Black Dog Cafe may be one of Lowertown St. Paul’s longest running restaurants, but there seems to always be something new happening here. We check in with Sara Remke, who co-owns the spot with siblings Andy Remke and Stacy Remke, about what’s next on Black Dog’s plate and more.

What’s your favorite childhood food memory? We used to eat these chicken and noodles that came out of a bottle and it was a big treat when I was a kid. And the other is my grandma’s spaghetti. So I guess noodles.

How did you get into the industry? My sister used to travel to Seattle all the time and she came back and said let’s open a coffee wine bar and I said okay. And then my brother came on with us. He and I had worked in a bunch of restaurants growing up. We’re going on 21 years at Black Dog.

How has Black Dog Cafe evolved over the years? First we had coffee. Then we added wine. Then people started coming in and asking for food, so we added sandwiches. Then pizza. Then soups. Then when the light rail came, we did a slight remodel. When CHS Field stadium went in, we did some more updates. Then when the Zen Center next door to us relocated, we were able to take over that space and put in a full kitchen. That’s when we became a full kitchen and bar. We now make everything from scratch, from our soups to our hollandaise sauce. We now have a full menu of things like eggs and grill items such as burgers. We keep adding to our vegetarian and vegan offerings as well.

What’s the one ingredient you can’t live without? Curry.

What’s your favorite dish on your menu? Right now the two dishes I get all the time are the huevos rancheros or the roast beef hash. You have your protein, vegetables and a starch in there. I like that the ingredients in the dishes make for a complete meal.

What’s the question diners ask most often that we can answer right now? A lot of people ask how long have we been here. The answer is we’ve been here since 1988. The neighborhood has changed so many times and things are coming and going, so it’s a pretty common question.

What’s your go-to dish when cooking at home for family or friends? I really like doing tagine, such as chicken tagine. Or, my son really likes the lentil sweet potato stew that I make. I can throw both together without a recipe.

If you could only eat or drink five things for the rest of your life, what would they be? I have to have potatoes. Avocados. I have to have wine. Blue cheese. Some sort of noodles.

What’s next? We’re doing quite a bit of vegan stuff. We won the Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge this past year for our vegan meatballs and they’re now on our menu. A lot of our young employees are vegetarian and vegan, so we’re experimenting with non meat dishes a lot more. We’re not a vegan or vegetarian only restaurant, but we’re experimenting more and adding to the menu. We’re always looking to add foods we like to eat when we go out. Secondly, we want to continue to find ways to get the word out about our private event space, which is fairly new. We just wrapped up a bunch of holiday parties and we’re getting ready to host a Valentine’s Day dinner in the private dining room, where people can RSVP and we’ll serve them a multi-course dinner with meat and vegetarian options.

BLACK DOG CAFE LOWERTOWN

Address: 308 East Prince St., St. Paul

More info: 651-228-9274; blackdogstpaul.com