When East Boston resident Mike Todesca acquired the laundromat and neighboring convenient store on Breed Street in Orient Heights he had an idea.
Rocky, a 1 year old English Mastiff, gets his bath at Cloud 9 Laundra-Mutt Self-Serve Pet Wash & Boutique
Todesca’s plan was to rehab the laundromat in order to make it nicer and more appealing to customers and turn the convenient store into something he thought the neighborhood needed.
Located steps away from the beach, Belle Isle Marsh, Noyes Park and a lot of other places dogs like to get filthy Todesca turned the former convenient store at 14 Breed St. into a self-serve dog washing operation.
Cloud 9 Laundra-Mutt Self-Serve Pet Wash & Boutique opened over the winter and with the warmer weather business is becoming steadier and steadier.
Inside the business there are two self-serve pet wash bays with full tubs for dogs big and small. Customers simply insert $10 into the machine for 10 minutes of washing.
“When you come in we’ll give you a towel, apron, face cloth and scrubber,” said Todesca. “Then you go in and select the different options from the machine like a self-serve car wash.”
After inserting their $10 customers simply turns the dial to soap (there are several different soap options from regular soap to oatmeal based soap) and after a good scrubbing one only needs to turn the dial to rinse and your pooch is clean.
“There is also a blowdryer that’s included in that initial $10,” said Todesca.
And after your pet is clean there’s a whole host of treats and toys customers can pick from.
“We get all the treats from Boston Barkery in Newburyport,” said Todesca. “It’s been a little trial and error like finding out what kind of treats customers are looking for, what type of harnesses they want and what kind of toys we should carry. But so far its been going pretty good. Everyone that has been here has been back and they all like the business. There’s been a lot of word of mouth so one customer will come in and a few weeks later come back with a friend and their dog.”
Todesca said the warmer weather has been bringing in more business in recent weeks.
“There are a lot more people out walking their dogs now,” said Todesca. “We’ve been getting a lot of customers from Belle Isle because it gets muddy down there. So they walk their dog, stop in, give them a bath and head home.”
Todesca said Laundra-Mutt is a perfect option for those stubborn pets that don’t like to go to a traditional groomer.
“Sometimes its just easier to do it yourself,” he said.