And they called it puppy grub…

DOG lovers in Dublin have a new haven on the Southside of the city.

The aptly named Pupp has opened on Clanbrassil Street and is the first official dog-friendly café in Dublin.

Owners Ella Wallace and Paul Froggatt were working nine to five jobs in Google before launching the Portobello café last month.

“We were just opening a little coffee shop,” explains Paul (28). “We didn’t expect it to be a big deal.”

 Within their first weekend, Pupp ran out of food as the social media buzz leading up to the opening had brought in a rush of four-legged customers and their owners.

Paul says the aim was to create a community where people could sit and interact with each other, provided their pets were well-behaved. 

When it comes to their menu, ‘food for everybody’ is their ethos. 

Ella (32) says they’re working on home-cooking and they feature paleo, vegetarian and vegan options. They also have room for indulgences like their salted caramel and nutella French toast.

She wants to introduce a ‘pay what you can afford’ option for a dish.

“Everybody should eat,” she adds. “I think there’s space to do that in Dublin.”

A dog menu is also in the works which will provide treats and ‘dog beers’, or protein drinks.

Ella had long imagined opening a small café and Paul has always been a dog-lover so this is a perfect meeting of minds. She admits to a past phobia of dogs that changed when they adopted their corgi Toby last year. 

“I’d always been afraid of dogs,” she says, laughing. “It took me watching films where dogs save children and stuff for me to see them in a positive light.”

So what about the sceptics? Last month, it was reported that the HSE had started a crackdown on dog-friendly bars and restaurants after nearby pub MVP was told to stop allowing canines on the premises. 

“We’ve spoken to the HSE throughout,” insists Paul. “The regulations state that we can’t keep dogs living on the premises and we can’t let them off their leads, neither of which we do.

“In terms of the ‘crackdown’, there was nothing formal or written given to the other bars. It was just an informal chat.”

Pupp is located at 37 Lower Clanbrassil Street in the south of the city and is open every day, except Tuesdays.

Paul and Ella recommend taking your dog for a walk along the canal before coming in.

Aura McMenamin