River Dogs brings local flavor
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“Make the world a better place – have a dog!” reads the print under the logo, which features a dog on either side of a steam tower. It’s a creation of one of the owners — Dr. Austin Rehl, who is an owner of Family Tree Dental in Marietta. Laurel Ransom is Rehl’s business partner with River Dogs. You’ll usually find her behind the counter of the establishment.
River Dogs opened its doors Aug. 23 and Rehl said so far, “we are pleased with the welcome the area has given us.” A welcome is not all the area has given River Dogs. “Some of the local ladies helped us dial in the sauce,” he said. “We’re getting unsolicitated compliments on the sauce now. That didn’t happen day one but it happens quite often now.”
With the local tweak of the sauce, Rehl said the River Dog is “as locally made dog as I can get it,” and started counting off on his fingers, “the buns are made locally at the Giant Eagle bakery, the dogs are made at Phillip’s Meat Processing, my cousin’s meat packing place in Zanesville, the sauce and cole slaw is made locally and if you want dessert with that, we have Whit’s Frozen Custard, which is made daily in Marietta.”
River Dogs is open 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The eatery is closed Sunday.
With River Dogs being locally oriented, the menu is locally original with its names as well.
“There’s the ‘Big Bob Dog’ which is a tribute to my grandpa Bob Rehl,” he said. “That’s for saurerkraut and horse radish lovers.
“You have the ‘Hog Dog’ which is a hot dog with pulled pork and slaw or sauerkraut,” he said. “We have ‘River Sauce’ which is a sweet barbeque sauce or you can get the really hot ‘Devil Sauce. It really is some hot stuff.”
Rehl explained the receipe as “taking ghost peppers and mixing it with blueberries to make it purple and then adding some mustard,” to make the St. Marys High School colors. Just for the record as the heat produced by ghost peppers, pepperhead.com, is 1,041,427 SHU. Yes, over a million SHU, making it the seventh hottest pepper in existance. The SHU stands for Scoville Heat Unit , which is a measure of spiciness.
And just to counter the spiciness of the Devil Sauce is a choice of 10-12 flavors of Whit’s frozen custard, which Rehl said changes constantly. “There’s also items such as chocolate covered bananas and whopper pies, two other refrigerated treats made locally.
While there are 12 seperate meals on the menu at River Dawgs, there is actually a 13th, unlisted, item. It’s simply known as the River Dogs of Belmont Challenge.
“It’s very simple,” he said. “You have to down every item on the board, in whatever order you want to eat it. You have an hour to do it. If you finish all within the hour, you become a River Dog champion. You get your name and picture on the wall. Your picture and name on the Facebook page By the way, if you finish the challenge within the hour, it’s free. If you fail, you pay for everything.” He is still waiting on a challenger.
There is an outdoor eating area which Rehl said can be used for parties and gatherings. And he said they are hoping to add a soup of the day along with chili. Rehl added, “that’s chili chili. That’s not hot dog chili. We call it hot dog sauce in here.”
Rehl said he is hoping to keep River Dogs open year round. He said they are also limited to take out orders only. “But we will take phone orders,” he said. “740-350-5350 is the number. And the answer is ‘yes,’ if someone comes in and wants something made diffrently than what the menu says it comes with. Then again, they can just order the ‘Plain Jane,’ also known as the ‘Naked Dog,’ where they can add their own toppings. It’s all good.”