What do you love about Milwaukee summers? Beyond the beautiful weather and trips to the Lakefront. Maybe it's the music, street and cultural festivals. The night markets and so much more.
Now you can add one more thing to your list, and it’s an activity you can enjoy with your dog: Visiting a new doggy ice cream shop in the Third Ward called Salty Paws at 121 N Jefferson Street. It's a doggy ice cream store, bakery, and retail shop.
Picture it: A hot summer day in Milwaukee and you’re having a day out with your canine best friend. You decide you want to grab some ice cream with them to cool off.
At Salty Paws that picture comes to life.
This place doesn’t sell human ice cream, but it does sell ice cream for your dog, and you can enjoy seeing them enjoy a cold treat.
I took my dog, Leah, to Salty Paws for an ice cream taste test and to meet the owner.
The owner, Linda Smith, came from behind the ice cream counter to greet us.
Inside Salty Paws, the walls and floors are painted
mint green. And there are racks of colorful goodies. I spotted doggy beer, chew toys, and bags of dog treats, to name a few. There are portraits of dogs on the wall.
One of them is of a French Bulldog named Coconut, who’s pictured in a birthday hat enjoying some birthday cake. That’s Smith’s pup, who helps inspire her work.
But let’s talk doggy ice cream. It’s a bit different from human ice cream.
"We make our ice cream in house, and it comes to us in a powder form. It’s lactose free milk, gelatin, and natural flavor,” Smith says.
Smith says they currently have 12 flavors. Some are like what you’d see in an ice cream parlor for people — birthday cake, pumpkin, peanut butter. But others are more suited for dog taste buds, like bacon ice cream.
Then there’s the treats.
"We have a variety of goodies in the bakery; anything from cookies to whoopie pies to pup cakes. And then we have a huge bones bar, which has everything from filled bones to bully sticks and antlers — just all kinds of chews for dogs to occupy their time," Smith says.
While I interviewed Smith, Leah occupied her time with a bowl of the current most popular ice cream flavor, Bacon Cheeseburger and I think she liked it.
Salty Paws is a franchise. Smith has several other locations along the upper east coast and on the west coast. But Milwaukee is the first location in the Midwest and Smith says the store has been getting local and regional love.
"People around Milwaukee, people have been coming from every suburb to check us out. People have been traveling from Chicago on the weekends — we get tons of Chicago traffic, which we love," she says.
So, why a doggy ice cream shop? Smith says this is the kind of place she would like to hang out with her dog.
She says there’s not enough spaces, especially indoor, that you can go do something fun with your dog.
And she enjoys seeing the joy the experience brings to dogs and their owners.
"For me it never gets old watching the dogs eat ice cream. It's just so precious and like they just love it so much. But then watching how happy that it makes they're humans watching them eat it — it's just really, it just makes me feel good. It makes me happy,” she says.
Plus, Smith says it’s like a party all day at Salty Paws. You never know what pup will show up.
Luckily, I was there for one of those parties.
I met a regulars, Logan and Gene. First timer, Ivy. And another first timer, Noodle, who was celebrating his 1st birthday.
He even got to take some pictures with the birthday banner and enjoyed a couple scoops of vanilla and pumpkin ice cream with peanut butter treats.
Smith says for folks who have yet to make a trip to Salty Paws, whether or not you have a dog, if you want to experience pure joy come watch some dogs eat ice cream.
She laughed saying it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.
