2025 Kitty Hawk Barbeque Guide

High Cotton BBQ is now open for the 2025 season! Our dining room is open with full table service. Any trip to North Carolina isn’t complete without North Carolina barbecue. The unique flavor of eastern Carolina style barbecue can be experienced at its very best at High Cotton. Once you walk in High Cotton BBQ, you’ll work up an appetite. The restaurant is filled with the aroma of slow cooked barbecue. High Cotton BBQ uses Hickory coals to slowly smoke the barbecue, producing a sweet, tender meat that’s pink on the inside and brown on the outside.      Nobody Does North Carolina BBQ Like This NC Native No stranger to the Outer Banks restaurant business, Will Thorp moved to the Outer Banks in 1984. After years spent learning the ropes in culinary school, he began his restaurant career working at Kelly’s and other famous restaurants up and down the beach. In 1989 he opened Tortuga’s Lie and in 1993 he started the Rundown Cafe. A native of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Thorp has always had a love and appreciation of real southern food. So in 2002, he found his calling, and decided it was time to open an authentic, Eastern North Carolina Barbeque restaurant right here on the Outer Banks. Nearly 20 years later and the rest is history. High Cotton Barbeque is loved by locals and has become one of the “must visit” establishments for any Outer Banks vacation.

Spanky’s Grille is the perfect spot to grab some good food at cheap prices. In fact, its slogan is “Cheap eats.” Don’t let the low prices fool you, Spanky’s Grille has won Top 10 Burger Joints in NC the past four years in a row and Top 5 Hot dog stands five years in a row. Spanky’s is the local favorite you must check out.