A California restaurant is serving dogs filet mignon and other decadent food in what is considered to be the first eatery designed only for canines.
The San Francisco location is called Dogue, and launched in September in the Mission District.
Meals including several courses cost $75 per dog and include a mimosa and pastry for the dog’s owner, with dog plates that have items such as chicken skin waffles and filet mignon steak tartare with quail egg, according to WDSU. Some of the food items cost $2.50, but can get up to $95.
“When we make our food, it is a process. It is very time-consuming. There is a lot of technique. There’s a lot of method and detail to what we do,” Massarweh said. “Our pastries, for example, take about two days on average to make. I know they’re going to be eaten in two seconds.”
The owner and co-founder used to work at a high-end restaurant, but left the job in order to center his attention on his family and get out of the intense environment.
“My in-laws were gracious enough to allow us to stay in their small, tiny little basement and gave us a suggestion of offering dog walking, just to make a little bit of pocket change,” Massarweh told Business Insider.
Massarweh made food for his own dog and was always being told how healthy the animal looked. Rahmi Massarweh and his wife, Alejandra, started the cafe together after setting up a doggie daycare.
“While operating the daycare, we started to get more inquiries about our dog food,” Massarweh said. “I’ll never forget the very first client who asked us to make food for their dog.”
The dog had terminal cancer and was only expected to live for a few months, so Massarweh’s wife asked him to make food for the pup.
“At first, I wasn’t too thrilled about making food because I had just left a career in the restaurant industry,” Massarweh said, but as he made food for the dog, it continued to live and was still alive two years afterwards. The Massarwehs began to make food for their clients in 2015.
“The only change was adding fresh food to her diet,” Massarweh said. “That’s where we fully started making the commitment to offering this.”
His goal is to provide dogs with fresh, natural food.
“I don’t want the idea of presentation and plating to be the focus,” Massarweh said. “I want that to be the vehicle that brings it to the world.”
Research has shown that there are more dogs than kids in the city of San Francisco, a place where the animals are especially popular, according to Insider.
There has reportedly been some online pushback regarding how much money the food costs for dogs, while many struggle with homelessness and disparity in the city.
