The bell rings at Tugs Soundside most evenings right around the moment the sky over the Pamlico Sound goes from orange to something closer to purple. A few dozen people are usually on the deck when it happens, some with kids running barefoot between the picnic tables, some just off a full day of fishing at the Avon Pier a few minutes up the road. Nobody organizes this. It just happens, because Avon now has another place built specifically for that ten minutes.
Avon has never had trouble filling a Tuesday afternoon. It has the island's only chain grocery store, its medical center, its fishing pier, its farmers market. People have called it the Center of Hatteras Island for years, a nod to its convenience. Tugs adds another option for spending time in Avon after the errands are done and the sun starts to drop.
New Evening Options in Avon
Sherry Murray, who opened Tugs Soundside Taphouse and Brewery with her husband Travis this year, discussed the timing in a report by Sam Walker of OBX News. She said it is not lost on them that there has never been much for locals to do here year round. That is not a criticism from an outsider. Sherry and Travis moved to Hatteras Island because they wanted to live here, and they spent more than a decade watching the gap she is describing.
Travis started homebrewing in 1999, long before craft beer became the fixture it is elsewhere in North Carolina. He kept at it through years of living somewhere else, and the two of them talked for more than ten years about relocating to the island and building something of their own. When the former Po House space on the Pamlico Sound came open, next to Ocean Air Sports, they took it. What they built is now the first brewery, in any form, that Hatteras Island has ever had.
That is worth sitting with for a second. Hatteras Island runs through Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Buxton, Frisco, and Hatteras Village, and until this year none of those villages had a brewery. Not a small one, not a seasonal one. None. Avon got the first.
A taphouse built by people who planned to stay
Tugs is not pretending to be something it isn't yet. The brewing side is still working through permits, a process that involves federal licensing on top of state and county approval, and Travis expects the timeline to stretch into early 2027 before house-made beer is actually on tap. Until then, the taphouse is running on 20 rotating guest beers, wine, and a partnership model with food trucks and nearby restaurants rather than a full kitchen of its own.
The Murrays have also described a broader hope for the space. Sherry has said they want the space to be fun, and part of what she means is that Hatteras Island has never had much going on in the off-season, and she wants that to change too.
The sunset bell fits into that same plan. What started as an idea the Murrays were kicking around during the spring buildout, something to mark the moment the sun drops below the sound, has become a nightly fixture. Guests gather along the soundfront deck, the light shifts through orange and pink and gold, and when the sun finally goes down, someone rings the bell. It has become part of the routine at Tugs in a way that neither Travis nor Sherry could have fully planned for when they first floated the idea.
Friday mornings now belong to Kinnakeet Shores
The other new anchor point in Avon's week happens at the opposite end of the clock. On select Friday mornings this summer, at 8 a.m., a few dozen runners and walkers gather at SUN Realty in Kinnakeet Shores for the Run Hatteras Summer Series, a run that has been going on for years but changed shape this year in a small, telling way.
For 2026, organizers added a shorter 1-mile out-and-back option alongside the standard 5K. The 1-mile option offers a shorter route alongside the 5K and may appeal to families with younger kids, older residents, and visitors interested in the coffee and post-race breakfast. Race director Matt Costa has run the series on select Friday mornings this year, with events beginning June 19 and wrapping up August 14.
The course itself runs flat through Kinnakeet Shores, inside the boundary of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which means the run is as much a walk through the neighborhood as it is a race. That is probably the point. A race series that only rewards speed builds a leaderboard. A race series that adds a 1-mile option and keeps the same start line throughout the series builds a habit.
Put those two things next to each other and a shape starts to appear. Friday mornings start at SUN Realty in Kinnakeet Shores. Most evenings end at the sunset bell on the sound. Neither of those existed in this form before this year.
The tavern that already knew how to do this
None of this happened out of nowhere. Avon has had one place doing a version of this for years: Pangea Tavern, tucked into Koru Village near the Avon Pier. It is owned by Joe Thompson, a Hatteras resident of more than 30 years who locals affectionately call the Mayor of Koru Village, and the tavern has quietly built the same kind of loyal, regular crowd that Tugs is now working toward. There is a grassy area and a playground for kids while parents wait for a table, an eclectic menu that leans into the pirate history of the island, and a reputation as the kind of spot where the same faces show up week after week.
What Pangea proves is that the appetite for a gathering spot in Avon was never the problem. The demand was there the whole time. Tugs adds a second anchor to Avon’s evening routine. It did not create the demand; it gave it somewhere else to go.
A Week of Local Routines
Layer in the Avon Farmers Market, which runs weekly through the summer with local produce and homemade goods, most recently open August 11 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Avon has a recognizable weekly rhythm. A resident who has lived here for years could now describe a typical week with specifics: farmers market midweek, a Friday morning run through Kinnakeet Shores, dinner at Pangea some nights, the bell at Tugs most others.
These additions build on the familiar picture of Avon, with its grocery store and medical center. Avon has never lacked places to eat during the day. Muffins and Scones has been serving coffee and baked goods out of the heart of the village for years. Bros Sandwich Shack has the burger crowd covered. Tugs and other local gathering spots add options for spending time after a meal, not just picking up a to-go order.
Why this matters more than it sounds like it should
It is easy to read a list of a new brewery, a running series, and a farmers market and think none of it adds up to much. On its own, a taphouse is just a taphouse. But the specific shape of what opened this year—a taphouse whose brewing operation is still in permitting and a race series that added a shorter-distance option—creates more ways to gather. Together, these options offer something for residents and visitors alike, and they are part of what makes this summer in Avon feel different from the ones before it.
The bell will keep ringing at Tugs long after this particular season ends. Whether that turns into the kind of year-round gathering place Sherry Murray says she wants Avon to have depends on what the off-season actually looks like once the vacation traffic clears out. For now, the evenings have an anchor they didn't have before, and so do the Fridays.
If you already call Avon home, or you're weighing whether Hatteras Island's quieter, more practical village might be the right fit, Cooper & Jenny Hawk have spent years watching this stretch of the Outer Banks change season by season. Reach out when you're ready to talk about what living here actually looks like, and let us help you Find a Home that fits the rhythm you're looking for.
