pony keg

English

WOTD – 5 February 2016

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

Noun

pony keg (plural pony kegs)

1. (US) A container for beer holding 7.75 US gallons, equal to half the size of a standard beer keg.
   • 2006 February 1, Sadie Jo Smokey, “Beer lineup impressive for Super Bowl Sunday”, in The Arizona Republic‎^[1], retrieved 12 November 2007:

     Depending on the crowd, a keg or pony keg may be the way to go. […] For fewer than 20 guests, consider a pony keg, which serves 80 drinks.

Derived terms

• pony keg station

Etymology 2

Clipping of pony keg station, from pony keg (“container for beer”).

Noun

pony keg (plural pony kegs)

1. (Cincinnati, colloquial) A drive-through liquor store; by extension, any convenience store.
   • 1967, Robert E. McLaughlin, The Heartland: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →OCLC, page 16:

     A visitor may well be baffled by “pony keg” and “jack salmon,” but Cincinnatians know that the first is a store where beer may be purchased and the second is deep-fried pike.

   • 1976 February, Walter S. Adams, “Queen City Report”, in Cincinnati, volume 9, number 5, page 72:

     For example, a pony keg is a small beer keg. In Cincinnati it is a place to buy a small beer keg.

   • 1999, Richard B. Schwartz, The Biggest City in America: A Fifties Boyhood in Ohio, Akron, Oh.: University of Akron Press, →ISBN, pages 163 and 165:

     A pony keg (a few survive to this day) is a drive-through structure with cases of beer stacked on skids — golden liquid mountains, lining the walls of elongated garages or steel Quonset huts, looming above the consumer […] Our pony keg of choice was on Montgomery Road, on the Norwood-Pleasant Ridge border, a small affair next to a hairdresser's, neatly tucked behind the drugstore at the corner of Quatman and Montgomery.

   • 2007, Caitlin Claire Vincent, editor, Roadtripping USA: The Complete Coast-to-Coast Guide to America, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 47:

     In the Cincinnati area one can also find drive-through liquor stores (and for some people, regular liquor stores) referred to as pony kegs. (Elsewhere in the US, on the other hand, pony keg usually refers to a small keg.)

   • 2010, Ben Kamin, Nothing Like Sunshine: A Story in the Aftermath of the MLK Assassination, East Lansing, Mich.: Michigan State University Press, →ISBN, page 1:

     Not in “Cincy,” with the twang that was so often heard in casual conversation in the corner “Pony Keg” mini-marts. There you could buy snow cones, the daily Cincinnati Enquirer, Hudepohl beer, five-cent Ibold cigars, and Reds baseball trading cards.

   • 2014 February 2, Lance Lambert, “Pony keg tradition lives on in Reading”, in The Cincinnati Enquirer‎^[2], archived from the original on 24 January 2016:

     Their heyday might be in the rear-view mirror, but the region’s remaining pony kegs still sell cigarettes, lottery tickets, six packs and salty snacks. The Gertz Pony Keg is one of two remaining in Reading, a community that once had six of the little corner stores known for selling small barrels of beer.

Quotations

• For more quotations using this term, see Citations:pony keg.