I thought I was going to write about the Springs gateway arch, but I ended up looking at the general area, which includes the old Happy Dog hamburger joint, so I thought I’d write about that.  But then I started looking at the Index Tribune archives and found info on other buildings close by, which had some interest.  First, that Contented Canine.

Robert Smith, a native of Canada, veteran of WWII in the Pacific, and former Real Estate Broker, looking for a career change, founded the Happy Dog in 1973. It started out as a hotdog stand, but soon added hamburgers, which became famous in the Bay Area.  By 1984 they were selling 100,000 hamburgers per year. It’s fame caught the attention of the San Francisco Chronicle, which featured the restaurant in 2016 in a section they called “Cheap Thrills.” Generations of Sonoma Valley teenagers got their starts in the work-world at the Dog.

The concrete block building with the dog murals is one of three in close proximity to each other along Highway 12 in El Verano. In 1987, Terry and Bob Morris opened an art supply store in the building next door (now Steve’s Auto shop). The southern-most building (18976 Highway 12), closest to McDonalds, now the Verano Cafe, was once the home of Moosetta’s Piroshki and Pastry Shop, which opened in 1962 at a different location. The Art Store soon moved to 5^th Street West.  Moosetta’s moved north to the small commercial center at 18808. That space was later the Rocket Café and is now Baker and Cook.

Judy and Kuoseng Chang bought the Dog in 1989 and changed nothing. Why mess with success? But running a restaurant is strenuous. In the Press Democrat in 2014, Diane Reber Hart noted “both in their early 60s, the Changs put in 12-hour workdays six days a week. Their only employee is their nephew Steve Chang, 42, who plans to take over the business whenever the couple retires.” I don’t know if this happened, but the Dog has been closed since 2021. In 2022 Kathleen Hill reported in the Index Tribune that the building had been sold, for what use was not disclosed by the buyers. Well, no use, apparently. As of January 2026 it still sits empty.

The Arch is a relic of the Redevelopment Pilot Project of the late 1990s. It was designed by architect Dan Nichols and built around 2000. More on this in another post.

bonus Happy Dog images:

In 2021, as part of my Valley of the Moon Main Stem project, I thought of using the iconic Happy Dog as a grand entry arch. Why not? It would be more meaningful than what we got. The collage is 45.5″x15.”

All photos by suthor unless otherwise noted.

Index Tribune courtesy of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society. Join today! https://sonomavalleyhistory.org/donate/