Langley's Dog House Goes Back In Time

The Dog House, 230 First St., Langley. (206) 321-9996. No smoking in restaurant, no credit cards allowed. Checks are accepted. Take-out is available. Restaurant hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

-- LANGLEY, Island County

It's one of those things you wish you could go back 80 years to see for yourself.

Of course, if the stories about The Dog House tavern in Langley are true, you would probably be packing a large can of mace when you went.

Today, The Dog House, a quaint restaurant and bar nestled against the picturesque banks of the Puget Sound, is considered a great place to bring the family. But back in the days of prohibition, it's said to have been a different story.

The Dog House was built in 1908 by the Olympic Game Club. The street level served as the Langley Mercantile & General Merchandise Store. Upstairs was the meeting place of the game club and the bottom level was used as the basketball court for the high school.

SUNDAY PARTY TIME

According to the Dog House's current owner, Peter Jacobs, the mercantile closed each Sunday to make way for the weekly drinking and gambling fest in back.

The parties would go on into the night and are said to have been so intense that cots were set up for the gents to rest in-between games.

This weekly tradition didn't sit well with wives who were left to tend the homestead, and the men who did sum up the courage to stumble home Monday morning were guaranteed to find themselves in the dog house.

It's an honest, hard-earned name that stuck when prohibition came to an end in 1933 and the mercantile was converted into a tavern.

Over the years, the upstairs has been used for a number of purposes, including vaudeville shows, silent movies, school proms, and even a few infamous boxing matches. Today it is used for talent shows, art shows and a number of other community events.

From the outside, The Dog House resembles an old West saloon. One can almost imagine John Wayne pushing his way through the swinging doors. The inside, a small room stocked with a pool table, an 1881 tavern bar unit and some oak drinking tables, is in keeping with the saloon tradition.

The back of The Dog House is now a restaurant, started when Jacobs and his wife Wendy took over the establishment a decade ago. Jacobs, who claims his kitchen philosophy is limited to the "if a little tastes good, a lot must be better" mentality, gives Wendy the credit for developing the menu.

The food is typical of what one would expect to find in a pub. The menu is loaded with hearty sandwiches, burgers, ribs and a house chili that is said to be the best on the island. It is also packed with the greasy/carbo/calorie tavern staples - from the platters of nachos, to deep-fried chicken wings, to breaded oysters. Lasagna and pizza round out the menu.

Entrees are reasonable, with prices ranging from $4 for the Dog House Dog, to $8.95 for a hearty German dinner that consists of marinated steak strips, potatoes and carrots sauteed in butter, topped with caraway seeds and served with crabapples.

CLAMS A GOOD DEAL

For $2.60, the basket of deep-fried clam strips served with a healthy portion of tartar sauce is hard to beat. The clams are fresh and wash down particularly well with one of the many beer choices available.

If you stop by the Dog House for lunch, you can get two six-ounce servings of Rainier beer for 10 cents each. It's a gimmick started by Jacobs and a favorite among Dog House old-timers.

I went with the barbecue pork on a bun for lunch, a sandwich I highly recommend. It comes loaded with tender pork roast and enough tangy barbecue sauce for two or three sandwiches. A generous portion of fries accompanies it. Be sure the napkin dispenser on your table is full or ask your waitress for extras. This is a seven- or eight-napkin item.

For vegetarians, there is the health-nut burger, made from a variety of rice, grains and nuts. The ghivetch, an assortment of vegetables cooked in a rich broth and topped with melted jack cheese, is also said to be good.

The restaurant is filled with interesting knickknacks and antiques, including a restored 1923 Nickelodeon player piano and a water buffalo dating back to 1910. But probably the most enticing to patrons is the restaurant's sweeping wall-to-wall window view of the water.

The Dog House's relaxing atmosphere, coupled with an attentive, friendly staff and good food, makes for a perfect way to spend an afternoon.

Don't let the bullet holes in the restaurant's front bar piece convince you of anything different.

Neighborhood Eats is a regular Thursday feature of the Seattle Times. Reviewers visit restaurants unannounced and pay in full for all their meals. When they interview members of the restaurant management and staff, they do so only after the meals and services have been appraised.