• Letters from CAMP Rehoboth
    • Current Issue
    • Past Issues
    • Advertising Information
    • Where Can I Get Letters?
    • The Write Stuff
  • Events
    • SUNFESTIVAL 2023
    • Women's FEST
    • Pride Month Listicle 
    • CAMP Rehoboth Chorus - Out for the Summer!
    • Block Party 2023
  • Programs
    • Arts & Culture
    • Education & Advocacy
    • Health & Wellness
    • Community Building
    • CAMP Facilities
  • About Us
    • Membership
    • Volunteers
    • Board of Directors
    • CAMP Rehoboth Staff
    • Reports and Financials
    • History
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Press
  • Resources
    • Beach Guide Directory
    • LGBTQ Resources
    • LGBTQ Providers
    • LGBTQ Delaware Data
    • Trans & Nonbinary Resources
    • BIPOC LGBTQ Resources
    • LGBTQ Local and National Resources Guide
  • Contact
  • Shop
close× Call Us 302-227-5620
close×

Search form

May 31, 2019 - Eating OUT by Fay Jacobs

It’s Not Just for Once in a Blue Moon

It gave me a jolt when I realized that the venerable Blue Moon restaurant in Rehoboth has been in town 38 years and counting. And I’ve been dining there 26 of those years. That’s a lot of marvelous meals.

Blue MoonAnd just as the growth and success of CAMP Rehoboth helped change the culture of coastal Sussex County to a welcoming place for the LGBTQ community, so did the Blue Moon, along with its 1980s companion, the Back Porch. Together, these two restaurants changed the culinary culture at the beach. What used to be mainly a fried fish and French-fry haven became an area noted for award-winning contemporary cuisine.

And it did its part for the LGBTQ culture as well. When the Blue Moon first opened in 1981, along with the rave reviews from the likes of the New York Times, it had to contend with flying bottles and beer cans plus shouted slurs hurled into the bar. But the Blue Moon stood its ground and became a beloved restaurant and go-to venue for the entire diverse community, including Delaware governors, national celebrities, bachelorette parties, and an enormous spectrum of people who love excellent food in a fun, but sophisticated atmosphere.

When restaurant founder Joyce Felton retired, the restaurant came under the ownership of two couples, Lion and Meghan Gardner and Tim Ragan and Randy Haney. Tim and Randy keep the bar and entertainment running full-speed ahead while Lion and Meghan handle the busy restaurant and catering business. Lion is Executive Chef and has been dazzling both diners and restaurant writers at the Moon since 2006.

When Bonnie and I visited on a Thursday evening two weeks ago, it was clear that the restaurant’s food, ambiance, and service were up to its glorious reputation. We sat on the enclosed porch, our favorite spot, enjoying cocktails (classic and generous cosmos) and the amuse-bouche presentation of Gorgonzola stuffed dates wrapped in bacon on shortbread with a dab of peanut butter. Nice touch!

Our server, Charlie, jovial and professional, set the pace—long enough to enjoy the cocktails but available to take our order the instant we looked around. He brought us tempting brioche rolls with a honey-pepper butter, which we nibbled on but carefully avoided finishing lest we ruin what was yet to come.

We sampled the nightly cheese board, with truffle goat’s milk cheese and aged, raw blue cheese, accompanied by pear and apple slices, cucumbers, blackberries, blueberries, and flat bread. Great companion to those cosmos.

My appetizer choice was the Beef Tenderloin Tartare, served with a quail egg atop and house made potato chips. Either you love steak tartare or you don’t. Bonnie loved the chips. I thought the beef with chopped onion, horseradish, and spectacular seasonings was divine.

Next up from the evening’s chef de cuisine, Nelson, came two entrees, equally wonderful and plentiful. We shared the house specialty of Lamb Bolognaise with a hearty tomato sauce over wide, perfectly cooked house-made noodles and the unique Duck Stroganoff with spaetzle. Both entrees were impressive and generous enough for half of each to become our next day’s Blue Moon luncheon.

No review of this legendary eatery would be complete without their famous dessert, which used to be called Second-Word-in-Name-of-Restaurant Pie, a towering ice cream and whipped cream confection completing birthday and anniversary celebrations since 1981. But due to a legal dustup with the giant corporation behind certain round, chocolate lunar pie cookies, served throughout the 20th century at general stores everywhere, the aforementioned dessert has been replaced by the Blue Moon Chocolate Verrine, or Moon Bomb.

Not to worry. The combination of dark chocolate cocoa cream, dulce de leche, and walnut brown butter, with a high hat of meringue, looks very, very familiar. And though it has small and inventive differences, like that touch of raspberry, it’s as fantastic as the original.

The number of dollar signs on Trip Advisor shows $$$$, as with all of our sophisticated restaurants in the area. But we find if you choose carefully you can get the Blue Moon experience by bending but not breaking the bank.

The Blue Moon is open seven days a week for dinner beginning at 5 p.m. There’s a terrific brunch on Sundays. The adjacent bar and lounge has a ton of entertainers, drag shows, summer comics, and the fabulous Pamela Stanley on piano and vocals to offer. Check it out.

And savor everything about this historic Sears Craftsman house on Baltimore Avenue and the restaurant inhabiting it. The Blue Moon remains a touchstone of Rehoboth’s history of change and an agent for its happy culinary and cultural future.▼

‹ May 31, 2019 - Community News up May 31, 2019 - Get Outside by Stefani Deoul ›

Past Issues

Issues Index

  • November 15, 2019 - Issue Index
  • October 18, 2019 - Issue Index
  • September 20, 2019 - Issue Index
  • August 23, 2019 - Issue Index
  • August 9, 2019 - Issue Index
  • July 26, 2019 - Issue Index
  • July 12, 2019 - Issue Index
  • June 28, 2019 - Issue Index
  • June 14, 2019 - Issue Index
  • May 31, 2019 - Issue Index
    • May 31, 2019 - Cover-to-cover with ISSUU
    • May 31, 2019 - The Way I See It by Murray Archibald
    • May 31, 2019 - In Brief
    • May 31, 2019 - CAMP Matters by Murray Archibald
    • May 31, 2019 - CAMP Out by Fay Jacobs
    • May 31, 2019 - CAMP News
    • May 31, 2019 - President's View by Chris Beagle
    • May 31, 2019 - CAMP Round Up- Outdoor Eateries
    • May 31, 2019 - Parsells: Giving Comfort by Michael Gilles
    • May 31, 2019 - CAMP Stories by Rich Barnett
    • May 31, 2019 - Straight Talk by David Garrett
    • May 31, 2019 - It's My Life by Michael Thomas Ford
    • May 31, 2019 - The Real Dirt by Eric W. Wahl
    • May 31, 2019 - CAMP Critter
    • May 31, 2019 - Health and Wellness by Marj Shannon
    • May 31, 2019 - Intentionally Inclusive by Wesley Combs
    • May 31, 2019 - Community News
    • May 31, 2019 - Eating OUT by Fay Jacobs
    • May 31, 2019 - Get Outside by Stefani Deoul
    • May 31, 2019 - CAMPshots Gallery 1
    • May 31, 2019 - CAMPshots Gallery 2
    • May 31, 2019 - CAMPshots Gallery 3
    • May 31, 2019 - Out & About by Eric C. Peterson
    • May 31, 2019 - CAMP Arts by Doug Yetter
    • May 31, 2019 - Booked Solid by Terri Schlichenmeyer
    • May 31, 2019 - CAMP Dates
  • May 17, 2019 - Issue Index
  • May 3, 2019 - Issue Index
  • April 12, 2019 - Issue Index
  • March 8, 2019 - Issue Index
  • February 8, 2019 - Issue Index

Follow Us

Follow us on Social Media!

RECEIVE WEEKLY EMAIL

Information

  • Letters
  • Events
  • About Us
  • CAMP Center

Support CAMP

  • CAMP Membership
  • Volunteer
  • Contact Us
  • Donate
Copyright © CAMP Rehoboth, 2023
  • p. 302-227-5620
  • info@camprehoboth.com
  • 37 Baltimore Avenue, Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971