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Ate: May 28, 2006 Published: May 28, 2006 $$ Despite this being the first holiday weekend of the summer tourist season, there wasn't that much traffic and the crowds weren't too big today. Since we weren't worried about fighting a lot of people, we headed out for lunch and drove up to the restaurant section of the huge Coastal Grand Mall just south of Highway 501. Most everything there is a chain, but there is one completely local place among those chains, and it is called the Dead Dog Saloon. A name like that immediately conjures up all sorts of images of a ramshackle seedy biker/waterfront bar that gets rowdy and rough every night. But since the Coastal Grand Mall is an upscale, tourist-friendly kind of place, we knew that Dead Dog Saloon wasn't going to be ramshackle or seedy. But we were still intrigued enough by the name to go inside and see for ourselves. As you might expect, the restaurant was large, well lit, clean and the complete opposite of the ramshackle biker bar you pictured in your mind. Our afternoon meal started off with their Hot Hound Crab Dip. The waitress told us that it was their most popular appetizer. When we had a bite of the dip, we knew exactly why. The entire dip was pureed to a smooth consistency and we spread it over the accompanying slices of garlic bread. Creamy and cheesy, we both enjoyed it immensely. As a pleasant departure from the usual dip appetizer, we were actually in danger of running out of bread before running out of dip. We had to spread the dip on in thick and generous dollops in order to use it all on our bread. I sometimes tend to be a bit negative, gripe and say that a restaurant's meal was unmemorable. But today, I am happy to report that this crab dip is one that we'll both remember fondly. The Dead Dog Saloon has a full menu. But since this was lunch, the two of us decided to just have a sandwich and fries. My wife got a grilled rib-eye sandwich and I got an Italian sausage hoagie. A good rib-eye sandwich can be difficult to prepare sometimes, so my wife was a little cautious. She ended up very pleased. They had done a good job with the steak, keeping it tender, juicy and cooked just the way she liked it. My own sausage hoagie was also very enjoyable. The sausage was full of rich Italian flavor, but the real stars of the sandwich were the peppers and onions. They weren't raw, but they still had plenty of crunch and their own flavor. They had been cooked along with the sausage and had soaked up some of the grease and flavor, but they weren't soggy or wilted. I put a just a little Tabasco sauce on my hoagie, but otherwise ate it as it was. It didn't need any ketchup or mustard. We were tempted to try some desert, but both of us were too full to seriously consider the option. That was a shame, because some of the desserts listed sounded delicious. We left the Dead Dog Saloon fat, happy and not too much the poorer for buying lunch. This is a place in the mainstream, tourist-oriented part of Myrtle Beach that we don't mind recommending to you. Go, eat and enjoy. |
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