VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — News 3's Beverly Kidd caught up with lifelong residents of Chic’s Beach, Prudy Ramsey and Beetle Bailey, at Buoy 44 Restaurant on the Chesapeake Bay.
“Just this corner. This was Chic’s Beach,” said Bailey.
The exact site where a little place called Chic’s used to stand is not far from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.
“They had a little hot dog stand, umbrellas and rafts, kind of a meeting spot especially for high school kids,” said Bailey.
“I started working here at Chic’s in the summers when I was 13. Five dollars a day and all I could eat,” Ramsey chimed in.
So who is Chic?
“This little fella, Luther Leddington, and for some reason they called him Chic,” said Ramsey. "He was thin, wiry and the best boss I ever had,” she added.
Chic and his wife, Audrey, owned the hot dog stand. The couple was friends with many of the locals, including Beetle, who is known as the Mayor of Chic’s Beach.
The mayor’s house, which is a golf cart ride from the original hot dog stand, is rich with Chic’s Beach history, including posters and articles of a famous sailboat race.
“We’d have 2 to 3,000 people on the beach to witness the start of it,” said Bailey.
An avid Hobie Cat sailor, Beetle and other Chic’s beachers competed in races at the Oceanfront for years. During one pre-race meeting, an insult was hurled after the Chic’s sailors announced their intention to have a race of their own.
“Some other guy in the back of the room stands up and says, Well, that’s all right, we don’t want you people from the low rent district anyway,' and we all went, 'What did he say?'” said Bailey with a laugh.
And the Low Rent Regatta was formed. It ended up being the largest catamaran race on the East Coast and the biggest summer beach party in Hampton Roads for two decades.
And that race is one of the reasons the Chic’s Beach neighborhood has evolved and grown over the years.
“From Lynnhaven Bridge to Little Creek is all Chic’s Beach,” said Bailey.
But it’s sandy, salty roots are here, where Chic’s hot dog stand once stood, a neighborhood that is uniquely and positively Hampton Roads.
