Yes, the menu looks like a Playbill for a musical called Dogs, styled after Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, and many of the drink names are, also, spoofs of character names from Cats.
For its semiannual menu switchup — a tradition that's been ongoing since the bar's inception over a decade ago — Trick Dog has a pup-tastic little show to share: Dogs, The Musical. It arrives, tongue firmly in cheek, just in time to quench our mid-summer thirst and distract us from election-related anxieties. (And Trick Dog already did an election-themed menu back in July 2016, which, in retrospect, seemed like an act of hope and optimism that was thoroughly quashed by November.)
As owner Josh Harris and general manager Nick Amano-Dolan told SFist last year, the process of incubating, creating, and implementing each new menu is an arduous one, and some ideas don't become realities for years. Dogs, The Musical, came together with the help of bar manager Travis Howse, and it features an array of unique concoctions with a focus on sustainability — like any good dog, the bar is putting every last scrap of its ingredients to use.
"We've had Dogs, The Musical, waiting in the wings as our understudy for a while, but we needed the right cast and energy to bring it to life," Harris says. "So often people ask how long it takes to develop a menu concept. The anwer is complex, and this menu is a perfect example of how a concept can live in a state of incubation for years and then finally come to life with the right team at the bar and collaborative creatives."
Harris notes that Howse has a background in theater, and brought that to the menu, along with the entire "team's love of pups."
Like I said, a bunch of the drink names are spoofs of the cat character names in Cats, like the Mr. Woofistoffeles, which is made with Herradura Silver tequila, Iichiko shochu, Martini Bitter, watermelon, kimchi, and lime. Every part of the watermelon is used to make the drink — its juice is made into a cordial, the rinds are quick-pickled and fermented for a kimchi garnish, and the juice from the kimchi is also mixed into the cocktail.
There's also the Grizabona, made with Botanist gin, Midori, Martini Bianco, aquavit, celery, apple, and yuzu.
Out of the 16 new drinks, all of which you can see below with their character avatars — faces were painted by local artist Rachel Levine — three are non-alcoholic, in keeping with Harris's commitment to making delicious and unique N/A options. (Harris himself has been sober for over two decades.) The art direction for the Playbill menu was done by Alyssa Rusin, and as always, the menus are for sale as keepsakes — the $30 for each goes toward the Bon Vivants Scholarship program.
As always, Trick Dog also offers a full food menu, and they are open seven days a week — 4 pm to midnight Sunday to Thursday, and 4 pm to 2 am on Friday and Saturday.
The new menu launched at 4 pm on Wednesday (July 10).
Top image by Nicola Parisi
