Perk-n-Pooch: Scrub Dog, Drink Coffee and Have Fun

Tucked into the corner of the Sandy Springs Crossing shopping center on Roswell Road is a new neighborhood coffee shop with a CANINE twist. Perk-n-Pooch, a combination dog grooming center and coffee shop, iss the first of it’s kind in Georgia, “In Georiga, there isn’t another concept that combines the two ideas,” owner Joe Guerrisi said. “It really came out of my wife’s passion for coffee and our passion for dogs.”

Guerrisi and his wife Renee came up with the idea for their unique business after researching other dog wash facilities around the county. They found a business owner in Marlyand that combined a dog wash with a coffee shop, and for the Guerrisi’s, it was a perfect fit.    

“We visited the location and talked to the owner about what they do and how they went about setting it up and it really evolved from there,” Guerrisi said.

Perk-n-Pooch evolved with the help of the entire Guerrisi family. 

Joe works full time in marketing at a major corporation and handles the marketing and finances for Perk-n-Pooch in his spare time. Renee manages the café portion of their family-owned and operated business, which is separated from the dog grooming side by floor to ceiling glass windows so that owners can watch their dogs while they sip a latte.

“We’ve all contributed in some way so it’s been a family affair for us which has been fun,” Guerrisi said.

The couple’s daughter works as the assistant manager and their son designed the company logo, which is based on the likeness of one of the three Guerrisi family dogs.

Perk-n-Pooch provides enclosed areas for all pets that are equipped with tubs, hoses, shampoos, blow dryers and towels so that multiple pets can be washed and groomed at the same time with limited interaction.  The rooms also contain several drains for larger or less cooperative pets that need to be washed outside of the bathtubs.

“We wanted to create it where it was flexibile,” Guerrisi said.

They recently opened their doors to cats as well after multiple customers mentioned how difficult it is to find a cat grooming facility.

“We get a lot of requests and we think we can do it easily mostly because of how the space is contained,” Guerrisi said. 

For the Guerrisi family, Perk-n-Pooch is a family affair, combining two passions and four skill sets into one family business.