Hyde Bellingen

HYDE Bellingen is a busy cafe and lifestyle store at 62 Hyde Street on Bellingen's main street, with dogs welcome at the footpath tables out front. It is a coffee-and-brunch stop rather than a dog destination, but the position in the middle of town makes it the natural pause point on a main-street walk.

The dog setup

Dogs stay at the outdoor tables on the public footpath. The front of the venue is a boutique selling apparel and homewares, so indoors is off-limits, which is fair enough with a wet dog about. The seating sits on the footpath itself, so bring a portable bowl, as water is not guaranteed, and keep the lead looped to your chair rather than a fixed post, with main-street foot traffic passing close by.

Worth knowing

Specialty coffee, brunch and pastries are the draw, with gluten-free cakes and the cinnamon scroll getting regular mentions and free sparkling water on the counter. It opens 6:30am weekdays and 7am weekends, closing 3pm most days and 2pm Sunday. Weekends are busy, and market days fill the whole street, so mid-morning on a weekday is the easy window for a footpath table.

Getting there and parking

Hyde Street is the Waterfall Way as it passes through the centre of Bellingen. Street parking sits out front and on the side streets, filling up on market days and through the morning peak, and the whole town centre is walkable once you are parked.

Close by with the dogs

The Bellingen riverbank along the Bellinger River is a few blocks away for a quiet leg-stretch, and Urunga Dog Beach is a short drive east where the river meets the sea for a proper off-lead run. Liberty Providores at Urunga pairs well with the beach stop, and Bellingen Riverside Cottages take dogs if you are staying overnight in the valley.

More options are on the New South Wales dog friendly cafes guide and the Bellingen destination page.

Pepsi: weekday mid-morning, footpath table, cinnamon scroll, then the riverbank loop before the drive out of town.