Bessie sniffs at the menu and chooses the rabbit, licking the meaty sample while furiously wagging her tail in anticipation before the waitress puts her order on a low table next to a water bowl and the white Bolognese devoured it all.
Pestaurace — a fusion of the Czech words for dog, pes, and restaurant, restaurace — is a new pop-up restaurant for canines that is the Czech Republic’s contribution to the growing list of dog dining ventures around the world. These include a deluxe dog food delivery service in India, doggy happy hours in the US and a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Germany where cats are welcome too.
The Czech take on the concept is a promotional picnic: The pooch scores a free meal and the pet food company publicizes its fare.
Photo: AFP
The freebie factor is a perk for Katerina Doubravova, an unemployed young woman visiting the Pestaurace tents at a dog show in the eastern Czech city of Pardubice.
“It’s a nice idea, even a dog can go out to eat,” she said, as her English Setter Ashley nibbled on a rabbit morsel. “When she goes to a restaurant with us, she lies there and waits, so now we’ll swap roles.”
Launched this year, Pestaurace hits the road for a cross-country tour next month at a time when pet food is booming in the former communist state.
The nation’s pre-1989 command economy did not cater to non-essential commodities, meaning that man’s best friend dined on leftovers or homemade chow. Yet in the quarter century since it embraced the free market, the Czech Republic’s population is consuming more and more prepared foods, as noted by the ever-serious Euromonitor International marketing intelligence firm in a thick report it compiled on the issue.
The report said there was a “significant trend” among pet owners of buying high-quality dog food and the sector in the Czech Republic is posting constant growth.
Pavla Sykorova, owner of an Alsatian named Nutty, is pleased by the variety now on offer.
“She’s a bit picky, so I’m glad she’s eating and that she can choose,” Sykorova told reporters over the din of barks and whines.
Nutty takes seconds to polish off a plate of lamb she picked off the five-item menu dabbed with samples to entice four-legged customers, but not everyone is salivating over the new style cuisine.
“I consider this a show, but I’m not in favor of exclusive restaurants for dogs,” said Martina Mikova. “I think that at home a dog can eat with more peace and rest afterward.”
Belgian Shepherd Axim disagreed, wolfing down his rabbit and dashing off to hunt for more as soon as Mikova let go of his leash.
At the other table, a Parson Russell Terrier named Google nudged the menu. The waitress brought a plate of rabbit, but Google did not bite. His teenaged owner, Franziska Slivkova, put the plate on the ground and fed him herself, saying apologetically: “He’s perplexed.”
Pestaurace consists of two adjacent party tents with the logo of the company, the Czech branch of Spanish animal feed chain Dibaq.
Each features a black table, green blankets and cushions for dogs and black cube seats for their human companion.
Chicken with vegetables, salmon with potato, lamb with rice and gravy, rabbit with rice and meatballs with poultry fat — all sweetened with some extra meat — are on the menu.
For dessert, Rex can choose from four flavors of biscuit: game, lamb, veal or poultry — Doggy bags are, of course, an option.
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