PBA Galleries

8½x5" Poodle Dog restaurant menu printed in black on an actual 1000 year old redwood panel (approximately 4 mm. thick), with woodcut illustration of an ancient redwood “In the lifetime of a California Redwood.” Menu lettered on verso: “Joint Meeting of the San Joaquin Valley Lumbermen’s Club, Sacramento Valley…, and Central California… at the Old Poodle Dog, San Francisco, September 9, 1915. * Also, a 6¼" tall die-cut printed Poodle Dog menu in the shape of an ancient tree (illustration on one side), lettered on other: “Banquet, Sequoia Parlor No. 160…Bergez-Frank’s Old Poodle Dog Retaurant, September 11, 1915. Together, 2 menus.

The Poodle Dog, which was on Bush Street (near Grant), San Francisco, was first opened by two Frenchmen, P. Allarme and A. B. Blanco. It was known for a number of things, such as the best dinner for a dollar on earth and the first restaurant in San Francisco to have a telephone. The lower floor was open to the public, but the top floor was reserved for politicians, top businessmen and the like.