OCEAN CITY – The Pepper Shack is coming to Route 611, alongside of Pepper’s Tavern, and will be offering hundreds of hot sauces and spices as well as the revival of penny candy.
Owner Denny-O opened Peppers Tavern on 16th Street and the Boardwalk 17 years ago and billed it as “Ocean City’s finest five-star dive”. He has worked in the bar industry his entire life growing up in Washington D.C and working in the bars in the city and Georgetown throughout his early 20’s, such as Circus Maximus, The Rabbits Foot and The Keg.
In 1978, Denny-O opened Nautilus Fitness Center in Salisbury and worked at the original Hobbit and Marina Deck in Ocean City before he met Buck Mann in 1979, who owned McGee’s Irish Pub on the Boardwalk at the time, which is now Shenanigans Irish Pub and Grille.
Denny-O ended up living in the Shoreham Hotel above McGee’s for at least 10 years while he ran the pub for Mann and then moved on to work as a “guest manager” at the Reel Inn and the original Crab Alley on 9th Street before he opened Peppers Tavern.
Denny-O admitted the first couple of years were tough getting Peppers off the ground but 12 years ago Pedro De La Rosa, executive chef, came on board and developed the menu into having “real deal Mexican meals east of Durango.”
With its menu and atmosphere of low hanging ceilings, thousands of names written on the wall of those who survived eating the Hell Wings and pictures masking the walls of memories throughout time, Peppers gained its famous title of a five-star dive.
Next came Peppers Tavern on Route 611 in West Ocean City that opened in July 2009 where the restaurant and its menu had room to grow.
“We just completed our fourth year here in July,” Denny-O said on Friday. “We saw the need for a nice small restaurant on 611 in West Ocean City, and it has grown to be something very special. It is all about the superior food and reasonably priced drinks.”
This week Denny-O opened his more recent endeavor, the Pepper Shack, located directly next door to Peppers Tavern on Route 611.
The Pepper Shack once stood on the Boardwalk but closed five years ago.
“We are bringing the Pepper Shack back to life. We used to kill it on the Boardwalk … but we are re-opening the Pepper Shack that will now be bigger and better,” Denny-O said.
The Pepper Shack will have over 500 hot sauces for sale, including BBQ sauces, rubs, spices and seasonings, with tasting stations set up for visitors to taste a variety of sauces up to the hottest available if they dare.
There will also be a selection of Peppers Tavern apparel available, such as T-shirts, fleeces and hats.
Along with the revival of the Pepper Shack, the store will be bringing back a penny candy station where customers can buy up to 10 cents worth of old-fashioned candy at a time.
“We are going to do something very special here,” Denny-O said of penny candy. “It is an old style concept from the 50’s and early 60’s that my granddad actually had in his store for the kids.”
The Pepper Shack will officially be opening today, just in time for Black Friday.