A man walks into a bar. No, it's not a joke. He orders a steak, a rib eye. Cooked medium.

Hold the vegetables, hold the mushrooms and hold the jus too. Just the rib eye steak please – and it must be medium. Because ‘Thom Yorke of Windsor' doesn't like his meat too rare, he doesn't do trimmings. And he certainly doesn't do dead common dog roll.

Thom Yorke – after the Radiohead lead singer – is a 36kg mass of American pitbull terrier and he's out for a birthday treat. At a restaurant. The Bureta Bar and Restaurant. It's after dark and he's perched up like Jacky at an outdoor table.

'Why? Because I love him, that's why,” says Stephen Jones. 'And the more I learn about humans, the more I love and respect my dog.” And that's why the temporarily unemployed Windsor builder is happy to spend $34.50 on a birthday treat for Thom Yorke.

'I thought it was a bit of a wind-up,” says Bureta bar manager Frankie McGuire. He's worked the bars between Glasgow and Tauranga and points in between and never seen the like.

'Our maitre d' may have experienced it in France, where they take dogs to cinemas and restaurants,” admits Frankie.

But Thom Yorke is a pickaxe handle across his broad brow, has an intimidating glare, a bark that could draw blood, a slavering jaw with 325 pounds per square inch of bite and a bad, bad rep. Like all his breed.

It's that stereotyping of the pitbull that reduces Stephen, a 55-year-old adult, to tears. And you wouldn't think a pitbull owner with a few rough and tough edges would be easily moved to tears.

'Thom's not mean at all. Nothing mean about him. He has the heart and soul of a beautiful animal.” It's a beauty in the eye of the beholder who, in this case, is the adoring owner.

He's moved to tears and moved to poetry, his own pitbull credo.

'Five per cent luck, 20 per cent skill, 75 per cent power and will, I have no shame and I know you game, and to honour your honour, is my only game.”

Thom's background story prompts another flood of tears. 'A neighbour handed him over the fence about eight years ago,” says Stephen. 'By the time I got him inside the kids had made a bed for him.”

The neighbour worked on a construction site and Thom was discovered abandoned in a dumpster. 'There were five puppies in there. Thom was the only one still alive.”

Hasn't Thom enjoyed a change of fortune? Now he's dining out at Bureta Bar and Restaurant with those steel jaws effortlessly processing a prime cut. Many happy returns Thom.

And Stephen is as thoughtful as Thom is spoiled. They were dining well past eight o'clock. 'Fewer people around to be intimidated or offended,” says Stephen. And as a nod to hygiene they did bring their own knife and fork. Nice touch.

'Yes, I thought he was winding me up,” says Frankie. 'Especially when he had to go home for some money. I didn't put the order through until he returned and paid.”

'They were very hospitable and very understanding,” says Stephen. 'A great bunch of people.”

The Windsor man hopes Tauranga City Council 'gets wind of this story”.

Then, he says, they may adopt a policy that requires owners to be licensed, rather than the dogs. 'Perhaps would-be owners should be proficiency-tested to ensure they would be capable and responsible owners. Then dogs like pitbulls wouldn't fall into the wrong hands.”

Thom was a discussion point at Bureta later that evening. 'I don't think the dog would have known the difference had I gone next door to the supermarket and bought a can of dog food,” says Frankie.

Was it the occasion, the ceremony of the occasion? Did the owner feel good making the dog look special? 'I do try to make him feel special on his birthday. We will go to a restaurant, we will go to the roast shop for a bag of scratchings or we will go to the supermarket for a nice piece of meat.”

And does it matter because everyone is happy. 'I did offer them dessert,” says Frankie. 'But the owner said: ‘No' and the dog didn't say anything.”