My husband and I were trying to figure out where to eat lunch today, and I was checking out Google to see if I could find somewhere that looked good that we maybe hadn’t been to. I found Dogmud Tavern–we had passed by it several times in driving in that area, so I scrolled down to the menu, and the name of one of the dishes caught my eye:
Sandwiches: Werewolf’s Bait.
Wait. . . WHAT?
Then I saw another sandwich: Rebeus Hagrid. Then this: Werechicken Pizza
Then the desserts: The Shredder–a TURTLE brownie.
I started reading the entree names to Bob. We had found, in little ol’ Ridgeland, MS, a restaurant where the dishes seemed to be inspired by literary fantasy worlds every nerd in the world knows. We HAD to visit if just to satisfy our curiosity.
So we drove over. We walked in the door and were greeted by a young lady into a reasonable facsimile of a medieval mead hall. Banners from various fandoms–Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, anime and manga–hung from the ceiling. The bar sported a giant skeleton pouring drinks above it. Display cases with Star Wars, Harry Potter, and other big LEGO builds stood along the walls.
I turned and looked at my husband; he was grinning, just looking around and taking it all in. I said, “I think we’ve just found our happy place.”
Seeing the actual menu was a revelation. There was a page of brunch items labeled “Second Breakfast”. A page of twenty different booze shots–which one you received was, of course, determined by a roll of a d20 dice, if that’s how you roll.
I asked the waitress, “Is this a chain restaurant?”
She smiled. “No, we’re local. We celebrated our fourth year in April.”
The food was delicious, but the feeling of community was even better. The whole time we were there, I felt the same sense of being seen and understood as I did when watching the movie “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”, where all the characters turned out to be heroes of 19th century British literature. A literary fantasy restaurant? In Mississippi? That shouldn’t be possible.
Yet there she stands.
Julie Liddell Whitehead 