Full Bellies. Warmed Hearts. The Ugly Dog Pub – Cashiers

Written By: Luke Osteen | Issue: 2020/09 – September | Photograph By: Marjorie Christiansen Photography

About a million years ago, I reviewed 4118 Kitchen+Bar for the March issue of Laurel. 

Central to the piece was the sublime sensation of being welcomed into a place where we were known. In the course of our meal, our table was visited by a friend who updated us on his winter’s holiday off of the Plateau, I received a hug from a young woman who’d been in my Sunday School Class (Note to Historians – there was a time in recent memory when you could safely share a hug with someone who didn’t live under the same roof), and our server Sandi lingered as she recounted her busy week and commiserated about our own challenges. 

It was wonderful, magical, the perfect encapsulation of why we’d chosen to settle down on this precious Plateau.

And then everything stopped. No more reviews, no more visits to fancy restaurants or little places that welcomed us with open arms. No languid meals with cherished friends, evenings punctuated with laughter and golden memories, desserts shared with love. 

What an adjustment! 

We turned to takeout, of course, but eating an exquisitely-prepared meal while watching “The Dinner Party” episode of The Office for the 11th time just isn’t the same. 

Long, long months.

That’s why I raced to the garage and fueled up the zeppelin the moment Marjorie said we’d be reviewing The Ugly Dog Pub in Cashiers.

The Ugly Dog promised to be an instant tonic for the Luke who’d somehow, inevitably, transformed into a schlub with the wit and charm of a dented can of gravel. 

Here’s what I wrote about our visit to the place four years ago:

“But this was our Saturday night, and we were in the mood for good conversation lubricated by bar selections and The Dog’s deep, deep menu of brews (including, the wonderfully-named Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale).

“All of the talk, all of the laughter, and all of the refreshments made us more than a little puckish, so we tsunamied the kitchen with orders from all corners of the menu.”

Can you feel the excitement, the pre-pandemic enthusiasm for eating and talking and laughing? 

That’s what we hoped to find on this evening on the far end of summer in this benighted year.

And we were greeted by our cheerful hostess whose enthusiasm can be honestly described as “Canine.” ( I hope that isn’t demeaning to this young woman. We should all live our lives with the natural cheerfulness of Man’s Best Friend.) She was safely masked, but you could feel her smile through the fabric. 

She led us to an expansive umbrella’d patio where the tables were sensibly spaced and you could soak up the summer goodness of a Plateau twilight. 

And we were soon joined by our friends, whom we had almost lost track of in the pandemic confusion and doldrums. 

Our server, Samantha, was bright, efficient (again, safely masked), unobtrusive, and ready to add a note of sunshine to our happy table. If you can imagine Cyd Charisse’s younger sister working in Cashiers, well, here she is. 

The evening was made even richer by the full service bar and wise kitchen waiting for orders. 

Our bustling table managed to scarf down healthy servings of Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs, Fried Green Tomatoes, Pretzels and Cheese Dip, and Ugly Dog Guacamole. These were fresh and set the tone for the evening. 

These were the appetizers. We were just getting started.

Samantha added generous entrees to our already groaning table – a Salmon BLT, the heartbreakingly-perfect Short Rib Melt, an elevated Gyro, a Chili Cheese Dog that’d obviously been taught some new tricks, and a flatbread Pepperoni Pizza. 

But here’s the thing that brought us back to those halcyon pre-pandemic evenings of joyful meals – our exuberant back-and-forth conversations punctuated by fondly-recalled memories or quarantine-stifled observations were steadily interrupted by parties of friends making their ways to their tables. There was the magnificent extended McKim Family, relentlessly cheerful and the Plateau equivalent of a small circus. The Fiedlers, wise and warm and thankfully unscathed by the current crisis. Marianne and David Deaton, slightly off-kilter and just heaps of fun. 

Everyone safely distanced and everyone contributed to a blissful return to the Classic Plateau Evening that we all cherish.

Well, I’ve scarcely talked about the food, but I hope I’ve conveyed just how marvelous this evening was to us. We left The Ugly Dog Pub with full bellies and warmed hearts. 

The Ugly Dog Pub is located at 25 Frank Allen Road in Cashiers. They don’t take reservations – “You takes your chances,” as they used to say in the Damon Runyon stories.