Dog owners love to pamper their pooches to the point that many live way better lives than their humans do. Case in point: This San Francisco restaurant is now serving a luxe US$75 tasting menu just for man’s best friend.
Dogue, which opened in late September in the Mission District, may be the first restaurant in the country with a prix fixe for dogs only, owner and head chef Rahmi Massarweh told the Los Angeles Times. And the menu sounds pretty good, even to a human: Dogue is whipping up French-inspired dishes made with locally sourced, organic ingredients—just like you might find at your favorite neighborhood spot.
“What we do doesn’t generally exist,” Massarweh told the newspaper. “My approach is as if it were a human restaurant. It’s as if you have come into my restaurant, and the star guest is your dog.”
The three-course meal is only available on Sundays for walk-ins (the rest of the week, Dogue sells Parisian pastries and “doguccinos”). While the dishes rotate frequently based on what’s in season, your pup can expect items like organic beef chuck steak with fermented carrots and beets, as well as green-lipped mussels with fermented carrots and wheatgrass. Massarweh even consulted with his vet to ensure that everything is complete, balanced and made with dog-safe ingredients.
After spending more than a decade in the restaurant industry, Massarweh opened a doggy daycare center with his wife in 2015. At the time, he was making meals for his own dogs, and he started to feed the daycare center’s canines as well. Now, Massarweh’s dog meals (“dog food” sounds too lowly for a tasting menu) are available to anyone who wants to give Fido a real treat.
One local, Jason Villacampa, brought his two corgis in for the grand opening, where they were served chicken and Chaga mushroom soup, a chicken-skin waffle with charcoal flan and grass-fed steak tartare with microgreens. (To be clear, this is better than I eat.)
“Food is a love language, and I think it’s another way to kind of express and share love with your dog,” Villacampa told the Times. “It’s a way to take care of them and share healthy but fun food as well.”
Bring on the doggy degustations.
