local art, crafts and home-baked goods.

81st Anniversary of The Lost Colony May 25 – August 22

This fascinating historical drama—the longest-running outdoor historical drama in the United States—brings to life the mysterious disappearance of the first English colonists that happened right here on the Outer Banks. thelostcolony.org

Ghosts of the Lost Colony March 26 – April 7

Get spooked during this outdoor interactive ghost tour on the grounds of The Lost Colony. thelostcolony.org First Friday

Dinosaur Exhibit at the N.C. Aquarium

April 6, May 4

Downtown Manteo comes alive on the first Friday of each month from 6–8 p.m.

May 26 – September 4

Manteo Farmers’ Market

Buy fresh, local fruits and veggies at this farmers’ market every Saturday in downtown Manteo.

Cabaret – Theatre of Dare

Outer Banks Duathlon

This bawdy play explores the tumultuous life of Berlin natives and expats as Germany gives way to the Third Reich. theatreofdareobx.com

This annual run-bike-run event takes participants on a journey through northern Corolla. theobxrunningcompany.com

March 16 – 18; 23 – 25

dare county high school’s annual art show

Starts in May

march

T-Rex and his pals come to life in this realistic exhibit at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island this summer. ncaquariums.com

Running of the Leprechauns 5K & 10K

Elbert Watson Dance Ensemble

Kick off the St. Patrick’s Day festivities with this race in Nags Head, complete with an Irishthemed after-party and a “Get Lucky” costume contest. obxse.org

Elbert Watson, former principal dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, brings ballet to First Flight High School. bryanculturalseries.org

March 17

St. Patty’s 1-Mile Beer Run March 17

This leprechaun-themed beer mile begins and ends at the Outer Banks Brewing Station. theobxrunningcompany.com 28th Annual Kelly’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade March 18

Grab your green to cheer on the longestrunning St. Patrick’s Day parade in North Carolina as it marches down Virginia Dare Trail in Nags Head. kellysrestaurant.com Outer Banks Taste of the Beach

COME CELEBRATE A DECADE IN DUCK! Aqua Restaurant & Spa is 10 years old and would like to thank our friends and loyal guests by hosting a big party!

SATURDAY APRIL 14, 2018 3 P.M. - 8 P.M. RAIN OR SHINE

Live Music • Great Food and Drink Fun Fun Fun

1174 DUCK ROAD, DUCK OPEN YEAR ROUND aquaobx.com • 252.261.9700 restaurant / 252.261.9709 spa

March 22 – 25

Savor four days of this foodie festival that includes activities such as wine tastings, cooking classes, tapas crawls, cook offs and more. obxtasteofthebeach.com

Welcome spring with a Kite Festival at Jockey’s Ridge and two days of Easter egg hunts. Bring your camera to get photos of the Easter Bunny himself! kittyhawk.com 5th Annual Hoppin’ 8K, 5K and Fun Run March 31

Run through beautiful downtown Manteo in this springtime race. theobxrunningcompany.com Easter Eggstravaganza March 31

Hunt for thousands of eggs on the Great Lawn of The Elizabethan Gardens during this fun, familyfriendly Easter tradition. elizabethangardens.org

This month-long butterfly festival at The Elizabethan Gardens includes educational booths, demonstrations, children’s crafts, gardening tips and up-close experiences with butterflies. elizabethangardens.org

Enjoy an evening of music by the East Carolina State University Jazz Ensemble at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Outer Banks. uucob.org

Love, Sex and the I.R.S. – Theatre of Dare Select dates in April

Taxes and love triangles intermingle in this comedy at Roanoke Island Festival Park. theatreofdareobx.com

April 21

2nd Annual Outer Banks Taco Cook-Off April 22

Bring your appetite to Ortega’z for this taco cook-off that raises money for Camp Lilly scholarships for local, under-served youth to attend summer camps at Jennette’s Pier. earth fair obx April 22

Come celebrate Earth Day on the Outer Banks at Dowdy Park in Nags Head. Bring the whole family to learn about Earth-friendly practices and enjoy music by Nature Out Loud. nccoast.org

Outer Banks Bike Week

An Afternoon of Spirituals and Arias with Tshombe Selby

Rev up your engines for a week of poker runs, bike shows, bikini contests, tattoo contests, live music, guided tours and more. outerbankshd.com

Tenor Tshombe Selby brings his amazing voice back to his hometown with this concert at All Saints Episcopal Church. bryanculturalseries.org

April 20 – 29

NORTH BEACH SUN Spring 2018

March 30 – 31

ECSU Jazz Ensemble

April 1 – 31

Run 13.1 miles through the Outer Banks on this fun, pirate-themed half marathon that culminates in a Pirate Jamboree in Nags Head. obxse.org

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Fly into Spring & Easter Eggstravaganza

Butterfly Festival

April 14 – 15

Eligible families will receive a bag of staple items and may sign up to receive a box of food every week based on family size - from the Beach Food Pantry.

March 25

april

Flying Pirate Half Marathon & First Flight 5K

Surf Pediatrics and Medicine and the Beach Food Pantry are working together to provide healthy, nutritional food choices throughout the summer months to you and your school-aged children.

March 25

April 22

Annual Duck & Wine Festival April 28

This chef cook-off challenge uses duck as the main dish. Proceeds benefit the Currituck-Dare Community Foundation. duckandwine.com.

The Virginia Symphony April 28

Listen to one of the nation’s leading symphony orchestras, the Virginia Symphony, conducted by a nationally acclaimed conductor at Roanoke Island Festival Park. roanokeisland.com

may ESA Mid-Atlantic Regional Surfing Championship May 4 – 6

Watch surfers compete at Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head in this Eastern Surfing Association regional contest. surfesa.org 2018 Relay for Life of Dare County May 5

Locals walk together to raise awareness and money to fight cancer at First Flight High School. relayforlife.org/darecountync Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival Spring Celebration May 5

Listen to internationally renowned musicians at an intimate concert at All Saints Episcopal Church. bryanculturalseries.org

35th Annual Yuengling Nags Head Woods 5K Run May12

Wind your way through the beautiful Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve for the Yuengling Nags Head Woods 5K and the Fun Run 1-Miler. nagsheadwoods5krun.org Couture by the Shore May 12

Enjoy lunch, a silent auction and a fashion show at Duck Woods Country Club to raise money for the Outer Banks Relief Foundation. outerbanksrelieffoundation.com Dare County Arts Council’s 29th Annual Artrageous May 12

This free community event with live music, activities and art vendors at Dowdy Park in Nags Head encourages children of all ages to explore their creative sides. darearts.org

Kentucky Derby Party

46th Annual Hang Gliding Spectacular

Dress in derby style at this fundraising extravaganza that benefits three local nonprofits: The Elizabethan Gardens, Beach Food Pantry and the Dare Education Foundation. elizabethangardens.org

This is the longest-running hang gliding competition in the world. Watch professional hang gliders compete in this free and fun event at Jockey’s Ridge. hangglidingspectacular.com

May 5

Dare2Care OBX Shred Fest

Children and Youth Partnership for Dare County sponsor this free, family-friendly event at Roanoke Island Festival Park that includes facepainting, bubbles, arts and crafts, music and more for children ages five and under. darekids.org

Enjoy live music, demos by professional skateboarders and BMX bikers, a silent auction and much more at the Soundside Event Site.

Proceeds from this annual fundraiser go to programs for veterans and special needs individuals. dare2careobx.com

DockDogs Spring Splash May 11-13

This canine competition at the Soundside Event Site tests how far and high dogs can jump, as well as how fast they can swim. dockdogs.com WOOFstock May 11 – 13

Celebrate your four-legged friends at the Soundside Event Site with pet photos, concessions for dogs and humans, music and more.

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May 17 – 20

11th Annual KidsFest May 11

Give one piece a chance.

May 19

Mustang Spring Jam 7 May 20

Jam on at Mike Dianna’s Grill Room in Corolla to eight bands, including the Mustang Outreach Program student bands. Proceeds benefit the Corolla Wild Horse Fund and the Mustang Outreach Program. mustangmusicfestival.com

2018 Relay For Life of Dare County

May 5, 2018 • Noon to 10 p.m.

First Flight High School 100 Veterans Dr. Kill Devil Hills

Live Entertainment • Food • Games • Family Activities Survivors & Caregivers Lap • Luminaria Ceremony Relay For Life represents the hope that those lost to cancer will never be forgotten, that those who face cancer will be supported, and that one day, cancer will be eliminated.

Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back.

june Storm the Beach June 17

Outer Banks Sporting Events presents this team-oriented, family-friendly race full of obstacles and adventures on the beach by Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head. stormthebeach.org

Wind Voyager Triple-S Invitational June 2 – 8

World class wakestyle kiteboarders compete in this multi-day event at REAL Watersports in Cape Hatteras, complete with bands and parties. triplesinvitational.com

relayforlife.org/darecountync • kab0606@gmail.com Relay-For-Life-of-Dare-County-NC @NORTHBEACHSUN

13

shore science

A Span With a Plan by fran marler

Oregon Inlet is one of the

Crews construct the elevated portion of the new Herbert C. Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet. While the existing bridge has a single 130-foot-wide span over the inlet’s channel, the new bridge is designed with a 3,500-foot-long rise featuring seven spans that are each approximately 300 feet wide to allow more options for navigation. Photo courtesy of Pablo Hernandez / NCDOT.

most dynamic environments in the world. Designing and building a new bridge that will last is no easy task.

In its substructure alone, there is enough concrete to cover 69 basketball courts up to a foot deep – 12,010 cubic yards, to be exact. It contains 694 concrete piles that weigh approximately 60 to 68 tons each. In its entirety, the project is three-and-a-half miles long. The stats are staggering, as they often are with any mega-structure.

Say hello to the new Herbert C. Bonner Bridge.

The original bridge was built in 1963, and it was expected to have a 30-year life span. After exceeding that by more than a decade, the wheels were set in motion for something bigger, better and more efficient that would have at least a 100-year life span.

“In 2009 we began planning a parallel bridge,” says North Carolina Department of Transportation resident engineer, Pablo Hernandez.

But where to even start?

“There are so many overwhelming statistics,” Pablo continues. “First, we had to decide what kind of bridge was best for a harsh marine environment with ever-changing tides and currents – and then we had to outline the acceptable minimums before moving forward.”

Using the criteria laid out by Pablo and his peers, the search of a team of designers and builders began in 2010.

In addition to tidal flux and unforgiving currents, the wind, waves and other potential physical impacts were also

14

NORTH BEACH SUN Spring 2018

factors in the equation. “Taking our environment into account,” Pablo explains, “the plans for this bridge are nothing short of healthy and robust.”

After gathering the appropriate environmental data and an all-star team, a contract was executed in August of 2011, and a set of fail-safes was put into place before any material was laid.

“The team had to provide a set of construction plans which ensured that each and every requirement was met,” says Pablo. “In fact, I remember our lead designer saying that what we have here is a marine foundation – and that we’re building a bridge on top of it.”

Everything considered, that makes sense. After all, can you think of many other sites that are quite as dynamic as Oregon Inlet?

Of course, there was a time when the channel so paramount to our local economy didn’t exist.

Legend has it that a ship known as the Oregon was making its return voyage to Edenton from Bermuda during the mid 1800s when a hurricane struck. As fate would have it, instead of being dashed to bits on the shoals, the ship’s crew found themselves moored safely on a sandbar the next morning. Right next to their vessel was a new channel that had been created within the blink of a hurricane’s eye. The Oregon became the first vessel to pass through it safely, henceforth giving the inlet its appropriate name.

But as quickly as the channel was created, it can also be closed. So ever since, man and machine have toiled side-byside to keep the inlet open, and also to provide a lifeline between Hatteras Island and the northern Outer Banks. This is the reality behind why the new bridge has been designed much like an onion; it’s made up of layers upon layers, but all with purpose and intention.

“Thanks to new technology,” says Pablo, “we were able to generate a 3D laboratory model of how the pilings

needed to be driven into the ground to safely support the bridge.” The analysis was a success, and it showed that the construction would be sound. And so they began.

“Some of our materials are fabricated onsite, while others are made in Virginia and brought in by truck or barge,” adds Pablo. “Thanks to modern advancements, we’re able to incorporate stainless steel into a lot of our work, which gives it extra protection.” In addition to that, about two inches of concrete were poured over steel structures during the ‘50s and ‘60s, but these days around four inches of high-performance concrete is used instead – making everything more durable, and less permeable.

And as far as driving 130-foot pilings into sand and water is concerned, a system called jetting is used. “Water and air are used to loosen the sea bed,” explains Pablo. “Then a diesel hammer is used to drive each pile down.” To give a sense of the sheer scale of this undertaking, if each pile was laid end-to-end, they would stretch out over 16 miles.

The completion date for the new Bonner Bridge is currently set for August 2019. And as far as Bonner senior is concerned, there are plans in place for that as well.

“A 1,000-foot span will remain intact on the south end to provide some stabilization with the currents,” Pablo says.

“We’ll be also be removing the old catwalks and replacing the railings so that people can still access it.” The remainder of the bridge will be dismantled and placed in four separate reef locations that are located four to eight miles off the coast.

Overall, this project has taken the time and talent of engineers of every variety, from geo-technical to structural and hydraulic – and the list goes on.

“There are things going on everywhere onsite; it’s like tackling five projects at once,” says Pablo excitedly. “Luckily, we have a wealth of experience and a lot of collaboration to ensure that this project can take any blow it’s given.”

MONDAY

bu rger nig ht TUESDAY

tapas & win e nig ht

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ALL THE GAMES!

WEDNESDAY

go urm et tac o nig ht THURSDAY

sus hi wi th mil o

3730 N. CROATAN HWY KITTY HAWK, MILE POST 4 1/2

16 BEERS ON TAP

DRAFT BEER “TAP TAKEOVER” EVERY OTHER FRIDAY!

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Compassionate care. Right here.

THE OUTER BANKS HOSPITAL Part of Vidant Health and Chesapeake Regional Healthcare

Nags Head | 252-449-4500 | TheOBH.com

@NORTHBEACHSUN

15

board banter

B y K y l e “ Fa l co n ” T r i b e t t

I taught my mother how to surf when she was in her late 50s. Every time she comes to the Outer Banks to visit me, the first

thing she wants to do is check the waves. That’s the kind of attitude I want to have when I’m her age.

Ly n n S h e l l

OF THE

S K N A B R E T OU

pete ru dolp

h

ki j k o wosn ” a z c n lc vivia a m a fa

Although she didn’t catch the surfing bug until later in life, the passion she has for surfing at age 64 makes her what surfers refer to as a grand legend.

“The phrase ‘grand legend’ describes an older surfer,” explains Lynn Shell, 62, owner of Shell Shapes and the Outer Banks Boarding Company. “It was derived from the surfing contest world, where the age division for surfers 60 and over is officially called grand legends.”

And there are quite a few grand legends right here on the Outer Banks.

Take local grand legend, longtime Dare County schoolteacher and Australian native, Pete Rudolph, for example. “Blimey!” says Pete about his impending retirement plans. “I just want to surf more.

“I’ve been trying different boards and different ways to surf since I was an ankle biter,” Pete adds. “I was riding different types of belly boards way back, even before the invention of the leg-rope [Aussie-slang for leash].”

Pete has been building various types of boards in his garage for years, including a belly board that features a plexiglass window at the center of the board. With some extra time on his hands, Pete looks forward to testing his creations even more. “I’ll finally be able to spend enough time in the water to get these experimental boards dialed in,” he says. “There’s so much potential for progression in surfing gear – just not enough time to do it all.”

“Wild” Bill Molnar is another local grand legend – who looks as though he could still very well be competing in the Junior Men’s

Division. When asked if he thinks surfing has contributed to his good health and youthful appearance, Bill says, “Well it hasn’t stopped my hair from turning gray, but yes, I would say 100 percent that it has played a major role in my physical fitness.”

The health benefits of surfing are well documented. Not only is it a great cardiovascular exercise, it’s also a low resistance way to develop or maintain muscle tone, particularly in terms of upper body strength. And the benefits aren’t only physical; as with many other forms of regular exercise, surfing can reduce stress levels and be a way to connect with other like-minded individuals. After all, age is just a number in the water.

“After a surf session, especially during the summertime, I get stopped by a lot of people who give me kudos for being out there,” says grand legend and Kill Devil Hills resident, Martine Jezo. “A few have said that they thought it was only for young people, but that they were going to give it a try anyway because it looks fun. I really enjoy spreading the surf stoke.”

At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that waves come in all sizes and shapes – no matter what age bracket you fall into – and you can always choose which conditions you feel are worth paddling out in. “The thing about being an older surfer is that you want to be a bit more mindful of how you do things in the water,” adds Martine.

Oh, and if you’re worried about getting the stink-eye from younger surfers, don’t be. Because, as Lynn puts it, “The surfing community is like a tribe, and the grand legends are the tribal elders. They get respect.”

From top to bottom: photos courtesy of Adrian Dillenseger, John Sams, and Kyle Tribett.

m a.k.a “

Kyle “Falcon” Tribett is a fun-loving Outer Banks surfer who just wants to share his stoke and use surfing as a way to make people smile.

16

NORTH BEACH SUN Spring 2018

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17

LIFESTYLE

By Amanda McDanel

Like any good story, this one starts with: “Y’all watch this!”

The Groom’s Quest A Modern Love Story 18

NORTH BEACH SUN Spring 2018

Splash. That was the sound I heard as I watched my husband catapult his newly received wedding ring into a vodka tonic. I knew this wasn’t going to end well. (The story, not the marriage, thank goodness, but it was a bit questionable after this.)

It was a busy July evening and we were out with friends at an oyster bar enjoying all that summertime on the Outer Banks has to offer: drinks, seafood, live music, sunsets and people watching. After a few drinks, my husband, Johnny, and our friend Jeff, who was also newly married, started talking about wedding rings. Johnny held his hand up and noted that we should have gotten his ring sized differently because it was completely loose, so loose in fact that it could even “fall off into his drink” – as he was quick to demonstrate.

“You might want to get that,” I said, laughing nervously. Just then another round of steamed shrimp arrived at our table, however, and its siren call directed his attention elsewhere. “I’ll get it in a minute,” he mumbled as his hands dove distractedly towards the steaming crustaceans.

A few more beers and a waning sunset sent us on our way home, satiated in the way that one only feels on a warm summer evening.

Later that night, I noticed the very small detail that my husband’s shiny new silver band was missing. Whether it was the beers or our honeymoon phase naivety, we both puzzled over where it could have gone, because it would never (gasp!) leave his hand. We searched the bathrooms and the kitchen. The bedside tables.

The couch cushions. The cup holders in the car.

Confused and unable to locate it, we went to bed confident it would turn up in the morning.

And yet, around 1:30 a.m., Johnny sat stark upright in bed and screamed, “The glass!”

If you’ve ever wondered what the inside of a dumpster outside of a busy seafood restaurant in the middle of summer looks like, just ask Johnny McDanel. The next morning, after some gentle coaxing (i.e. frantic incessant demands, tears and foot stomping that he at least TRY to find said wedding ring) he drove back to the restaurant where he ran recon and learned that glasses were emptied into a trap with the bar sludge, then bagged with the bar trash and thrown into

the dumpster. He arrived home about an hour later with four large industrial trash bags full of restaurant waste on a tarp in the back of our Suburban.

Armed with a guilty conscience, a piece of plywood, a Kmart strainer and a garden hose, he began his quest in our backyard. Shrimp and oyster shells were scattered in piles next to squeezed citrus, plastic cocktail straws and cigarette butts. Everything was dressed in a layer of tartar sauce.

“I told you so,” I said, shaking my head. His look of defeat, clouded only by the green tinge on his face as the sun warmed up the day (and the bags’ contents), told me that I’d only have to say that phrase once.

Hours went by, and I eventually relented, bringing him lemonade in a quick dash to the backyard with my shirt held over my nose. The contents of bags one and two were rebagged and tossed in our black garbage can. No ring.

Another lemonade. Bag three yielded a nice collection of shells, but no ring. Our hopes began to diminish as the day went on, and the scent of rancid seafood and cocktail sauce grew stronger.

Bag four was up. Now invested, I watched in both amusement and disgust as Johnny made his way through that last bag of refuse. Would insurance replace the band under these circumstances? What size would he need, because this one was clearly too big?!?

Lost in thought, I suddenly heard a WHOOP so loud it made me jump – and I looked up to find a 38-year-old man running a victory lap around the backyard while holding a small item like an Olympic torch. I had to wait until he completed four more laps before, out of breath and smelling like a fried fish plate from a cheap fast food restaurant, he opened his hand to show me his wedding ring, which was nestled in a clam shell on top of a tartar sauce-coated napkin.

I would love to tell you that the story ends there. That my faithful, devoted and persistent husband found his wedding ring and refused to remove it from his hand from that point forward.

Except for the small fact that it fell out of his golf bag a few years later, never to be found again.

That, however, simply doesn’t make quite the same romantic account.

Amanda McDanel has lived on the Outer Banks for more than 15 years, is married, has two beautiful daughters and a dog that walks backwards. A collector of the unique and different, she has an MS in Child and Family Development, has taught cooking classes and is a successful entrepreneur.

food & BEVERAGE

Photo by Cory Godwin Story by Amelia Boldaji $900,000? More? At some point you might just have to walk away!

So what did you do?

Well, we all have stories like that – more than anything else, you do what you have to, to survive. We were open 364 days a year from the beginning. Even that first year we were only closed Christmas Day. I worked 75-85 hour weeks then… although right here at the end I was still working 70-75 hour weeks. [Laughs] Sometimes you just have to take the leap, and learn on the way down.

When did you start to think about closing?

It wasn’t so much that I was thinking about closing, but more realizing that I had to change how I do things. If you put a car on the bypass, you can sell it in a few hours – a restaurant like this isn’t so easy. From when I started talking to realtors to the sale it took five years. That’s a long time.

How do you feel about it?

We’ve had a lot of good times here. The same room could attract a 65-and-older group for shag – and then five hours later a bunch of 20 year olds for reggae. But it’s important to remember that you have to make decisions. If it goes good, pat yourself on the back. If it doesn’t go as well, remember that you did it for certain reasons. I can’t tell you how this is going to impact me.

You recently auctioned everything in the restaurant off. How was that?

Mike Kelly:

The Exit Interview

I

f you’ve lived on, or visited, the Outer Banks anytime during the past three decades, you know Kelly’s Restaurant & Tavern – and that means you also know Mike Kelly, the man who’s been both behind the scenes and the public face of arguably the most iconic restaurant around. Although Kelly’s final farewell was this past January, Mike definitely isn’t going anywhere anytime soon…but we still took the opportunity to touch base with him on his way out those famous stained-glass doors.

Can you talk about how you got started?

I got my first job in the restaurant business when I was 20 – it was the summer between my junior and senior years at college. I worked in the salad area at Seafare [in Nags Head], and the next year I was a busboy, then a waiter.

Did you always know you wanted to work in the restaurant business?

Well, I got a teaching degree from East Carolina, but I realized that it wasn’t what I wanted to do. Ok, I didn’t have any idea what I wanted to do! [Laughs] The biggest jobs here back then were fishing or carpentry, but I was making good money waiting, so I just kept working – and I was fortunate that a gentleman named George Crocker gave me a job.

At A Restaurant by George in Nags Head?

Yes. George was innovative – and a great marketer. At first we didn’t have legal liquor by the drink, but it passed in Dare

County [in 1980]…and that changed the whole face of the restaurant industry here.

Did you know you wanted to open Kelly’s then?

It took a bit. When I was 34 years old I thought, ‘You’re almost 35, you’ve got to decide what you want to do.’ But it wasn’t always going to be called Kelly’s. Spot Tail Bass was one of the many names we considered. But then Edward Green from the Christmas Shop called me and said, ‘Kelly’s is the only thing you can call it.’ He made the suggestion that stuck.

How did you decide on the location?

Paul Shaver and John Lancaster sold me the building – it was J. Fleming Munde’s before – and we didn’t close the deal until July, but we opened [Kelly’s] on June 18, 1985.

Looking back, I’m lucky we opened as early as we did – if not, we wouldn’t have survived.

Why?

At the end of the first year I was within a half percent of what I projected – it was that close. I’d borrowed $915,000, and my house was part of the collateral. My oldest daughter, Elizabeth, was young, and Juliane had just been born in March. There were a lot of points where I wondered, ‘Did I do the right thing?’ [Laughs] You know, if you owe $5,000, no big deal, you can get a second job. But you owe

When we had the auction, I realized I just owned too much crap. [Laughs] It took about six or seven hours, but if I had been the auctioneer it would have taken twice as long – I would have told a story about each piece. Very few people can out-“stuff” me!

How much stuff did you keep?

Too much – times three! Even the day of the auction I was pirating a thing or two to put back in my office. Not just trying to keep it for myself, but to put in Mako’s or Pamlico [Jack’s]. Casino posters I collected when I was 18, a picture of Old Buck in Rodanthe – a lot of kids don’t know those stories anymore. It’s part of the history of the Outer Banks, so it’s important to share those things, so that other people can see them. I really like the fact that a lot of it is staying locally.

So what’s next?

I’ll work a little at Mako’s and Pamlico’s. We’re taking a warehouse and converting it to a catering kitchen [for Kelly’s OBX Catering], and beginning to think about delivery-type things. There are probably going to be some challenges that come up, but I’m excited about it. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t enjoy it.

Any final words (for now)?

People say, ‘You have a lot of stories, you need to write a book,’ and so far I’ve said no. But I don’t want to give up the memory of people enjoying this place.

I’ll tell you this: A couple nights after we announced we were closing, four separate couples came in on the same night and asked for me. They’d all met at Kelly’s, got married, and they came because they’d spent their anniversaries here every year since. How can you not like being a part of that?

Of being a part of someone’s best memories?

In the whole scheme of things, does that matter? I’d say, yes.

Yes, it does. It makes me smile. @NORTHBEACHSUN

19

food & BEVERAGE The Outer Banks has long been a destination hotspot

Fresh Off the Docks

for fresh, local seafood – and for good reason. But from traditionally simple steamed platters to more complex cooking techniques and internationally inspired flavors, the ways we enjoy some of our favorite dishes can vary tremendously. Tapping into this area’s wealth of culinary talent, we asked four local chefs to each prepare a dish that showcases the range of seafood found here and the variety of ways it can be served up – and then sat down with them to find out what they like best about living and working in an area where fresh catch is synonymous with first bite.

PHOTOS BY BROOKE MAYO & CANDACE OWENS / STORY BY AMELIA BOLDAJI

seared scallops The Dish: Seared scallops in lobster sauce, served with jasmine

rice and a side of sautéed garlic, zucchini and red peppers

W

hat is arguably now the most famous dish on Cravings’ menu was once a one-night-only special – until Chef Scott Foster sent it out during an impromptu visit from Guy Fieri, who was shooting an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives here in 2012. “Two days later I got a call asking if we wanted to be on the show – and, if so, to be prepared to make that dish about a dozen times,” Scott says. “I ended up making it 27 times in one morning while they filmed.”

But despite its rather impressive claim to fame these days, the basis for the recipe has more to do with Scott’s background growing up in Norfolk, Virginia, and taking family vacations as a teenager 20

NORTH BEACH SUN Spring 2018

to the Florida Keys where he developed his own method for making lobster broth by boiling the shells and then adding some brandy and cream.

“I’ve always loved seafood,” says Scott, who co-owns a total of three Outer Banks restaurants with his business partner, Dan Lewis. “But you’ve really got to have your finger on it, and that takes a network. So we’ll feature a different fish special every night, year round, depending on what we can get, and we’ll make a big deal of it when things like softshells are in season. It’s really amazing to be able to say that what’s on your plate was out there swimming around the day before.”

crabmeat salad Crab salad with basil aioli in a sliced tomato bowl, drizzled with pomegranate molasses and passion fruit pulp vinegar, and garnished with pomegranate seeds and micro basil

The Dish:

I

t can be hard to say exactly what co-chefs Amanda and Randolph Sprinkle do, simply because they do a bit of everything. That isn’t an overstatement, either: Only four things regularly appear on their menu at The Saltbox Café. Everything else is subject to change – and something might prompt a switch at any time.

“The menu changes every week, and we like to say that we don’t do specials…because everything’s special!” Amanda says cheerfully. “We’re here every day. We’re the ones touching every plate.

We really just don’t want to get bored.”

But even with 50 years of combined culinary experience, they both find that there are always new things to inspire them.

Randolph, in particular, points out how much he loves North Carolina crabmeat. “It’s so beautiful, you want to do as little to it as possible,” he says. “We add a touch of a few things and make a basic aioli to boost the crab up, while staying nice and light.”

They both freely admit that menu changes aren’t always creatively inspired, however – sourcing their seafood locally means that when the guy they buy their fish from calls, he doesn’t ask what they want; he tells them what he can get. “We’ve tried to get the fish to phone us when they’re coming through,” Randolph jokes. “For some reason, they just won’t do it!”

@NORTHBEACHSUN

21

raw oyster trio Ponzu-glazed Gull Rock, N.C., oyster, topped with grilled pineapple and a sesame wonton crust; Hatteras Salt (Buxton) oyster topped with scorpion pepper jelly, chimichurri, pico de gallo and corn tortilla chips; Gull Rock, N.C., oyster shooter, layered with lemon-honey horseradish sauce, cucumber puree and house-made Bloody Mary mix with a smoked spice rim

The Dish:

22

NORTH BEACH SUN Spring 2018

“I

hate to sound cliché, but for me, it’s all about putting things fresh and local first,” says Chef Evan Hayes of Blue Water Grill & Raw Bar. “If a menu option comes in with a big plane ticket attached to it, I don’t want it. Sourcing things locally is better for the environment and the economy. Everyone benefits from that.”

For Evan, that’s why it makes sense to have a menu that’s heavy on seafood, but as an avid traveler he also gets a lot of his inspiration from experimenting with international flavor profiles – and he understands that sometimes people may need a little push to try something new. Hence, mixing contrasting tastes (for example, the spicy ponzu versus the sweet pineapple) and incorporating a piece of wonton crust or a tortilla chip to give some texture – and add a little crunch that

might be comforting to someone who’s trying a raw oyster for the first time.

“Sometimes you have to start by winning people over a bit,” Evan says.

“And these ingredients really bring out the natural flavors in the oysters, too.

I mean, why would I cover a nice piece of fish with 1,000 other flavors? Besides, there’s nothing really new with food. You just take what works and put your spin on it.”

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grilled rockfish & white shrimp Grilled rockfish with Moroccan-style chermoula sauce, topped with grilled white shrimp, and served on a bed of Zuni slaw with roasted red pepper aioli

The Dish:

“F

resh and gourmet; that’s the takeaway we want people to have here,” says Chef Chris Braswell. “We try to enhance local products without overwhelming them.”

Co-owner of Steamers in Southern Shores along with his business partner, Linda Coats, Chris has been cooking for more than two decades – and it’s something of a family tradition that he inherited from his father and grandmother.

In fact, his upbringing in Zuni, Virginia – about an hour and half from here – was the main inspiration for this dish. After digging up a recipe for Zuni slaw (also known as “long-lasting” slaw because it’s vinegar- rather than mayobased) in an old 1964 church cookbook that belonged to his grandmother, Chris realized that its citrus and acidic bite paired really well with seafood.

Now one of their most popular dishes, it’s also representative of what Chris enjoys most about mixing coastal catches with a traditional southern flair.

“I like to look back to how people used to do things, as I think about how to do things today,” Chris says. “I’m a meat and potatoes kind of guy, myself,” he adds with a laugh. “I like to keep things simple.

So I’m not really concerned if someone comes in and has the most unique experience ever – as long as they have the freshest experience.”

24

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25

food & BEVERAGE Left: Brooke on location for our food photo shoot (photo by Candace Owens). Inset: An example of Brooke capturing the movement of a fork cutting a scallop.

“I love working with people, but food can have its own personality, too.”

Behind the Lens:

Food Photography in Focus

By Amelia Boldaji

“I

t’s all about getting creative with light,” says local photographer Brooke Mayo as she nudges a freshly shucked oyster to the left – and then a bit more to the right. “Usually it’s just a matter of moving things around and trying different angles.”

She backs away for a moment, then leans in to shine her phone’s flashlight over the plate. “Hold that there for a minute,” she says while adjusting a saltshaker to block and bounce the glare in a slightly different direction, softening some of the shadows.

After several rapid clicks of her shutter, she’s done. “You do what you have to sometimes,” she explains. “I’ll put the food right on the floor if that’s where the best natural light is!”

Improvising on the fly is one of the things Brooke does best – an essential trait for any professional photographer, but especially 26

NORTH BEACH SUN Spring 2018

one who specializes in things such as weddings, and, well, food.

“I’ve been shooting weddings here since 2003, and that’s actually how I got into food,” Brooke says. “My hobby is trying different types of photography, so at first I was just playing around, but weddings were the best practice because everything happens quickly. The food’s out, and then it’s gone.

Most of the time it’s dark. You might be able to make a plate and style it a bit, but you’ve still got to keep moving.”

While the Outer Banks has long been a desirable spot for weddings, a variety of creative local cuisine that increasingly begs to be captured visually is perhaps a somewhat more recent phenomenon.

“I think you’ve seen an overall shift here in the past four or five years,” Brooke says, ticking a few things off one hand for emphasis. “Special food events have gotten really popular. There’s this growing awareness

of the farm to fork movement. Plus, people are more willing to try new things, and they want to taste where those things come from, to make those connections.”

Brooke has worked with a number of local restaurants from Corolla to Roanoke Island, such as the Lifesaving Station, The Blue Point, TRiO, Grandstaff & Stein, Southern Shores Pizza, and Barrier Island Bagels – and that list just keeps growing. Depending on a client’s needs, she may do anything from capturing one item for a special promotion to spending several hours continuously shooting as a chef cooks an entire menu. Regardless, there’s one thing she insists on: Everything has to be as fresh as possible.

“There are a lot of tricks that I think you see more with studio food photography,” Brooke says. “Things like using shaving cream instead of whipped cream because it doesn’t melt, or glue instead of milk to get a

certain shine. But I decided a long time ago that I really like movement.”

This is a large part of the reason why nothing in Brooke’s portfolio looks static – and much of her work features action shots with dripping cheese, sauce being poured or steam rising from a dish that’s just been pulled straight from an oven.

“Of course the images need to be crisp and clear,” Brooke says. “But you also want to make someone feel as though they can smell it through the photo or have a sense of what it might be like to cut into something with that exact fork. I love working with people, but food can have its own personality, too.”

In addition to working with restaurants, Brooke also offers some “Food in Focus,” classes during Taste of the Beach, an annual four-day springtime celebration that highlights a variety of local culinary events. As part of her two-hour-long crash courses in the basics of food photography, she encourages her students to practice playing with how things are arranged, and to both notice and capture subtle differences in light and texture. But another thing she stresses is that if you’re interested in learning about food photography for the fun of it, you should be realistic about the type of equipment you’re going to use.

“A lot of people just have their phones,” she says cheerfully. “I mean, it’s great if you’ve got an amazing camera, but be honest with yourself. What are you really going to use on a daily basis?”

And while Brooke generally supplies her students with foods that have a longer shelf life to practice techniques on (think cupcakes or bagels), being based on the Outer Banks means that she spends a lot of her professional time photographing seafood – which poses a specific set of interesting challenges.

“There’s almost no downtime with seafood,” Brooke explains. “Fish can lose its sheen fast, and things like steamed oysters have to be photographed immediately or they’ll start to look shriveled – and then you have to begin all over again.”

That said, Brooke doesn’t take living and working here for granted.

“If you’re doing a seafood shoot by the water, it’s pretty incredible to be able to stand there and think, ‘This is where it came from. This exact spot,’” Brooke says with a laugh. “Besides, I don’t know that many other people have had the opportunity to photograph a kid who was surfing and eating a slice of pizza at the same time!”

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27

look back

The Forgotten Heart of Hyde

By Catherine Kozak

The town of New Holland was supposed to be a testament to man’s control over the land. Today it is little more than a memory under the shallow waters of Lake Mattamuskeet.

During its heyday in the mid-20th century, Lake Mattamuskeet in Hyde County was renowned for its premier waterfowl hunting and bass fishing, attracting wealthy outdoorsmen from near and far.

Even today, though overshadowed by Hyde’s coastal tourism magnet, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina’s largest natural lake is a natural phenomenon rich with wildlife.

It’s hard to believe that a little more than 100 years ago, the lake inspired a spectacular, and ultimately failed, engineering project and the development of a vibrant company town on its south shore called New Holland.

The bold concept was to drain the 50,000-acre lake with a massive pump – the world’s largest – and farm its rich bottom land. Within a quarter-century, New Holland’s astonishing drainage project and bustling community was out of business. By then, the lake had been drained three times.

The centerpiece of Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, the lake is now a protected and cherished natural resource. The most notable vestige of the drainage project is the distinctive MattaSTUMPY POINT muskeet Lodge, the revamped pump house currently owned by the state.

Although farming, fishing and timber are still economic mainstays in Hyde, the industries are no longer able to proLAKE MATTAMUSKEET vide enough jobs. In light of that, county officials are tapping innovative ways to promote ecotourism at Mattamuskeet and other sites to expand economic opportunity.

A century ago, county leaders, similarly, viewed Lake Mattamuskeet as an economic opportunity. And New Holland was certainly innovative.

CAPE HATTERAS Farmers had worked the land adjacent to the lake for centuries, producing remarkable yields, and soil experts compared the fertility of the lake bed to that of the Mississippi Delta and the Nile River. According to an article published in September 1909 by the Washington Daily News, investors speculated that the muddy bottom “would yield 150 bushels of corn per acre, and the drained land would be worth $200 an acre.”

But as fecund as the land was, the Hyde mainland was also notoriously subject to flooding. As far back as the late 1700s, there was talk of draining the lake and the wetlands, especially during years when crop losses from floodwaters or heavy precipitation were extensive.

“Leading up to 1909, it had rained for practically three years in a row,” says Lewis C. Forrest, author of Lake Mattamuskeet: New Holland and Hyde County.

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NORTH BEACH SUN Spring 2018

Clockwise from top left: Now a revamped lodge, the old pump house still boasts a 125-foot-tall smokestack (courtesy of Elizabeth Butt / The Mattamuskeet Foundation); Hyde County residents look out at the dry lake bed (courtesy of Carolyn Ponzer Taylor / The Mattamuskeet Foundation); New Holland’s train depot (courtesy of Sybble Smithwick / The Mattamuskeet Foundation); By 1923, 125 people reportedly lived in New Holland in houses with plumbing, electricity, and running water (courtesy of Carolyn Ponzer Taylor / The Mattamuskeet Foundation); A view of Lake Mattamuskeet today (photo by flickr.com/bobistraveling); The view of the New Holland Inn, taken from atop the town water tower (courtesy of Lennie Jones Christenson / The Mattamuskeet Foundation).

Finally, the 100,000-acre Mattamuskeet Drainage District was established in 1909 by legislation, and within two years plans were being made to drain the lake and nearby lands. A group of businessmen and land speculators calculated that after paying $2 an acre for the land, they could sell it for $100 an acre.

“You’d get a pretty good return,” Lewis adds. “I’d take a bit of that action.”

Many years before, the lake had already been reduced from its original 120,000 acres, according to Lewis. In 1825, the state vested a title to the lake to the State Literary Board, allowing them to improve it and sell it to benefit public education. As part of that project, a seven-mile canal was dug in 1837 from the lake to Pamlico Sound that drained about half of Lake Mattamuskeet.

Plans devised by the district in the early 1900s called for 87 miles of navigable canals and a pumping plant that could move 800,000 gallons a minute from the below-sea-level lake bed. It was soon modified to 130 miles and 1.2 million gallons per minute, making it the largest pumpedland reclamation and pumping plant project in the world.

In 1911, the state sold the lake for $99,660 to Southern Land Reclamation Company, which changed its name three years later to New Holland Farms, Inc. According to Lewis, the name was inspired by the engineering design of the drainage district, which was patterned after the 1853 Haarlem Lake drainage project in Holland.

Despite its loose Dutch connection, New Holland Farms promoted its brand with a windmill logo, and even went as far as to have people dress in Dutch garb.

Apparently, it had an effect.

“You talk to some Hyde County folks today, and they’d say it was drained by the Dutch people,” Lewis says, sounding bemused.

New Holland Farms lauded its project as a transformation of a “useless lake” into “one of the most fertile sections of the United States,” according to the Historical Overview of Hyde County, North Carolina by Michael Hill.

In 1915, North Carolina native Harlan P. Kelsey, a well-known landscape architect, designed the town of New Holland on the lake’s south shore. It was quite the place for isolated Hyde County. Sitting on 850 acres, the town’s streets splayed It was quite the in a half-circle, with the pump staplace for isolated tion as the hub. In 1918, New HolHyde County. Sitting land Farms was sold to a group of on 850 acres, the Ohio investors and renamed the town’s streets North Carolina Farms Company. splayed in a halfThe town, with private homes and circle, with the pump a boarding house, eventually boasted its own park, a barbershop, a wastation as the hub. ter tower, a playground, a two-story inn and even a 35-mile-long railroad.

“The drainage project received extensive newspaper coverage in North Carolina and up and down the East Coast,” Hill wrote. “However, the project was destined to fail.”

Even with crop yields exceeding expectations, the returns did not exceed the costs, resulting in plants left rotting in the rich dirt.

After investing as much as $4 million, the R. L. Dollings Company of Columbus, Ohio, owner of the North Carolina Farms Company, declared bankruptcy in 1923.

Two years later it was purchased for about $200,000 by New York real estate developer August Hecksher and reborn as New Holland Corporation. It was drained and farmed for six more years, but combined woes wrought by heavy rain, pest infestations and the economic depression doomed the effort.

In 1932, the 18-mile long, six-mile-wide lake and the surrounding land were sold to the federal government for $312,000. The Civil Conservation Corps later converted the pump house to a hunting lodge, and it was subsequently placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In recent years, it has been transferred to the state, which is seeking partnerships to have it restored.

Lewis, a retired technical writer and consultant, has been doing presentations about the town of New Holland at the refuge and to civic groups in the region for the past 29 years. Many people, he says, don’t even know it existed.

“I think it’s a fascinating story, what people did there,” Lewis says.

“They were visionaries.” @NORTHBEACHSUN

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shop talk

Photo by Whitney Norko Story by Laura Martier

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t’s said that the only constant is change, but one thing that seems to remain the same on the Outer Banks is the innovative spirit shared by the people who decide to plant roots, start families and establish their lives here on these barrier islands.

“I feel as though the Outer Banks is a place where you can find out who you are,” says Drew Lipscomb, founder of NOSH, a chic line of babies’ teething products. “And being here has played a large part in helping me find my creative voice.”

But Drew, a young mother who left the Coast Guard in order to stay at home with her children, didn’t start out making teething products. At first, she tried her hand at making a little extra money by selling candles and a few other things on Etsy, but nothing quite seemed to click. Then, when one of her children started teething, she learned about teething necklaces.

When she couldn’t find any that she liked, she started making her own. Not long afterwards, another mom approached her about a custom piece – and NOSH Teething was born.

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S

“It’s been a year now, and it’s blossomed into this incredible thing,” Drew says. “I want to be inventive; I want to explore being an entrepreneur. Starting NOSH has opened up a big part of me, and I’m excited about the future.”

What sets NOSH products apart from other brands is that Drew carefully handcrafts each item. Using untreated maple (chosen for its antibacterial qualities and resistance to splintering), Drew cuts the wood into whimsical shapes like unicorns, elephants, dinosaurs and mermaids, and then she drills a hole through each figure that’s designed to fit a ring of soothing silicone beads. From there, she sands the figures until they’re soft and smooth, insuring that every part of her products can safely go into a baby’s mouth.

“When it comes to babies and teething products, there are a lot of questions I have to be able to answer and be held accountable for,” Drew explains.

That type of small batch production seems to work especially well for many young entrepreneurial mothers here on the Outer Banks. Lynn Anne Madory of

Ragamuffin Recycled, a line of products inspired by her two daughters, started out sewing bags with recycled cloth. She remembers how making bags was initially a way for her to mark time during the early haze of new motherhood, when each day seemed to melt seamlessly into the next.

Being a mom of young children is time consuming on its own, but when you add homeschooling to the equation as Lynn Anne does, that doesn’t leave a lot of time for creating. Like many parents, Lynn Anne wakes up long before her daughters to get some work in, but she freely admits that it’s not a sustainable schedule in the long run.

“I’ve been approached by a few local stores, but I’m still primarily a mom so I have limited time,” Lynn Anne says. “I just do what I can.”

Fabric is the star in Lynn Anne’s creations. Mixed, matched and patch-worked, no two items are alike, and nothing goes to waste. A cloth and rope baby swing showcases a bright blue and white nautical print, and her teepees are all made with different fabric prints and patterns. Everything looks fresh, fun and functional, and her teepees

pop up in seconds flat – crucial for busy moms.

Scrap pieces of cloth from a teepee or a sundress are then used to wrap hula hoops and bows for a bow and arrow set that was inspired by the Disney movie, Brave. But above all, Lynn Anne appreciates the fact that she can easily make items like her hoops and bows while she sits outside watching her girls play in the yard.

“It’s all centered around them,” she says.

“And even though everything you read says to find one thing and stick with it, that’s not for me. I would get bored!”

Whitney Norko, of Whitney Norko Photography and Designs, also knows firsthand what it’s like to balance various creative pursuits with a full family life. When her third child was born she wanted to find a pair of leather baby moccasins for him because she heard they were comfortable and good for helping babies learn to walk.

The problem was she couldn’t find any that were affordable, so she took a few sewing lessons and began to make them herself – in addition to her fulltime gig as a professional photographer.

Celebrating American Imagination And Creativity

Whimsical, sophisticated, traditional and contemporary fine American craft.

Artisan jewelry, pottery, wood, glass, metal, fiber and local art.

In the Waterfront Shops in Duck • 252.261.4224 • seadragongallery.com LIKE us on Facebook!

Two Galleries Now in One Location Connected by Our One-of-a-Kind Archway!

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Four-month-old Kaimana plays with some NOSH Teething products while modeling a pair of Whitney Norko Designs’ moccasins in front of a teepee by Ragamuffin Recycled.

“The moccasins started out as a hobby,” she says. “At first I just gave them away as presents, but people kept requesting them more and more.”

It’s easy to see why. Priced at around $30, Whitney’s moccasins are perfect.

They’re crafted with natural leather sourced from a farm in Napa, California – a material that works especially well for babies because it’s supportive and soft at the same time. When babies begin walking, the moccasins help them feel the earth under their feet while also protecting them.

Whitney begins by drawing patterns for her creations. From there, she lovingly handcrafts each pair, mostly to order, with a big local demand for baby showers and gifts. In addition to classic leather moccasins with fringes, she also makes tiny Mary Janes, lace-up

booties and fancy moccasins in metallic or brightly colored leather – all with her signature meticulous attention to detail.

And even with her hectic schedule, Whitney also enjoys the camaraderie of meeting up with a number of other creative local moms to share ideas.

“We’ll go, ‘Would you buy this as a mom? Wait, what about this?’” she says with a laugh.

“It can be hard to find that balance between what you want for your family and what’s going to sell – but I don’t want to conform too much to the market either,” she adds. “After all, I’m not selling my stuff in Kmart. We’ve got a great community of young parents and makers here, and the relationships we’re able to form by working together is what truly matters the most.”

© Ray Matthews

Handmade Jewelry • Local Stained Glass Fun and Functional Pottery Outer Banks Decorative & Antique Maps

© Eve Turek

Yellowhouse Gallery In the Waterfront Shops in Duck • yellowhousegallery.com

@NORTHBEACHSUN

31

shop talk

From Cocktails to Cardigans Pho t o s by Cory G odw in St ory by A r a bel l a Sau n der s

Like many great ideas, it started with an afternoon cocktail hour.

A group of sisters and their mother were gathered on their grandmother’s back porch in Wanchese, sipping fruity drinks and talking business. It was summer of 2013, and the eldest of the four sisters, Lacey Gleich Apple, had just returned home from college…and she was at a loss about what to do next.

“I’ve always liked to shop, I’ve always worked retail, and when I came back from ECU I just didn’t really want to go back to grad school,” she says. “Art has always been my background – I like design, colors and fabrics – all of that stuff. So it really could have been anything, but it ended up being a store.”

Thus, Sisters Boutique & Gifts was born.

With a background in business, Lacey’s grandmother Patty Steinau jumped at the idea of helping her daughter, Rheanne Byrd, and her grandchildren open and operate a family store. Weeks after that initial conversation on her back porch, Patty, Rheanne and Lacey began searching for the perfect storefront in downtown Manteo.

A few short months later they found it at 207 Queen Elizabeth Avenue. The former location of Charlotte’s boutique was already equipped with a back storage room and a fitting room, and the semi-waterfront space was exactly what Lacey and her family had been envisioning for Sisters.

“It was so exciting. We definitely logged some hours hanging around in the empty store, planning things out,” Lacey says. “We would sit down with a computer and shop for our soon-to-be inventory and racks and all sorts of stuff. It was our way of celebrating.”

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While they were searching for the ideal storefront, the multigenerational trio also fine-tuned the business plan for their boutique. The style would be a mixture of classic and trendy. The price point, moderate.

Most importantly, however, Sisters would be a family affair.

After a soft opening during the holiday season of 2013, Sisters officially opened on March 1, 2014.

“It was really exciting – it was my first day working for myself. I remember thinking, ‘What if no one shows up?’” Lacey recalls. “But people did. It was good – it didn’t let us down.”

While Lacey and Rheanne are responsible for the day-to-day work as well as the long-term goals for the store, the other family members play various roles, too. When they’re not away at college, Mollee and Maddie Kinnisten, the two middle sisters, model clothes and accessories from popular brands such as Umgee and Rifle Paper Co. Despite her young age, 11-year-old sister Sydney Byrd takes an active role in the family business by modeling some clothing for their Instagram account and assisting Lacey and Rheanne in the store.

“Sydney will come in and she’ll work the register, bag people up, make change and dust – she even knows the names of every brand we carry,” Lacey says.

Although she was once an active partner in the business, Patty has mostly allowed the younger generations to take over most aspects of the store as Sisters has grown.

But she still makes a point to frequent the shop.

“She loves the store, but it can get crowded when there’s a lot of us in here,” Rheanne says. “She still comes in for about an hour every day, though.”

Although each of them plays a part in the operation of the store, Lacey and Rheanne really run the show at Sisters. While many mother-and-daughter duos might grow irritated by working so closely, the two have a similar style that makes it feel seamless.

“We both have the same vision for the store. When we’re picking out clothing, one of us might ask, ‘Is this ugly?’ And the other will say, ‘Yeah,’ and we’ll both say, ‘Alright, it’s out,’” Rheanne exEven as their plains. “We don’t get our feelings hurt.” business continues “Even our houses look the to grow, the same,” Lacey adds. “She buys all importance of the same stuff I buy.” family will remain Today, Sisters’ style remains a mesh between classic and at the heart of trendy, drawing inspiration from Sisters. stores like Anthropologie. Carrying a variety of popular clothing brands as well as gifts from retailers such as Capri Blue and local brand Hot Mess, there’s a healthy mix of high school girls and older women browsing the affordable selection of items at Sisters on any given day.

But even as their business continues to grow, the importance of family will remain at the heart of Sisters.

“There are always going to be some tears, but the good times are the best,” Lacey says. “At the end of each day we can lock up and look back on our little store and know that we’re making it work.”

Left: The multi-generational family behind Sisters, including Patty Steinau, Lacey Gleich Apple, Rheanne Byrd (standing, left to right), Mollee Kinnisten, Sydney Byrd and Maddie Kinnisten (seated, left to right). Below: Some of the items on display at the store.

Find it all in

Duck.

Connect with nature by strolling along the Boardwalk, walk the village area with stores, galleries and eateries, and enjoy free live events at the Town Park throughout the year.

Summer Events For start/end dates and more info visit townofduck.com Tuesdays

Wednesdays

Thursdays

Fridays

Yoga on the Green 7:30 am

Dynamic Flow Fitness on the Green 7:30 am

Hula Hoop and Play on the Green 10:00 am

Family Magic Show Amphitheater 9:30 & 11:00 am

Concert on the Green 6:30pm

Story Time Paul F. Keller Meeting Hall steps 10:00 am

Children’s Interactive Theater Amphitheater 10:00 am

Save the date! The 2018 Duck Jazz Festival is coming October 6-7. A free, non-ticketed full day of music showcasing national, regional, and local jazz musicians on two stages. Visit duckjazz.com for info and updates.

Visit doducknc.com for a shopping guide and info on special events held

by Duck Village Merchants.

townofduck.com 252.255.1286

@NORTHBEACHSUN

33

EVERYTHING ELSE UNDER THE

Sun

Here Today, Where Tomorrow?

The evolution of some great Outer Banks buildings

By Daw n Ch u rch

O

uter Banks businesses, like the sand they are built upon, continue to shift over the years.

Some businesses reinvent themselves to keep up with the times, some change locations and some just don’t make it here. A lot of the older buildings on the Outer Banks have housed so many different businesses over the years that it’s hard to keep up!

Here’s a short tour of some of the more interesting change ups…

Cars to community center

One of George Crocker’s signature buildings still stands on the Outer Banks, tucked away between the highways on Baltic Street in Nags Head. Some may remember George, a self-made millionaire and a truly interesting person who had a flair for building unique things in the late ‘80s, including the Rear View Mirror Car Museum. Rumor has it that in its heyday, the Rear View housed about 40 vehicles, including Reggie Jackson’s ‘65 Corvette, an amphibian car and a Duesenberg.

But after a business partnership soured, the cars were sold, and the building became idle. For many years now this eye-catching spot has been His Dream Center, an outreach of The Assemblies of God. The center has shared the huge space (17,000 square feet!) with the community, First Flight and other churches, a theatre company and Ruthie’s Kitchen, which provided weekly free meals to anyone in need. SAGA Realty & Construction recently purchased

the building, and they’ve indicated an interest in continuing to use it as some kind of community center. Let’s hope they expose the three-dimensional frieze of cars that once ran along the interior north wall, and bring a little George Crocker flair back to the Outer Banks!

Plumbing to pit parties

Ever notice the log cabin smack in the middle of French Fry Alley in Kill Devil Hills? These days it’s home to Booty Treats, but the building began its life as a model home for Emmitt and Wendy Mitchell’s New England Log Home franchise! The industrious Mitchells built the log cabin in the hopes of selling more, then ran Mitchell Realty upstairs and Mitchell Plumbing on the ground floor. The cabin later housed Lighthouse Realty, and then The Pit’s Boardrider’s Grill. Many sweaty nights were spent dancing to some righteous live bands in that tiny log cabin living room (dancing that sometimes spilled out onto the deck).

In 1999, the Pit dudes raised the building to create a big venue space on the ground level and built the big surf shop that is still rocking behind the cabin today. Booty Treats is currently renovating the lower part of the building so that the main counter will be downstairs and the space upstairs will get a coffee shop vibe, complete with couches. Stop in to check out the groovy architecture, and see if it’s true that there’s a spot worn into the wooden floor from a secretary ages ago who wore high heels and liked to swing her feet under the desk.

Some Outer Banks businesses have gotten new life – and even been retired – in spectacular fashion. The original Manteo Post Office was a wooden structure that first opened in the late 1800s on what’s now Sir Walter Raleigh Street.

After that burned down in the great Manteo fire of 1939, it was quickly replaced by a more formidable brick building.

Although the building is still standing today, it now houses a few private residences, and the current Manteo Post Office is located on U.S. Highway 64. Photos courtesy of the Outer Banks History Center.

Flat Duo Jets to Eagles aerie

It’s kinda hard to believe that the beige, unassuming Fraternal Order of Eagles Lodge over on the beach road in Kill Devil Hills (which will be reborn as a Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint later this spring) used to be the funkiest spot on the beach. In the ‘80s, Mex-Econo Restaurant & Bar was the home of the shark taco, a collection of proudly displayed canister vacuums and a mannequin hand for a door handle.

The music was LOUD and leaned towards punk, and the bands booked there had names like Buttsteak, Buzz Junkies and the Flat Duo Jets. The dance floor was usually packed, and for a while it looked as though the ceiling was made of some kind of sculpted Styrofoam. Cold beer was the main offering, but the menu also boasted a number of interesting foods, such as hot dog chimichangas, spam nachos and pumpkin guacamole. And you might never know it by looking at them today, but many completely respectable Outer Banks locals have a sweet, yet rather fuzzy, memory of a misspent youth moshing at Mexi’s.

In an interesting twist of fate, the Eagles just began moving into their new space, that crazy building on the bypass in Nags Head sporting two-story-tall Greek columns on its façade. The pillars are a throwback to one of the buildings’ earliest restaurant incarnations – The Plantation. Will the Eagles’ nest be the final chapter for this unique building?

Only time will tell!

Hidden Outer Banks is the lovechild of longtime local Dawn Church. She reminds locals and visitors alike to explore the rich history and local color that exists beyond the bright lights of the bypass. You can find HOBX at hiddenouterbanks.com, on Instagram and Twitter as @hiddenobx, and at facebook.com/hiddenouterbanks.

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Lunch: 11:30 am • Dinner: 4:00 pm • Tiki Bar: 11:30 am – Until • Call for Closing Times!

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