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Food & Drink

Trick Dog’s ‘Cats’ era: City’s most influential bartenders are closet theater kids

A woman in an ornate gold dress holds a pink drink with foam and a striped straw, partially hidden by gold curtains, showcasing jewelry on her hand.
Mission District bar Trick Dog, which completely changes its cocktail menu twice a year, has debuted its latest effort, the Broadway-inspired “Dogs: The Musical.” | Source: Courtesy Nicola Parisi

Twice a year, Trick Dog, the award-winning San Francisco cocktail bar, shreds its elaborately themed cocktail menus and starts from scratch. For the 21st go-round, it officially debuted its latest effort, a riff on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production “Cats”—except, as you might guess, it’s called “Dogs: The Musical.” 

Past Trick Dog menus dove into themes like yoga, a map of San Francisco landmarks and the Pantone color scheme—some of which have grown truly elaborate. Instead of transforming the entire interior into a 19th-century ship bound for a mythical version of Tahiti as it did last time, this time Trick Dog has channeled its creative energy into 16-page Playbill-inspired menus—booklets which come complete with fake, 1980s-style ads for liquor brands like Bacardi and Herradura that the bar’s creative team shot themselves, giving the sales reps a head’s-up. (There’s also a plug for Quik Dog, the hot dog-centric spinoff restaurant opening in Mission Bay later this year.)

A man in a tuxedo holds a playbill with a yellow top labeled "PLAYBILL" and a black cover with the word "Dogs." Two round eye-like shapes are on the cover.
Trick Dog founder and owner Josh Harris thumbs through the bar's Playbill-style menu. | Source: Courtesy Nicola Parisi

The physical menu is styled as a 16-page theatrical Playbill. As always, a copy can be had for $30, the proceeds of which go to a scholarship fund for students whose parents were hospitality workers and who became the first kids in their family to attend college. All 16 drinks are riffs on “Cats” characters—if you’re a musical theater buff, names like “Mr. Woofistoffeles” or “Kibbleshanks” may sound familiar. Accompanying each $18 cocktail’s blurb is a head shot of a Trick Dog staffer in elaborate feline face paint. 

A staff favorite is the Bonzo (Grey Goose vodka, Chareau aloe liqueur, makrut lime, Sprecher cream soda, rosemary and lime juice), which owes itself to beverage director Nick Amano-Dolan’s distaste for one of its components. “Rosemary’s a really played-out ingredient,” he said, wearing a tuxedo for opening night. “Five, ten years ago you were seeing people smoke rosemary and make rosemary tinctures all over the place.” Instead, the Bonzo balances the herb with fragrant makrut limes. The result tastes like a key lime pie—with the cream soda adding a rich, foamy top. 

A cocktail with a cucumber slice sits on a table with a gold compact, red lipstick, jewelry, a perfume bottle, and a crystal glass. The scene is elegant and refined.
Everything about Trick Dog's newest menu suggests a night at the theater in 1983. | Source: Courtesy Nicola Parisi

The Puparina (Patron Silver, Luxardo Bitter Bianco, a tomato-raspberry cordial and a white cacao wash) came together after workshopping it at pop-ups up and bar takeovers up and down the West Coast. Mellow and summery, it’s perfectly clarified but for the half-tomato garnish resting atop the one big cube—a “very nice little savory kind of tequila Negroni,” as Amano-Dolan put it.

Perhaps the prettiest drink is the Poochy, a riff on a Ramos Gin Fizz that evokes a Szechuan pepper-inflected Strawberry Quik and almost sparked a rebellion when it was announced. (That drink, a New Orleans classic, technically involves shaking it for a full 15 minutes.) To spare the staff’s shoulder muscles, it’s whipped in seconds in a Hamilton Beach blender, resulting in a thick, shake-like, candy-pink drink that, like a pint of Guinness, takes a minute or two to settle. 

A smiling bartender in a tuxedo is behind the bar. A bubbly cocktail garnished with a lemon twist is on the counter next to stacked glasses.
Clad in a tux for opening night, beverage director Nick Amano-Dolan shows off the Gizmo, a nonalcoholic drink garnished with a gummy yuzu pear. | Source: Astrid Kane/The Standard

Any regular at Trick Dog knows they’re committed to offering top-tier non-alcoholic options. Josh Harris, the founder and owner of Bon Vivants, the hospitality group for which Trick Dog is the flagship, is sober, and insists on putting serious effort into the bar’s alcohol-free offerings like the Gizmo (the sea buckthorn-centric NA aperitif Everleaf Marine, Giffard pineapple syrup, kombu and a gummy yuzu pear garnish).

“We’ve been challenging ourselves to employ techniques that would be harder for us to do at the scale of the alcoholic drinks: clarifications, forced carbonations, things like that,” Harris said. “The person who’s having the nonalcoholic cocktail, in some senses, is getting a more special thing.”

A microphone, a drink with ice and a blackberry, and three red "Admit One" tickets lie on a red surface.
Previous Trick Dog menus have gone with a 'more-is-more' aesthetic, but 'Dogs: The Musical' is a more stripped-down affair, channeling its creative energy into the drinks and the menu as opposed to the bar's interior. | Source: Courtesy Nicola Parisi

Time and again, a Trick Dog theme goes all in. Minutes before opening the door for the official debut of “Dogs: The Musical,” Harris led the team in a congratulatory shot—mezcal for the drinkers, a zero-alcohol equivalent for the rest—that nodded to the famously superstitious world of theater. “Break a leg,” he said.

Astrid Kane can be reached at astrid@sfstandard.com