If the schnauzer you encounter at Bark Bar barks, it's a dog. If not, it's a hot dog.
Bark Bar has been open just over a month at 1201 S. Spring St., on the edge of Little Rock's Quapaw Quarter. (Emphasis on the "paw.")
The 1930s Mission-style building previously housed St. Paul Temple African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and was most recently a factory and warehouse for home-goods manufacturer Dreamweavers Inc., headquartered across the street.
Now it's a play space for pets and a watering hole for their owners. About 3,500 interior square feet includes a kitchen-bar-food service space, table seating on two levels, an entry area with retail space and two bathrooms for humans (whimsically labeled "fire hydrant").
Outdoors is a 2,000-square-foot yard with patio furniture for humans and plenty of room to run, play and chase for dogs. Also available for canine convenience: Plenty of water bowls, some half-buried tires, rocks to climb upon and a bone-shaped wading pool. Access from the main space is via a sally port for people and a garage door for everything else.
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Photos by Brandon Riddle
Photos by Brandon Riddle
Dogs varying in size from Great Danes to dachshunds must be on a leash when they enter, but once inside the second of two doggy gates, they can romp unhindered throughout both spaces. During busier hours, a human referee, or what co-owner and co-founder Cara Fowler calls a "bark ranger," maintains order, helping folks keep track of their dogs and tamping down on some of the rowdier canine behavior.
"This is not a doggy day care," Fowler explains. Folks have to stay on the premises with their animals, and "it's the owners' responsibility to keep an eye on their dogs, to clean up their messes."
Animals who display too-aggressive behavior are in the dog house, so to speak -- there are large and small time-out dog crates in a corner where dogs can calm down before being put back into the general population.
PET project
"It was a quiet project for almost five years," Fowler says. About a year and a half ago she met her business partner, Elizabeth Michael, who was not only eager to pursue it, but whose husband is a real estate agent.
"Two days later, we were looking at properties," Fowler says.
They were looking to be a part of the revitalization of downtown Little Rock, so their initial search was in the area of Main Street known as SoMa and in the warehouse district around East Sixth Street, but finding a place with a yard proved to be difficult.
A former church with a courtyard turned out to be the perfect solution, she says.
Fowler and Michael realized pretty much right away that they needed to incorporate the state Health Department in their planning as soon as possible, because state code restrictions on having dogs in the vicinity of food preparation are considerably more stringent than those in areas (including Austin, Texas) they'd been researching.
"We walked with them through the whole process, to make sure we didn't make any missteps," Fowler says.
The so-called "bar bubble" is not unlike an indoor food truck or concession stand. Human staff only have access from the entryway, and customers place orders and pick up food and drinks through sliding glass windows. (That doesn't protect diners from dogs begging for food, of course. Dogs do that.)
The menu concentrates on hot dogs with puns on buns -- the Schnauzer, for example, features brown mustard and sauerkraut; other offerings include the Dachshund, the Chili-Huahua and the Reuben Pinscher -- plus sweets and dippable appetizers like cheese dip and hummus.
The full-service bar features local and craft brews, mixed drinks and "Cockertails," including the Pit Bullini, Melon Collie, Saucy Setter and Poodle Punch.
"Canine cuisine" includes Bowser Beer, broth-based and nonalcoholic, available in chicken, pork and beef flavors; carrots and chopped-up hot dogs; and a Spaniel Sunday -- peanut butter and whipped cream topped with a dog biscuit.
Fowler has two dogs -- Max, an elderly golden retriever, and Milo, a mutt whom Fowler labels "my foster failure." She was fostering him for the Humane Society, which included bottle-feeding him from the age of 3 weeks. After returning him to the Humane Society, she went back the same day and adopted him.
She and Michael traveled to "pretty much every dog park we could find," Fowler recalls, "finding out what worked and what didn't." Among the things that worked: a dual gate system, which helps keep dogs from escaping into the "wild" -- particularly important with heavily (human) trafficked Broadway just a block away.
Membership fee
Dogs have to be "members" to enter. There's a $5-per-day fee, or you can sign your dog up for a month for $20 (that gets you a free Bark Bar koozie) or a year for $150. Annual members get framed photos on the building's eastern wall along with those of the "founding pawtners" and their owners get invitations to private parties and "mutt mixers," and a discount on merchandise. (Among the online offerings: T-shirts that say "Heavy Petting Encouraged," "Sit. Stay. Drink" and "Butt-sniffing tolerated. Use your judgment.") Each owner can have up to three dogs on one account.
There's no cover for humans, with or without dogs (the fire code limits human occupancy to 99). The idea has been to create a community "where people don't feel ostracized because their dog sniffed somebody," Fowler says.
She says some folks without dogs come for canine interaction: "If you like dogs, you can love on other people's dogs."
If you're not into being sniffed or licked, or you just want to enjoy dogdom in general without touching one, you can sit upstairs, which Fowler says was originally planned as a work space. Bark Bar has three Wi-Fi hot spots, which provide free and fast internet access. Medical students from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences have already been gathering to sip cold-brewed coffee and study.
Fowler and Michael are "leashing" the space from Adam and Amanda Day, who have a black lab named Hunter. Adam Day was also their architect.
Things have been going very well in their first month of operation, Fowler says. They've already adjusted their hours -- 3-10 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday-Sunday -- because they got very little business for weekday lunches but they've been getting a pretty big after-work crowd.
They'll provide the usual bar amenities down the line, airing Razorbacks games on east-wall TVs, with plans for a late-October Howl-o-ween party. They're also looking at coordinating with local organizations to hold rescue and adoption events. Bark Bar is available for private events, and they've already received several inquiries, Fowler says, including one for a wedding reception.
"The response from the public has been wonderful," Fowler says. "Folks stay two or three hours and leave with a smile on their faces and an exhausted dog."
For more information, call Bark Bar at (501) 295-3989 or visit facebook.com/barkbarlr.
Style on 09/05/2017