Bennett's Creek Marina

Decoys Seafood Restaurant, featuring the Blind Duck Tiki Bar, and Bennett’s Creek Marina are located on the property that once housed Bennett’s Creek Marina. Years ago many locals launched from this marina in wooden skiffs to navigate to their duck blinds and hunt ducks on both Bennetts Creek as well as the Nansemond and James Rivers. The outdoor tiki bar, adjacent to the restaurant, is named Blind Duck as a play on duck blinds, to show respect for the area’s history. During construction, much of the timber used to trim the restaurant and tiki bar was harvested from the current land. Trees were cut to rough lumber and then air or kiln-dried for 18 months. Highlights of the wood varieties used in Decoys Seafood Restaurant and the Blind Duck Tiki Bar include pine for the detailed trim, pecan for the hardwood floors and staircase, black walnut for the bar tops, red cedar for the tiki bar ceiling, and osage orange for the tiki bar seats and bar top.The area in which the restaurant and marina now sit was first a ferry site and lead to the naming of the main road. The creek is named after the Bennett family, the original owners of the land. The current site is where the old swing bridge/country store sat from the early 1900s through the 1940s when the Route 17 bridge was built. The store remained and became a restaurant known as “Creekside Restaurant” until the property was acquired by Brian and Teresa Mullins in 2015 and redeveloped into what you see today.When beginning construction on the old Ferry Bulkhead, the team noticed a part of the concrete retaining wall that had a dog’s unique set of paw prints from the 1800s. This imprint has been carefully preserved and is displayed in the restaurant to show three paw prints and a fourth imprint that looks like a peg leg. Decoys created this 3-legged black lab persona named “Mate” to represent the marina and serve as the Blind Duck’s best friend.The entire portion of Bennetts Creek where the marina now sits was dredged to accommodate larger boats up to 80 feet in length and 60 new slips with 1,800 square feet of floating deck were installed. The property was next purchased by Randy and Brian Pack, of Pack Brothers Hospitality, in May 2024. They continue to operate today and brought Ken Dodd, the long-time operator, on board as a partner.