MEXICO: A deli catering to dogs has opens in Mexico City

A deli catering to dogs has opened in Mexico City. The Bow-Wow Deli offers cappuccinos to dog owners and a full menu for their furry friends, featuring homemade ostrich liver biscuits and potato-icing birthday cakes. If you can't wag your tail at this trendy café in Mexico City, you may feel like you don't fit in. The tiny Bow-Wow Deli in an up-and-coming residential neighborhood caters lovingly to dogs, although people can come in too. Some clients may have a pedigree, others a more obscure - though no less noble - lineage. But the rules apply to all -- no leash, no service. Brawling and excessive barking prohibited. Owner Miki Nakai, a 36-year-old dog lover from Japan, married a Mexican chef she met studying English in New York and moved to Mexico with him six years ago. They adopted a stray African greyhound with a delicate stomach and Nakai began cooking for him because he had trouble digesting store-bought dog food. She says her food-sensitive pooch was the motivation to open the deli. "I have two doggies they are like my sons, not like my pets. I was looking for this type of place to enjoy with my doggie at any moment, I was looking for all around Mexico City but I couldn't find it and I think that there are so many people like me who loves dogs so much and they want to go to the coffee together so I decided to open here in Mexico by myself," Nakai said. The spare decor is chic as whimsical sales displays hold 100 U.S. dollar hand-woven dog collars imported from Germany and rhinestone covered leash grips. While the menu offers human clients gourmet coffee and green tea, the four-legged customers can dine on treats such as homemade ostrich liver biscuits. Inspired by similar establishments in Japan, it may be the surest sign yet that this developing nation of more than 100 million people -- and countless dogs -- has one leg planted squarely in the First World. The clientele at least are barking mad for it: "Mexico is a cosmopolitan city and so I think that now is the time for this type of place for dogs. In other parts of the world if there are these types of things and now more and more I think that there are people that look after their dogs in another way and they don't just have them at home to guard (the house), but they are attending to them like little personalities," deli customer Carmen Bueno said. The deli's specialty is doggie birthday parties, complete with make-your-wish birthday cakes topped in mashed potato icing.

ITN Source | February 25, 2007

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