Credited with ‘perfecting’ the scrambled dog in Columbus, Robert Meadows dies
Robert Meadows Sr., who was known for getting an iconic Columbus culinary dish just right, has died.
Meadows died peacefully Saturday at 100, according to his obituary. The location and cause of death weren’t mentioned.
For more than 40 years, Meadows owned and operated the Palace Billiards and Chili Bar, where he was “widely credited with perfecting” the scrambled dog, his obituary says.
According to the scrambled dog history former Ledger-Enquirer reporter Nick Wooten wrote in 2020, Firm Roberts was credited with inventing it sometime after 1908 in Columbus after converting a news stand into a café, where he sold chopped hot dogs on a bun with chili in a celery dish. Customers chose the toppings.
Then the scrambled dog earned worldwide fame after it was added to the menu at Dinglewood Pharmacy in the early 1930s as Henry “Sport” Brown joined the staff. Lieutenant Stevens succeeded Brown at Dinglewood after Brown died in 1956.
Stevens amped up his scrambled dogs with onions, mustard, ketchup and oyster crackers. Its reputation went global in the 1970s after Prince Charles of Great Britain was served a Dinglewood scrambled dog on a sterling silver platter.
Meadows’ version of the scrambled dog, which he called a Georgia Dog, was “as legendary as the man who served it,” his obituary says. And retired Ledger-Enquirer columnist Richard Hyatt agrees.
“I still crave one of Robert Meadows’ Georgia Dogs,” Hyatt wrote in 2015. “… They came on wax paper with another piece that you could use to wipe the chili off your chin.”
Meadows’ pool hall had character along with his scrambled dogs.
Hyatt wrote, “A sign over the bar summed up the 8-ball philosophy: Cows may come. Cows may go. But the bull in here goes on forever.”
The funeral arrangements in Columbus include a celebration of life May 1 at Striffler-Hamby Mortuary, 4071 Macon Road, starting with visitation at 1 p.m., followed by a graveside service in Parkhill Cemetery at 2 p.m.
