Cafe Markus

Cafe Markus works a corner shopfront on Spring Street in Chatswood's cafe strip, opening at 6:30am weekdays and running to 4:30pm on weekends. Diners routinely bring dogs to the street-front outdoor tables, and the dogs stay outside as standard NSW food rules require. There is no dedicated dog menu and water bowls are not guaranteed, so it pays to bring a travel bowl if the weather is warm.

The dog setup

The setup is a reported one rather than a written policy: visitors with dogs take the street-front tables out the front and staff leave them to it. Because the tables sit right on the footpath, you can keep a lead on and stay visible. Weekday mornings are the trade's engine room, with coffee running almost continuously from 6:30am, while the weekend service stretches later into the afternoon. Eggs benedict and french toast head the brunch list, the dumpling soup is the unusual one for a Sydney cafe, and the watermelon cake gets its own following.

Worth knowing

Spring Street runs through the dense part of Chatswood between the transport interchange and Chatswood Chase, so expect steady foot traffic and pick a table where your dog can settle away from the main flow. The suburb's dog parks sit a short drive or a decent walk south, and the mall precinct itself is not a dog-walking destination. Coming by train, the walk from Chatswood station is a few minutes up Victoria Avenue and around into Spring Street.

Close by with the dogs

Brew Kiosk and Happy Sip cover the suburb's other dog-friendly coffee stops, while Ferndale Park and the Chatswood unleashed dog exercise area give you somewhere to walk off the brunch. The Chatswood page pulls the suburb's dog-friendly listings together.

Cafe Markus is at Shop 16, 9 Spring Street, Chatswood NSW 2067.