As we landed in Juneau we were all starving, and not knowing where to go we headed straight to our first stop The Red Dog Saloon-a Juneau institution and a "do not miss" according to every guidebook I read.
Popping our heads into this crazy weird bar (complete with swinging saloon doors), the hostess said they served lunch and my kids were allowed to enter as long as they stayed by my side. "No problem" I said and we were promptly led to the only open table in the place that was packed to the rafters-what luck I thought!. As we made our way to the upstairs platform we wove past an old time piano player and a slew of waitstaff dressed in gold rush saloon attire. This place definitely had a lot of character and taking it all in was a little hard to do. Every inch of space was carved or written on if it wasn't covered by a piece of taxidermy, an off color photo or some wisecracking plaque. There wasn't one blank spot in the joint.. After sitting in the place for a few minutes soaking it all in, it was apparent this is THE town watering hole and would probably get more raucous as the day progressed. It only took a few minutes for my kids and I to start giving each other that look-you know, the one that says "we are totally out of place let's scram."
Chicken Caesar salad-near frozen chicken, wilted lettuce and 3 croutons-MEH!
My kids and I debated whether we should get up and leave but since we'd already had menus and waters and everyone was starved we figured what the heck, let's give it a try, especially since everyone around us was having lunch and it look decent- from a distance.
We ordered up and what arrived was just awful-everything seemed to have been processed food that had been frozen and reheated. You can see our very sad caesar salads in the photo. The boys tried to play it safe with fried chicken tenders. What arrived were flat, sand colored blobs of chicken that tasted slightly sweet. Isaac managed to eat some of them but Joel sent his back and ordered a burger. It just went from bad to worse. The burger was a gray tasteless mass of mystery meat on a stale bun with vegetables that had probably seen better days. We ate what we could quickly, paid the check and ran out to get some real food down the street at The Twisted Fish-which by the way was some of the best food we had on the entire trip.
The Red Dog Saloon has quite a reputation and it really is very unique place echoing Juneau's mining past. If you are looking for a bawdy watering hole with some real history, this is the place-and I can only guess this is why every guidebook said it was a "must see". If you are traveling with kids, it's best to just poke your head in and take a gander and then head into the gift shop before moving on to somewhere a little more family friendly. And if you are adults looking for a wild time, have a blast, just take my word for it, eat somewhere else beforehand-unless your drunk enough and then it really won't matter anyway...LOL
