Ever since I can remember, my family has gone to The Dog House (a local restaurant). It was most-likely one of the first places we went to eat as well when we moved to Whidbey Island over 17 years ago. A while ago (i don't know when exactly) the restaurant and tavern was handed over to new management (I think because the owner died). I had not been to the place since but as luck would have it, the Braeburn (where we were planning on going) doesn't serve dinner and the pizzeria was packed and we had a show to catch so our third option was the dog.We walked around back like usual to go into the restauraunt part of the building and open the door and there is no-one there...at all. I've never been there when there wasn't a mob of people already there. We find our seets at a table and then I noticed that my favorite funky lighting fixtures had been replaced by "stylized" new ones that don't even fit the rest of the building's look. We recieved our menus from someone who didn't seem at all happy to be serving us and I reviewed mine. There was my favorite thing that I almost always got - the spicy bean burrito. I have so many memories of that dinner. It's what I almost always had, you could count on going to the Dog House with me and I would have the Spicy Bean Burrito and a Cream Soda, now over the years that's changed some but still stayed pretty consistant. I decided that I couldn't break tradition so I ordered my Spicy Bean Burrito.
When the food came though was when I was even more dissapointed. The burrito was TINY! I remember that I would always have trouble finishing my meal and I would always have a to go box. Then one fateful day, I finally finished my burrito in one sitting, I remember being so proud. So then to have this small burrito that didn't even compare to the original one but was $3 more expensive was a total gip. I finished it in a couple bites and then was still hungry. I ended up finishing off a few of other people's dinners and half a plate of mis-ordered nachos from another table. All of it was not anywhere as good as it once was which really made me sad and frustrated. It's the same kind of feeling when you grow up and realize that your parents aren't perfect but in this case, it's not just a childhood fantasy gone awry, it actually got worse.
