Pink Pony Club thrives on Rehoboth Boardwalk
Those tapped into today’s pop music may have heard the song “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan. The young artist is known for the over-the-top stage outfits she wears as an homage to the drag community. Since she was born in 1998 in Missouri, it’s unlikely she was aware of Rehoboth Beach’s Pink Pony Club, which operated on the Boardwalk between Olive and Maryland avenues where the Boardwalk Plaza Hotel now stands.
The Pink Pony opened in 1950 and had a successful run until it was destroyed by the infamous Storm of 1962. In this photograph, the shop next to the Pink Pony is the Safari Shop, where one could get “crafts from many lands.” According to several sources, the Pink Pony was one of the first gay-friendly establishments in Rehoboth Beach.
An article in Letters from CAMP Rehoboth describes the Pink Pony Club as an “almost-gay bar.” “Thanks to liquor laws in those days, it was illegal to walk around with a drink in your hand in a bar. Somehow, the men were able to socialize with those sitting on either side of them at the bar,” the 2022 article says. In 2021, Bramble & Brine at the Buttery owner Megan Kee named the bar in her restaurant the Pink Pony as an homage to the Rehoboth icon. Kee says change is in store and, come 2025, her restaurant will be known as Bramble & Brine at the Pink Pony.
