Lucky Dog Grille

A fine enough place to get some dinner and enjoy a pretty decent selection of beers. This is not a world class place that is going to blow you away on any front. If I didn't live within a few miles, I'd never go here.

 

The wife and I stopped at Lucky Dog on a Thursday night while she was working/living in Mason. Situated in a nondescript strip-mall art the intersection of two major roads and across from the Brazen Head pub.

I thought the ambience was terrible when I visited, with a bad, loud DJ, karaoke and rednecks galore drinking BMC. Slow service to boot. We had one and left. So bad!

But the beer ain't bad: 24 taps including Bell's Oberon, Vanilla Porter, Heavy Riptide, Revolution Little Crazy, FatHead's, Founders, Southern Tier, Sierra Ovila and Saison, Mt Carmel Coffee, Horn Dog Barley... good stuff.

Sadly, the classless atmosphere, bad service and overall wrong vibe killed it for me. But I'd be willing to give Lucky Dog another try next time I happen to be in Mason. And I hear their wings are golden...

I was first drawn to Lucky Dog as a family-friendly place with some distractions (claw machines, etc.) for my young girls, but I kept coming back for the food and craft beer selection. The signature dish is the grilled wings that come in a variety of sauces or dry rubs. (The Cajun dry rub is great.) This is the only place I can think of in the area that serves their wings this way. (Other than my wife.)

The other drawing card for Lucky Dog is the beer selection. Other than 3 permanent taps (Bud Light, Miller Lite and Labatt's), they rotate the beer selection amongst several seasonals and a variety of other craft brews, including local/regional breweries (Bell's, Brew Kettle, Great Lakes, Fat Head's, Mad Tree, Blank Slate, et al) and some of the best national craft brewers (Stone, Troeg's, Dogfish Head, et al)

They also have a "50 Beer Club" where for a small fee you get 6 free wings, plus another 6 free wings after 25 beers. After finishing 25 unique drafts and 25 unique bottles, you get to pick an upcoming keg (if they can get it), tap the keg and pull the first draft.

Overall, a good experience. Family-friendly and good food. Great entertainment with trivia night and karaoke. Friendly staff - sometimes slow but very welcoming. You'll enjoy your visit.

The Lucky Dog gives the impression of being a large dive/sports bar. However, the beer selection is great. They always seem to carry a wide variety of styles. Their tap selection is better than some of the other local places that have 60 taps. The food is consistently good and a good value. My wife loves the baked chicken. It can get very loud and crowded on trivia nights, but normally seating is not a problem. This has become one of our favorite spots for dinner and beers.

Lucky Dog just installed new beer taps. About 20 or microbrews to choose from. Good bottle selection, too. Usually have Great Lakes, Bells, Founders, Left Hand and so on. Taps rotate.

Food is standard pub food.

Wings are OUTSTANDING. Large, grilled wings; not tiny fried ones. Try the spicy honey mustard sauce.

The philly steaks are very good and the philly chicken is really good. I get the buffalo philly chicken with cajun fries.

Cheese cake for dessert is really great - especially if they have flavored ones.

Well worth the money.