Redhead Bay Café
Nick and Aristotle Cleanthes are full of big ideas. At 17, the brothers launched a landscaping business in Back Bay followed by a major restaurant revivification just seven years later. When the Cleanthes brothers overhauled the dilapidated Blue Pete’s restaurant in 2011, they transformed the dated creekside eatery into an incubator for Pungo socials, Southern fare and of course, the freshest seafood in southern Virginia Beach.
Earlier this year, the Cleanthes family introduced their next great venture—a cozy brunch and lunch spot in the former Creeds Café. The corner building with a wraparound porch on Princess Anne Road has endured three business changes over the last decade, but the Blue Pete’s legends are hoping to be the last.
While the rebirth of Blue Pete’s required layout changes, construction and damage repair, the majority of upgrades at the soon-to-be Redhead Bay Café are purely cosmetic. Spearheading construction is woodworker and longtime friend of Aristotle, Matt Schwartz. Schwartz and the Cleanthes family are making headway on paint jobs, table construction and polishing off the space’s new bar, which will host fixings for boozy brunches and a cooler for local beers.
Redhead Bay Café will not only ooze beachy hues and Back Bay charm, but will also pay homage to the area’s rich waterfowl history. The Cleanthes brothers are avid fishers and hunters who firmly believe their passion for food stems from their passion for nature, thus seamlessly blending the restaurant’s marriage of gastronomy and the outdoors. The main dining room will display carved decoys crafted by local artisans as well as vintage maps of the Back Bay region and surrounding watersheds.
The Redhead menu is loaded with seafood dishes, grits creations and decadent French toast. Offerings will expand on Fridays when the café opens for weekend dinners.
The Readhead team hopes to open as early as April and will be open Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Friday through Sunday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Redhead Bay Café is located at 605 Princess Anne Road, Virginia Beach.
Grace Silipigni
Grace Silipigni is an elementary school Spanish immersion teacher based in Virginia Beach and a regular contributor to Coastal Virginia Magazine, covering a wide range of topics such as health and wellness, education and learning, food and drink, happenings and events, travel and getaways and more.
