Pony keg

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.

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.

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

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.

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.)

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.

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.