Hobbits are famously hungry, eating up to seven meals a day, including two dinners when they can get it. So when a science-fiction convention brought the four principal actors who played Hobbits in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy to San Francisco, it’s perhaps no surprise that they reconvened over an elaborate dinner.
Dominic Monaghan, who played Merry in the films, posted a picture to Instagram Sunday night showing himself seated next to Sean Astin (Samwise) and opposite Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins) and Billy Boyd (Pippin) at what looks to be the end of dinner at Atelier Crenn. Three bottles of the dessert wine Madeira are on the table, plus Monaghan himself has a carafe of what appears to be white wine.
“The road goes ever on @atelier.crenn we got a tour of the kitchen and our table had been given the name “top gun”. Love that. But I wondered later over dessert…which one was Goose?!?” the caption read.
Atelier Crenn has yet to respond to The Standard's request for comment.
The quartet had been in town for Fan Expo, a massive sci-fi convention and cosplay gathering at Moscone Center. Specifically, they had reunited at “One Reunion To Rule Them All,” a ticketed Q&A by the four inhabitants of Middle Earth’s Shire more than 20 years after the final film’s release.
Cast largely for their short stature and generally adorable auras, all four actors were in their 20s and 30s when the films were shot. Elijah Wood is the youngest, at 42, while Billy Boyd is now 55.
They’ve remained friends over the years. Per Monaghan’s Instagram, this is hardly the first time they’d assembled over dinner, either. They most recently met up in May 2022 at Jaleo, a restaurant in Spain run by noted chef-humanitarian José Andrés.
Atelier Crenn is a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in San Francisco’s Cow Hollow neighborhood that specializes in artistic presentations of sustainable ingredients, with no red meat. With courses named for the emotions they evoke, the Grand Tasting Menu often contains items like geoduck, fermented alliums and sturgeon—a far cry from the staid postwar British cuisine typically on the table in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels.