Swept Away Cafe

Swept Away Cafe sits on NC-12 in Avon, one of the Hatteras Island villages strung along the single highway running through Cape Hatteras National Seashore. It's categorized as a cafe and bakery, priced at the budget end of the scale, but the business's own web address — studio12avon.com — along with an art-gallery designation attached to the listing, points to something a little more layered than a standard coffee stop: a cafe that shares its storefront with an art studio.

Hours to plan around

Swept Away Cafe keeps a shorter schedule than a lot of Hatteras Island food stops. It's open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. — then closed entirely on Saturday and Sunday. That's worth building into a trip: if you're passing through Avon on a weekend, which is exactly when a lot of seasonal visitors are on the road, this isn't going to be an option, so plan a weekday stop instead.

Avon sits between the Rodanthe-Waves-Salvo villages to the north and Buxton — home to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse — a few miles south. As with anywhere on this stretch of NC-12, it's worth checking road conditions before a trip during hurricane season, when the highway here is prone to washouts.