Phone Number?

I’m certain at this point you’re hoping to find our phone number, but here’s the thing;

we don’t have a public phone number.

Radical, huh?

In this age we feel that having a public phone number is detrimental to the effectiveness of our business—and to the level of customer service we care to provide—than it is a necessity. We take great care to see that ALL of the neccessary information you would need to know about our menu, specials, hours, events, location, etc is available online (either here on our website, google, our facebook page, or instagram) and beyond that, you can always reach us by email or on the messaging systems of any of our social media, as we’re quite quick to respond and help you meet your Dog-Eared needs.

But why don’t you have a phone number?

Although there would be any number of reasons people would need to call us, the majority of phone calls to cafés and restaurants are to ask after information that is readily available on line. We feel taking time to answer phone calls during business hours would serve only to keep our in-house customers waiting.

We’ve all been in line waiting before, only to have our transaction halted while the clerk stops to take a phone call, eavesdropped on the “uh-huhs” and “mm-hmms” as our patience wains, and we want better for our valued customers; we want better for you.

Well, there’s our pragmatic argument in favour of not having a telephone number. We hope you understand and empathize, because we’ve made this decision to provide the best customer service experience possible.

We are also unreachable by fax, telegraph, or carrier pigeon.

 DO you allow dogs ?

Sadly, no.

As much as we LOVE dogs, your furry little friend is not allowed to join you in our café, Ontario law states that “Every room where food is prepared, processed, packaged, served, transported, manufactured, handled, sold, offered for sale or displayed shall be kept free from live birds or animals.” Service dogs are, of course, always welcome with proper verification.

But you have “dog” in your name!

Yup, but that has to do with our being a second-hand book store as well as a café, as “dog-eared” is a metaphor for folding down the page of a book to mark your place when a bookmark isn’t handy. *Rest assured, we have plenty of bookmarks on hand.

But the good news? We have a take-out window! Which is the perfect way to bring your pup for coffee without having to bring them indoors! Yay!

 cell phone/laptop/tablet policy

Not on speaker, please.

We’ve taken great care in creating a space that is hospitable and comfortable for all, from the cozy furniture, to the decor, and musical selections that we feel are as accessible and universal as they are unobtrusive. Speaker phones (and other amplified technologies) we feel work in opposition of the environment we’ve curated, and feel very confident that no has felt their experience would be improved with the presence of a device being played on speaker.

Musical selections are as just as important in creating an atmosphere as lighting and decor, and a large part of this has to do with frequencies. Bass frequencies carry sound, whereas higher frequencies drown them out, which is why we’ve curated playlists which exist primarily on the lower end of the spectrum. Played at the same volume, songs that are more dominated by high frequencies are more obtrusive, are harder to hear/speak over, and are therefore more intrusive than music that is lower in frequency.

Simply put; music dominated by lower end makes for better background in public spaces.

But, what does this have to do with my cellphone/laptop/tablet being on speaker?

Now, knowing that larger speakers produce lower frequencies, and smaller speakers produce higher frequencies, and that higher frequencies are more obtrusive, we need to consider the size of the speaker in your cellphone/laptop/tablet. They’re teeny-tiny, and the sound/frequency they emit is harsh and intrusive to the ears of everyone but the user. From a distance of anything more than a few feet they sounds akin to detuned radio static or a shaken box of angry bees. We’re confident in saying that no one has welcomed the sound of another’s cellphone/laptop/tablet being played on speaker in a public space. At best, it’s quietly tolerated, but only because the potential confrontation carries with it a risk of conflict that would be a greater threat to the individual’s comfort than saying nothing and suffering in silence.

It’s for this reason that—when the various signage in the space has gone unnoticed—we take it upon ourselves to politely ask customers to not use their devices on speaker.

We strongly feel the onus of confrontation should never be put upon the customer. Having our clientele sit in suffrage wondering why no one is saying anything about the offending amplified device would put us in dereliction of our customer service duties.

Conversation, children at play, boisterous laughter—these are all sounds that are part of the human experience and are generally accepted as part of venturing out into public spaces, but we don’t feel that devices used on speaker are a welcomed or accepted by anyone other than the user. No one wants to hear your tik-toks, your wedding fail reaction reels, your FaceTime with family, Zoom meetings, or fishing videos that sound suspiciously like pornography.

It’s for these reasons that Dog-Eared Café is a speaker-phone free zone, and we ask only that you participate in making it the cozy little space we’ve intended it to be for all.

Thank you for being amazing. Thank you for being kind. :D