I had a sudden flashback this morning of a restaurant that I never actually went to, but passed nearly every weekend as a kid as the family drove from the Twin Cities metro area to a cabin my aunt owned in Minnesota’s northwoods. The restaurant was heavily advertised on the route by way of billboards and driving by the venue itself was usually enough to trigger a flurry of requests to stop for dinner.
While my parents now cater to my twin daughters’ every whims these days, they seemed nothing but tired whenever I asked if we could please eat there.
It was called “Dino’s Other World” and situated in a Victorian-era modest mansion outside of Monticello, Minnesota. Those two elements alone had my under-10 year old mind curious.
When I found out that they had classic monsters roaming around while diners ate food… well… that sealed the deal. I needed to eat there. I was enamored of all things “monster” already. I read everything I could get my hands on about Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, zombies, werewolves… you name it. Sure, I was a Star Wars kid, but my heart was even more so with the things that go bump in the night.
At the time, I think it might have been the only horror-themed restaurant in the region, perhaps the country.
Sadly, the building burned to the ground in 1981, before I could get my parents to cave in to my begging and pleading to be taken to a single meal there. They lucked out because I bet that if I got inside once, I would have probably continued to beg to go again, having tasted what it was like to dine with the creepy-ghoulies.
Our next stop: “Mad Monster Party”.
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