Last Night, one of my favorite
places in Cape Town, the “On a Roll Dog Kitchen” closed down for a few weeks
and wouldn’t be open again until May 2nd, long after we’ve left.
Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal when a dog joint/bar closes, but I feel like
a little part of my heart has closed down for a while.
The reason this is such a big
deal goes back to the very first day we were here. We had landed a couple hours
ago and were walking to Chai-Yo a Thai place for our first meal in Cape Town.
We passed by the dog kitchen and joked about how awesome the concept of gourmet
hot dogs sounded. Somehow we came across the subject of going their every week
and calling it something stupid like, “Hot Dog Tuesday.” Bam. Just like that a
tradition was born. We had gone to the Dog kitchen almost every Tuesday since
arriving here. We would go so far as to call ahead after our Tuesday class to
put our classic order of “3 Pavement Specials and a ‘Hard Days Knight” before
the kitchen closed.
Beyond Hot Dog Tuesday, we also
went to The Kitchen every Wednesday for trivia night. We had a standard team of
6-7 people. We even affectionately named our team “The Vernon Roses.” We were
not a team to be trifled with either. We took no prisioners and frequently
nailed the bonus questions. We had won Second place twice and even came in
First one week. People at Trivia night knew us by our name and winning streak.
We had become regulars at a
restaurant, the chef and a couple of the waitresses knew us by name. It was a
bitter sweet feeling to have our drinks on the house last night for their
closing event. But I realized that this was what the trip was all about. Its
not about doing touristy stuff at the waterfront, hitting Long Street or
posting pictures of yourself with African animals on social media. It was about
finding the hole in the wall places like little Mowbray and becoming regulars.
Not only finding a place that we would miss, but finding a place that would
miss us back. I think Hot Dog Tuesday will be one of the things I’ll miss most
about Cape Town.
Enjoy your break Dog Kitchen,
you earned it.
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