![]() ![]() Hundreds of acts played the relatively small, 320-capacity venue over the years, including Southern Culture on the Skids, GWAR, Dillon Fence, Left Wing Fascists, The Jayhawks, Flat Duo Jets and Kenny Neal, an acclaimed blues guitarist. Music was the major calling card for the club, which gained a national reputation for its willingness to present bands employing a wide variety of styles and sounds: punk, alternative, blues, funk, rock and jam. Patrons looking for grub could munch on such delicacies as spam nachos, hot-dog chimichangas and “killer shark tacos.” “The irreverence was fun and infectious.”Īnd that feeling never went away for Sproul, who hosted two Mex-Econo reunions when he operated the Pit Surf Shop in Kill Devil Hills.ĭave Grohl – yeah, that Dave Grohl – of Nirvana and Foo Fighters hung out at the place in the early ‘90s when his family owned a house in Corolla. “It was OK to be quirky and weird,” he says. … It was a place you could really let loose, be yourself and have a great time.”Īnother frequent visitor at the beginning was Ben Sproul, 53, who now works in marketing for a real estate company and serves as the mayor of Kill Devil Hills. ![]() “There were a lot of odd and unusual people. John, 55, of Nags Head, who was regular customer in the early years of the club. “I’d describe it as thrift-store chic,” says local radio DJ and program director Mark St. The floor was concrete, and the ceiling was low, which made it challenging for band sound engineers. Mex-Econo Restaurant and Bar in Kill Devil Hills was a place unlike any other venue on the barrier islands at the time, hosting bands from all camps playing original music, serving offbeat cuisine, and featuring unique decor. The dimly lit interior featured booths on risers, a display of vintage vacuum cleaners, album covers on the walls, an open parachute on the ceiling, pool tables, an enamel-tiled bar and a 1970s-style disco light. The building, near milepost 8.5 on the beach road in Kill Devil Hills, now houses Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint.Ī mannequin-hand doorknob at the main entrance was probably the first clue that patrons at Mex-Econo were in for a walk on the wild side. Mex-Econo (or “Mexis” as regulars called it) quickly became a space where freaks, geeks and hippies could commune. It was a place unlike any other venue on the barrier islands at the time, hosting bands from all camps playing original music, serving offbeat cuisine and featuring unique décor. Mex-Econo became an underground club that was wide open, and its mythology looms large 26 years after it closed in 1994. ![]() “There wasn’t one at the time on the Outer Banks.”īut after a couple of years Sawyer left the building, and locals Bob Shook and Michael Geissinger joined Campbell, who died in 2019, as owner-managers.Īnd that’s when the restaurant-bar made a radical left turn. “We just wanted to open a Mexican restaurant,” said Sawyer, now retired and living in Currituck County. Chris Campbell and Wayne Sawyer had one thing in mind in 1986 when they launched Mex-Econo Restaurant and Bar in Kill Devil Hills. ![]()
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