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Doggie
Dining - Making Sense of the Confusion
by Tara and Len Kain
DogFriendly.com
July
19, 2006
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SPECIAL
Dog-Friendly Restaurant Edition
- Doggie
Dining - Making sense of the confusion
- Want to
Open an Indoor Dog-Friendly
"Restaurant"? Here are some
Ideas.
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| People who travel with their dogs and take
them around
town have probably dined at an outdoor restaurant, coffee shop
or fast food restaurant with their pooch. While U.S. state
health codes usually ban pet dogs from the inside seating
areas of restaurants, there is often the question of whether
or not dogs are allowed at outdoor dining
areas. DogFriendly.com has investigated this situation,
including Federal, state and local laws, and whether or not it is
legal to dine outside at a restaurant with a
dog.
Restaurant health laws, whether administrative or statute,
originate at the state level. There are no
Federal laws that apply to the issue of dogs in restaurants
with the exception of the American with Disabilities Act
(ADA), which requires that restaurants allow
service and guide dogs at indoor and outdoor
dining areas. The
only other major Federal contribution to the restaurant health
codes is a recommendation by the Federal Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) called the FDA Food Code. This code is
updated every four years. It is very important to note that
this code is not a law but a recommendation. It is similar to the Center of Disease
Control's (CDC) recommendation, not a requirement, that the
general public get annual flu shots. No food establishment can
be fined or punished based on the FDA Food Code
recommendation. No Federal law makes it illegal to bring a pet
animal to the outdoor or indoor areas of a restaurant. The FDA Food Code is important to this discussion because
many states have included parts of the code into their health code laws. The
state laws actually govern the operation of food establishments in a
state. While many state codes include or incorporate the FDA
Food Code, every state can and often does make its own
modifications to the FDA Food Code to match its pre-existing
statutes.
Each state may have different laws at the state level and
different implementations of the inspection process. For
example in the state of Florida, all local inspections are
done by health inspectors employed by the state. |
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FAST FACTS
- There are no Federal laws prohibiting dogs
at restaurants. The FDA Food Code is a
recommendation, not a law. Federal Law requires
restaurants to allow service dogs for the
handicapped both inside and outside.
- State laws govern the restaurant health codes.
Not the Federal Government. Many States
incorporate parts of the FDA Food Code into
their laws.
- If a state doesn't allow dogs at outdoor
restaurants then cities or counties in most
states may allow it locally by issuing a
variance (exception) to the state code. Cities
may implement these variances through an
ordinance or simply through the health
department. Variances can be allowed for all
restaurants or individually.
- Even if allowed by law the final decision is up
to the restaurant owner who may choose to allow
or not
allow dogs.
Best States for Outdoor Dog-Friendly
Restaurants:
1. California
2. Florida
Best Cities in Other States for Outdoor
Dog-Friendly Restaurants because of local
ordinances or variances:
1. Austin, TX
2. Alexandria, VA
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In most other
states, health inspectors are employed at the local level, by
the city or county. Some states, such as California, require
that the local governments use the state food establishment
laws as written by the state. Other states may allow local
governments to strengthen the laws. Most states allow for a
local government or health department to issue a variance. A
variance is usually requested by a restaurant to their local
health department, and can be used to exempt a restaurant from
any part of the health code. For example, if a health code
does not allow customers to enter into a restaurant kitchen, a variance could be issued
to a restaurant that has customer bathrooms accessible only by
a customer walking through the kitchen. Similarly, a variance
can be used to allow dogs in outdoor (or even indoor)
restaurant seating areas. In order to get a variance approved,
it typically requires that some additional steps be taken by the
restaurant to prevent whatever harm the code is designed
to prevent. For example, to allow dogs in outdoor seating
areas, a local health department may require that servers wash
their hands after serving a table with a dog if they touched
or patted the dog. In addition to variances issued to
individual restaurants, a sort of global or standardized
variance can be issued by a city or county. This has been done
to allow dogs in outdoor restaurants in Alexandria, VA in
2004. This can also be accomplished by passing a local
ordinance as was done by Austin, TX in 2006. Most states have
a general variance process that is allowed. Therefore, most
cities or counties could allow dogs in outdoor dining areas by
issuing a variance or passing a city ordinance - regardless of
the state dog policy and without legislation at the state
level.
Continued...
Contact us at email@dogfriendly.com
Want to Open an Indoor Dog-Friendly "Restaurant"? Here are some
Ideas.
Hey, wait a minute. We know that in Europe dogs can
go inside restaurants but this is not allowed in North
America. So what's the deal? True, you can't have an
indoor dog-friendly restaurant in the U.S. or Canada,
but, depending on where you are located there might be
some options that can be considered. Please check with
your local health department before trying these
ideas.
1. Get a Variance - You can apply for a variance
(exception) through your local health
inspector to open an indoor restaurant that allows dogs. This will very likely not be granted unless you
make significant design changes to a normal restaurant
to separate the dogs from the food preparation and
serving areas. Even so, many local health departments
may not likely allow this. An example of an idea to make it
plausible to the health department would be a separate
eating area from the kitchen area (with only a window
to pass food through, similar to a fast food
drive-thru window). In this respect, it more like
having two separate businesses, side by side - a club for dogs and a take-out restaurant next
door.
2. Have a well-designed outdoor restaurant for year
round comfort. If your city or state allows dogs at
outdoor seating areas you may be able to set up a
covered, and partially, to nearly fully enclosed patio
with décor, heaters, cooling and whatever else you want in
the way of comfort and ambiance. You will not be
able to fully enclose the patio and it will need to
have a fully closing door between it and the main
restaurant or serving area in order to still be
considered outdoors.
3. Open a Bar or Coffee and Drink Cafe. Bars that do
not serve food except for pre-packaged snacks like
pretzels and potato chips, in many cases, can allow dogs
inside in many places. Depending on where you are
located, this may be an option. But beware, sometimes
it doesn't take much in the way of munchies to qualify
as a restaurant.
4. Open a Dog Club. Many Health Codes do not apply to
private clubs where people pay dues for a monthly or
annual membership. If you only allow members, and not
the public at large, you may be outside of the
jurisdiction of the food establishment health codes of
some areas. You may want to have another purpose for
your club, such as a TV room with Satellite TV, music
or dog training or play areas.
5. Bypass the Restaurant Health Codes Entirely with a
Delivery Only Food Menu. You design a hall with seats
and tables, ambiance and maybe entertainment like
music or TVs. You do not have a kitchen but have the
menus of a nearby restaurant or multiple restaurants.
Your customers order food from the menu to be
delivered from the nearby restaurant as to go food or
bring the food themselves. You can probably serve
drinks and may be able to serve packaged snacks
yourself.
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