Josh and Louise Daly don't like gluten, but they really, really like pugs. Pick your day carefully and you might just get to meet Bowie or Mate, the small, dusky canines which give Little Black Pug Café its name. The dogs make occasional appearances in the front or back outside dining areas (alas health regulations keep them from the inside parts) but that is by no means the only reason to give this Mount Gravatt coffee shop a look.
You can grab a streetside table – sufficiently distanced from the traffic of Logan Road – or a place at the long bench just inside, adjacent to the kitchen. But it's likely you're going to want to head through to the back. Here, in a bright main dining room in a separate building, a dozen tables are set up under hanging pot plants and fairy lights. This annexe can be hired for functions such as birthday parties, and it's where most of the café action happens.
The café has a low-waste ethos and a large number of vegan and meat-free options. That doesn't stop Time Out from ordering the carnivore version of the signature Dog's Breakfast, designed to be a big feed. Belying the name, this is not a messy dish by any standard – it's a crowded but orderly looking plate. Chipolatas sliced lengthways, housemade baked beans in tomato sauce, nicely crisped-up Gotzinger bacon, two hefty slabs of halloumi, two shiny confit cherry tomatoes and a swirl of scrambled egg on toasted rye sourdough are arranged around a thicket of wilted baby spinach. Flavours are nicely balanced between salt and umami hits and mollifying greens (there's no particular need for any seasoning here) and proves equal to a wolfish hunger.
The menu delights in puns: 'Pugtato Hash' gives a hash brown base to a smoked salmon eggs benedict, while 'Mr Benedict Wafflebatch' pimps up a benny with a housemade cheese waffle and housemade popcorn chicken. 'Fala-Full' is a vegan dish of sweet potato falafels. We're told the 'Nacho Imposter' is a local favourite: corn fritters with sour cream and smashed avocado, plus tomato, onion and parmesan.
Coffee here is well executed – our earthy and potent Toby's Estate flat white hits the spot. Pastries are the real deal, from Christian Jacques in Kangaroo Point.
The café prides itself on a menu that's 99 per cent gluten free (quite an achievement) as well as 60 per cent vegetarian and 30 per cent vegan. And while canines are not allowed near the kitchen, your pooch isn't neglected either: the menu lists meatballs, duck wings and chicken necks for them to chew on.
