The Fat Cow Food Co

The Fat Cow Food Co occupies a corner of Main Street in Timboon, the little dairy town between Cobden and the Twelve Apostles coast, and it has turned into the reason plenty of travellers detour through. It trades weekdays only, 7:30am to 4pm Monday to Friday with weekends closed, so plan the stop for a weekday: the locals certainly do, and the pie cabinet thins out by early afternoon.

Dogs are welcome at the outdoor seating, and visitors keep describing the front area as relaxed and pet welcoming, which is the consistent picture across reviews; there is no written policy on the venue site, so the stance is per visitor feedback and the Google listing. Bring the dog up the front, order at the counter, and you will not be the only table with a lead looped around a chair leg.

Max: beef pie crumbs fell. I stationed myself under the front table. Zero regrets.

What is in the cabinet

The kitchen runs well past café basics. The beef pie gets named more than anything else, corn fritters and pho cover the savoury list, and the sweet end runs to rhubarb and walnut muffins, cheesecake and arancini balls for people who treat dessert as a two course event. Homemade chips travel well if you are eating on the run, and the coffee holds up to the standard the region's dairy country sets.

While you're out there

Timboon is walking country. The Timboon-Camperdown Rail Trail starts in town for a leashed leg stretcher before or after lunch, and the walk back into town conveniently ends near Timboon Fine Ice Cream, where the humans do the ordering and the dog does the supervising. The rest of town sits on the Timboon list.

More dog friendly coffee stops are catalogued on the Victorian dog friendly cafes page.