Rock Paper Coffee

Rock Paper Coffee is a neighbourhood cafe in the small shopping strip at Shop 1, 9 Casuarina Road, Gymea Bay, in Sydney's Sutherland Shire. It opens early, 6am on weekdays and 6:30am on Saturdays, and runs breakfast and lunch until early afternoon, with Sunday service from 7:30am to 11:30am. For dog owners, the draw is the footpath seating directly out the front, which plugs you straight into the neighbourhood's morning dog-walk routine.

The dog setup

Dogs are welcome outside on the footpath seating, not inside the cafe, and they stay on a lead and well-behaved around passing patrons. Water bowls are typically put out for visiting dogs, and the staff have a reputation for actually liking the canine trade rather than tolerating it. The strip is quiet and residential, so there is room to settle a dog by your chair without much foot traffic.

Worth knowing

Locals rate the coffee as among the best in the Bay, and the kitchen turns out breakfast wraps, bacon and egg rolls and burgers, with milkshakes and baked sweets for the non-coffee crowd. Free street parking sits directly in front of the cafe in a quiet pocket of Gymea Bay, which makes a pre- or post-walk stop simple to pull into. It closes in the early afternoon, so this is a morning venue rather than a late lunch option.

Close by with the dogs

The Casuarina Road streets suit an easy on-leash walk around the block, but for a proper off-leash run the Helena Street Park Fenced Dog Park at Kirrawee is about five minutes away by car, with the council's fully fenced layout split into separate large and small dog sections. Note that the Gymea Bay Baths Reserve on the water is currently closed for reconstruction, so plan the water-side leg of the outing for later in the year. If you are cafe-hopping instead, Bianchini's Gymea is the other well-known dog-friendly table nearby.

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

Max: footpath seating puts you close to passing dogs and foot traffic, so take a table set back from the kerb and keep the leash short while you order the breakie wrap.