Canine cuisine: Louisville couple starts food truck for dogs
If food trucks that cater to dogs ever become a nationwide trend, one Boulder County couple is going to be able to say they were doing it before it was cool.
Winnie Lou: The Canine Company will be hitting the streets this summer serving dinners for doggies so your four-legged friends can get in on the food truck trend.
“We wanted to do something that is fun for both humans and their animals,” said owner Ashlin Cook. “It’s a chance to really get out and do something fun with your dog.”
Cook said she first got the idea for a dog food truck when she
was living in Miami.
“I had my dog there, and there weren’t that many events for dogs,” she said. “Then a company threw an event called a puppy brunch, with dog vendors and dog masseuses and a band. We had the most amazing time, and it struck me, why aren’t there more things like this? That kind of sparked the idea for me.”
With the idea rattling around in her mind, Cook said her boyfriend, Dean Frankel, then got a job offer in Louisville. “I had never been out here before, but Dean said honestly it was a better place to do it than Miami, because it was even more dog-friendly,” Cook said of Boulder County.
So after the couple arrived in March, Cook found herself a vintage camper and powered it with solar panels and a refurbished Tesla battery. “My husband works in electric batteries, so he was all about being green,” Cook said.
The camper is named Winnie Lou after the couple’s two dogs, Winston and Louie. Cook and Frankel make all of their dog treats and meals themselves, and use ingredients you would find in a human meal. For instance, one of their recent specials was a rainbow trout meal with a carrot puree and peas and brown rice.
“They look like human meals,” Cook said. “You open it up, it looks like a TV dinner you would eat.”
Cook said the food truck obtained the same permits and abides by the same health codes a truck that serves humans would abide by, and she and Frankel are the guinea pigs.
“We are the main taste testers,” Cook said. “If me and my boyfriend won’t eat it, we won’t serve it to dogs.”
Of course, Winston and Louie would not hear about being left out of the taste-test process.
“Our dogs are much happier since we stared doing this,” Cook said. “They definitely taste test everything.”
And before you suggest that dogs will eat pretty much anything, Cook said that, when given a wide variety of choices, her dogs have actually proven to be quite the food critics.
“I made a banana treat I was really excited about, but Winston wouldn’t touch it,” she said. “It was interesting finding out random foods my dog didn’t like.”
Cook said she tries to use local and organic ingredients, and said she will vary the menu so she can always use fresh items.
“We have a strawberry rhubarb pupcake right now, but with rhubarb going out of season we are working on a cherry pupcake since cherries are coming out,” Cook said.
In addition to food, Cook sets up a pop-up tent next to the Winnie Lou to sell dog products from local vendors, and donates some of the profits to local organizations that help animals.
Cook said they plan on frequenting dog parks, breweries, farmers markets, and other dog-friendly areas and events.
“What we see is mostly events for humans or stores for pets,” Cook said. “We want to try and bring the two together, and give dogs something they deserve to be eating.”