501 Booster Cafe & Bistro

501 Booster Cafe & Bistro is a family-run cafe on Peninsula Boulevard in Seaford, on Melbourne's bayside, a modern industrial-style spot built around good coffee and fresh, made-on-site food. It is a handy, welcoming stop for a coffee with the dog on a Seaford morning walk.

The dog setup

Dogs are welcome in the outdoor seating and along the footpath tables right outside, and staff are known to come out to say hello and put water bowls down. Indoors is for people, standard for a small food-service cafe, so plan to sit outside. The relaxed footpath setup suits a settled dog happy to wait while you eat.

Worth knowing

The food is made fresh in-house: eggs benedict and bacon and egg muffins for breakfast, homemade lasagne and beef pies for lunch, gourmet focaccias, and a daily bake that includes the homemade banana bread regulars rave about. Hours run 6am to 3pm Monday to Friday, with a Saturday morning service to 1pm at most and closed Sundays, so check ahead before a weekend trip. It is a weekday-morning and lunchtime play first and foremost.

Getting there and parking

The cafe sits at 3/2-8 Peninsula Boulevard near the Nepean Highway, close to Seaford station. There is a free on-site car park plus street parking on the boulevard and nearby streets, so a spot is rarely a problem.

Close by with the dogs

It folds easily into a morning at Keast Park or a Kananook Creek walk, and Keast Park Off Leash Dog Beach gives the dog proper sand time. Kananook Reserve Dog Off Leash Area covers the creek corridor, and Coffee Train is a fellow Seaford cafe if you are making a morning of it.

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

Max: weekday mid-morning, footpath table, banana bread. The staff will find the dog before the coffee arrives.