Skinny Dippers Cafe

Skinny Dippers is a health-focused cafe just off the Pakington Street strip in Newtown, on the Geelong side. The kitchen leans plant-based and clean, the coffee is St. ALi, and dogs are welcome across the outdoor seating, which is where most of the regulars with dogs end up anyway.

The dog setup

Dogs are welcome at the front seating and in the leafy side courtyard, and the courtyard is the pick. It is shaded and sheltered, out of the footpath traffic, which keeps a dog comfortable through a long breakfast. As with any cafe, pets stay outside the indoor dining room, leashed and settled beside the table. Water bowls are usually on hand, but bring your own on a busy weekend rather than assume.

Worth knowing

The menu is built around gluten-free, dairy-free and plant-based options without losing the brunch classics. Chilli scrambled eggs, zucchini corn fritters, sweet potato waffles and acai bowls come up again and again, and portions are generous. Weekdays run 7am to 2:30pm, Saturday 8am to 2pm and Sunday to 1:30pm, so the weekend window closes early. Weekday mornings are the calm window for a dog visit; weekends fill fast and the courtyard goes first.

Getting there and parking

The cafe sits at 2 Lambert Ave, a short walk from the main Newtown shopping precinct. Street parking on Lambert Ave and the adjacent side streets is your best bet, and it is generally easy to land a spot outside peak brunch hours.

Close by with the dogs

The Barwon River walking tracks are a few minutes away for a proper leg-stretch before or after coffee, and Wilsonson Heights Dog Park gives the suburb a dedicated off-lead option. If you are making a day of Pakington Street, Barmuda and Honey's are fellow Newtown cafes on the same strip, and Sodi Cafe is a short walk into Geelong West.

More picks are on the VIC dog friendly cafes guide and the Newtown destination page.

Pepsi: book nothing, just arrive before 8am on a weekend. The courtyard seats are few, the food is generous, and an early dog is a settled dog.