A sunny day plus some cold beers and a best friend always equals a solid Colorado afternoon.
Does that equation really have to change if your friend likes to poop in the lawn? Or if he has four legs?
No. No it does not.
Bringing your pooch to your favorite bar isn’t always an option, but some local bars are recognizing that dogs and bars actually mix quite well. And in dog-loving Colorado, letting dog lovers bring their pooch is a sound business move.
While several local bars are dog-friendly without broadcasting that fact, that’s not the case at the Watering Bowl in east Denver.
As the name implies, the six-month-old tavern at 5411 Leetsdale Drive caters specifically to dog owners. With a 7,000 square-foot, fully fenced-in dog park outside, the sprawling bar is an ideal place to grab a beer and hang out with your pooch.
Brothers Jerad and Justin Henry opened the bar last fall. Dog lovers themselves — Justin’s rottweiler Kaiva is a regular at the bar in the mornings and early afternoons — the Henry brothers saw a niche market that hadn’t been filed.
So, ready to bail on the corporate world, last fall they opened the Watering Bowl. If the bar isn’t the only overtly dog friendly bar in the area, it is certainly the most overt about its K-9 welcome stance.
Justin said a bar aimed at dog owners and their dogs just makes sense in the Centennial state.
“It’s a Colorado thing,” Justin said. “Everything is beer, Subarus and dogs.”
And if you’re wondering about dog-related troubles that might come from having a few pooches roaming around a bar patio, don’t. Like at any dog park, problems are few. And credit for that goes to the inherent goodness of dog owners.
If your pooch is a spazz, keep him leashed and hold on to him. Same goes if they don’t like other hounds.
Which brings us to the little presents dogs are so fond of leaving for us.
When Fido drops a numero dos, you’re gonna need to put the Budweiser down and take care of it.
The Henrys said people seem to get that, but just in case, they’re going to charge dog owners who don’t scoop a $50 fee. If that sounds like a lot, the Henrys say that’s pretty much the point. They don’t want to scoop more than they have to. Even if the bar is dog friendly, the Henrys are running a tavern, not a pooper-scooper business.
Still, the Henrys don’t expect to levy that fee very often because the vast majority of dog owners know and appreciate the rules.
“The owners get it,” Justin said.
And when it comes to catering to dog owners’ wishes, barkeeps seem to get it, too.
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