Jake’s Insider Neighborhood Guide: Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
Author: Jake Maines | Virginia Beach Realtor | Updated October 2026
Chic’s Beach is the bay-side beach neighborhood at the foot of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, in the northwest corner of Virginia Beach. Its formal name is Chesapeake Beach, and the nickname comes from a hot dog stand that fed beachgoers here from the 1940s to the 1960s. The grid of short streets between Shore Drive and the water started as a cottage colony, and a lot of those cottages have since been replaced by three-story homes built up on pilings, so you’ll see sixty years of houses on one block. Homes here have mostly sold in the low to mid $600,000s over the past year based on recent sales, with detached houses closer to $870,000. The beach is public, Little Creek is about 10 minutes away, and the Oceanfront is about 20. Below you’ll find the things to do, the restaurants on Shore Drive, the schools, and what to check before you buy a house a block from the bay.
- Life in Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach: Community Overview
- Exploring Chic’s Beach Virginia Beach - Video Tour
- Map of Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
- Jake’s Top Things to Do in Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
- Jake’s Local Favorites & Best Restaurants in Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
- Local Health Care in Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
- Questions About Living a Block From the Bay?
- Shopping Centers Near Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
- Thinking About a Move to Chic's Beach?
- Curious About Chic's Beach Schools and Parks?
- View Properties In Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
- Top Reasons To Live In Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
- Ask Jake: Your Insider to Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
- Frequently Asked Questions About Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
- Virginia Beach Neighborhoods
- Contact Jake Maines Today!
Life in Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach: Community Overview
Chic’s Beach, sometimes spelled Chick’s Beach, is named for Luther “Chic” Leddington, who ran a hot dog stand at the beach with his wife Audrey from the 1940s until they sold it in 1967. Kids who worked the stand would say “meet you at Chic’s,” and the name stuck to the whole neighborhood, even though the plat says Chesapeake Beach. These days the local landmark is Chick’s Oyster Bar on Vista Circle, where you can eat oysters on the deck and watch the boats come through Lynnhaven Inlet.
The neighborhood runs along the bay on both sides of the Bridge-Tunnel approach, with Shore Drive as its southern edge. Most homes are within a few blocks of the sand, and the restaurants and the grocery store on Shore Drive are a short walk or bike ride for a lot of the streets. First Landing State Park is about five minutes east, and the Oceanfront is about 20 minutes away by Shore Drive and Great Neck Road.
The neighbors are Ocean Park on the east side of the inlet and Cape Story by the Sea toward First Landing, and the best Virginia Beach neighborhoods guide puts all of them side by side. If you want a beach you can walk to without living next to a hotel, this is the part of the city to look at.
Exploring Chic’s Beach Virginia Beach - Video Tour
Map of Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
Jake’s Top Things to Do in Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
Most of what you’ll do in Chic’s Beach happens on or next to the water, and a good deal of it is free. The beach is the obvious one, and the streets that end at it are public access points. Then there’s Shore Drive, where you can walk from a brewery to a taproom to a seafood deck without getting back in the car. Here’s what I’d put at the top of the list.
Take to the Water, Your Way
The bay comes in shallow and calm here, which is why you’ll see kiteboarders and paddleboarders working the water off Chic’s Beach on most breezy afternoons, and why low tide turns the narrow strip into a wide one. If you have a boat, the Lynnhaven Boat Ramp under the Lesner Bridge puts you on the bay in minutes, and the barrier islands of the Eastern Shore are a day trip across the water. The street ends off Ocean View Avenue and Lookout Road are your way onto the sand, and dogs are welcome on the beach outside the summer daytime hours the city sets.
Quiet Living Exploration
The thing people notice first is what isn’t here. No hotel towers, no boardwalk, no T-shirt shops. The beach bars are neighborhood places like HK on the Bay on Lookout Road, which has been feeding this corner of the city for close to twenty years, and the crowd on a Friday is mostly people who walked over. If you’ve spent a summer dodging the Oceanfront, that’s the trade you’re making when you buy here.
Plenty To Do Along Shore Drive
When you want more than the beach, Shore Drive has it. Commonwealth Brewing is a block off it on Pleasure House Road, Shorebreak and Hot Tuna sit side by side near Great Neck Road, Froggies has live music on its deck, and Bay Local does the brunch everyone lines up for on weekends. Lynnhaven Mall and Town Center are each about 15 minutes away when you need the big-box stuff.
Jake’s Local Favorites & Best Restaurants in Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
After a day on the sand you’ll want to eat, and you won’t have to drive far. The restaurants here line Shore Drive and the inlet, a few of them have been open for thirty years, and most have a deck. Here are the ones I send people to.
Hot Tuna – Seafood – 4.5 Stars - $$
Don’t let the name fool you. Hot Tuna has been on Shore Drive at 2817 since 1992, opened by Virginia Beach natives Brett Kassir and Jennifer Payne, and the dress code is still flip-flops. The menu leans seafood with a long list of specials, the bar does a proper mojito, and the ahi is the dish regulars order. It’s a dinner spot, opening at 4.
Bay Local Eatery – Seafood – 4.6 Stars - $$
Bay Local at 2917 Shore Drive is where the brunch line forms on weekends, and the crab cake benedict with Old Bay hollandaise is the reason. They source a lot of the menu from the bay. Go early or expect a wait, and order a drink while you stand in it.
Shorebreak – American – 4.6 Stars - $$
Shorebreak at 2941 Shore Drive is the original of the three Shorebreaks, open since 2003 and owned by the Hot Tuna team next door. Hand-tossed pizza is the draw, the burgers have won the Virginian-Pilot’s readers’ poll, and there are 22 taps that rotate through local breweries. Fire pits and pool tables out back make it the after-work spot on this stretch of Shore Drive.
The Back Deck – Seafood – 4.4 Stars - $$
The Back Deck at 3323 Shore Drive is an open-air gastropub a couple of doors down from Chick’s Oyster Bar, looking out over the creek rather than the open bay. Tropical drinks, seafood, tacos and a long list of flatbreads, and the fish tacos are the thing people come back for. It’s the easy choice when you want to sit outside on the water with a group.
Chicks Oyster Bar – Oyster Bar – 4.3 Stars - $$
Chick’s Oyster Bar sits at the end of Vista Circle on Lynnhaven Inlet, and the deck is the point: boats going under the Lesner Bridge, a raw bar, cold beer, and a menu of steamed and fried seafood with burgers and tacos for anyone who doesn’t want oysters. It does a Sunday brunch and takes reservations, which is rare on this stretch.
Commonwealth Brewing Company – Brewery – 4.5 Stars - $$
Commonwealth Brewing took over the old fire station at 2444 Pleasure House Road and turned it into a taproom with 20-plus house beers on at any time and a wood-fired pizza kitchen that runs whenever the taps do. The beer garden is dog-friendly on the patio. It’s a block off Shore Drive, so you can walk here from a good part of the neighborhood.
HK On The Bay – American 4.4 Stars - $$
HK on the Bay at 4600 Lookout Road is the neighborhood tavern, in a building that has been a Chic’s Beach landmark for more than a century. Steaks and seafood at dinner, a daily brunch with omelets made to order, a dog-friendly patio and live music on the weekends. If you live here you’ll end up a regular.
Buoy 44 – Seafood – 4.3 Stars - $$
Buoy 44 at 4536 Ocean View Avenue is the one restaurant right on the Chic’s Beach sand, with a clear look at the Bridge-Tunnel from the deck. Crab cakes, fried oysters, steamed oysters and a flounder BLT are the regulars’ orders, there’s weekend brunch from 10, and parking is tight enough that they run a valet. Come for sunset.
Froggie’s – Barbecue – 4.3 Stars - $
Froggies at 3656 Shore Drive is the veteran-owned one, run by a retired Navy owner, and it smokes all its own meat: brisket, ribs, pulled pork and chicken, with three house sauces. Two bars, 22 taps, a big outdoor deck, TVs for the game and live music most weekends.
Local Health Care in Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
There’s no hospital in the neighborhood, but the ones you’d use are 10 to 15 minutes out, and an urgent care and a vet are right on Shore Drive. Here’s where people here go.
Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital
Sentara Virginia Beach General on First Colonial Road is the closest full hospital, about 15 minutes down Great Neck Road. It’s a Level III trauma center with a 24-hour emergency department and the Sentara heart program on site.
East Beach Urgent Care
East Beach Urgent Care is just over the city line at 9545 Shore Drive in Norfolk, about 10 minutes west, and takes walk-ins seven days a week for the stitches, strep tests and sprains that don’t need an emergency room.
Bayside Veterinary Clinic
Bayside Veterinary Clinic at 4464 Shore Drive is the neighborhood vet, a small-animal practice doing exams, vaccines, x-rays, surgery and boarding on weekdays.
Questions About Living a Block From the Bay?
Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me and ask a question
Shopping Centers Near Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
Chic’s Beach is almost entirely houses, and that’s how people here like it. The everyday stuff is on Shore Drive, where two small centers cover groceries, a pharmacy run and a bank. For everything else, Lynnhaven Mall and Town Center are each about 15 minutes away.
Chic’s Beach Shopping Center
Chic’s Beach Shopping Center is the strip at 4800 Shore Drive, at the light where Pleasure House Road comes in. Aldi is the grocery anchor, and AFK Books and Records next door is the kind of used book and vinyl shop you don’t expect to find in a beach neighborhood. It’s the quick-run center for most of the streets north of Shore Drive.
Lake Shores Plaza Shopping Center
Lake Shores Plaza at 5193 Shore Drive, a few minutes west toward Little Creek, is anchored by Food Lion and Navy Federal Credit Union, with a handful of restaurants and fast food around them. It’s the second grocery option when Aldi doesn’t have what you need.
Thinking About a Move to Chic's Beach?
Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me and ask a question
Recreation, Nature & Parks in Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
Living here means the outdoors is the default. Besides the beach itself, you’ve got a state park five minutes east, a city rec center and a 68-acre park a few minutes south, and a private golf club in between. Here’s the short list.
First Landing State Park
First Landing State Park, at 2500 Shore Drive, is Virginia’s most-visited state park and a five-minute drive from the neighborhood. It covers 2,888 acres and takes its name from the 1607 landing of the Jamestown colonists, and the park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. You get about 20 miles of trails through cypress swamp and maritime forest, a mile and a half of bay beach, 20 cabins and a campground, and saltwater fishing with a Virginia license. Until 1997 it was called Seashore State Park, which is what the older neighbors still call it.
Bayside Rec Center
The Louis R. Jones Bayside Recreation Center at 4500 First Court Road is the city rec center for this end of town, about five minutes south on Pleasure House Road. It’s 83,931 square feet, with an indoor pool with lap lanes, a diving board and an ADA lift, a multipurpose gym, racquetball courts and a fitness floor with classes. You get in with a city membership or a day pass, and it shares a parking lot with Bayville Farms Park next door.
Bayville Golf Club
Bayville Golf Club at 4137 First Court Road is the closest course to the neighborhood and it’s private, founded in 1995 for its members and their families. If you’re a golfer moving here, membership is the question to ask early, because there’s no public course on this side of Shore Drive.
Bayville Farms Park
Bayville Farms Park, 68 acres at 4132 First Court Road, opened in 1978 and has the city’s first disc golf course, 18 holes that still draw a crowd on weekends. There are six lighted tennis courts with one striped for pickleball, three lighted basketball courts, two lighted softball fields, volleyball and shuffleboard courts, horseshoe pits, three big picnic shelters with grills, a playground, a dog park and a shared-use path around the whole thing.
Schools Near Chic's Beach, Virginia Beach
Chic’s Beach is zoned for Hermitage Elementary, Great Neck Middle and Frank W. Cox High. The exception is the far east end along Shore Drive near the Lesner Bridge, which goes to John B. Dey Elementary instead, and a few streets on the western edge feed Thoroughgood Elementary. All of them are Virginia Beach City Public Schools, and none are inside the neighborhood, so every one is a bus ride or a drive. Zones move now and then, so check your exact address with the district before you write an offer.
Hermitage Elementary School
Hermitage Elementary at 1701 Pleasure House Road is the zoned elementary for most of Chic’s Beach, pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, about five minutes south of Shore Drive. For most addresses here it’s the first stop before Great Neck Middle.
Great Neck Middle School
Great Neck Middle School at 1848 North Great Neck Road is the zoned middle school for all of Chic’s Beach, grades six through eight, about ten minutes away down Great Neck Road. The building was Cox High until 1983, when the high school moved up the road.
John B. Dey Elementary School
John B. Dey Elementary at 1900 North Great Neck Road, right beside Great Neck Middle, is the zoned elementary for the east end of Chic’s Beach along Shore Drive near the Lesner Bridge. Pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. If you’re looking at a house east of the Bridge-Tunnel approach, check which of the two elementaries it feeds.
Cox High School
Frank W. Cox High at 2425 Shorehaven Drive is the zoned high school for Chic’s Beach, about ten minutes down Great Neck Road. The school opened in 1961 and moved into its current building in 1983, and it’s named for a former superintendent. It runs a full Advanced Placement program, and the field hockey program is the one people in this part of the city talk about.
Bayside Christian Church Learning Center
Bayside Christian Church on Greenwell Road runs a Children’s Learning Center, the closest church-based preschool and child care option to the neighborhood.
Curious About Chic's Beach Schools and Parks?
Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me and ask a question
View Properties In Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
Homes in Chic’s Beach have sold in the low to mid $600,000s over the past year based on recent sales, and the detached houses closer to $870,000, with the original cottages at the bottom of the range and the rebuilt homes on pilings at the top. Duplexes and a few small condo buildings fill in near Shore Drive and along Lookout Road, which is where the under $500,000 options are. Browse the bay-side houses for sale in Chic’s Beach below, and look at the condos for sale page if the price range is the issue.
If you want the ocean side instead of the bay, the North End is the closest comparison. For more house and yard on this side of the city at a higher price, look at Great Neck and Thoroughgood, both about ten minutes away.
Top Reasons To Live In Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
From the Bridge-Tunnel approach to the Lesner Bridge, this is a small place, a few dozen short streets with sand at one end. Here’s why people who buy here tend to stay.
It’s an Active Community
First Landing’s 20 miles of trails are five minutes east, and the 118-acre Pleasure House Point Natural Area is on the Lynnhaven River just south of Shore Drive, with marsh trails and a Brock Environmental Center you can walk to. On the water it’s paddleboards and kiteboards, not surfboards; the bay doesn’t break.
It’s Quieter and Welcoming
There’s no through traffic here. Every street dead-ends at the water or at Shore Drive, so the only cars on your block belong to people who live on it. Evenings are the beach at sunset and a walk to Shore Drive for dinner, and in winter you can have the whole strip of sand to yourself.
Strong Civic Engagement
The Chesapeake Beach Civic League has been the neighborhood’s voice for decades. In 2016 it won the court case that confirmed the public’s right to use the beach and cleared the way for the sand replenishment you walk on today. The businesses along Shore Drive are mostly independents, and the brewery, the bookshop and the oyster bar all have owners you’ll run into.
Ask Jake: Your Insider to Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
Chic’s Beach is a small neighborhood with a lot of rules that only locals know: which street ends have parking, which blocks need an elevation certificate, which houses were lifted and which weren’t. Jake has walked buyers through all of it. If you’re thinking about a house a block from the bay, start with a conversation.
Jake Maines, Virginia Beach Realtor
Jake Maines is a REALTOR® with Iron Valley Real Estate Hampton Roads, serving buyers and sellers across Virginia Beach. Virginia salesperson license #0225247466, held since August 2020. He is a two-time Circle of Excellence recipient, Gold in 2023 and Platinum in 2024, and was named to Inside Business’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2023. He is a member of NAR and CoVAR.
Frequently Asked Questions About Chic’s Beach, Virginia Beach
Where is Chic's Beach in Virginia Beach, and how do you drive there?
Is Chic's Beach a public beach?
Where do you park to visit Chic's Beach?
Are there restrooms, lifeguards or food at Chic's Beach?
What is the water and sand actually like at Chic's Beach?
What kind of homes will you find in the Chic's Beach neighborhood?
Does Chic's Beach flood, and how do you check a specific address?
What should you check before making an offer in Chic's Beach?
Why is it called Chic's Beach, and is it Chic's or Chick's?
It’s a man’s name. Luther “Chic” Leddington and his wife Audrey ran a hot dog stand on the beach from the 1940s until they sold it in 1967, and the kids who worked there would say “meet you at Chic’s.” The neighborhood’s legal name is Chesapeake Beach, which is what the civic league and the city maps use. Chic’s is the original spelling. Chick’s and Chix came later, and you’ll see all three on signs within a mile of each other. Google treats them as the same place. So does everyone who lives here.
Is Chic's Beach a good place to live?
If you want a beach you can walk to and you can live with the trade-offs, yes. The trade-offs are real: small lots, scarce parking, flood insurance on a lot of parcels, and summer weekends when visitors fill the street ends. What you get is a public bay beach at the end of your block, a dozen restaurants on Shore Drive you can reach on foot or by bike, no hotels and no boardwalk, and a 10 to 25 minute drive to Little Creek, Fort Story and Norfolk. Houses here hold their value because the supply doesn’t grow. The grid was full decades ago.
Chic's Beach or the Oceanfront, which is the better place to buy?
Different animals. The Oceanfront has surf, a boardwalk, hotels, nightlife and the crowds and short-term rentals that come with them, and the housing is heavy on condos. Chic’s Beach has flat bay water, no boardwalk, no hotels, and almost all houses. Prices overlap, but you’ll pay more per square foot for ocean than for bay. Commute tips it: Chic’s Beach is 10 minutes from Little Creek and about 25 from Norfolk, the Oceanfront is closer to Oceana and Dam Neck. Pick the base, then pick the beach. The North End guide covers the ocean side without the resort strip.
What schools serve Chic's Beach, Virginia Beach?
Hermitage Elementary, Great Neck Middle and Frank W. Cox High for most of the neighborhood. The east end along Shore Drive near the Lesner Bridge is zoned for John B. Dey Elementary instead, and a few western streets feed Thoroughgood Elementary. None of them are in the neighborhood; the closest is Hermitage, about five minutes south. Virginia Beach City Public Schools redraws lines now and then. Check the exact address with the district before you write an offer. A listing sheet isn’t proof.
What do homes cost in Chic's Beach?
Figure the low to mid $600,000s for the neighborhood as a whole, based on recent sales, and closer to $870,000 for a detached house. The spread is wide. A 1950s cottage on a small lot can still trade in the $400,000s if it hasn’t been lifted. A rebuilt three-story on pilings with a bay view runs well past a million. Duplexes and the small condo buildings near Shore Drive are the way in under $500,000. Elevation and parking move the price as much as square footage does. You can check what Chic’s Beach homes are asking today against those figures.
