At “Dogue”, you don’t need to be a mastiff to push the front door: the chef Rahmi Massarweh welcomes all of man’s best friends, as long as their owner has a well-filled wallet.
Trained in French cuisine in a renowned restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area, this American has just launched his gastronomic brand for dogs, where he offers “pattes-tisseries” to lick his lips.
Dogs with the finest palates have, for example, the choice between the “Petit Gateau”, with its minced chicken heart covered with a layer of carefully sculpted pastry cream, and the “Golden Paste Cake”, a small flan which combines the organic coconut and turmeric with a fine honey gelatin.
“The visual aspect is extremely important,” Massarweh told AFP. “When it comes to dog food, it’s always been a goal to design it in a way that I want to eat it myself.”
This iconoclastic chef had the idea to open this new restaurant thanks to the whims of one of his English Mastiffs. The boor refused to swallow his mash, so the cook began to use his know-how to concoct small dishes for him with fresh and seasonal ingredients.
With his new business, the canine cook hopes to pay “homage to (his) roots in classic French cuisine, and at the same time”, to send “a wink (…) to the English Mastiffs” that his wife and possess him.
On weekdays, the offer of treats and other “dogguccinos” – creamy drinks infused with spirulina or charcoal – start at $4.95. Owners can also order bespoke take-out menus.
On Sundays, the shop turns into a restaurant, with a $75 starter-main course-dessert menu.
A claim that does not seem to scare Joe Lake, who came with “MJ”, his trendy dog who wears a pink dye on half of her coat.
“It’s been a very good experience so far,” says the owner behind his vintage square glasses. “She loves the food and she loves the attention she gets here.”
But the establishment does not only make people happy. On social networks, some residents see it as a symptom of a city that has lost its mind with the money of neighboring Silicon Valley, more absorbed by frivolities than by the explosion of homelessness and drug consumption in its streets.
Mr. Massarweh, on the other hand, focuses on the happiness of his four-legged customers.
With dogs, “there is no facade”, he smiles. “If they like (the food), they like it. If they don’t, there’s nothing to do, they’re not going to eat it.”
