Honey (left) and Juni get ready for lunch at Bone Appetit Cafe, a new San Francisco restaurant that caters to canines.
Cyrus gets ready to wolf down the steak tartare at Bone Appetit Cafe.
Angus Choi waits in line outside Bone Appetit Cafe with 2-year-old Maple.
The leather-bound Sunday menu at Dogue’s Bone Appetit Cafe. No word yet on whether Michelin is sniffing around.
Chef de cuisine Rahmi Massarweh owns Dogue and its canine cafe, Bone Appetit.
Pup pastries fill the display case at Dogue.
The petit gateau temps the four-legged clientele at Dogue.
Honey (left) and Juni get ready for lunch at Bone Appetit Cafe, a new San Francisco restaurant that caters to canines.
Chef de cuisine Rahmi Massarweh owns Dogue and its canine cafe, Bone Appetit.
Pup pastries fill the display case at Dogue.
Steak tartare was on the menu and the line was out the door. It also barked
The customers were trying to be on their best behavior, but steak tartare can get any diner excited, no matter the species.
Annie is a 7-year-old Labradoodle. Her owner, Lili Cook, said it was no big thing to spend $75 on a three-course meal for her dog, especially one that included, according to the leather-bound menu, “pasture raised grass fed filet mignon, dressed with quail egg.”
“Dogs deserve nice things,” Cook said.
Annie was one of dozens of customers on Sunday at the new Bone Appetit Cafe at Dogue, a high-end dog-chow shop at Valencia and 21st streets. The word has gotten out about the high-end fare that white-frocked Chef de cuisine Rahmi Massarweh cooks up for the Sunday afternoon sit-down meal, and snagging one of the four tables was as challenging as landing a spot at The French Laundry.
Angus Choi waits in line outside Bone Appetit Cafe with 2-year-old Maple.
The line spilled onto Valencia Street. Angus Choi said he and his 2-year-old shepherd, Maple, had been waiting on a yellow stool for nearly an hour, cooling their heels and paws.
“Owning a dog is already a big investment,” Choi said. “Another $75 is not really that much. Maple is basically my child.”
The petit gateau temps the four-legged clientele at Dogue.
Maple’s eyes were fixed on the restaurant’s dessert case, which featured petit chicken gateau, golden pasta cakes and blue spirulina eclairs. Each one cost $15 (dessert is not included in the $75 prix fixe meal) and each one required about five seconds, on average, for consumption.
Most pastries come with a small golden flake that Masserweh carefully positions atop each with his chef’s tweezers, as if placing a diamond in a setting.
“The ingredients are for the dogs,” he said. “The presentation is for the pet parents.”
Massarwah doesn’t say owner. One doesn’t own one’s best friend.
Since word of the $75 meal got out, eyes have been rolling and San Francisco has been catching it like a frisbee at the dog park. How can people spend $75 on a dog meal when homeless folks are not far from the restaurant’s front door?
Cyrus gets ready to wolf down the steak tartare at Bone Appetit Cafe.
“The criticisms are very valid,” said the chef. “Social disparity is very real.”
He would have liked to elaborate, but the Basenji at table 3 — having finished his chicken and chaga mushroom soup and chicken skin waffle with charcoal flan — was waiting for his steak tartare.
Joy Choi said said she wanted Honey, her Labradoodle, to have the same culinary experience as a person. Tobi Choi said she wanted her goldendoodle to be part of supporting local business.
And Robin Joy said she was buying a $15 pumpkin donut for her cockapoo, Noe, because it was her birthday. She had never before encountered, whether for man or beast, a $15 donut.
“It’s totally over the top to buy one, but that’s OK,” she said. “it’s for Noe.”
The leather-bound Sunday menu at Dogue’s Bone Appetit Cafe. No word yet on whether Michelin is sniffing around.
During the rest of the week when the sit-down restaurant isn’t operating, Massarwah sells his own line of raw dog food. A serving of guinea hen is $15, a serving of wild venison is $14.50 and a serving of pastured duck is $12. A pack of quail heads is $5.
The line of dogs spilling onto Valencia Street stretched to the entrance of the taqueria next door, where a burrito was $12, quail heads not included. Unlike at the dog restaurant, not a single customer was waiting to partake.
“We have a different atmosphere,” said cashier Joseph Patino. “We’re family oriented. They’re dog oriented.”
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