No, that's not a California Brown
Bear, although he was darn near as big as one. That's Abu, the
GOP Restaurant's beloved Golden Retriever. And, what a retriever
he was!
Do you remember back to the 1994
era days (the ones we now look back upon fondly) when the Democrats
used to accuse Republicans of wanting to steal lunches from school
kids. Well, it's true, and that is how we stocked the GOP
Restaurant's Grab and Go Lunch Bar. We'd send Abu out to the
greenbelt
where kids would walk on their way to school. He'd hide in the
bushes alongside the walkway and jump out, grab those kids' sack
lunches and bring them back to us. Abu was a dedicated and loyal
Republican and one of my favorites. He always saved at least one
roast beef sandwich lunch for me. One time he thought I was
going to get angry with him because it seems he mistook some kid's
science project for a lunch bag. It turns out the kid was taking
his pet lizard to show at school. When I opened the bag and
exclaimed, "What in the world? It's a Newt!", Abu
thought he had kidnapped the Speaker of the House.
Well, those days are gone and Abu
has passed as well. We've kept
the Grab and Go open though in his memory and you can still grab a sack
lunch there. They're still good, but somehow they are missing an
element of the good old days.