Local. Worker-focused. Worth your money.
We believe in spending money where it does the most good — locally, intentionally, and with businesses that treat their workers right.
Every business and organization listed here is one we actually use, trust, and believe in. Some are worker-owned. Some are community-rooted. All of them are part of what makes Baltimore worth living in.
We’re not a directory. We’re not taking referral fees. This is just a list of good people doing good work in our neighborhoods — the kind of ecosystem that makes a cooperative economy possible.
If you’re a Deez Muttz client, patronize these businesses. If you’re a business owner who shares our values and wants to be listed here, reach out.
We can walk your dog and check in on your cat, but we can’t do everything. For the times your pet needs grooming, veterinary care, or supplies from people who actually know what they’re talking about, these are the businesses we trust and send our own clients to.
All local. All worth your time.
Howl is our go-to for supplies, and has been for years. Independently owned, staff who actually know their stuff, and a store culture that feels nothing like a big box pet chain. We shop the Hampden location because it’s in the neighborhood, but their Mount Washington store is equally worth the trip. The people who work there share our values: they care about animals, they care about community, and they treat their customers like neighbors. Which is exactly what they are.
They even do local delivery on Saturdays if you can’t get to the store.
Dr. Chelsea McIntyre, VMD is not just our recommended vet — she’s our literal neighbor. She lives around the corner, which tells you everything you need to know about the kind of veterinarian she is. She chose this neighborhood, she’s part of this community, and she brings that same commitment to her practice.
Evergreen is a Fear Free certified practice, which means every aspect of the clinic experience is designed to reduce the anxiety, fear, and stress that pets experience at the vet. From the waiting room to the exam table, they’ve thought carefully about what makes animals comfortable — and what makes owners feel like their pet is in good hands. For reactive dogs, anxious cats, and pets with complicated histories, that approach makes an enormous difference.
They offer a full range of veterinary services including emergency medicine, behavioral care, surgery, and holistic medicine including acupuncture. If your pet needs a vet, this is who we trust.
Phil has been cutting dogs in this neighborhood for years, and we’ve been sending our own pets to him and his crew for more than a decade. They’re the reason Oso looks presentable. They’re the reason we don’t stress about grooming.
I first met Phil when he was a student of mine at Parkville High back in the early 2000s — one of my first years in Baltimore. Watching him build something real and local in this city has been genuinely satisfying. He’s good people, he’s skilled, and he treats every dog like it matters.
No website, no app, no booking platform. Just a phone call, a skilled groomer, and a dog that comes home looking fresh. That’s how it should be.
Find them on Instagram @scrubadubdog or just call to book.
This work runs on caffeine. We’re on our feet all day, biking between jobs, keeping up with dogs who have more energy than any of us. Good coffee isn’t optional, it’s infrastructure.
The places below keep us going. All of them are worth your money and your time, and none of them are chains.
Common Ground has been a fixture on The Avenue for 25 years — and the story of how it became a worker-owned cooperative is exactly the kind of thing we believe in. When the previous owner abruptly closed the shop in 2023 after workers began organizing, the staff didn’t walk away. With support from the Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy and Seed Commons, they reopened it as a worker-owned co-op. Same great coffee, same community spirit, now owned by the people who make it.
The food is made from scratch daily — muffins, scones, bagels, sandwiches, and the coffee is roasted locally and never more than seven days old. It’s been voted Baltimore’s best coffee and honestly that tracks. Go often. Spend money there.
3543 Chestnut Ave, Hampden
Tucked down a flight of stairs on Maryland Ave, Sophomore is a small, serious, deeply welcoming coffee shop run by people who care about what they’re doing. The coffee is excellent — well-sourced, carefully made, with house syrups that actually taste like what they’re supposed to taste like. The cardamom latte is not a joke.
Kris (Who I’ve known for years from bike circles) and his partner Emily have built something that feels like a neighborhood secret even though everyone in the neighborhood already knows about it. Community-focused, pay-it-forward fund, courtyard seating, genuinely good vibes. This is what independent coffee should look like.
2223 Maryland Ave, Old Goucher
Red Emma’s has been a Baltimore institution since 2004 — a worker-owned, collectively managed radical bookstore, vegan cafe, bar, and community events space named for anarchist Emma Goldman. They’ve moved, expanded, and grown entirely on their own terms, with financing help from the Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy. Their staff is increasingly owned by young Black and brown women, queer and trans folks — and that’s not incidental to what they are, it’s central to it.
The coffee is good, the food is fully vegan and genuinely satisfying, and the bookstore is one of the best-curated in the city. Go for the coffee. Stay for the books. Come back for the events.
3128 Greenmount Ave, Waverly
Every flier on every bulletin board, every business card in every hand, every sticker on every street corner or poop bag dispenser — that’s how people know we exist before they ever need us. These are the people who make that happen.
Rob and Debbie Dickerson have been running Work Printing in Pigtown for 25 years — fast turnaround, competitive prices, and the kind of personalized service you only get from people who actually care about your project. They print our fliers, our business cards, our signage, all of it.
Worth noting: their front-end greeter is Roxy, a dog (who also happens to be rocking it as one of our dog with Locs logos,) which tells you everything you need to know about their priorities. Local pickup, local business, local quality.
workprinting.com — or just email info@workprinting.com for a quote.
Bill Stevenson: Our sticker guy. Custom sticker printing at prices that make sense, from someone who clearly loves this city and isn’t afraid to say so. If you’ve seen Deez Muttz stickers appearing mysteriously around Hampden and Woodberry — this is why.
Stckr Void handles our sticker printing. Billtimore is his shop for his own Baltimore-specific designs, which are excellent and worth buying for their own sake. “Baltimore Doesn’t Like You Either” is a vibe. You can also totally get a tattoo when you’re picking up stickers.
For custom sticker printing: stckrvoid@gmail.com or local pickup is always cheaper so message first.
billtimore.bigcartel.com — @stckr_void on Instagram
We spend a lot of time outside with dogs. And we also spend a lot of time waiting around. What better way to kill that time than by reading, watching movies, and digging through record bins. These are the places that feed that part of our lives — all local, all independent, all essential.
Normal’s has been a cultural institution in Baltimore since 1990, started by a collective of nine artists, writers, and musicians who wanted to work for themselves and create something worth having in this city. They’ve been doing exactly that ever since. Books, records, used vinyl, and a curatorial sensibility that has no interest in the middle brow.
We’re there most Saturdays after the Waverly Farmers Market — it’s part of the same loop. James is behind the counter and always knows what’s going on. While you’re there, get on the mailing list for the Red Room, the volunteer-run experimental music series headquartered in the back. It’s been running since 1996 and it’s one of the best things happening in Baltimore.
425 E 31st St, Waverly
We’ve known Tony Pence since he was working the counter at Reptilian Records in Fells Point back when we first moved to Baltimore in the early 2000s. He’s been one of the most important people in Baltimore’s independent music scene for decades — as a store owner, a historian of the city’s punk underground, and just generally as someone who gives a damn about this stuff.
Celebrated Summer is a tightly curated, deeply knowledgeable record store. Tony knows what he’s selling and why it matters. Punk, hardcore, obscure everything. The kind of store you can’t replicate with an algorithm.
3616 Falls Rd, Hampden
“Literary finds for mutated minds” — that’s the tagline and it’s accurate. Atomic Books is Baltimore’s legendary independent bookstore, reopened by Benn Ray and Rachel Whang in 2001 and still going strong. Small press, graphic novels, zines, art books, cult ephemera, and a back bar called Eightbar that you might not find unless you know to look for it.
It’s also where John Waters gets his fan mail, which tells you everything you need to know about the cultural positioning. One of the best bookstores on the East Coast.
3620 Falls Rd, Hampden
Beyond Video is a volunteer-run nonprofit video library with over 40,000 titles on DVD, Blu-ray, and VHS, operated by the Baltimore Video Collective. It started as an effort to save Video Americain — the beloved independent video store you can see in John Waters’ Serial Mom — and became something entirely its own. A community library for cinema, reimagined for sustainability. No late fees. Membership-based. All volunteer.
Eric Hatch, one of the honchos, also runs the New Next Film Festival. And Kevin does dog hikes so you know these are good people.
If you believe streaming killed something important, Beyond Video is proof that you’re right and that something can be rebuilt. It’s open Friday through Sunday, 3–9pm.
