Can I Bring Albus? Wade's Fine Eatery And Good Time Emporium

Welcome to another exciting installment of Can I Bring Albus? Where we go to fun places we'd like to try that are dog friendly and blog about it! Today we're talking about a restaurant that we're trying our hardest to become regulars at: Wade's Fine Eatery and Good Time Emporium. If that name doesn't make you wan to try this place, I'll have you convinced by the end of this post. 

This is not a sponsored post, but it does contain affiliate links. If you would like to give us free food or drinks at your dog friendly establishment, we'd gladly accept that offer. 

We discovered Wade's after another afternoon of "I don't know, where do you want to go?" We were roped in by the catchy name and the fact that we could, in fact, bring Albus. Another winner, for those of you from the St. Louis area, Wade's has several dishes that feature Provel cheese. Provel cheese is the cheese used by Imo's Pizza and it's delicious. It's smokey and smooth and just trust me, it's delicious. 

Wade's has a huge dining area, both inside and on the patio. The bar has those cool garage doors that roll up so you can sit inside at the bar or outside at the bar. There are a bunch of patio tables under cover, then out in the open patio, are a bunch of picnic tables with umbrellas. It's also right off a walking path (I am not that familiar with Smyrna yet, so I don't know where that path goes) and a big green space next door.

They have a draft menu that features several local beers, as well as your normal domestics. Their cocktail menu is also fantastic. They have several "hand crafted cocktails" and I honestly haven't tried on I haven't liked. I've been on a French 75 kick lately, because who can say no to gin and champagne? Not me. 

They have pretzels on the menu, which is another easy way to lure me in, especially when everything on the menu has a clever name. The pretzels are called "Knot at This Juncture" and they come with this really tasty beer honey mustard and, you guessed it, Provel cheese. We've also had the Tuna Poke appetizer, which has cilantro on it. For my fellow "cilantro tastes like soap" people, I thought y'all would like a heads up, since this isn't a dish that usually features it.

They also have really, really good salads. On the menu it says "Is it healthy? Of course, it's a salad" The first time we went, I had a grilled cheese with tomato soup and a side of their Hail Nero salad, so yummy. I'm apparently a fan of kale, who woulda thought that? We've also had the Little Miss Sunshine, which was also delicious. Honestly, it sounds like I'm blowing smoke, but I haven't had anything that I haven't loved. 

The outdoor patio is a mix of picnic tables and your normal outdoor patio furniture, they have a handful of TVs out there so you can catch your favorite game. It's also super kid friendly, which isn't always ideal for me personally, because loosely supervised kids around my dog make me nervous, but they have games that you can grab to play with your kids, and that giant green space where there are always kids running around playing too!

I realize I've been going on and on about this place, but we freaking love Wade's, we're well on our way to becoming regulars, we were even recognized the last time we were there... Not that I'm bragging or anything.... Let me know if y'all wanna go, because I am always down. That's it for this installment of Can I Bring Albus? I'm worried that we're going to go straight to winter and it will be too cold to do any patio sitting. I'm not ready to do all of my eating and drinking inside yet. Do you have a place you just love to go? Somewhere that will always hit the spot?

Can I Bring Albus? Dry County Brewing

I think Can I Bring Albus? is my favorite blog idea in quite some time. I'm always trying to get out and about when we don't have company in town (we have a bad habit of cramming all of the fun things we want to do into a weekend when we have someone to show around town. It's aggressive.) So, a couple of weeks ago, we met my mom, stepdad, grandmother, and grandfather out at Dry County Brewing.

This is not a sponsored post. We would love for Can I Bring Albus? to be picked up by anyone willing to give us beer or food in exchange for our honest opinions about how great it was that you wanted to give us beer or food though..

If you're familiar with the Kennesaw area, Dry County is tucked right behind McCollum Airport and the Vulcan quarry, just before Kennesaw State's main campus. They have a pretty big space with an outside patio, complete with cornhole! BONUS: their brewing facilities are behind a sealed door, so dogs are allowed inside and outside! 

While I have been trying to get Albus's instagram up to "send us free treats and bandannas" fame, we've found some other pups to follow that are local and share our interests. We walked into Dry County, and who should we meet? One of Albus's friends from the internet, Larry! They were super cute together and Larry even shared his ball with Albus (I cannot say Albus would have done the same. He's very much an only child..) 

Dry Count is also a DISTILLERY. That's right ladies and gentlemen, they make beer AND liquor. So while we were there we had a chance to try TWO frozen drinks made with their own vodka. Let me tell you, they were so tasty. I'm not a fan of sugary drinks, but since it's been summer for my entire life I was willing to give the frozen blueberry lemonade a chance. My mom and I were supposed to share the drink and I absolutely drank 90% of it. Albus gets his inability to share from me, apparently. It was so good that for my next drink I had the raspberry limeade, which was EVEN. BETTER. 

I've also been really digging their Lechuza and their Oktoberfest brew. (PS, if you're a big beer drinker, I adore the Untappd app, come be my friend!) I've found those on tap at some of my favorite local places too! 

We played corn hole (which, somehow, I was on the winning team AND scored the winning point.) Albus had lots of snacks, got lots of pets, and made some new friends. It was a very laid back vibe (we did go on Sunday afternoon, but it was Labor Day Weekend, so that's not a real Sunday) and it's both dog and kid friendly! The staff is great and everyone is very knowledgeable about the beers and can even help you decide what to drink! They had dog bowls with water in them, even though we always bring our own, and a canister of treats at the bar! 

Have you been to Dry County? Where should our next installment of Can I Bring Albus take us? 

Can I Bring Albus: East Palisades Indian Trail (Dog Beach!!)

Welcome back to another edition of Can I Bring Albus? Today we're talking about the dog beach on the Chattahoochee and that dog dad we made very mad the first time we went! If you're new to Can I Bring Albus? I made a designated page where I'll update our adventures by location. We're also always looking for new places to take him, so please send us any and all recommendations! So! Back to the dog beach! 

This post is not sponsored, but it does contain affiliate links. 

So, we've been to the dog beach twice now! It took that many trips for me to realize that there are two different "trails" you can take to get there. Both times we've gone, and probably all of the times we'll go in the future, we've taken the East Palisades Indian Trail. It's just under a mile hike down to the river, so Albus and I both get a workout in. It isn't that hard of a hike in, because it's downhill, but on the way back up it's a little tougher. So almost like a reverse hike.

You basically drive through a neighborhood to get to the trail head, make sure when you get to the park you drive all the way to the end to the actual parking lot. There are lots of little gravel places that look like parking spots, but you will get a ticket from the park ranger. Parking is $5 and you have to put either cash or a check in an envelope. There is no one to take any form of plastic though, so don't forget your paper money! 

You'll hear the dog beach before you see it, Albus always gets excited at the first sight of the river, but that's never where we're stopping. Dogs are allowed to be off-leash here! Which is great! Make sure you're comfortable with that, that you'r dog is comfortable around other dogs, and that you don't bring your good ball to the dog beach. Albus, like many other dogs I've met in off leash situations, doesn't care who that ball belongs to, if one is being thrown, he's chasing it. However, he's not the best retriever, so if someone else throws a ball, he's going to drop the one he has and go after the other one. OR he's going to try to get two, three balls in his mouth. Three is his record so far. 

Our first time at the dog beach, he snagged someone's good Chuckit ball. The dog the ball was thrown for could not have cared less to chase it, but Albus obviously did. We have those balls at home so how is he supposed to know? I rescued the ball from the river three times for this man, who kept throwing the ball but got more mad every time Albus would chase it. I apologized the first time, but bro, if your dog isn't chasing it and you want to keep it, maybe stop throwing it. The more mad this man got, the less I was motivated to get up to my shorts in the water trying to get it back from Albus. I'm more of a "take a ratty old tennis ball in the diaper bag" girl, so if we lose it, it's really okay. This man was SO mad at us. So I guess we weren't at the dog beach to make friends that day. 

The hike back to the parking lot is a little more of a challenge, you get spoiled coming down the hill and then you play in the river, and THEN you have to go back up the hill. I wear my Teva sandals on this hike, so I can get down in the river with Albus and not worry about my shoes getting wet. This trail is also how I learned I am not a Chaco girl. I highly recommend this dog beach, and if you're going, let me know and we'll meet you there! I have a few more Can I Bring Albus? posts coming up, but we're always looking for suggestions! Where should we go next? Have you been to a dog beach?

Can I Bring Albus: Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield

A couple of weeks ago, I got up extra early on a Saturday and I was super motivated. So I loaded Albus up for a quick little hike up Kennesaw Mountain. You would think that since I grew up in Kennesaw, went to the park every year for field trips in elementary school, drive past it every single work day, that I would remember the date of the battle. It was June 27th, 1864 and you guys will never guess what day I took Albus to hike the mountain. Go ahead, guess. Did you guess June 29th, the Saturday after the anniversary of the battle? BECAUSE YOU WOULD BE RIGHT! 

This post is not sponsored (but I would absolutely accept a National Park Annual Pass in exchange for taking Albus to all of the dog friendly ones and exploring them...) This post does contain affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through one of those links, I receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thanks! 

So, on this fateful day. I figured the park would be busy, it wasn't TOO hot yet, but it was a Saturday morning. I pulled up and the main parking lot was full (it's always full, but I always do a loop in case I'm there at *just* the right time and someone is leaving.) Then the overflow parking was a zoo too, I lucked into a parking spot, took a very official picture of Albus squinting in front of the sign in that parking lot, then we head to the opening of the park. We start to cross the street, and only then do I see the tents set up, the canons not in their normal places, and people dressed as Union & confederate soldiers. 

In case you were wondering, no, Albus was not a fan of the cannon fire or the rifles. Since we had already fought to park and made it to the welcome center, I decided that we should try to go up the mountain anyways. The hike up Kennesaw Mountain is only 1 mile, but man I struggle every time. Atlanta Trails says it's a "relatively moderate" hike. In the intro they say "Hike a strenuous 2.4 miles roundtrip on the Big Mountain Trail," so maybe it's not so easy peasey. Not sure I'm going to be trying anything they say is more difficult. 

SPEAKING of more difficult. If you're ever in the area and end up at the entrance on the back side of the mountain, they call it "Little Kennesaw Mountain" that hike is substantially more difficult and I have been glared down by a troop of Boy Scouts with those poky hike stick things (staunchly refusing to google what they're really called.) because apparently letting the large group of boys who look like they know what they're doing pass is not actually proper hiking etiquette. I always operate under "slower traffic get out of the way" 

So, on your hike up, you go about .8 miles and then there's a parking lot. Fun story, the first time I took my youngest brother hiking, he got SO MAD when we found the parking lot and insisted we walk the driving path down because he didn't believe that going around the mountain would be further than straight down it. Well, by the time Albus & I reach this parking lot, I'm breathing a lot heavier than I care to admit, and I plop down on the sidewalk for both of us to take a water break. We only do easy hikes, but I keep my doggy diaper bag packed with sunscreen, an extra water bottle, a bag of BarkBox treats, and a spare roll of poop bags. I also have this really cool collapsible bowl that clips on to the leash. Obviously I needed the break more than Albus did. 

I asked the park rangers if they would be firing the cannons on the tippy top of the mountain, because by this time I remembered all of the Kennesaw Mountain knowledge I have amassed over the years. They were also firing those, the reenactment must be historically accurate you know, so I decided we'd just head back down. It was hot and sweaty, but we ended up doing over two miles anyways because we had to walk to and from that satellite parking lot. 

Kennesaw Mountain itself, as well as the rest of the park associated with it, is all very dog friendly. A KEY thing to note though, you're gonna need to bring your own bags and be a little prepared to carry one for a while. We once accidentally went 6 miles on the Noses Creek trail looking for a trash can. There are several different trails in the park and we've done almost all of them! Maybe on our next installment of "Can I Bring Albus?" we'll talk about the dog beach where Albus made some overly serious dog dad very mad..

Have you been to Kennesaw Mountain? Do you think I'm a wimp getting winded on the trail (it's okay, I know I'm out of shape.) Is there a National Park near you that you love? Tell me about it! Also, always accepting new ideas for where to bring Albus.

Can I Bring Albus: Variant Brewery & Roux on Canton

We've decided it's also our mission to try all of the breweries. Just all of them. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it! This brings us to our next installment of "Can I Bring Albus?" Last Wednesday we went to Variant Brewing over in Roswell then we explored a little bit and popped into Roux on Canton for dinner. It's a cute little place and it was a new one to us!

This is not a sponsored post, but it does contain affiliate links

We immediately spotted other pups the second we walked in, the patio was great and spacious! We learned from one of the guys working, that they technically have a kitchen (used for roasting coconuts for one of their brews) so dogs are not allowed inside. They do have lots of dog treats and a cool water dispenser like you see at the airport fill up your pup's bowl (or they have some there if you don't have a cool collapsible one like this) & your own water glass. I really love the water thing, and honestly I think everyone should have them that way we can cut back on plastic bottles. 

ANYWAYS. Great big spacious patio with heavy picnic tables that you can tie your pup to. Even when we have two humans, we always tie him down. The combination of his harness & 5' leash gives him room to explore but not escape. The parking is a bit limited, but it seems like that's a whole downtown Roswell thing, not any business in particular. It all seems very walkable if you end up parking downtown or somewhere else, but this was our first trip to Roswell.... Since we were there on a Wednesday, we didn't have any trouble finding parking. 

We had a couple of beers, which were all very tasty. 5 stars all around on Untappd. The bar staff was super friendly and knowledgeable (at one point I ordered "your darkest and maltiest beer" and they didn't hesitate to pour us one.) They were also super laid back, again it's a Wednesday so probably not the busiest night, and they took time to talk to you outside while they were clearing glasses from outside. 

After a couple rounds of beer, we made our way into the downtown area for dinner. We decided on Roux on Canton and even got to sit at a special seeming table where Albus made sure to get pets from literally every person walking by on the sidewalk. Roux is a cute little southern restaurant with a great beer and cocktail list. We had "The Dip" which was incredible, then Meatloaf and a Cuban sandwich and topped it off with some Beginets and oh my goodness was it delicious.

That's it for this installation of Can I Bring Albus? Do you have any suggestions for where we should go next? What's your favorite Atlanta brewery? Should we bump it up over our next one?