Last Doggie Diner Head
San Francisco, California
Across from the zoo, in the median of Sloat Boulevard, a large cartoon dog head is skewered on a pole. It's the last Doggie Diner head -- or at least, the last one displayed permanently, from a now defunct chain of Doggie Diner restaurants in the Bay Area.
The dog-headed sign was designed in 1966 by a local graphic artist.
At the base of the statue is a plaque offering only-in-San Francisco details: that the diner was a "popular unionized drive-in chain," and a "massive grassroots preservation effort, chronicled nationally in the 'Zippy the Pinhead' comic strip, let to its acquisition by the city" in 2000.
The Doggie Diner head has been well-restored, though its current red auto-gloss finish seems more revisionist than retro. If you're lucky, over in Emeryville, you can sometimes see three original Doggie Diner heads that are hauled around on a trailer to events and other temporary postings. But if you miss them, the one on Sloat is there to stay.