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DUCK'S COTTAGE IS ABOUT… COFFEE
Owner Allen LeHew is the resident Cottage barista and java junkie. Prior to opening Duck's Cottage, Allen spent two years preparing for the venture- researching espresso machines, sizing up grinders, choosing vendors and, above all, cupping coffee from roasters up and down the East Coast. He finally selected, and Duck's Cottage is proud to serve, coffee beans from a small roasting company in Lexington, Virginia. These beans are of the highest quality and with weekly shipments, the freshness of Duck's Cottage coffee is never in question.

Allen has chosen a wide variety of coffee beans from which he selects our daily 'brews' and which can also be purchased for your home brewing pleasure. Available in whole bean or ground to your liking, choose from custom blends like the Village Blend, Duck's Cottage, Lightkeeper's or Blackbeard's Blend. (Aarrgh! There's a cuppa joe wot puts hair on yer chest, mate!) A global selection of varietals- Ethiopian, Costa Rican and Malawi to name but a few- are also on hand as are delicately flavored roasts like caramel, southern pecan and our #1 best selling coffee since the day we opened- Coconut Crunch.

Our in-store drinks menu features traditional espresso based drinks- the latte, cappuccino and mocha, as well as the Cottage Specialties- the Mucky Duck, the Nutty Duck and the Swan. All drinks can be served hot or over crushed ice and are available in decaffeinated versions. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts and our customers demands, we do not have the technology to 'ship' our delicious coffee drinks to you in a prudent and timely manner. Just another reason why you'll have to visit us at the beach!!

DUCK'S COTTAGE IS ABOUT… BOOKS
Books for cooks, books for kids, books for sports fans, travel buffs, book clubs and beach bums. We may be small in size, but our book selection runs deep and wide. We pride ourselves on using all the tools at our fingertips to maintain an eclectic, hand picked mix of fiction, non-fiction, cookery, children's biographies, local and regional books to name just a few of the genres you'll find on our shelves. You'll find that Duck's Cottage is ALL about reading- for pleasure, for knowledge, for self-improvement, for children, for anything! We have picked a few of our more popular books to highlight on this site, but please feel free to email or call us with any special requests you may have. We can order almost any book out there (and we love a challenge!) and when you order from Duck's Cottage you'll be supporting an Independent Bookstore.

Duck's Cottage is also a member of Booksense. Booksense is a division of the American Bookseller's Association that was formed to help small, Independent Bookstores compete with the box stores and mass merchandisers which typically unfairly undercut us little guys. As a locally owned, independent business, Duck's Cottage makes countless contributions to our Outer Banks community in the form of jobs, wages, community events, charitable donations and more. Last year alone, we contributed to the OBX Relay for Life, the Advice 5 Cents Turkey Trot (a 5K held Thanksgiving Day), Kitty Hawk Elementary School Fall Festival, Griggs Elementary School auction, Dare Co. Artrageous, the Wright Flight program and more. By patronizing our site and our store you avail yourself of a knowledgable, well read staff and can feel good about supporting an Independent Bookseller.

2009 SUMMER EVENTS
Duck's Cottage is pleased to be partnering with the Town of Duck to present a six week long Author Lecture Series. The Series features an interesting array of authors who will be offering lectures, cooking demonstrations, beach glass identification and more. The Series will take place at 10am, Fridays, from July 7 through August 14, in the Picnic Pavilion at the Town of Duck Park. Proceeding the event, authors will move over to Duck's Cottage, at the Waterfront Shops, for a two hour book signing session. All books are currently available for pre-ordering on our shopping pages under Summer Events.

The schedule for the series is: July 10- Kitchen Memories, Anne Parsons/Alexandra Greeley; July 17- Outer Banks Edge: A Photographic Portfolio, Steve Alterman; July 24- The Outer Banks Cookbook, Elizabeth Wiegand; July 31- A Beachcomber's Odyssey, S. Deacon Ritterbush; August 7- Pure Sea Glass, Richard LaMotte; August 14- Searching for Virginia Dare, Marjorie Hudson.

On Friday, August 21, Duck's Cottage welcomes Jo Maeder for a book signing featuring her recently released memoir, When I Married My Mother. Jo will be here from 10am to 12pm.

Duck's Cottage will also be the featured storyteller at children's story time at the Picnic Pavilion in the Town of Duck Park on Thursday July 9, Thursday July 23, and Thursday August 6.

THE DUCK'S COTTAGE READING GROUP
Our Reading Group meets on the fourth Wednesday of every month at 7:15 pm at the Cottage. Composed of individuals of all ages and all walks of life, our discussions are lively and our selections range from current bestsellers to classics to short stories- there's no book we won't try! We are always welcoming new members or weekly vacationers who have read our selection!

Upcoming 2009 selections are

January 28 - Kabul Beauty School Deborah Rodriguez
February 25 - Beside a Burning Sea John Shors
March 25 - The Yacoubian Building Alaa Al Aswany
April 22 - A Mercy Toni Morrison
May 27 - The Reader Bernhard Schlink
June 24 - Unaccustomed Earth Jhumpa Lahiri
July 22 - Cookbook Meeting - location to be announced
August 26 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz

The current selection for Jamie’s Book Club, a bi-monthly subscription service, is Lost on Planet China by J. Maarten Troost. To subscribe to the Club, please visit our Shopping pages.