Is the Dugan Salad really named for Dugan Barr?
Long, long ago - in the 1970's, which is prehistoric for many people - there was a small restaurant at 630 North Market Street, where La Gondola is currently. The name of it escapes Mlle. de Joie right now, but it was a perfect zeitgeist for the '70s. The interior was all dark wood paneling, with pottery on shelves and plants in macrame, a no-smoking rule (remember, this was in the '70's) and a clientele mainly made up of slightly over-the-hill hippies and teachers from Shasta College. The menu, which never changed, was written on a blackboard. Mlle. de Joie recalls going there with rubyloot and promising ourselves that someday when we had money we would come in and order The Dugan Salad. It was a large shrimp salad on a bed of greens with avocado, our idea of culinary nirvana, and at that time it was just out of our reach - I believe it was about $6.00, which was a lot for a college student back then. We stuck to avocado-cheese-and-sprouts sandwiches (if pesto was the quiche of the '80's, then avocado-cheese-and-sprout sandwiches were the sushi of the '70's).
Sadly, that restaurant - perhaps someone can help with the name - was sold to a Frenchwoman who immediately lifted the ban on smoking inside, changed the menu, fired the cooks and hired cheap labor, and was generally unpleasant and unreceptive to suggestions and criticism. It crashed and burned within a year, and has been reopened and closed under at least half a dozen other owners, incarnations, and names ever since. We never did have our Dugan Salad.
Now, then: for years Pio Loco featured a Dugan Salad on the menu. It was a large shrimp salad on a bed of greens with avocado. (Sadly, it has been replaced on the menu by the Northwest Seafood Salad, which, while worthy in its way, simply has too much going on to be able to focus on the simplicity of a perfect shrimp salad.) Mlle. de Joie recalls reading that Chef Jeff claimed it was named for Dugan Barr. Dugan Barr did begin practicing in Redding in 1967 so it is within the realm of possibility that he did frequent the North Market Street establishment back then and cajole the owners into naming a salad after him. But how and when did the salad and its name transfer to Pio Loco? And why has it fallen into disfavor and off the menu?
- Femme de Joie
Sadly, that restaurant - perhaps someone can help with the name - was sold to a Frenchwoman who immediately lifted the ban on smoking inside, changed the menu, fired the cooks and hired cheap labor, and was generally unpleasant and unreceptive to suggestions and criticism. It crashed and burned within a year, and has been reopened and closed under at least half a dozen other owners, incarnations, and names ever since. We never did have our Dugan Salad.
Now, then: for years Pio Loco featured a Dugan Salad on the menu. It was a large shrimp salad on a bed of greens with avocado. (Sadly, it has been replaced on the menu by the Northwest Seafood Salad, which, while worthy in its way, simply has too much going on to be able to focus on the simplicity of a perfect shrimp salad.) Mlle. de Joie recalls reading that Chef Jeff claimed it was named for Dugan Barr. Dugan Barr did begin practicing in Redding in 1967 so it is within the realm of possibility that he did frequent the North Market Street establishment back then and cajole the owners into naming a salad after him. But how and when did the salad and its name transfer to Pio Loco? And why has it fallen into disfavor and off the menu?
- Femme de Joie