Dog-friendly café opens in town

Thursday 14 December 2017

Dog owners no longer have to leave their pooch at home when they go out for a cuppa with friends.

Barista, which used to be in St. Brelade, has just opened its doors in Beresford Street, allowing four-legged friends to put their paws up on comfy chairs, while their human enjoys one of the café's infamous hot chocolates.

Barista took over a former clothes shop, and turned it into a paradise "fur coffee lovers" complete with a cosy corner with fur trimmed chairs.

Sarah Fraser, the owner of Barista, was ecstatic to finally open yesterday after several delays. She first opened Barista in St. Brelade in December 2016: "I always planned to have a second Barista. I opened out west because I thought there wasn't something like that and that there might be a market for it.

"I love sitting around drinking coffee and the coffee culture. But I didn't like the idea of sitting on a hard chair or wooden bench to be with my dog, Stanley. I wanted to be sitting in an armchair and I thought there was a market for something cosy, something with the kind of vibe you would find on the corner of the street in Soho in New York." 

Pictured: Ms Fraser's pooch, Stanley, left, with one his friends has a hot chocolate named after him at Barista.

"We have over 4,000 followers on Facebook, our fan base is very faithful," she noted. "We are so appreciative of it and we are very happy about the feedback from customers. I give full credit to my team who have been with me since the beginning, if they weren't there I wouldn't be where I am now."

While she had promised to keep the St. Brelade's café open, Ms Fraser had to close doors last Sunday as she was no longer able to trade from the premises located behind M&S at Red Houses. She, however, promised that she hasn't given up the idea to return.

"I don't want people to think that because we opened in town we were not interested in being out west. I was very saddened to have to close but we will be back. We had our little rich and lovely customers whom we are going to miss. We will also miss our colleagues, the owners of the other shops around. We will continue to look for other premises until we find somewhere suitable."

For now, Ms Fraser will be concentrating on her new baby. The new premises, located at 4 Beresford Street include a "snug corner", with fur lined chairs upon which dogs are welcomed to sit. Ms Fraser says she is delighted with the location and especially the fact it is in a Victorian building. She said: "We haven't made any structure change and respected the feeling of the period. We have actually replaced the toilet with a Victorian flush to honour it."

Pictured: The Ferrero Rocher hot chocolate is one of the new recipes available at Barista.

While some owners might be a bit wary about the idea of their dogs mixing with others in an enclosed space, Ms Fraser says they never had any issue. "We never had a problem, whether it be dogs barking or fighting. All dogs want when they come here is a belly rub. 

"We are also very careful to make sure that dogs are not coming into contact with the food when it is being prepared. We had a five star Eat Safe rating in St Brelade and will be working to keep that in town as well." 

Ms Fraser if inviting those owners, as well as her faithful clients, for a big opening on Saturday. She explained: "We were due to open last Saturday but we had delays. We were up until 02:00 to be able to open on Wednesday, but it was more of a soft opening. We will have a celebratory kind of vibe going on Saturday from 09:00 to 17:00. We are not sure what we are going to do yet but there will definitely be something going on."