A dog walks into a bar? Not in Tacoma

A few popular Tacoma breweries where lovers of dogs and beer could mingle have been forced to banish man’s best friend after the county health department paid them visits.

The Copper Door, Pacific Brewing & Malting, North 47 Brewing Co. and Edison City Alehouse — all previously dog-friendly brew houses — each have been notified in recent months that it’s against health code to allow non-service animals in a bar or brewery where beer is served in reusable glassware, including the patio.

The health department visited North 47, Edison City Alehouse and The Copper Door after getting complaints, and Pacific Brewing was issued a warning after an inspector dropped in and found a dog there. Edie Jeffers, spokeswoman for Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, said the enforcement action was the result of complaints.

“When people contact us with a complaint about something happening in a food establishment, we get in touch with that food business to remind them of the law and their responsibilities under it,” Jeffers said, adding those four businesses were the only ones she knew of that received warnings. “We’re really complaint-driven. This is because we heard from patrons. We weren’t actively surveying the community for dog-friendly restaurants.”

Pacific Brewing’s head brewer, Bethany Carlsen, said her toy Australian shepherd, Luna, had been a regular at the brewery and used to come to work with Carlsen every day, until they got a visit from the health department in November.

“She hung out in the taproom and got tons of attention, and she’s been coming in here since she was a puppy pretty much, so it was a bummer,” Carlsen said. Carlsen said Pacific Brewing was issued a warning and told further violations of the rule could result in a health department fine.

Now, Luna stays home. Carlsen said the shift in policy has been frustrating for some customers.

“Now we tell people they can’t bring their dogs in, and I’ve had a lot of people outwardly upset about that,” Carlsen said. “I said ‘I know, I wish they were allowed in here too.’ It’s silly that they’re not — we don’t have food, we don’t have a kitchen or anything ... and personally I think dogs should be allowed.”

There’s at least one watering hole in Tacoma that’s still dog-friendly: Sluggo Brewing on Sixth Avenue. According to state health code, Sluggo is able to host dogs because it serves its beer in disposable cups and doesn’t serve food.

Hanna El-Zarif, 31, cuddling pug Bella and pug mix Officer Wydel on a Sluggo couch on a recent Friday evening, said the brewery’s dog-friendly atmosphere is a big draw.

“It’s good quality time. People want to take their kids to the park or out to Disneyland or something special, this is their something special,” she said. “They get to socialize, meet different dogs, and it’s not too many dogs because it’s not a dog park. It’s nice. ... Everybody is already talking to each other and drinking together and there is a sense of companionship, both with people and the dogs.”

Jeffers said a taproom that doesn’t serve food and doesn’t have glassware — opting instead to pour beer in single-use cups, which some craft brewers consider sacrilege — “is not considered a food establishment, so they are not required to follow the Washington State Food Code,” she said in an email.

Owners of North 47, like others, said ending their pet-friendly policy has hurt business. “We actually lost a lot of customers,” said Carl Leach, an owner of the Northeast Tacoma brewery. “We live in a residential area, and we had a lot of people who would just walk their dog, come down, have a beer and then walk back. They used to come in every other day, and now it’s maybe once a month.”

Jeffers said food establishments are given a warning the first time they’re caught by an inspector allowing pets other than service animals to mingle with patrons. If they get caught a second time, the establishment is hit with a compliance order and given a specific amount of time to fix the problem. If the health department returns during that time to find a non-service animal in the bar or restaurant, they’re mailed a $175 fine.

Service animals — according to the ADA, this includes only dogs and, wait for it, miniature horses — are allowed inside. Jeffers said Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department hasn’t fielded complaints about miniature horses in bars or restaurants.

Frustrated by the enforcement, Carlsen and others pointed to Seattle, where some pubs and restaurants, such as Norm’s Eatery & Ale House, are known for being dog-friendly.

Norm’s, which bills itself as a pet-friendly eatery on its website, has been dinged several times over the past decade for having animals inside, said Becky Elias, manager of the food protection program at Public Health — Seattle & King County.

“We do cite violations for when there are animals present in restaurants, and we inform the restaurants that that’s not an approvable practice,” Elias said. But if a health department inspector finds a non-service dog in a bar or restaurant, the establishment is issued a lower-level violation and isn’t fined, Elias said.

“They’ve received that violation over 10 times in the past 10 years,” she said of Norm’s. “If a restaurant gets a certain number of violation points in their inspection, we go back and do a return inspection to see if they've corrected it ... but we don't typically fine a restaurant for violations.”

Norm’s owner Steve Habecker said the dogs create a calming environment in his pub, which opened in 2003 and is named after his own dog. Because it’s a minor violation from the health department, Norm’s keeps doing its dog-friendly business even though it risks repeat inspections that might lead to finding more violations.

“It’s not a red flag violation, so basically the hit that we take, it’s the only hit that we usually take, so it’s no big deal,” Habecker said. “I don’t know if we even average one complaint a year, in which the health department just comes in and says, ‘We got a complaint, you’re not supposed to have dogs in here, thanks, have a good day.’ ”

Sluggo Brewing co-owner Josh Norris said his brewery isn’t planning to change its policy on pets and will stick to plastic cups for now.

“A lot of people don’t like to drink beer out of a plastic cup — and obviously the environmental aspect of it, it’s not the most positive thing,” Norris said, “but at the same time … I don’t want to lose that atmosphere that’s created with the dogs.”

This story was originally published June 20, 2016 at 1:46 PM with the headline "A dog walks into a bar? Not in Tacoma."