The Tap Shack on a Night the Sand Gets in Your Beer

The Tap Shack on a Night the Sand Gets in Your Beer

The Tap Shack in Kill Devil Hills is exactly what it sounds like: a shack, with taps. The building is a converted oceanside structure on the Beach Road with a deck that faces the Atlantic, a tap wall of thirty-plus craft beers from North Carolina breweries, and the kind of casual energy that only beach towns achieve when the dress code is "shoes optional" and the entertainment is "the ocean is right there."

The crowd is vacationers and locals in equal measure — sunburned families at the early tables giving way to fishing guides and bartenders from other bars as the evening progresses. The Outer Banks Brewing Station beers are well-represented on tap, and the food trucks that park adjacent rotate nightly and provide tacos, barbecue, and whatever else the proprietor felt like cooking. The informality is the point: this is not a destination bar but a neighborhood bar that happens to sit on a barrier island facing the open Atlantic.

Live music happens on the deck — acoustic acts who play with their backs to the ocean and the salt wind in their hair, and the sound of the guitar mixing with the waves creates a soundtrack that belongs to this particular combination of sand, beer, and latitude.

Insider tip: Go on a night with an offshore wind. The bugs blow out to sea, the air clears, and the stars over the ocean — undiminished by city light because there is no city — are the best show on the Outer Banks. The Tap Shack stays open late enough that "late" loses its meaning, which is the Outer Banks' approach to most things.