Casa Espresso

Casa Espresso is a breakfast cafe at 7 Lonsdale Street in Braddon, at the Civic end of Canberra's busiest cafe strip, opening at 6:45am every day of the week. It turns up on local dog-friendly cafe lists, and the setup is classic Braddon: footpath tables along the strip where a leashed dog can park up while you work through the bagel menu.

The dog setup

Dogs are welcome at the outdoor footpath tables, which catch a mix of sun and shade across the day; inside is for people only. The cafe is known to be accommodating with four-legged visitors, and water bowls are usually on offer, though packing a collapsible bowl keeps you covered on days when the footpath is full. The strip is walkable and busy with pedestrians, so it suits dogs that stay settled when other diners and passing dogs go by.

Max: mornings are the move here, you beat both the parking squeeze and the mid-morning rush for the shaded tables.

The vibe and the menu

The kitchen does breakfast classics well: bacon and egg bagels, eggs benedict, big wraps and poached eggs, with a long black or a matcha alongside. It is a hearty, early-opening operation rather than a fancy one, and the 6:45am start makes it a good first stop before the rest of the strip wakes up. Hours run 6:45am to 3pm daily, so it covers breakfast and lunch but not dinner.

Getting there and parking

The cafe sits on Lonsdale Street with street parking on Lonsdale and nearby Mort Street, which fills quickly at peak times. The light rail Elouera Street stop is a two to three hundred metre walk if you are coming in without a car. For a walk with the dog, Haig Park runs along the edge of Braddon and the Sullivans Creek path is close by, both easy on-lead options before or after breakfast.

Make a day of it

Braddon is one of Canberra's better strips for dogs, and Haig Park's dog agility course gives a purpose-built stop between the plane trees. For other dog-friendly tables on the same block, B-Side and Cafe Chapter 4 are both on or just off Lonsdale Street, and The Civic Pub covers the pub lunch end of the precinct.

More options are on the ACT dog friendly cafes guide and the Braddon destination page.