The Black Pelican

Milepost 4 Beach Road
Kitty Hawk NC

The Black Pelican was originally a LifeSaving Station built in 1874 and was known as LifeSaving Station #6. It was also the place where the Wright Brothers sent their telegram from in 1903 after their successful First Flight. So it is an interesting setting for an OBX restaurant. In our early years of vacationing on the Outer Banks, the Black Pelican was a very regular stop. Our first year in particular, we spent one of our weeks in a condo in Duck on the soundside, and we would drive every morning to the public beach access in KittyHawk near the Black Pelican. We would have a late lunch daily alternating between the Black Pelican and Awful Arthur's. We loved it for lunch! If you wanted any one of their tremendous wood fired pizzas, you could not go wrong. We would either eat pizza or gorge ourselves on their raw bar, which had all the regular characters you would find here on the OBX, steamed shrimp, crab legs, oysters, and clams. They also add Dungeness crabs and mussles, all of which are excellent here. I also LOVE the atmosphere inside this place, a very rustic Outer Banks beach bar feel to the place. Over the years, we changed where we stayed, and started coming mostly for the dinners. After several mediocre dinners, and so so service we began to leave the Pelican behind for other places we liked better. My personal take on this place is that you should try it yourself, and in particular, if you are interested in a casual meal, either lunch or dinner, focused on raw bar or oven fired pizza you will never go wrong to eat here. In fairness, it has been a couple of years since we came for dinner, as the combination of the crowds and less than awesome dinners had us move in a different direction, so it may be different now. In either case, enjoy the atmosphere, a cold beer and some raw beer or pizza, or if you eat like us both! You will never go wrong if you do that here.