Homemade tuna salad served on a hot dog bun is served with freshly cut french fries at Dub’s Place on Dayton Boulevard.If you go
› What: Dub’s Place, 4408 Dayton Blvd., Red Bank.› Phone: 423-875-3151.› Hours: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday, noon-9 p.m. Saturday, noon-8 p.m. Sunday.› Price range: $2-$9.
I spent 14 years in Red Bank until I moved eight years ago. But for reasons unknown, I never ate at Dub’s Place, a 1950s-era restaurant that has been a neighborhood favorite for decades.
It’s on the northern end of Dayton Boulevard, where I rarely traveled, and even when I did, it seemed Dub’s was always closed. Turns out, it was a seasonal restaurant.
Nowadays, though, it’s under new ownership and open year-round. To regular customers’ delight, the new owner maintained the old menu but added some of his own favorite recipes into the mix.
I’m a baby boomer, and walking into the small restaurant was like stepping back into my own childhood in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., where the favorite restaurant was The Mello-Kreme. It was a walk-up restaurant where the best hamburgers, the best fries, the best milkshakes were sold. The Mello-Kreme also sold soft-serve orange-sherbet ice cream that will forever be my favorite flavor.