Local
Blue Moon owners to wed
Rehoboth’s Tim Ragan and Randy Haney met in 1979
Tim Ragan and Randy Haney, co-owners of the Blue Moon in Rehoboth Beach, will wed on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of the couple)
Tim Ragan and Randy Haney, co-owners of the popular Blue Moon restaurant and bar in Rehoboth Beach, Del., are to be married on Saturday, May 9, at the Nassau Valley Vineyards in nearby Lewes.
Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, is to officiate. About 275 guests, including family members and friends, are expected to attend the ceremony and a reception in a banquet hall on the grounds of the vineyard.
Ragan, 59, and Haney, 57, met in 1979 when Ragan worked as an administrator and Haney was a student at Salisbury University in Salisbury, Md., where the two lived.
“We’ve been together ever since,” Ragan said. “So it’s as much a celebration of the past as it is of the future.”
Haney, who received a degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting, began his career in finance for car dealerships in the Salisbury area. Ragan left his job at the college to start a printing business in the same area, and Haney soon became co-owner of that business.
The two began their association with the Blue Moon in the 1980s when Joyce Felton, one of its first owners, retained Ragan and Haney’s printing company to do various projects for the restaurant, including the printing of menus and display advertising.
According to Ragan, he and Haney later joined the staff of the Blue Moon, where they met chef Lion Gardner and his wife Meghan Gardner, who also worked there. Ragan said it was at a time when he and Haney – who had vacationed in the Rehoboth-Lewes area for years – decided they wanted to move to that area and enter into semi-retirement.
But instead of retiring, the two became full-time employees of the Blue Moon, Ragan said.
Around 2008, after he and Haney had become good friends with Lion and Meghan Gardner, the two couples decided to take steps to open their own restaurant.
“We enjoyed working together so much that we were going to open our own business,” Ragan said. “And then Joyce decided she didn’t want to do it anymore and offered to sell it to us.”
As part of their business partnership, Haney serves in the role of comptroller handling the finances and number crunching, a write-up on the Blue Moon’s website says. Ragan, among other things, oversees promotion as well as the booking of the popular entertainers that the Blue Moon has become known for hosting.
Lion Gardner serves as executive chef, with wife Meghan operating the Blue Moon’s bustling catering business, which includes catering for weddings.
Ragan said he and Haney currently live in Lewes in a home they recently had built next to a pond.
“We have four dogs and plenty of room for them to play,” said Ragan, in reflecting on their many years as life partners and business partners. “So for almost our entire time together we have not only worked together but lived together – and stayed together.”
The couple has asked that guests make a contribution to one or each of three charities in lieu of a wedding gift — CAMP Rehoboth, Jusst Soup Ministries, and Delaware Humane Association — through this site: http://www.idofoundation.org/TimAndRandy.
The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at [email protected].
The Comings & Goings column also invites LGBTQ college students to share their successes with us. If you have been elected to a student government position, gotten an exciting internship, or are graduating and beginning your career with a great job, let us know so we can share your success.
Congratulations to Yadiel Meléndez, on their new role as Community Associate, with the Wanda Alston Foundation. Meléndez is piloting a new role as a Community Associate at the Wanda Alston Foundation, where they support queer and trans young people in finding their footing, building independence, and experiencing a housing community where they are seen, valued, and affirmed. They are coming into this role with more than a decade of experience as a community organizer and operations specialist, supporting diverse communities through service, advocacy, and program coordination.
Previously they worked for Right Proper Brewing Shaw as a server and bartender and at Sephora, Washington, DC, and at FreshFarm, DC, in bilingual food access. They also worked freelance to build foundational structures for local queer BIPOC performance art coalitions, producing variety shows to curate space for marginalized performance artists in the community. They were a production manager for Haus of Hart Productions, a BIPOC centric performance art production. They also worked as field staff with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in Stafford, Va.
Meléndez is bilingual, Spanish and English. Their work is guided by a commitment to dignity, safety, and trauma-informed engagement, particularly within LGBTQ and BIPOC communities.
Congratulations also to Ben Rosen LICSW, on his new role as program director, with the Wanda Alston Foundation. Rosen previously worked with Fountain House’s OnRamps program, helping to build a new, innovative outreach program for individuals considered chronically homeless, and living with serious mental illness, in the Times Square area of New York. Rosen is a Psychotherapist, having worked with SG Psychotherapy, and as the psychotherapist with the Nest Community Health Center (URAM).
Rosen has a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts: Musical Theatre, Minor in Psychology (Cum Laude) from Malloy University Conservatory; and his M.S.W. in Clinical Practice with Individuals, Families, and Groups, from The Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College, N.Y. He is independently licensed in New York and Washington, D.C.
Rehoboth Beach
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
Attendees encouraged to wear appropriate gear
Diego’s in Rehoboth Beach hosts a monthly leather happy hour. April’s edition is scheduled for Friday, April 10, 5-7 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to wear appropriate gear. The event is billed as an official event of BLUF, the free community group for men interested in leather. After happy hour, the attendees are encouraged to reconvene at Local Bootlegging Company for dinner, which allows cigar smoking. There’s no cover charge for either event.
District of Columbia
Celebrations of life planned for Sean Bartel
Two memorial events scheduled in D.C.
Two celebrations of life are planned for Sean Christopher Bartel, 48, who was found deceased on a hiking trail in Argentina on or around March 15. Bartel began his career as a television news reporter and news anchor at stations in Louisville, Ky., and Evansville, Ind., before serving as Senior Video Producer for the D.C.-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union from 2013 to 2024.
A memorial gathering is planned for Friday, April 10, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the IBEW International Office (900 7th St., N.W.), according to a statement by the DC Gay Flag Football League, where Bartel was a longtime member. A celebration of life is planned that same evening, 6-8 p.m. at Trade (1410 14th St., N.W.).
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BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
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