Low calorie, protein-rich Heavenly Waffles — made from a 40-percent yogurt base — served with Acai, banana, and strawberry at Chiefy Café's Gaslamp location

A favorite, dog-friendly coffeeshop that emerged during the pandemic has quickly grown into a three-location dog-friendly family of coffeeshops. Chiefy Café — named after its owners’ dog — opened just shy of two years ago in the Gaslamp, and worked to establish itself as a small yet consistent source of caffeinated beverages, smoothies, and easy meals.

Open 365 days a year, the versatile café has proven a regular haunt for enough dog-loving locals that it ranked number 30 on a recent Yelp list of San Diego’s most popular eateries, and was voted Best Pet Friendly Cafe in San Diego in polls by San Diego Reader.

Building upon these accolades, Chiefy abruptly opened two new locations in August: one at SDSU, the other in Hillcrest's Uptown District shopping center. In both cases, Chiefy took over shops previously operated by its coffee beans roaster, Coffee ‘N’ Talk, while it consolidates its focus on newer locations, including one downtown (655 West Broadway, Marina District) and an incoming production facility in Santee (9560 Pathway Street, Santee).

The friendly agreement gives Chiefy’s owners, married couple Jaleh Sattarin and Dani Nissan, a lot more space to grow their brand. The Hillcrest shop in particular has more than double the indoor and outdoor seating as the original location, plus an entire parking lot surrounding it. All locations make the same menu of simple breakfast and lunch items, plus a variety of brewed beverages including flavored and espresso drinks, cold brew, matcha lattes, and Turkish coffee.

A small yet successful Gaslamp café

Personally, I’m pleased to visit any eatery where I may take along my dog (and cub reporter), Loki. But what really caught my attention was a unique waffle offering.

Currently, Chiefy is the sole California entity serving Heavenly Waffles. Launched by a chef in Nebraska, Heavenly is a brand of high-protein, low-calorie waffle mix that employs yogurt as a base. One of Chiefy’s regular customers tipped Sattarin and Nissan to the waffles following a trip to the Midwest, and the business now offers a full waffle menu.

A waffle sandwich, with turkey, bacon, avocado, and hard-boiled egg — plus cream cheese, ketchup, and hot sauce packets on the side

What does a full waffle menu look like? Well, on the simple side, it features waffles and syrup for $8, or add strawberries for $10. At the top of the menu, the $13 Holy Moly adds sliced banana and acai, apparently aiming for superfood status. I tried this with the gluten-free mixture of Heavenly Waffles, and the resulting breakfast almost left me feeling more energized than the coffee. While the gluten-free waffle didn’t share the sugar-crisped crust of a traditional Belgian waffle, the lightly sweet, gridded cake appeals with tenderness, with an almost springy texture verging on angel’s food cake.

Perhaps the most original use of these yogurt-based waffles belongs to the Oh My Chiefy’s sandwich ($15). It’s a savory sandwich of either turkey or ham, with bacon, avocado, and slices of hard-boiled egg. The unlikely breakfast sandwich is made even more so by defaulting to sides of cream cheese, ketchup, and hot sauce packets. Again, with gluten intact, it was startling to eat a bread substitute, knowing the mix is like 40-percent yogurt. Chiefy’s three locations offer their share of more traditional bagel and croissant sandwiches, should you require the texture of genuine bread, but Heavenly Waffles are worth a try, while your dog enjoys a “puppicino.”