Dogs run wild in Dog Daze Social Club’s “dog garden” with a double-entry gate. | Emily Venezky Dog Daze Social Club brings a restaurant, bar, and spacious “dog garden” to Logan Circle With dog owners flocking to more beer gardens, patios, and parks to entertain Fido, it’s no surprise that the District is getting its own doggy social club with draft cocktails, local brews, and Chicago tavern-style pies. Dog Daze Social Club fully opens the 6,000-square-foot “dog garden” on October 15, with pooches welcome from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and the indoor space open till midnight on weekends. Similar to the canine-centered clubs that popped up across Maryland and Virginia in the past three years, from Bark Social to Snouts and Stouts, owners must register their dogs, submit their vaccine records, and pay a $10 entrance fee before four-legged friends can be admitted to the park. People can enter the restaurant or dog garden for free (1100 Rhode Island Avenue NW). Sophie Macaluso/IRL Agency The renovated laundromat is filled with fresh green accents like a custom neon sign. Sophie Macaluso/IRL Agency An open kitchen shows off a minimal electric pizza oven that also supplies pies for the garden and a carryout window. The laundromat and parking lot at the busy intersection of 11th Street and Rhode Island Avenue NW was transformed into a classy, green-accented restaurant with a small covered patio and a weekly deep-cleaned, turf-covered yard that resembles a garden party with sturdy picnic tables and padded armchairs shaded by striped umbrellas. It’s all about the dog-centric details, from the smiling bulldog in the logo (the fictional pup is named Sauce) to the bathrooms covered in elegant canine wallpaper and a gallery wall of snouts. “We were very thoughtful about our brand and how we were going to present it. A lot of stuff was tailored to what could we bring to D.C. that D.C. didn’t have,” managing partner Kyle Cissel told Eater. Sophie Macaluso/IRL Agency Specialty pies include a pepperoni-covered P.E.P. and spicy Red Devil with Calabrian chiles and hot salami. While Neapolitan pizza, NYC-style slice shops, and dense Detroit-style pies are popping up all over the region, the partners decided to focus on thin-crust Chicago-style pizza cut up into squares for its indoor, outdoor, and takeout window menus. Dog Daze’s pizza recipe was developed by a Chicago chef, and special toppings like giardiniera and pepperoni are imported from the Windy City. Simple ingredients also stand out on the thin dough, with just sweet cherry tomatoes and stracciatella on the Sweet 100 and ricotta-covered crispy edges topped with zesty lemon on the white pie. Thin-crust pizza is also nostalgic for the owners, two of which grew up together in Potomac, Maryland, and remember eating lots of takeout from Ledo Pizza — a local franchise that split off from one of DMV’s first Italian-American pizza places. “A lot of us grew up on Ledo’s, and, like, Sundays you’d get three Ledo’s pies, you’re picking at them for like three hours,” Cissel joked. “We wanted it to be Ledo-style eating.” The rest of the food offerings are also simple but high-quality, like a Caesar salad with an optional topping of boquerones (Spanish-style white anchovies) and a creamy soft serve topped with olive oil and lemon cake crumble. Fresh sourdough focaccia from a local bakery is made into Florence-influenced sandwiches filled with classic pairings like mortadella and pistachios or heirloom tomatoes and burrata, plus a vegan option with a tangy red pepper spread and seasonal vegetables roasted in the pizza oven. Breakfast options will join the menu within the first few weeks, with smoothies and acai bowls from a Dupont Circle farmers market staple, Just Juice, and coffee from Cafe Unido, a premium Panamanian roaster with two D.C. locations. The boozier side of the menu is meant to be easy to serve in plastic cups and sip outside, with draft beers from Middleburg-based Lost Barrel Brewing, natural wines, and cocktails and mocktails mostly on draft and developed by local mixology legend Lukas B. Smith. While most doggy social clubs market themselves as “beer gardens,” with Bark Social even having rules about sending intoxicated dog owners home in a taxi, the Dog Daze owners hope to make the dog garden less of a late night party. Sophie Macaluso/IRL Agency The cocktail lineup includes a blood orange margarita, rhubarb rosé spritz, and a French Quarter-influenced espresso martini with beignet cream. “You come here for a couple hours, have a beer, hang out. That’s gonna be kind of the vibe that we’re looking for,” Cissel says. “This outdoor area is not gonna be open late. We don’t want to be blasting music in people’s space. We’re just trying to make it comfortable and an enjoyable vibe for people as they’re hanging out.” Emily Venezky “Unleash your fun,” the social club’s logo, sits above posts to hang pet leashes and communal water bowls at three different heights. He hopes residents will treat the space like the extensive backyard that most condo and apartment-dwellers lack, even if they don't have a dog. Working remotely from one of the picnic tables is encouraged and portable charging blocks are even available. Trained “Paw Patrol” helpers are also on hand to keep an eye on pups when diners are distracted, but dog owners are still always responsible for their dogs (including their poop). Soon monthly and yearly memberships will be available for dog owners that want to come visit the space five days a week and snag the first spots at future puppy yoga and doggy mixer events. “I think this could be something in 10 years, where there’s one of these in every neighborhood, like a gym,” Cissel says. For now, the Dog Daze co-founders are still working out the kinks and training staff before the official debut, but owners can still register their dog, check out the space, and try the Midwest pies during limited opening hours from from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on weekday evenings and starting at noon on weekends.