Bone Appetit : Huntington Beach Cafe’s Menu Caters to Its Canine Customers

Oh, joy! Here comes the ponytailed waitress with lunch on the outdoor patio. It’s about time, in this kind of heat. Under the shade of eucalyptus trees, Bonnie the Scottish terrier wags her tail as her order arrives in a plastic foam bowl--a heaping scoop of vanilla ice cream from the Canine Cuisine menu.

(And oh, yeah--a hamburger patty melt for her 50-year-old owner, Kathy Jarrett.)

“We go for a walk and have a little lunch,” Jarrett says, as 5 1/2-month-old Bonnie licks her bowl clean. “It teaches her manners.”

Owner Mike Bartusick, 32, believes Park Bench Cafe is the only restaurant in Southern California--and maybe beyond--to offer both people and dog menus; customers and Orange County health officials say they’ve never heard of another such place.

Business is so good that Bartusick recently added four tables on a grassy area just for dog-people groups. On a good day, 40 dogs eat at the pine-sided cottage cafe in Huntington Central Park, across from a lake and flock of ducks.

“It’s very California,” said Bartusick, who owns a pug named Oadie Mae. “We get the very ritzy dogs wearing--I don’t know if they’re diamond-studded--but they’re studded necklaces, to the everyday mutt. . . . People get to have their dogs pampered.”

Dogs dine in mini-sweaters, in sunglasses, wrapped in blankets. They come for their dog friends’ birthday parties (a round of ice cream for everyone!), for post-exercise treats (owners splurge on homemade cinnamon rolls), for their favorite shorts-clad waitresses (they lick the servers’ legs).

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On a recent afternoon, Batman the Chihuahua hides under his owner’s forest-green plastic chair and growls at the waiter, who doesn’t flinch.

That morning, the 20-pound Chihuahua had already put away a plate of cold spaghetti with turkey meatballs. For lunch, his owner, 26-year-old Yvette Connor of Westminster, hand-feeds him Hot Diggity Dog, a chopped-up all-beef hot dog, blowing on the pieces first to cool them.

“You know what this is,” she says, her fingers greasy, “it’s animal rights. They’re bringing out food to pets like they’re people too.”

Wait persons play along, the way they do when customers compliment the chef on their dogs’ behalf.

“Some of them are like, ‘Oh, [the dog] said it was wonderful,’ ” said waitress Kristin Brun, 21.

The cafe’s canine service started two years ago after waitresses started to offer bowls of water to tired dogs who dropped by after a romp in the park. Then the waitresses started to sneak table scraps to Annabel the beagle and other regulars, leading to the canine menu.

Items range from a 50-cent plate of five dog biscuits to the $2.25 Wrangler Roundup, a lean ground turkey patty for dogs with a little too much tush. For one dog regular, the chef whips up a custom dish--ground beef with mixed-in scrambled eggs.

Dining rules are strict at the 26-table cafe. Dogs must be kept on a leash and sit on the floor. Dogs and owners eat only at tables on the patio perimeter. Owners must pick up after their dogs (the cafe provides disposable gloves and bags).

Water is served in mauve plastic dog bowls, but food comes in disposable containers, which passes muster with the Orange County Health Care Agency’s restaurant inspectors.

“I think we’d have concerns about a plate coming back to the kitchen that a dog has eaten off of,” said Jim Huston, assistant director of environmental health.

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So far, the cafe has kicked only a couple dogs out for bad behavior. Once, three big dogs tied to a folding table gave chase to another dog, sending plates of hamburgers and sandwiches flying.

Dogless people don’t seem to mind. At breakfast recently, the dogless included Mayor Victor Leipzig, who proclaimed the dog menu “a riot,” adding with a mock groan: “I can see the headlines now: ‘Huntington Beach Goes to the Dogs.’ ”

Meanwhile, Bartusick, an equal opportunity restaurateur, is thinking about adding a cat menu. A couple cats have dropped by, along with a macaw and a school of goldfish in a wine carafe that their owner placed on the table. After that, Bartusick draws the line.

“No snakes,” he mused. “I don’t want people bringing their snakes.”

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Bow-Wow Chow

Dog owners and their charges can eat together at the Park Bench Cafe.

Hours: End of September-March: Tuesday-Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. In March, Wednesday-Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Canine Cuisine includes:

Hot Diggity Dog: All-beef grilled hot dog without bun, $1.25

Hound Dog Heaven: Grilled lean hamburger patty, cut in bite-size pieces, $1.85

Annabells Treat: Four strips of bacon, $1.85

Chilly Paws: Scoop of vanilla ice cream, 95 cents

Source: Park Bench Cafe

Researched by RENEE TAWA / Los Angeles Times