Publications
Partners
Hand-cut filet mignon, tartare topped with poached quail egg and wild venison heart – these are just some of the mouthwatering meals on the menu at a trendy new restaurant. But this haute cuisine is not for humans.
No, the fine-dining experience at Dogue (pronounced like Vogue) is exclusive to hungry hounds.
The dog restaurant, in San Francisco in the US, is the brainchild of owner and head chef Rahmi Massarweh. It provides a pawsome variety of upscale treats and unique French cuisine created especially for man’s best friend.
READ MORE| Step into the anti-idyllic hotel, where a suite without walls or a roof costs R6 000 a night
Rahmi cooks up a storm for his canine clients using raw, organic, locally sourced ingredients. The chef has also consulted a vet to ensure that his restaurant's meal plans are tailored to the pets' age, weight, activity level, special needs, and allergies.
“What we do doesn’t generally exist,” he says. “My approach is to treat it as if it were a human restaurant. If you come into my restaurant, the star guest is your dog.”
Organic beef chuck steak with fermented carrots and beets, or green-lipped mussels with fermented carrots and wheatgrass are just a couple of the dishes that dog owners can choose for their pets.
Dogue also serves Parisian pastries and “dogguccinos” starting at $4,95 (R85,50) during the week, and on Sundays offers a three-course meal for $75 (R1 330).
Rahmi, who trained in classic French cuisine, was a professional chef in San Francisco for nearly two decades. In 2015, he quit his job and opened a doggy daycare centre with his canine-loving wife, Alejandra.
READ MORE| Paws for thought: this man spent R250 000 to look exactly like a border collie
He got the idea to open a dog restaurant after noticing that his dogs were picky eaters. At first, he started making his dog's food from scratch, before he eventually started putting together weekly doggy bags for their daycare customers too. He officially opened his restaurant last month.
The restaurant is named after the couple’s Old English Mastiff. “Dogue translates to Mastiff in French, a homage to my roots in classical French cuisine and our first Mastiff, Grizzly," he explains.
Diner Jason Villacampa couldn't wait to treat his pet corgis to the restaurant's offering.
“Food is a love language, and I think it’s another way to kind of express and share love with your dog,” he says.
But to Rahmi, the pooches' opinions are the only ones that really matter.
“It’s rare when as a chef, I walk into the dining room to touch tables and every single guest has a smile on their face.”
Sources: cnbc.com, latimes.com, doguesf.com, ripleys.com
