In a town with 10 colleges and roughly twice as many independent coffee shops, Waco’s Street Dog Cafe is fetching up regulars with its mission: to rescue and rehome stray dogs.
“People, especially in Waco, love to have a mission—that includes what they’re eating and drinking,” says owner Danielle Young, who opened the café in 2023 on Waco’s quiet Elm Avenue, where some of the city’s oldest structures are being remodeled into breweries, coffee shops, and restaurants.
The café offers breakfast tacos and weekly lunch specials, in addition to hot biscuits, kolaches, and sticky buns from an in-house bakery. Along with homemade treats, remote workers favor the coffee shop’s quiet background music, and fans of locally-roasted brews appreciate the availability of San Antonio’s Merit Coffee. Still, the coffee shop’s most magnanimous brag is the new “leash” on life it’s given to approximately 18 dogs, mostly pit bull mixes, since opening in September 2023.
Young—whose family has forbidden her from giving them any more dogs—serves as vice president of the Humane Society of Central Texas and calls herself a “magnet for strays.” She estimates finding forever homes for approximately 30 dogs since she opened her first restaurant, Revival Eastside Eatery, in an old church on the same street, in 2019.
One particular diamond in the rough was a pit bull named Duchess, who likely hadn’t experienced human contact until Young started feeding her meat when she found her near the dumpsters. Thanks to Young’s efforts, Duchess eventually went to Bellevue resident Diane Parker to live on a 25-acre lot. Parker says Duchess was “worth the fight” to convince her husband, Dean, who was skeptical about bringing an unsocialized pit bull into their home. Several trainers advised them to put Duchess down when she arrived in street dog mode, but Parker was single-minded, saying, “I just felt in my heart that Duchess needed help.”
Today—when Duchess isn’t following Dean around—she gets along fine with her canine brother, Duke, and lies between the couple on the couch and bed at home. Parker calls her “an amazing, smart, affectionate, crazy dog” that she’s grateful to have in her life.
While finding permanent homes is the ultimate goal, Young also wants to tacitly challenge misconceptions about certain breeds, in a nice way. She appreciates watching guests form relationships with the foster dogs she brings with her to work, which are almost always the bully breeds, including the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, often referred to as the pit bull. In addition to occasional adoption events and a 25% donation from retail sales to the Humane Society, Young also supports destigmatizing strays with a weekly Instagram post advertising a dog in need of a forever home.
Reinforcing her point to the city’s love for a good cause is Waco’s Green Business Alliance, founded last year in partnership with the City of Waco to recognize small businesses taking sustainability and conservation measures. For using real plates and silverware and compostable to-go containers, the nonprofit rewarded Street Dog Cafe with a gold level certificate. Soon, a local Boy Scout troop will install compost bins in the cafe’s garden used to grow herbs, such as the basil blended into summertime pesto.
Remote worker, Hunter Glaske, visits the coffee shop around four times a week, in particular because it’s a hospitable place for people like him to perform their livelihoods and meet with their adopted work family. He says no place in Waco treats him better, knows his order, and where he’s going to sit.
“Street Dog does a good job of representing the identity of Waco,” says Glaske, who describes the town as “very welcoming, with open arms”—for dogs and people.
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