On a chilly afternoon, Chik Brenneman realized his winery dog, Brixie, wasn’t lounging in her usual spot. Brixie is a half-English, half-American Labrador retriever who’s something of a mascot for Baker Family Wines, which Chik and his wife Polly co-founded with Major League Baseball legend Dusty Baker. It’s so common for Brixie to be stretching out somewhere between the entrance and front lot that her nickname around the place is “the parking attendant.” Her smile is often the first thing patrons see when strolling into the West Sacramento tasting room that Baker Wines shares with Bike Dog Brewery.

Noticing Brixie was gone, Chik went outside to investigate. He soon discovered she’d wandered into a neighboring gym that was hosting a fitness class for people living with Parkinson’s disease. Her casual appearance was so uplifting that the instructor promised participants if they powered through one more strenuous exercise, their reward would be getting to pet and cuddle Brixie. The dog’s innocent eyes and wagging tail equaled all the motivation they needed.

Chik’s been smiling about the story ever since.

He’s not surprised, however, that the presence of a happy canine brightened the gym’s atmosphere. He and Polly — and everyone who works at Baker Wines and Bike Dog — have intentionally made their tasting room a spot where dog-lovers feel a sense of community.

They are not alone.

Drake’s: The Barn in West Sacramento, Acheson Wine Company and Midtown Spirits in the central city, and SacYard Community Tap House in East Sacramento have all earned reputations for welcoming the more drooly members of the family. These taphouses and tasting rooms are putting a twist on that slogan from the TV show “Cheers” by being places where everybody knows your dog’s name.

“Sometimes it’s not about the beer or the wine,” Chik notes with a smile, “sometimes it’s about the dogs.”

A home run with the huffers

Chik had been a professional vintner for two decades when he and Polly joined forces with an iconic baseball personality to open their winery in West Sacramento’s Warehouse District. Polly is also a winemaker. Now that she and Chik are bottling vintages together, it’s only natural they want their dog Brixie involved in the action. The fluffy 6-year-old is named after the unit of measurement, Brix, used to estimate sugar content in fermenting wine. She’s been a goodwill ambassador at Baker Family Wines since it opened in 2019.

Brixie’s constant presence in the tasting room also meant it wasn’t long before other people with four-legged family members were showing up. A lot of them.

“On some days, there could be half a dozen dogs here, or a dozen dogs,” Chik mentions. “They’ll be sort of interspersed.”

Polly adds, “It’s more unusual not to have a dog in here when we’re open.”

The couple knows first-hand the sense of relief that comes from finding a dog-friendly establishment. Anytime they’re socializing at a restaurant that won’t allow Brixie, it’s only a matter of time before they start feeling restless about her being alone. The Brennemans are glad to be offering an option where locals can enjoy hand-crafted California wine or Bike Dog’s award-winning brews, all while their panting barstool guardians are laying below their feet.

A number of dog-foster volunteers are regulars at Baker Wines, too. Sometimes they bring their latest adorable hard-luck story into the tasting room as a way of testing how comfortable the foster is in public or around other dogs. Baker Wines and Bike Dog try to do their part on the adoption front by hosting PAWS events, which are meet-and-greets aimed at finding fosters their forever homes.

During good weather months, similar dynamics are at play on the other side of West Sacramento at Drake’s: The Barn. The brewery’s massive outdoor beer garden allows for multiple families with dogs to have a good amount of space as they huddle around beer and pizza. Both Drake’s and Baker Wines have even hosted birthday parties where one special pooch gets to share a canine cake with his or her doggie friends.

That’s a special kind of camaraderie that Chik and Polly love seeing, so much so that they pay it forward by hosting fundraisers for the SPCA.

But Polly is quick to point out that they don’t exclude welcoming other pets into the business.

“We also have a couple of cats that come in all the time,” she points out. “And one lizard — a bearded dragon.”

Barks of support

When Loraine Scott opened Acheson Wine Company in Sacramento, she knew she was introducing a novel business to the city: an eco-friendly vino destination where zins, cabs, roses and marsannes are always sold and shared through re-fillable bottles. What Scott didn’t know was that her location — next to Leash and Collar pet store and kitty-corner from a popular dog park — would make the business a favorite stop for diehard mutt enthusiasts.

Scott fully embraces it.

She often puts up an A-frame sign next to Bark Park announcing that everyone there is welcome in her winery. It’s led to her catching sights that few proprietors would: Last Halloween season, Scott spent an afternoon watching a parade of some 200 dogs in elaborate costumes go trick-or-treating through her business and nearby storefronts. On Dec. 14, she and the owners of Midtown Spirits will be part of the SPCA’s Jingle Bell Pub Crawl fundraiser.

“This is our third year being involved in that event,” Scott notes. “There are dogs set up across the street at the Bark Park; there’s Santa who you take pictures with; and there’s several bar crawl-places that are part of it. It’s all raising funds for the animals.”

Tickets for the Jingle Bell Pub Crawl can be bought there.

Scott stresses there’s never been any problems having multiple dogs pack into her cozy tasting room — no fighting, no unexpected aggression. She attributes that to most dog owners being responsible about what is or isn’t a good environment for their companion.

“We’re a small space in here, but sometimes they’ll be five or six dogs, and they’re all pretty good,” Scott explains. “There are definitely a few of them that have their regular places. Some like being tucked underneath the bench. Others like being in the corner.”

Similar to Baker Wines, Scott has seen Sacramentans use her winery as a spot to gradually socialize four-legged additions to the family. One customer started bringing a little puppy in during the business’s more quiet opening hours. It was a way of getting the pup acclimated to being around strangers and unfamiliar canines.

“Now that dog is a little older and totally fine going out in public to places that are busy,” Scott reflects. “It’s so well-behaved.”

In the dog yard

Dan and Melody Thebeau had a vision.

They’d been living part-time in the brewery haven of Bend, Ore., where they kept encountering fun, vibrant beer gardens geared for families. These entertainment hubs typically featured craft brews, free live music and space for outdoor games. The Thebeaus wanted to bring that type of destination to Sacramento.

One day, Dan was driving through a section of East Sacramento where the industrial district starts merging with quiet streets lined by craftsman homes. He spotted an automotive repair shop with a yard full of cars, boats and scattered vehicle parts. Using a little imagination, Dan could map the budding concept that he and Melody had over this messy property.

A month later, a lease was signed, and SacYard Community Tap House opened in 2018.

Dan can be found at the taproom on most afternoons. He’s been working with other venue owners on promoting the city’s live music scene and booking all the bands that perform at SacYard himself. Regardless of what he’s engaged in, Dan is typically accompanied by Drake, his large, striking white Siberian husky, and Hurley, his bantam eight-pound Yorkshire terrier. This fluffy odd couple set a tone for other canines to start appearing in the taphouse.

“The dogs that we see on the regular — there’s at least 12-to-15 of them,” Dan observes.

By virtue of offering free, all-ages live music shows in a family-friendly environment, SacYard is currently one of the few spots — if not the only spot — in the Capital City where even little kids can be seen dancing in front of the stage while their parents, and sometimes their dogs, look on.

“We always intended this place to be dog-and family-friendly, even as the live music started taking off for us,” Dan remarks, adding, “That part of the business has exploded to be much bigger than we ever dreamed.”

But no matter how crowded or raucous SacYard’s music fun is, one can usually spot little Hurley making the rounds and saying hi to the various guests.

“When you come in, you’ll probably see him roaming around off leash,” Dan acknowledges with a chuckle. “He’s not afraid of anything.”

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