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Poodle Dog Restaurants

The Poodle Dog Restaurants were a series of French Restaurants in San Francisco spanning from at least 1849 to the mid-1960s. The successive restaurants were mostly unrelated, but each built on the former's success and reputation.^[1][2] During its heyday, the Poodle Dog was the epitome of wealth and opulence in San Francisco, catering to important statesmen, financial leaders, and business tycoons.^[3][4] It also developed a racy reputation for catering to those men's need for a discreet place to meet with their mistresses and ladies of the night.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]} More than anything, it was well known for having impressive foods, being labeled as "the best French restaurant in the city,"^[12] if not the "best dollar dinner on Earth".^[13]

The Poodle Dog Restaurants trace their origin to San Francisco's earliest days as a city. The first iteration of the Poodle Dog appears to have been a California Gold Rush era restaurant that provided inexpensive french cuisine to those seeking their fortune.^[14][15] Historians do not agree on the origin story of the Poodle Dog's name. Indeed, it has been suggested that the name came from the first proprietor's family dog,^[16][17][18] or that it was named "Poulet D'Or or Poule D'Or which was unpronounceable to the average American",^[19][20] or that a stray poodle known for begging there became the unofficial mascot and the proprietors "named the restaurant after it for good luck".^[21] In any event, historians do agree that there was a Poodle Dog restaurant from San Francisco's earliest days.^[22]

The Poodle Dog quickly became a popular restaurant beloved by San Franciscans. By 1868, it had transitioned away from simple French cooking to fine dining with more extravagant food.^[23] The clientele shifted accordingly: "Instead of the raw miner, its patron was the stiff collared banker, the frock-coated judge, the spade-beard lawyer - the Argonaut with a little more culture and greyer hair".^[24] The Poodle Dog maintained this level of sophisticated diner until its closing, some 100 years later.

The Poodle Dog shifted again from mere fine dining to all-out opulence and luxury by the 1890s. Some say this era saw its "greatest popularity as a rendezvous and a restaurant".^[25] Diners could expect 23 courses and an even larger wine selection by the end of the century.^[26] The menu reflected this: it had swelled to 17 pages.^[27] As for the cooking facilities, the Poodle Dog boasted a "vast wine cellar and vegetable rooms, bottling rooms . . . refrigerators . . . a laundry".^[28] Cooks there also enjoyed one of a kind dishwashers and stoves, making it notable not to diners but to chefs as well.^[29]

During this Era, the Poodle Dog earned its reputation as a "five-storied dome of pleasure".^[30] During the lunch hour, it was a "who's who" of famous and powerful businessmen, such as "poets, journalists, physicians, politicians, and luminaries of law".^[31] It is said that "the destinies of many important business undertakings was settled at these noon dinners."^[32]

The Poodle Dog also had a decidedly more racy reputation in the evenings. It was well known for "its private upstairs dining chambers and love nooks [lending] a sort of Parisian air to the city's nightlife".^[33] This reputation was well-documented, and came with an expected level of scandal involving the city's elite, including the mayor of San Francisco.^[34]

The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake "put an unhappy end" to the gilded days of the Poodle Dog.^[35][36] The restaurant maintained its reputation - both in the dining room and upstairs - during this era, but it was never the same as the gilded era. Finally, Prohibition dealt it the "finishing blow," and the PD closed its doors on April 15, 1922.^[37][38] The proprietors felt that a French restaurant without wine was not worth keeping open.

The Poodle Dog remained closed until 1933, when Calixte LaLanne, a former proprietor, reopened it. This iteration was called the "Ritz French Restaurant," until his son changed it back to Poodle Dog after Calixte's death in 1943.^[39] The restaurant remained open, although not in the same splendor, until it closed for good in the mid-1960s.

• Jean Bergez, an "epicure and sportsman," originally from Cette-Eygun, France.^[40][41] Known as one of San Francisco's most famous restaurateurs of the era.^[42]
• Calixte LaLanne^[43]
• Louis Courtard^[44]
• Camille Mailhebuau^[45][46][47]

• 1849: Washington Street & Grant Avenue (then DuPont), although also claimed to be near Clay and Grant (then DuPont).^[48] Other historians believe the first Poodle Dog did not open until 1858, and that its first proprietor was Nicholas Richit.^[49]
• 1868: Bush Street & Grant Avenue.,^[50] although some say this location did not open until 1873.^[51]
• 1898: Mason Street & Eddy Street, although some say this move did not happen til 1895.^[52]
• 1906: 824 Eddy Street.^[53]
• 1908: 415 Bush Street.^[54][55]
• 1920: New Montgomery and Stevenson Street.
• 1942: 65 Post Street.^[56]

Many restaurants, past and present, claim to have invented Crab Louis.^[57] Historians agree that Bergez-Frank's Poodle Dog has one of the strongest of those claims.^[58] Bergez-Frank's originally had a special menu item titled "Crab Leg a la Louis," named for famed restaurateur and co-owner of the Poodle Dog after his death in 1908.^[59]

The Poodle Dog was recognized with a cover story in the California State Library Foundation's Bulletin in 2006.^[60]