A dog walks into a Tampa bar: The legal fight for pup rights in pubs

Between appointments on a recent workday, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor paused to make a video with her dog Alcaldesa at her city offices. Desa, as the dog is called, regularly goes to work with the mayor.

In a scene that would be posted on Instagram, Castor wears a gray pantsuit and hefts the brown, 30-pound, mixed-breed rescue dog in her arms. Then the mayor does 15 gym-style squats, with the rising-and-descending Desa looking befuddled.

“That would be my knees,” Castor says after squat No. 2.

At the core of this seemingly lighthearted social media fundraising push — dubbed #pupsquatchallenge — is an ongoing Florida court battle that could have legal and business implications for dog bars across the state.

It started like this: In December 2020, husband and wife Alex Wright and Sheila Suhar opened Pups Pub in a former restaurant space on South Tampa’s Kennedy Boulevard. She’s a commercial real estate broker, he’s an Air Force veteran who worked in sports sales and customer service for the Orlando Magic.

“We saw that dog bars in Florida and the rest of the country were becoming a fun new trend,” said Wright, whose household includes mixed-breeds Bonnie and Rafi.

The Pups Pub concept: While owners sip draft beers and mixed drinks, their fixed and vaccinated dogs can socialize and hang out in the bar, which is equipped with a special turf Zamboni. The pub also has an enclosed outdoor area. Memberships cost $30 a month, $299 a year and $15 for a day pass.

And the dog puns are endless, as in the canine birthday “pawties” they advertise.

Dog bars have been operating across Florida since at least 2018, according to court records in the Pups Pub case.

Things went so well in Tampa that Wright and Suhar opened a Pups Pub in downtown Orlando and started talking about a Brandon location.

Before opening the two pubs, according to court documents, the owners presented their plans to the respective county health departments, which are overseen by the Florida Department of Health.

“When we were inspected by the Department of Health before we opened, they said no dogs behind the bar. We said no problem,” said Wright. “It seemed all kosher.”

Pups Pub also prohibited dogs from entering bathrooms and storage rooms, according to court documents. “Additionally,” a judge would later note, “the dogs are not allowed on the bar tops.”

In its first year and a half, Pups Pub Tampa passed three inspections from health department officials. Then, last year, Wright said, authorities abruptly told the owners no dogs could be inside the buildings in either location — the very concept upon which the business is based.

At issue was rule 64E-11.003(6)(c) of the Florida Administrative Code regarding “food hygiene.” It says in part that “no live birds or animals, excluding crustacea, shellfish, and fish in aquariums, are allowed in a food service establishment … or in any other area or facility used to conduct food service operations.”

Pups Pub serves beer, wine, shots and cocktails — or dogtails, as its menu says — with such names as Old Yeller Fashioned and Bad Mother Pupper. They do not serve food.

“We had to pay a lot of money to rezone as a bar/lounge,” Wright said. “We got rid of the kitchen.”

Given their previous inspections, Suhar, 36, and Wright, 35, said they didn’t get why the rules suddenly changed. They took their case to court.

Administrative Law Judge Lynne A. Quimby-Pennock heard the dispute earlier this year in Tallahassee. The question: Had the health department abruptly changed its interpretation of the rules without proper procedure — suddenly prohibiting dogs in bars where they had been permitted before?

After a hearing that included testimony, the judge noted in court records that the health department “continually harped on the term ‘food,’ and that ice and beverages are defined as food.” Yet both the applications for the two pubs that were approved by health officials specified “NO FOOD SERVICE,” the judge noted.

The judge also pointed to comments by a Hillsborough County inspector in a report saying the Tampa location needed to install a gate at the bar area “before dogs are allowed in (the) building.”

In her 29-page final order in June, Quimby-Pennock sided with Pups Pub. She wrote that “the weight of the persuasive, credible evidence” showed the health department “interpreted the rule for over four years to allow dogs in bars with certain restrictions,” and then prohibited dogs in bars.

“It is apparent that (the Department of Health) changed its interpretation and application of its own rule,” she said.

The Department of Health in Hillsborough County referred questions and requests for comment from the Tampa Bay Times to the state agency. A representative of the Florida Department of Health’s communications office told the Times via email that “the Department does not comment on any pending litigation.”

Pups Pub won. The owners celebrated what they called a victory for dog bars across Florida.

But the state health agency is now appealing the judge’s decision to the 1st District Court of Appeal. Wright said they can’t recover legal fees until after that court proceeding.

“We’re well into six figures,” he said. “It feels like the Department of Health’s attorneys’ strategy is to bleed us until we die. They hope we don’t survive long enough to get to a resolution.”

Hence the viral #pupsquatchallenge and #keepdogbarsopen, linking to a GoFundMe page. Wright says he’s also having conversations with elected state officials about the future of dog bars in Florida. He and Suhar say they’d like to see the business standardized with clear rules.

“We’re not saying dogs should go into Olive Garden,” Wright said.

“We’re creating a space where dogs can go,” said Suhar.

For now, dogs romp on at Pups Pub.