John Power lapped The Blue Point’s small dining room, eyeing the tables as people clinked their glasses and conversed over plates of crab cakes and shrimp and grits. His green eyes swept the ceiling, gauging the lights for optimal ambience — soft enough to showcase the setting summer sunlight flooding the space but bright enough to read the menu — and smiled as a bartender and guests laughed together at an inside joke forged over several visits.

Positioned between the bar and the kitchen, Power’s business partner, Chef Sam McGann, conducted the line cooks like an orchestra, announcing incoming orders and sending out plates of crispy softshell crabs and mini sweet potato ham biscuits, all balanced on colorful Fiestaware pieces.

In the northwest corner of the dining room, Power spotted a familiar couple at a red banquette beside a window overlooking Currituck Sound. They’d been in a few times, most recently around this time last year, and they’d mentioned a birthday. Now, they were back. For vacation? Another birthday? Both?

Chef Sam McGann (left) and his business partner, John Power, helped turn the Outer Banks into a dining destination when they opened The Blue Point in Duck and Ocean Boulevard in Kitty Hawk. photograph by Lanpher Productions

This was the early 1990s, decades before guests’ names could be searched within a digital reservation system. Since opening The Blue Point, Power had kept a handwritten black book of regulars’ names. He went to the host stand and flipped through the As, Bs, Cs, and finally, there.

After a server took their drink order, Power approached the table. “Ellen and Michael,” he said, smiling warmly at the Davids. “Welcome in. Good to see you again.”

“The ability to instantly put a name to the face is John’s superpower,” McGann says, reflecting on these moments with Power more than 30 years later. “When you call someone by name when they walk into a restaurant, it’s a big deal. When you’re here on vacation and in shorts and flip-flops, you’re not the same person as you are when you’re home and running your business. But if you’re recognized by your first name, it makes you feel important.”

• • •

Power and McGann opened The Blue Point in Duck in 1989 and a second restaurant, Ocean Boulevard, six miles away in Kitty Hawk in 1995. The local seafood, seasonal menu, and comfortable diner-style space of The Blue Point and the chic bistro feel of Ocean Boulevard were unlike the area’s delis, dive bars, and sprawling restaurants that packed in large parties for platters of fried seafood. Power and McGann didn’t try to be fancy. But they did make it a point to connect with guests and taught their staff to do the same. By cultivating an environment where every guest felt welcomed, they developed a following at both businesses that has endured.

When The Blue Point opened in its soundside space inside the Waterfront Shops, a collection of boutiques snaking along Currituck Sound, there were few other restaurants in Duck. None of them, Power says, were places where residents could go to celebrate a birthday or anniversary. He’d gotten to know some seasonal visitors and the village’s handful of year-round residents while bartending at Barrier Island Resort the year prior, and he drummed up excitement for the little joint that he and McGann were opening.

At the northern end of the Duck Soundside Boardwalk, The Blue Point offers a delicious spot to conclude a sunset walk. photograph by Baxter Miller

Word spread quickly among locals when The Blue Point opened in July, and soon the restaurant had a waitlist each night. As Power’s little black book filled with names and notes of FOBPs (Friends of The Blue Point), McGann’s vision in the kitchen transformed how people ate out in Duck.

He formed relationships with local fishermen and farmers so that he could showcase the changing coastal landscapes with the season, from locally sourced jumbo lump crab cakes and a warm vegetable couscous salad in the summer to cozy bowls of Rose Bay oyster stew seasoned with Benton’s bacon in the winter.

The Blue Point serves thoughtful dishes like (clockwise) a grilled pork chop with mac ’n’ cheese and an apple-and-arugula salad, jumbo lump crab cakes over vegetable couscous, and yellowfin tuna over field pea hoppin’ John. photograph by Chris Hannant

“No one on this end of the beach was sourcing food from nearby farms,” Power remembers. During the following decades, as others reimagined their menus to take part in the rising farm-to-table trend, McGann’s cooking remained largely unchanged. Partnering with farmers in Currituck and Dare counties, the produce stand down the street, and livestock purveyors in North Carolina and Virginia had been part of The Blue Point’s ethos from Day 1.

They didn’t take reservations for the first six months, and in the height of summer, people would wait hours for a table. It was worth it for the sunset views, McGann’s food, and the uncompromisingly high level of service that felt like downright great hospitality.

From the beginning, The Blue Point catered to Outer Banks locals like Callum and Kasey Love, who visit for fine meals and sunset views of Currituck Sound. photograph by Chris Hannant

“We looked at it as though we were hosting a dinner party every night,” Power says. Whereas most restaurants closed in the off-season, he and McGann kept The Blue Point open year-round, establishing it as the place locals went to celebrate special occasions or whenever they simply craved a good meal on a Tuesday night in January.

When Power and McGann opened Ocean Boulevard inside Kitty Hawk’s 1948 Virginia Dare Hardware store six years later, it was to offer more opportunity to their talented staff at The Blue Point. They countered The Blue Point’s diner-style barstools and Formica tables with white tablecloths, cherry-red park benches, and exposed brick walls. Locals came for the monthly neighborhood cocktail parties, complete with a buffet of gratis snacks. Visitors came for the fresh seafood, cocktail bar, and elevated atmosphere overlooking the beach.

• • •

Power and McGann eventually sold their restaurants. Donny King has been the chef and owner of Ocean Boulevard since 2002, and after nine years as the dining room manager at The Blue Point, Ryan Raskin and his siblings, Leigh and Jamie, bought it in 2021. While there have been evolutions to keep the spaces relevant to present-day guests, the look and feel of both restaurants remain largely unchanged.

“Every day, we get emails saying, ‘We’re planning our vacation in August, and we come there one night every year. Are your reservations open yet?’” Leigh Raskin says, sitting at a table beside her brothers. “I could show you any night, and we have at least three birthday listings on the reservations.” Or anniversaries. Sometimes even engagements.

At Ocean Boulevard, classic starters like the Seven Lettuce Salad (top) and OB Mac ’n’ Cheese are always on the menu, while entrees shift with the seasons. photograph by Baxter Miller

“We had at least two engagements out there on the pier last year,” Jamie says, pointing out the dining room window to the long dock that stretches into the sound. Behind him, the kitchen buzzes as chefs prep for the evening’s service.

“It’s like they’ve chosen us to be the backdrop for so many core memories,” Ryan adds. “John and Sam took that seriously, and we feel the same way. It’s really amazing.”

For more than two decades, King has similarly witnessed Ocean Boulevard serve as a backdrop for special occasions. One of his favorites is hosting a couple who have celebrated their last 24 anniversaries — on Valentine’s Day — at the restaurant. Another is welcoming groups who regularly request the four-seater chef’s counter beneath a brick archway that separates the dining room from the open kitchen. There, he can banter with guests throughout the night and give them a glimpse into the inner workings of the restaurant.

At Ocean Boulevard’s four-seater chef’s counter, diners can chat with Chef Donny King while they wait for dishes. photograph by Baxter Miller

His first experience with Ocean Boulevard was as a guest, during his time as the chef at 1587 in nearby Manteo. “I was struck by the way it was run,” he recalls. “It was busy in March! And in a way that was on par with restaurants in Virginia Beach,” he says, comparing the Kitty Hawk bistro to the Outer Banks’ closest metropolitan area.

When he and the new ownership came in, they were conscientious about their approach. “We wanted to keep the restaurant very similar but updated,” King says. “There wasn’t much we felt we needed to change.”

Today, the majority of the menu offerings transition with each season, and the ever-changing nightly fish specials draw in regulars. But there are some items that will never go away, like the Seven Lettuce Salad, topped with fan-favorite caramelized grapes, and the Bar Chicken, a crispy-skinned half chicken served with mashed potatoes, greens, and pan sauce.

Nightly fish specials at Ocean Boulevard might include salmon with Italian black rice risotto and seasonal vegetables. photograph by Baxter Miller

King has maintained the ground-level beachside building through hurricanes and nor’easters — a feat anyone familiar with oceanfront property will recognize. Inside, elements of Power and McGann’s original vision remain: A vintage Lillet Blanc poster still hangs in the stairwell, and behind the bar, there’s a stained paper with the original cocktail recipes from 1995. It’s very 1990s — lots of liqueurs. But keeping those constants helps maintain longtime guests, whether they’re residents or seasonal visitors.

“It’s a delicate balance to evolve without shocking people, especially when you have seasonal guests who come in once a year and want that one dish,” Jamie says. “If you take it away, it’s shocking. You have to have those main things without overwhelming them with new things.”

The Raskins constantly discuss ways to keep The Blue Point current, but it all comes back to honoring the business that Power and McGann created.

• • •

Growing up, I’d been to The Blue Point and Ocean Boulevard on special occasions. After graduating from college in 2018, I moved to Kitty Hawk, and I noticed that everyone in my new town seemed to talk about the two upscale spots. So when my parents suggested going to one for each of their birthdays, I was ecstatic — and a tradition was born.

In the following months and years, my life became intertwined with both places. I started working a few nights a week as a hostess at Ocean Boulevard, then later moved into the kitchen and behind the bar. I learned how to adjust a roomful of lights to make everyone feel beautiful, and which drinks are shaken, not stirred. I know that paper hidden behind the bar — I referenced those recipes when people (still!) asked for those off-menu drinks.

No dining experience at Ocean Boulevard without one of the jewel-toned cocktails. photograph by Baxter Miller

I began dating The Blue Point’s then-beverage director, Simon. We’ve celebrated birthdays, packed and unpacked U-Hauls, and grown together — in our jobs at The Blue Point and Ocean Boulevard and beyond. At each restaurant, I found friends and mentors. Even now, when I return as a guest, I look forward to the welcome that awaits, a mix of friends and new faces. But that familiarity hasn’t changed the magic — when it’s time to toast a birthday, an anniversary, or a visit back to the beach, the experience still feels as warm and effervescent as before.

Last year, after moving home to the Outer Banks after years away, Simon and I got to go to The Blue Point’s annual staff party — hosted by Ocean Boulevard — as plus-ones. Many of these folks I hadn’t seen in years, but it didn’t feel that way as I moved between conversations with friends from The Blue Point and former coworkers from Ocean Boulevard. Activity coursed through the building like electricity. Even a couple of FOBPs crashed the party.

The Blue Point’s warm Southern pecan pie with bourbon ice cream and brown butter caramel turns any meal into a special occasion. photograph by Baxter Miller

In that moment, I felt like I was back in the early Ocean Boulevard, when Power and McGann, and later King, would throw neighborhood cocktail parties and locals flocked for drink specials and free snacks.

Power and McGann were also invited that night. When Ryan Raskin led a toast that held the room in rapt attention, I saw McGann at the polished concrete bar he’d helped build, looking completely at ease as he watched the room, a cocktail in hand. “Feel familiar?” I asked him after Ryan’s toast. He smiled and nodded. “Me, too,” I agreed.

The Blue Point
1240 Duck Road
Duck, NC 27949
(252) 261-8090
thebluepoint.com

Ocean Boulevard
4700 North Virginia Dare Trail
Kitty Hawk, NC 27949
(252) 261-2546
obbistro.com