Trick Dog, the Mission district’s hippest bar, has announced its newest menu. Every six months the craft cocktail hot spot completely changes its menu concept. The new menu is called the Trick Dog Mural Project and it is much more than just a list of libations. Trick Dog asked 14 local artists to paint 14 public murals around San Francisco—including one on the front of their 20th Street building. The sanctioned public murals were compiled into a book that will serve as Trick Dog’s menu until this summer. Each cocktail is named after the artist who painted the piece. A limited release of books will be sold with the proceeds being donated to Precita Eyes and Creativity Explored, two nonprofits who support the arts community.
Photo Credit: Sonya Yu
Artists Sam Flores and Ronnie Budders helped Trick Dog’s owners, Josh Harris and Scott Baird, curate and coordinate the project. Some locations where the murals can be seen include the corner of 4th Street and Mission Bay North Boulevard, Geary and Van Ness Avenue, and Sanchez and Market Street. On Instagram, Harris quoted an excerpt from the new menu that explains the thought process behind the Trick Dog Mural Project: “As we brainstormed our 9th menu, we sought to do a few things. First, present the menu in a format we have yet to use. Second, use the menu as a platform to bring many people together, coordinating something that hopefully becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Third, use the menu as a medium to support something that is important to us personally—in this case, the local arts community. And fourth, use the menu as a way to raise money for charity.” Harris says that “art comes in countless forms. At Trick Dog, our art is the cocktails, the food, the environment, our hospitality, and our menus.”
The menu proves that mixologists can also be philanthropists and is a unique example of how a bar can make a difference in the local community. The menu debuted yesterday, a day after Trick Dog’s 4th birthday. The craft cocktails feature premium spirits and housemade ingredients. For example the Brian Barneclo, named for the artist who created a brown and white mural on Eddy and Polk Streets, features Torres 15-year Spanish brandy, oloroso sherry, pineapple, allspice, clarified malted milk, and lime. The Mural Project menu replaced Trick Dog’s last menu which had a presidential campaign theme, ‘Trick Dog For President.’ Other past menus include a 2016 dog calendar, horoscopes, and records.
