Cappuccino for you pupaccino for me

Coffee at Cafe Bones -- slurp. Ymmm. Photo: Louise Donnelly

It’s not often owner and dog can have a coffee together in the park. But at Café Bones, in Hawthorn Canal Reserve, this is not unusual.

Café Bones is a popular dog-friendly cafe in Sydney. Besides the usual selection of cafe fare, it offers a Pupaccino, Dogaccino (for those dogs on diet), pupffins, gourmet biscuits and other dog treats. An added bonus for dog patrons is the extensive off-leash park beside it.

The cafe is open seven days a week from 7am to 6pm, and is at its busiest on Sunday mornings when hundreds of dogs arrive with their owners for dog training.

Bailey with Mariana. Photo: Siam Lim

There's room at Café Bones for all, including babies, prams and dogs. Photo: Siam Lim

As dogs are increasingly seen as family members and go where their owners go, cafes and eateries are gradually allowing companion animals on to the premises.

Sydney has no shortage of dog-friendly restaurants but when you want more than just a coffee or a quick bite on the footpath with your dog at your feet, there are not many places where you can go.

The Queens Park Shed

The Queens Park Shed in the eastern suburbs offers breakfast, lunch and dinner in a rustic converted park tool shed set in parkland with an extensive off-leash area.

Dogs are, off course, welcome and can 'help themselves' to a selection of doggy biscuits. The pooches have the freedom to run in the park under the watchful eyes of owners and the option of returning for a treat without customers getting upset by their presence.

Self serve biscuits at the Shed? Photo: Siam Lim

Duck Inn Pub and Kitchen

While the Duck Inn Pub and Kitchen in Chippendale does not serve dog food, it allows its patrons’ dogs into the indoor dining area provided they behave.

The dog-friendly management holds a meat raffle every Friday for the Delta Dog Society, a national not-for-profit organisation recognised as the national leader in animal-assisted therapies and positive, reward-based approaches to companion animal training. On occasion, a Society member turns up with a Delta Dog to demonstrate the work of the Society.

The Inn operates seven days a week, from 11am to 11pm and has been operating for the last three years.

The Winery

Then there is The Winery in Surry Hills which allows dogs in the lane way dining area. Daily opening hours are 11am to 11pm.

NSW municipal councils have strict rules regarding dogs in public dining areas. A dog, except a restricted or declared dangerous dog, is allowed in the outdoor area of a cafe or restaurant with the management’s consent.

Conditions and restrictions for dogs in outdoor dining areas:

The outdoor area must not be enclosed

Must be on a leash at all times

May be provided with drink, but not food

Must be on the ground at all times

Dogs in leash-free areas

Do not have to be on a leash

May be given food and drink while it is on the ground (but not to be using apparatus provided for the consumption of food by humans)

May sit on a person’s lap but may not sit on any table or chair

Dogs-only restaurant

Delilah can't wait to tuck in. Photo: Siam Lim

Each to his/her own place-mat. Photo: Siam Lim

There are dog-friendly restaurants and there are dogs-only restaurants. 

Tucked away beside Wollstonecraft Station, Chew Chew Restaurant is Sydney’s only dog cafe that offers an extensive menu tailored to canine customers.

Sam and Natalie Harley, recently took their French Bulldog, Delilah, to Chew Chew for the first time. Natalie says, “I thought the menu was really good, so gourmet! It all sounds that good, you almost think you’re reading a menu for human food.”

Sam and Natalie watching Delilah.

There are Chew Chew’s signature dishes of chicken risotto, grilled fish with brown rice, lamb with brown rice, beef with pasta and lamb sausage. There’s a three-course meal comprising organic chicken soup for entree, a selection of a main dish and a choice of deserts. Another is a gourmet menu with the choice of the Mishmash (equivalent to a MacDonald’s big breakfast), lamb omelette, salmon with mash potatoes, and a new item on the menu, the Mishmash Brunch Plate, comprising organic chicken, organic eggs, salmon, Chew Chew vegetables, organic lamb paste on bread, goat yoghurt and doggy cappuccino.

Delilah had beef pasta washed down with a doggy cappuccino of goat’s milk sprinkled with liver powder.

Chew Chew is the brainchild of Naoko Okamoto, a pet nutritionist and pet care advisor trained in Japan. Her primary aim is to help pet owners deal with their pets’ health through good nutrition.

As such, she considers Chew Chew a pet nutrition centre where she helps owners deal with some of their pets’ health issues, such as allergies, itching, weight and hair loss, by changing their diets.

She says with many owners seeing themselves as their pet’s mum or dad, she likes to think of herself as the dog’s nanna or grandma, and sees each visit as an opportunity to offer her home cooked food and advice.