Zilia Monteiro, one half of the team behind new pet bakery, Bubbles & Miche, tells us about doggy inspiration and very willing testers.

When we (pet-parents) met back in June 2019 while walking our dogs, Bubbles & Michelada, on the beach, we had no clue that two years on we would be opening and running a pet barkery!

Bubbles & Miche is the island’s first bakery for pets (a ‘barkery’) started by Carolina Jimenez Woolrich and me, Zilia Monteiro, with the unique concept of creating and selling human-grade gourmet treats, bakes and meals. The barkery is located at Shaharzad complex, just off Budaiya road, and launched just last month.

It all started off when we began experimenting with homemade treats for our dogs as we were both unhappy with what was on offer in the Bahrain market. Many pet foods and treats are highly processed imports – and we believe that our pets deserve better. This made us realise that we needed to bring fresher options to the pet palate here in Bahrain. Compare it to a human eating dry food out of a bag every day, with no natural and fresh ingredients to give you optimal nutrition – how would that make you feel?

Our vision is to change the food habits for pets in Bahrain by offering fresh, clean, healthy ingredients with total transparency – which are delicious and fun too! There’s something very assuring when you are able to read and understand all the ingredients on your pet’s food label.

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Bubbles & Miche produces freshly baked customised cakes for all occasions and tastes. For instance, the B&M Signature Cake is a carob flavoured speciality, the Happy Pupday Cake has peanut butter and carrots, and the Spoiled Doggy cake is for the meat-lovers. Our bestselling treats are Bubbles Crunchy Chicken, Mooolala (dried beef), Bone-a-petites (beef biscuits), Barkies (apple and oat biscuits) and Zoomies (dried fish). We, of course, had a lot of fun working on the names!

We will soon launch our new line of vet-approved cooked meals following strict guidelines from the Association of American Feed Control (AAFCO), to ensure that each meal is prepared at the highest international standards. The human-grade concept may still be something that is under scrutiny internationally, but with pet-parents making more conscious food choices, the changing trend may well exceed the current pet food standard (aka some dry food). Each of our products are sampled by our pets – Bubbles is an adopted Bahraini desert dog and Michelada is a purebred Jack Russell. Bubbles is a fussy eater, but Michelada will have just about anything that is food. Everything we make is dog-friendly, some are cat-friendly, and all our products are well-researched to suit all tastes and breeds, however we always recommend that pet-parents are aware of their pet’s allergies and dietary requirements before they place an order.

We’re excited to kick off this unique barkery in Bahrain and we believe that the sky is the limit – our bigger dream is to grow our brand into a full-fledged ‘Pet Barkery’ and store in future. Visit our the barkery in Budaiya to buy some treats or place an order on Instagram @bubblesmiche today.

Going from home-kitchen to the real deal has been a bit of a nightmare with the ending being the paw-fect dream come true! ✤

GO: CALL 3365 7375 FOR MORE INFORMATION.