2 Uncommon Ephemera for the Poodle Dog Restaurant: The Tale of a Poodle; and Menu for the Joint Meeting of the San Joaquin Valley, Sacramento Valley and Central California Lumbermen Clubs at the Poodle Dog Restaurant in San Francisco
San Francisco: Louis Roesch Co., 1903; September 9, 1915. Second Edition of The Tale of the Poodle; First Edition of the menu. The Tale of the Poodle: Oblong 8vo. [56] pp. Photographic illustrations and prints (many in color) of the Poodle Dog Restaurant in San Francisco, with accompanying text. Includes images of poodles, historic views of the city and bay, bird's-eye view over city, street scenes, exterior and interior views of restaurant over time, dining rooms, wine cellar, kitchen, portraits of patrons and staff, foyer, bedroom suites, and reception room. Publisher's sewn black wrappers with an embossed poodle on the front serving champagne. Light wear to extremities; a near fine copy. Printed "Second Edition" on ffep; only 7 copies of this edition located in OCLC; no copies of the first edition located in OCLC. Menu for the Joint Meeting: 5 x 8.5". Printed in black on California Redwood board. One side has the banquet menu, and the other has a reproduction engraving "In the Lifetime of a California Redwood" which notes that some of the big trees had been around for centuries, and are still around in the age of Edison, Marconi, Kelvin, Tesla, etc. It is not known how many copies of this menu were printed but given it was for a banquet and not general use, the printing must have been small. Only 1 copy located in OCLD, scarce thus. Item #18760
The Poodle Dog restaurant opened in 1849; one of San Francisco's first, certainly its most famous French restaurant. At the turn of the century, the owners published a brochure in celebration of the Poodle Dog's fiftieth anniversary [likely this title]. They stated that a couple of Frenchmen, Messrs. Peguillan and Langsman opened the restaurant. A small white poodle owned by the wife of Francois Peguillan was a rarity, drawing almost as much attention to the restaurant as its cuisine. Named Ami, the poodle assumed the position of host, greeting all with friendship and hospitality. The restaurant was luxurious for the times and offered the highest quality cuisine in the city. By the 1890s, the Poodle Dog acquired Chef Calixte Lalanne as thier chef de cuisine. Lalanne's artistry elevated the restaurant to the height of French haute cuisine. The restaurant survived the big earthquake and first in 1906 but faded with the advent of prohibition and closed its doors in the early 1920s.
Price: $750.00