--- title: This is America's First Dog Café description: Customers could stop by for a cup of Joe or a tail-wagging furry friend canonical: https://time.com/3671674/first-dog-cafe-la/ author: Food Wine article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-16T21:03:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:50.415Z og:title: This is America's First Dog Café og:description: Customers could stop by for a cup of Joe or a tail-wagging furry friend og:url: https://time.com/3671674/first-dog-cafe-la/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt983d55b6bd83f998/69877a69cd1bba585b6f4b0e/dog-lying-cafe.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2368 og:image:height: 1332 og:image:alt: dog-lying-cafe og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This is America's First Dog Café twitter:description: Customers could stop by for a cup of Joe or a tail-wagging furry friend twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt983d55b6bd83f998/69877a69cd1bba585b6f4b0e/dog-lying-cafe.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is America's First Dog Café > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Inside New York's First Cat Cafe [Watch (HLS stream): Inside New York's First Cat Cafe](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0MiiFeak.m3u8) (1:49)  _Published 2014-12-12. Meet the cats of NYC's first cat cafe, Meow Parlour, and hear more about the growing trend of paying to play with cats from the cafe's two owners._ by [Food Wine](https://time.com/author/food-wine/) ## Food Wine Jan 16, 2015 9:03 PM UTC  Portrait Of Lying Dog Portrait Of Lying Dog Getty Images by [Food Wine](https://time.com/author/food-wine/) ## Food Wine Jan 16, 2015 9:03 PM UTC Cat cafés are so 2014\. Of all the restaurant trends last year, few seemed to get as much press as the fervor surrounding feline-friendly coffee shops. But 2015 is shaping up to be the Year of the Dog. “The Dog Café,” as it is quite simply named, hopes to open in Los Angeles as America’s first dog café. The project is the brainchild of Sarah Wolfgang who has worked at animal shelters in the States and in Korea. A dog café is not much different than its cat counterpart. Customers can come in for a coffee or tea knowing that plenty of furry friends will be around to brighten their spirits. All of Wolfgang’s dogs will be up for adoption as well, though you’re not required to grab a new pet with your latte. “The Dog Café’s mission is simple. We want to provide a second chance for shelter dogs that are often overlooked,” [she told LA Weekly](http://www.laweekly.com/restaurants/forget-cat-cafes-americas-first-dog-cafe-hopes-to-open-in-la-5333526). “The Dog Café is going to put a spin on the way people adopt by totally reinventing the way we connect with homeless dogs.” As with cat cafés, Wolfgang’s spot has some restrictions. Because of health code regulations, the service area and dog area have to be separated, meaning even those who aren’t looking to have their leg humped can still get their daily caffeine fix. But even buying a cup of coffee is dog-friendly: the beans come from [Grounds & Hounds Coffee](http://www.groundsandhoundscoffee.com/), a local roaster that donates 20 percent of profits to a local shelter. Like pretty much every project on planet Earth right now, The Dog Café is currently in the crowdfunding stage. Wolfgang is hoping to raise $200,000 [via an Indiegogo campaign](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-dog-cafe). No projected opening date appears to be given for the café, though as of this writing, the funding is still far short of its goal. For the record, 2015 is technically the Year of the Sheep, but I don’t foresee any sheep cafés in the near future. \[h/t [First We Feast](http://firstwefeast.com/eat/americas-first-dog-cafe-is-opening-in-los-angeles-foh-cat-cafes/)\] _This_ [_article_](http://www.foodandwine.com/fwx/food/america-s-first-dog-caf-hoping-open-la) _originally appeared on_ [_FWx.com_](http://www.foodandwine.com/fwx/)_._ _More from FWx.com:_ * [7 of the Best Yappy Hours aka Happy Hours for Dogs](http://www.foodandwine.com/fwx/drink/7-best-yappy-hours-aka-happy-hours-dogs?xid=PS%5Ftime) * [5 Best Animal Party Crashers at the Food & Wine Classic](http://www.foodandwine.com/fwx/secrets/5-best-animal-party-crashers-food-wine-classic?xid=PS%5Ftime) * [You Deserve a Break, So Look at this Bartending Hamster Serve Tiny Bottles of Alcohol](http://www.foodandwine.com/fwx/secrets/you-deserve-break-so-look-bartending-hamster-serve-tiny-bottles-alcohol?xid=PS%5Ftime) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3671674/first-dog-cafe-la/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3671674/first-dog-cafe-la/"},"headline":"This Is America's First Dog Café","datePublished":"2015-01-16T21:03:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:05:50.415Z","description":"Customers could stop by for a cup of Joe or a tail-wagging furry friend","url":"https://time.com/3671674/first-dog-cafe-la/","keywords":["Living","society","Food & Drink","animals","Dogs","los angeles"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt983d55b6bd83f998/69877a69cd1bba585b6f4b0e/dog-lying-cafe.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Food Wine","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/food-wine/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt983d55b6bd83f998/69877a69cd1bba585b6f4b0e/dog-lying-cafe.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"dog-lying-cafe","caption":"dog-lying-cafe","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3671674/first-dog-cafe-la/","name":"This Is America's First Dog Café"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Inside New York's First Cat Cafe","description":"Meet the cats of NYC's first cat cafe, Meow Parlour, and hear more about the growing trend of paying to play with cats from the cafe's two owners.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0MiiFeak/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-12-12T19:30:27.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0MiiFeak.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3671674/first-dog-cafe-la/","duration":"PT1M49S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3671674/first-dog-cafe-la/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```