Photo by Preston Barta for Dallas Observer
Audio By Carbonatix
Off of the Denton Square, in the space that used to hold the Vinyl Lounge, something warmer has taken root. Part pottery studio, part pizza joint, part listening room, part living room — The Pony is a Swiss army knife of art, folded neatly into one building.
The venue opens softly on Sunday, Aug. 23 before its grand opening weekend on Friday, Aug. 28. And when you step inside, the first thing you’ll notice is that it doesn’t feel new. It feels like someone has been living here for years, waiting for you to finally show up.
A road trip, a lucky guitar and a name
Every good place has an origin story, and The Pony’s starts on a West Texas highway. Co-owner Dorian Marsh’s parents had just retired after being laid off from long careers in corporate finance and took off on a road trip to shake loose whatever came next. Somewhere along the way, they stumbled into Sante Fe’s Tumbleroot Pottery Pub and had the kind of afternoon that rewires a person. Clay under the fingernails. A drink in hand. Music in the room. They came home with an idea too big to ignore.
So, they built a family business around it. Marsh, a working musician, took the reins on marketing and entertainment. His fiancée, Bella Tylen, a ceramicist, became creative director. Chef Owen Madsen runs the kitchen, pulling fresh pizzas and shareable plates from the oven — the pizza choice is no coincidence, given the family’s Italian roots. And Jessica Madsen — Dorian’s mom — handles the finances while quietly becoming everyone’s mother the moment they walk through the door, greeting each guest as if she’s been expecting them all week.
The name? That belongs to a guitar. Marsh bought his lucky guitar — “The Pony” — the day he dropped out of college to chase music for real. It’s a name with a little rebellion in it, a little faith and a whole lot of heart.
The walls belong to Denton
Marsh built the stage alongside his stepdad, even as a medical issue threatened his ability to play guitar at all. They hand-detailed the light fixtures, hand-picked every element of the bar and spent six months shaping a layout.
That handcrafted spirit is the crux of the space. Marsh describes wanting somewhere that “feels like home” and “feels lived in.” His vision looked like a cultural hub where wildly different people can walk in and share one cohesive experience, not a bar with a stage haphazardly tacked on, and not a restaurant with an open-mic afterthought.
If you want to understand The Pony’s values, look at the walls.
“The shop is mostly all local artists,” Tylen tells us.
The gallery is slated to rotate on a quarterly rhythm so that the space keeps evolving alongside the community it serves. Come back in three months and you’ll find a fresh exhibition, new faces and new pieces to take home. It’s a standing invitation for Denton’s makers, not a one-time favor.
Tylen’s own craft points toward what’s coming next, too.
“I would love to do basic pottery workshops,” she tells us.
The table on the stage
For their intimate singer-songwriter nights, The Pony sets a table and a lamp right up on the stage. Think Pete Seeger or Johnny Cash energy — artists sit down, pour a drink, trade songs and swap stories as the whole room leans in.
The goal is to make you feel like you’re eavesdropping in the best possible way — “listening in on a conversation” between “artists creating, jamming together,” as Marsh and Tylen put it. No barrier. No fourth wall. Just a handful of people making something real while you get to sit close enough to catch it.
That intimacy comes with a quiet ask. When The Pony turns into a listening room, it means it.
“Respect the artist,” Marsh says. “Turning off your… trying to not be on these black gadgets in our pockets. Be present.”
It’s a gentle rebellion against the scroll.
A room that keeps changing its shape
The Pony refuses to sit still. The space transforms depending on who’s playing and what the night needs.
For a high-energy act, say a “traditional honky tonker,” in Marsh’s words, they clear the tables and open up a standing room so people can move. For ambient shows, the mood flips entirely: blankets on the floor, low light and clay set out so guests can shape something with their hands while the music washes over them.
And on any given evening, the flow is seamless. You might start with a meal at the pottery table, wander over for a fresh cocktail, sit down with a lump of clay, then settle in as the first act tunes up. Marsh handles the storytelling that pulls it all together, a skill he sharpened the hard way.
“Anything social media-related, any write-up, any marketing, all that comes through me,” he says. “Because I’ve just learned how to do that with my own music.”
The point of it all
Call it a third space or a cultural hub. Even if you call it the room with the table on the stage, The Pony was built by hand, by a family, for a town it clearly loves.
Oh, and on Aug. 28, Marsh himself takes the stage. So, go hungry, go curious and get ready to be present. Get your hands a little dirty, order something to share and let Jessica say hello. The fingerprints are already on the walls, and The Pony is just waiting for you to get in the saddle.
The Pony is located off the Denton Square (314 E. Hickory St., Ste. 121, Denton). For more details, such as the event calendar and FAQs on the clay aspect of the space, visit The Pony’s website.
