Lazy Dog Restaurant Approved For Moorestown Area

MOUNT LAUREL, NJ — Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar, a chain of family-friendly eateries with a Rocky Mountain theme, received the go-ahead to build a restaurant in the Moorestown area.

Last week, the Mount Laurel Planning Board unanimously approved the restaurant, which will replace the shuttered Don Pablo's in East Gate Square. Getting it ready will take some time, as the defunct Tex-Mex restaurant will get demolished.

Lazy Dog estimates a late 2025 opening, a spokesperson told Patch. The chain announced plans earlier this year to bring a restaurant to the location.

With roughly 50 eateries nationwide, Lazy Dog's restaurants are designed to feel like a Rocky Mountain Wyoming escape, with lodge-like furnishings and artwork reminiscent of the Cowboy State. The menu focuses on "comfort food with a twist" that highlights seasonal ingredients, according to Lazy Dog.

Unique selections include the BBQ bison meatloaf and the spaghetti squash and beetballs, which features vegetarian meatballs. Patrons can also take home "TV dinners," which are made in-house but frozen in retro-style trays.

The chain's original restaurant was going to be called Rocky Mountain Café. But Lazy Dog found Chris Simms renamed it to promote a casual, kid-friendly atmosphere, he told The Orange County Register.

Lazy Dog doesn't currently have any restaurants in the region — the closest are currently in Virginia. But an eatery in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, is also in the works, the chain says.

The East Gate restaurant will bring new life to the former Don Pablo's, which closed in 2018 — one year before the chain ceased operations. It will go on 1361 Nixon Dr. — a pad site in the shopping center around the Mount Laurel-Moorestown border.