May 14, 2004  |  By: BRYAN ANDERTON  | COMMENTS     

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — Gays traveling here this summer will notice a few differences from years past, most notably the absence of a late-night dance venue in the gay-friendly town.

With the closure of the venerable Renegade nightclub two years ago and a decision not to reopen Club AM this year, there will be no late-night venues available for gays who want to dance.

“Sometimes we get wrapped up in things like the closing of the Renegade, but we forget that the main attraction of Rehoboth is still that stretch of white sand,” said Steve Elkins, executive director of the pro-gay, non-profit group Camp Rehoboth. “Last time I checked, P Street Beach can be fun, but it’s certainly not the Atlantic Ocean.”

Last call at most of the town’s bars and restaurants is 1 a.m. In the past, the Renegade provided a haven for people who wanted to party into the early morning, but the club shut its doors in early 2003 after a quarter-century in business and was demolished to make way for a condominium development.

A group of local promoters and business managers banded together to open Club AM last summer in an abandoned Ames department store, but the club was only open on the weekends and never found a steady crowd. The owners have opted not to reopen the club this season, according to Elkins. The club’s owners could not be reached for comment by deadline.

“People that enjoy [going to dance clubs] are just going to be resilient now and shift their social events to different types of things,” Elkins said. “That happens periodically in gay resorts all over the place. I’ve seen changes in Fire Island and Key West and places like the Hamptons, where shifts go from having no place to go to having a whole new type of entertainment we never really thought of.”

Some business owners are already bringing change to Rehoboth’s social scene. Aqua, a new establishment on Baltimore Avenue that will be replacing the restaurant Scalawag’s, plans to host a number of afternoon tea dances each week throughout the summer, according to Elkins.

Adjusting to smoking ban
Last summer, Rehoboth Beach residents and revelers faced the implementation of a statewide smoking ban in all bars and restaurants for the first time, to the dismay of some patrons who had to go outside to smoke.

While some of the resort’s more popular bars and restaurants already had outdoor decks and eating areas where patrons could smoke freely, those that did not had to ask patrons to leave the building to smoke, which led to a number of complaints.

But Mark Aguirre, a Rehoboth Beach city commissioner who is gay, said he believes most people have since adjusted to the change, and many patrons are actually happy about the restrictions.

“I have heard just as many people, if not more, who are very pleased with the fact that you can’t smoke in bars and restaurants anymore,” said Aguirre (pronounced “A-GEAR-ay”).

“There are gays and lesbians on both sides of that issue. I don’t really consider it important or in some way a hindrance to gays and lesbians in Rehoboth.”

The new law did have one unintended consequence, though — an increase in noise outside the town’s bars. As people went outside to smoke, noise carried outside along with them, leading to an increase in complaints to police. The police, in turn, began aggressively enforcing a local noise ordinance that prohibits noise levels above 55 decibels in commercial or residential areas.

While many bars were simply warned repeatedly about their noise levels, some were penalized with fines between $25 and $100.

One restaurant that received its share of noise complaints and fines last year was the Blue Moon restaurant on Baltimore Avenue. Officials at the restaurant said the noise ordinances caused some headaches last year.

“It is an annoyance, and I think we are just looking ahead to the summer and trying to find a way to be proactive about it this year,” said Meghan Mason, the restaurant’s manager. “The police are just doing their job, but at the same time I can’t say that it was easy to deal with the police all the time.”

Mason said the Blue Moon had been visited by the police already a number of times so far this year, and received a number of warnings when hosting events such as karaoke nights.

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