35 years and a week old, the Lost Dog Pub spent its pup years on St Croix before moving up north and settling down in Orleans (and East Dennis). The location is solid gold - dead center at the downtown Orleans rotary with entrances on both main drags splitting off the loop.
The pub was known to us more as the nightcap spot or where to watch live music but we decided to clean ourselves up, spray some Binaca, and listen to the good word that’d made its way to us about the menu. The timing was right for the inaugural Bite Club gathering, and with the strong reputation that preceded it, LDP and its Caribbean roots (albeit dried up and buried under 12 inches of snow) was appointed.
So we found ourselves in collared shirts sipping beers, nosing over the menu while the empty stools at our flanks quickly vanished. Almost immediately, the chowder poked its head up and looked over. Eye contact is a strong indicator of confidence and we knew that the folks responsible for the Chowder at Uncle Pete’s had a hand in this one as well, so it was essentially foregone. The bowl didn’t so much call to us as to wink and look away, coy OK, play your games, you’ll be had when we’re ready. (And had it was - common sense and transitive properties upheld, trust - the clam chowder is a victory, enjoy it as such. Its standing in relation to the Brewster paragon is tbd, however.)
Note: On a less starch/gluten/dairy-centric night, the chowder would have found its way home to my spoon in the famed bread bowl but it wasn’t to be this evening. Once we settled on the order as a whole, it wasn’t possible to shove any more of the evening’s ‘centrics’ into the human form. Let us explain.
Appetizers
Baked Brie & Roasted Garlic
The next item that leapt through the laminate off the page was the Baked Brie & Roasted Garlic. Just as it sounds, this order was an exceptional stroke on our part. The helpful but not pushy bartendress (was it Chelsea?) made a point to let us know that the roasted garlic clove was not garnish, that to play it the way the plate was planned, the perfectly roasted garlic should be spread onto the accompanying toasted baguette spheres before the brie takes its rightful position atop. This order of ops has since been confirmed, it is in fact the proper consumption combination - highly recommended.
After debating the Crab Cakes, we landed on the Hot Crab Dip - because can one ever truly know the limits & fortitude of their guts when the purity of flavor is the motor-skill pilot? The same pilot living in an apparent selection vacuum that would send bread to us as if we were dining out at the 872nd night of the Leningrad Siege.
Hot Crab Dip
But we, men of determination and potentially elastic waistbands, dove again into this second appetizer: the searing casserole dish of baked spinach, artichoke hearts, crab meat, and parmesan - a pure melting agent more effective even than the brie. Here we were, living in an embarrassment of French-adjacent riches. Yes, even more baguette piled high at the sides of that plate.
Fellas with a frail constitution may have felt themselves bullied by this point of the meal - so many carbs, so much cream textured heavy dairy. But we would not succumb to our fatted guts. Finished? Hardly so! We sought to cover ourselves in glory, or embrace the cardiac that would have to arrest us.
We mounted our steed and rode again, at full gallop, to our entrees, leaving behind a crime scene of embarrassed, disembodied French-adjacent riches.
Main Courses
Sirloin Tips
Very generous sized cuts of sirloin with a solid char headline this heater. A sculpted scoop of scallion topped mashed potato and seasonal vegetables fill out the rest of the plate. The Clubber who put this order in was so ready to go that an APB wasn’t even put out for the horseradish sauce served on the side and, by the time it arrived, the photographed moment had passed us all by.
Pot Roast (Special)
This order was a plate filler for sure: two full sized cuts of roast laid to rest on a pile of steak cut fries with seasonal veg on the side. Fully embracing the cold weather outside, there was a committed pour of brown gravy over the meat - which is what you want to see. We didn’t ask about how often it shows up on the menu but if you see something, order something.
Doggie Dip
French Dip sandwiches hold a position of gravity in the pub world order matrix pantheon. Add to that the pride any restaurant takes in naming a dish after the place itself and we found ourselves in a position where this one was going to end up with one of us, it was only a matter of who. Not even toying around with the silliness of vegetables on this plate, the roast beef was stacked onto a half garlic bread baguette with a oversized serving of French fries. Of course the au jus was there but pushed dangerously off to the side, clinging to the side of the plate like that plate was the last one out of its personal Saigon that fateful night in 1975.
Overall, Bite Club’s welcome back dinner was a success. As much as a swollen stomach can have you rethinking decisions on the way home, with a light food day between the Pub and a sober analysis of the visit itself, there was nothing to have done differently.
Someone wiser with menu vision stretching into the weekend may have gone balls to the wall and gotten the bread bowl to boot, planning for several intervening days of light-to-no intake. But, as people who are firm on putting eyes on the menu only when asses are in the restaurant seats, these cards fell well.
A new adventure of Bite Club is coming soon - stay tuned.
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The jury remains out on the East Dennis location - have you eaten there?
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