International pet travel tips: Airline rules and vaccine requirements
Flying abroad with your pet? Learn key airline rules, vaccine requirements, and planning tips.
Dogs are dining with dignity, and then some, at restaurants.
Not content to offer basic treats for four-legged friends who visited the patio with customers, Divvy restaurant in Carmel, Indiana, a decade ago launched a full menu of dishes for dogs.
“It’s good stuff,” Kevin “Woody” Rider, co-owner alongside his wife, Richelle, said of the offerings. “They’re eating filet and New York strip.”
The menu also includes shredded chicken, fruit, veggies and bacon strips served on dishes dedicated to animal service.
Divvy isn’t alone in doubling down on the hospitality for pets on the restaurant scene. Other spots consider the fur babies who show up with patrons by offering treats or putting special foods for dogs on menus.
The Bulldog Bar and Lounge in Indianapolis, for example, offers a ground beef or grilled chicken patty with no seasoning for $8 each.
Meanwhile, the dining room at El Encanto in Santa Barbara, California, has a separate dog menu, with $15 entrees, including salmon and beef and quinoa, sundaes ($8) and cupcakes ($4) and herbal teas ($5) served on the terrace; and the patio service for pups at Chef Geoff’s in Washington, D.C., includes ground beef sliders topped with spinach ($3), and a doggy bowl of turkey, brown rice and veggies ($7).
The Pups on the Patio menu at Divvy, the sales of which go to the Humane Society for Hamilton County, was inspired by the Riders’ family. The couple has four dogs.
“It’s a passion for our furry kids,” Rider said.
A hallway in the eatery is filled with photos of furry patrons that have dined on the patio.
Restaurants with menu items for dogs
Plenty of restaurants want such clientele.
About 51% of pet owners consider their pets to be as much a part of their family as a human member, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. That tracks with the furry companions being in more spaces, such as stores and restaurants.
Looking for a place to dine with your pooch out for lunch or dinner? These restaurants offer meals or treats – some free. Availability may vary by location.
- Baskin-Robbins offers pup cups with either whipped cream or scooped ice cream. The price might vary. A Carmel, Indiana, location charges 89 cents for whipped cream and the price of a scoop for ice cream.
- Dairy Queen offers complimentary pup cups of soft serve ice cream or whipped cream.
- Dunkin’ serves a pup cup, a free small cup of whipped cream topped with a piece of bacon.
- Lazy Dog offers grilled chicken breasts or hamburger patties over brown rice and veggies for $6 each.
- Rita’s Italian Ice has pup cups with whipped cream or custard. They are typically $2 each, but some spots offer them for free.
- Shake Shack sells the Bag O’ Bones doggie bag of five ShackBurger dog biscuits made by NYC’s Bocce’s Bakery (starting at $8.49), and the Pooch-ini treat of ShackBurger dog biscuits and vanilla custard (starting at $4.49).
- Sonic has a Wag Cup, a small cup of whipped cream topped with a dog treat. It’s complimentary.
- Starbucks has free pup cups with whipped cream.
- Swig serves two-ounce pup cups of whipped cream.
Contact Midwest Connect reporter Cheryl V. Jackson at [email protected] or 317-444-6264. Follow her on X.com: @cherylvjackson or Bluesky: @cherylvjackson.bsky.social.
link