Purrrrrs and sighs of joy echoed all around America’s first, permanent cat café, which opened its doors with a loud "MEOW" in Oakland for the first time this weekend to Bay Area feline-o-philes.
Like many Bay Area coffee shops, Cat Town Café on Broadway features locally made coffee, vegan sandwiches, and artwork.
But what makes this spot extra special is that it also features local, adoptable cats from Oakland Animal Services, so that pet-owner wannabes can pet and scratch Fluffy and Snowball while they're sipping their brew in the "Cat Zone."
"Is this not the best thing ever?" exclaimed one woman in the Cat Zone as she clutched her coffee and cooed at the cats playing at her feet.
Both the café and the Cat Zone were packed on Saturday for the grand opening. The glass windows were lined with onlookers leaning in to catch a glimpse of the cats climbing a small replica of the Oakland Tribune Tower. The Cat Zone had guests stopping to stare at its Oakland-inspired murals and cat-friendly play structures.
"It's important to create a fun environment where you can meet the cats," Cat Town volunteer Samantha Pollak told NBC Bay Area. "When people meet the cats, they're hooked. If you meet a cat in cage, you won't really get to know it's true personality."
This blend of cats and coffee is the brainchild of two of Oakland's leading cat-advocates: Ann Dunn, founder of cat fostering nonprofit Cat Town, and Adam Myatt, the self-proclaimed Cat Man of West Oakland. Both are passionate about getting shelter cats out of the cage and into loving homes. They hope the café will lure in cat lovers who might otherwise hesitate to meet cats in a typical, sterile shelter. Dunn explained that for the Cat Town team, "pets and coffee sounded like a natural fit when we heard about the cat cafés from Japan."
On opening day, six of the nine cats up for adoption were whisked away by owners who wanted to call give their new furry friends a loving home.
Cat cafés have gained global popularity, most notably in Japan which is home to over 150 of these feline coffee shops. To get a taste of the feline business culture, Myatt went with his friend, Sean Wells, to Tokyo in preparation for the Cat Town Café.
In Tokyo, they visited cafés and learned that many cats weren't necessarily happy to be in such a crowded space - perhaps all the coffee drinkers were too overstimulating.
That's why the Cat Town Café in Oakland offers the shelter cats plenty of space to roam and an extra room where they can hide from all the human attention.
"This is the first (cat café) in America, there's no precedent for how to open a cat café," Wells said.
Many similar cafés have attempted start business in the United States and others, in San Francisco, Portland and New York, say they are hoping to open soon. And there are "pop up" cat cafes in other cities, as well, but nothing permanent like in Oakland.
Oakland's Cat Town Café was the first to overcome all the health-code and financial hurdles, Dunn explained. Per Alameda County Health Department code and Oakland's Zoning Department, no food can be prepared on site, and there is a strict separation between the cafe side and the Cat Zone.
Turns out, one of the toughest parts of opening a place with cats and beverages is complying with health regulations, Dunn said.
Employees have to wash their hands as often as possible and clean up any spills immediately to keep germs from both kitties and people at bay. The café also has two separate bathrooms, one for people who have been in the "Cat Zone" and one for those who haven't. Essentially, the cats and coffee can't mix, the cats are in a separate room from where the coffee is prepared, but guests can bring their drinks into the Cat Zone after they've ordered.
Finding money for a business based around shelter cats is also challenging, said Dawn Pieper, a Cat Town volunteer. Cat Town Café got off the ground thanks to about $45,000 in online fundraising campaigns, according to Indiegogo and Kickstarter.
The coffee and treat sales in the café certainly help with the costs of maintaining the Cat Zone, but Pieper says that the café doesn't begin to cover all of their expenses. Cat Town keeps their adoption fees at $50, which means they need to make a profit in other ways. Donations, consequently, make the greatest difference for Cat Town, she said.
Currently, the Cat Zone accommodates nine cats and 14 human visitors, which Dunn calls "the perfect ratio."
