Zadee Chambers, 50, has turned a childhood dream into reality after leaving a 30-year corporate career to take over Penny's House, a popular dog-friendly café in Churchtown, Southport. She has been at the helm since July and said the first few months couldn't have gone any better.
The mum-of-one said the decision came after she realised she had lost sight of her own ambitions while working in the corporate sector. She told the ECHO: “It’s been a lifelong dream. Someone asked me quite recently, ‘Who do I do it all for?’ I was in a very stressful corporate job and, when I sat back, I realised I’d lost connection with my own dreams and aspirations. This is about me exiting corporate life and making a bet on myself.”
A natural next step
Zadee said taking over the café has felt like a natural next step. The venue first opened under its current name in April 2024, but the location itself has a longer history as a dedicated dog-friendly establishment. It previously operated as The Wagging Tail Café, which originally opened its doors in early 2017 before being rebranded.
Zadee said she is ready to carry on the legacy. She said: “The best way to describe it is that it just feels right. It feels like I should be doing this. I don’t feel like I’ve just taken over Penny’s House. I feel like I’ve adopted it. It’s become a part of my soul since I started.
“It is a dog café, and that will always be at the core. We don’t just welcome dogs here, we cater for them. We recognise that they’re part of your family, so therefore they’re part of ours when you come in.”
Dogs at the heart of the café
Zadee is a dog owner herself, with two French bulldogs, and has incorporated her love of dogs throughout the café. She added: “In fact, all of the tables in the café are named after dogs in my family.
“Rather than having tables one, two and three, we’ve got a Dougal table, which is named after one of my French bulldogs, a tiny table named after my dad’s Rottweiler, and a Bunty table, which was my granddad’s dog from Liverpool. It’s all built into the fabric of what I’m trying to achieve here, that home-from-home feeling.”
Penny’s House offers a traditional café menu, including full English breakfasts, jacket potatoes, paninis, sandwiches and American pancakes, alongside homemade soup. The café also has a menu specifically for its four-legged customers, including treats from its dog patisserie.
Plans for the future
Since taking over in July, Zadee said the response from customers and the local community has been overwhelmingly positive. She also explained that she has big plans for the future, including collaborations with other independent businesses in Churchtown and expanding the café’s offering into the evenings.
She added: “Everybody’s welcomed me with open arms. I’m just a single person with a tiny family, and they've very generously given their time for free to help achieve my dreams and goals.
“I don’t have any corporate backing or funding streams. This is just one woman and a dream, and everybody has been so open and supportive. We’ve got lots of partnerships coming up.
“Magpie’s Tale, an independent bookshop just a couple of doors up, is one of them. We’ve started running a book club with them, where Penny’s House is the destination.
“I’m really trying to grow Penny’s House very carefully - expanding into evenings and different products. I’m a bit of a storyteller, so I just want to create a simple, creative space for communities where it thrives.
“But ultimately I want to create that home-from-home feeling. It’s not just a cup of coffee or your lunch - you feel that it’s been served with a hug.”
