Chad Munsey, co-owner of The Bearded Pig, was caught by surprise when he learned the restaurant's dog-friendly patio was not authorized by the city. | Dan Macdonald, Jacksonville Daily Record
Published on January 20, 2026 at 10:40 am
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On sunny Saturdays and Sundays, Chad Munsey can welcome as many as three dogs an hour who come with their families to enjoy barbecue on the outdoor patio at his San Marco restaurant the Bearded Pig.
So it was a surprise when a health inspector from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation showed up late last year, saying that there had been a complaint and that allowing pets on the patio was against code in Jacksonville.
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“What do you mean we’re not allowed to have dogs on the patio? Everybody has them,” Munsey told Jacksonville Today of his conversation with the inspector.
Florida statute includes a local exemption to its prohibition on dogs entering public food establishments to allow cities and counties to create a permitting process to allow those in designated outdoor areas.
It’s a provision that the city of Jacksonville, as Munsey discovered, had not put into place until now. So Munsey and his Bearded Pig co-owner Michael Schmidt called Jacksonville City Council members Joe Carlucci and Raul Arias to try to change that.
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Last week, the Jacksonville City Council voted 18-0 to approve Ordinance 2025-0866-E, which established that permitting process and creates concrete rules for restaurant owners who want to have patios open to dogs.
Other cities in Duval County, including Jacksonville Beach, where Bearded Pig had a second location for four years, have their own permitting process for dogs in outdoor dining areas.
Munsey says the legislation fixes the issue after Jacksonville “kind of fell through the cracks.”
Arias — the bill’s introducer and whose family owns Mambos Cuban Cafe — says it’s common for Jacksonville restaurants to let their customers dine outdoors with their pets.
The council member thinks it’s also likely Bearded Pig’s owners are not the only restaurateurs unaware that non-service animals in Jacksonville were legally not supposed to be there.
“Now, any restaurant that’s out of compliance will be able to get in compliance right away,” Arias told Jacksonville Today.
Requirements for pets on patios
The city Planning and Development Department, which is responsible for implementing the permitting process, has drafted an application that requires restaurants to submit a site plan of the outdoor area.
Restaurants that allow dogs will have to display a sign at every patio entrance notifying their customers that dogs are permitted on the patio.
Council member Ron Salem, who advocated to include signage, told council members Jan. 13 that this is not only for pet owners but also so customers who may not feel comfortable eating around an animal to not be caught off guard and have clear expectations of the patio experience.
The legislation does not give clearance for restaurants to allow customers to have dogs in indoor dining rooms, other than service animals. It also mandates that food service employees wash their hands “promptly” after touching, petting or handling dogs, and do not touch dogs while serving food and beverages or handling tableware.
Dogs also have to remain on leashes.
For business owners, the bill states there is no cost to apply for the permit.
“This is a permit that should not really be in existence. It’s weird that nobody has ever been cited in Jacksonville for this, but all of the sudden one specific restaurant is getting cited for the same issue,” Arias said. “So clearly this is a non-issue-issue that’s happening now. Because of that, I don’t want to incur more costs on the hospitality industry.”
Economic impact
The Bearded Pig has allowed dogs in its outdoor dining area since it first opened nearly 10 years ago. Munsey says the restaurant continued the practice after moving in 2021 four blocks to its new location at 1808 Kings Ave.
According to Munsey, it’s become an expectation for many pet owners to be able to bring the family dog along when eating outdoors. If the Bearded Pig and other restaurants would have had to change their pet policies, Munsey says, it could have been costly for the business.
“I probably have three dogs an hour on the weekends with guests. So if you figure our per person average is $22 per person, do the calculations. It’s thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in lost revenue,” Munsey said. “And moreover, we look like the bad guy because everyone else was allowing dogs on their patio but we were being singled out as not being allowed to. It could have had a big economic impact, that’s for sure.”
Bearded Pig requires customers to leash their dogs on the patio, and Munsey says staff try to be cognizant of any aggression the dogs show to children or other dogs.
“I’m sure there are people that either don’t like dogs or didn’t want to be near the dog. But we have a big enough space that we could have always moved,” he said. “We do all those types of things to make sure everybody is safe.”
