Father-son duo create dog park in Lakeside

William Bulifant spent the 1970s riding his bike to the barbershop at 6201 Lakeside Avenue.

Now, decades later, he’s opening Peace of Ice with Puppy-Uppers Café, a shaved ice and coffee shop for Lakeside residents and their dogs, at the same location.
Behind the ’70s-themed café, which is projected to open in mid-to-late February, is an open space Bulifant and his son, Brett, turned into a dog park. The park has received positive feedback from many Lakeside residents after Bulifant announced its November 2020 opening in the Facebook group “Lakeside (Richmond’s Best Side),” which has more than 9,800 members.

“Social distancing really put a damper on people’s souls,” Bulifant said. “With all of that stuff now, it’s making people awkward, so I said, ‘I’ll do coffee and have people come to the dog park so people can still practice social distancing and have air space between them.’”

Bulifant, a self-proclaimed animal lover, knew he wanted to create a dog park when the building and lot went up for sale, he said.

“The spot is really sentimental to me,” Bulifant said. “That’s how this became important to me to buy it, because I didn’t want it going on the open market because it held memories. I saw it and went, ‘Wow, you know, this is my neighborhood. I grew up here. What can I do cool?’

“So, I said, ‘Let’s do a dog park.’ Also, Chris, the guy who owned it, left me the giant scissors, which is cool. It’s a staple for Lakeside.”

So far, the park has been very well-received.

"Love it there! Thank you for providing a space for our pups," one woman wrote on Facebook.

"Absolutely fantastic!!! Thank you soo very much," wrote another.

Offered another: "I have been anticipating this for a while and it has been wonderful to watch! How kind of you to do for the neighborhood. My dog and I will be happy to walk over and visit sometime soon."

Once Peace of Ice is up and running, Bulifant plans to make the second story a craft space for people to tool their own leather dog collars and leashes. He wanted to take the building back to its roots, because the location also sold leather goods in the ’70s, he said.

The interior of the café features a penny-covered bar and a painted fire. Bulifant also has worked with local artists to have art, primarily of dogs, for customers to buy off of the walls.

“It’ll give artists a chance to express themselves and to be a part of all of this too,” he said. “I want people to be ‘a part of.’ I guess most of my life I was isolated because of my addiction and I was never ‘a part of,’ so at this point in my life I want to be that.”

Bulifant has been sober for more than 15 years after having struggled with a drug and alcohol addiction.

“I wasted most of my life, so I’ve worked really hard the past 15 years to try and create things for people, and I just want to do something for dogs too,” Bulifant said. “I was so selfish for so long. Addiction makes you selfish. I just want to go out giving back and making people smile. I work hard to try and create things, and this is what I have created for the community and for dogs.”

Bulifant’s son has helped him make the spot possible.

“All of the dreams that I have, it’s because my son believes in me,” he said. “He’s my business partner across the board, everything is dialogued between us two. I’m the loud obnoxious one and he’s the quiet, reserved one. The things that I do here when I say, ‘I,’ I really mean ‘we,’ because I couldn’t do it without him. He was instrumental in helping keep me sober in the beginning and probably the primary reason I do all of this stuff is to make him proud of me.”

Aside from the two working on Peace of Ice and the dog park, Brett and William Bulifant also build and remodel homes together.

“All of it goes back to just following dreams,” Brett Bulifant said. “I’ve grown up working with [William] since I was little, so everything’s always just been ‘Let’s do this together.’ I have four dogs of my own, so the dog park has been really nice. I have two girls and they’ll get to grow up with this as well, which should hopefully just be a beautiful thing.”