A brand new espresso store — with each people and cats on workers — is coming to Grand Avenue.
Catzen Coffee Bar and Den is ready to open this fall with each a restaurant and a “den” the place clients can hang around and luxuriate in espresso and snacks with the store’s resident cats.
The cafe shall be at 1416 Grand Ave. in Macalester-Groveland, in a building that had been beforehand subdivided right into a chiropractor and hair salon. Catzen is taking on each halves of the house.
The building’s present break up is definitely useful, proprietor Vanessa Beardsley stated, as a result of well being codes require separation between meals service operations and animals. The cafe house on one aspect and the cat den on the opposite will every have their very own HVAC and air filtration techniques, she stated.
At Catzen, cats within the den shall be everlasting residents. Unlike at another cat cafes, like The Cafe Meow in Roseville and New Hope, the cats right here is not going to be up for adoption. Beardsley needs to provide the resident cats a everlasting and steady home with out the stress of introducing new animals, which, as cat house owners know, generally is a fraught course of.
“We want the cats to be characters in the neighborhood,” stated Beardsley, who, a couple of weeks in the past, acquired the cafe’s brand tattooed on her inside forearm. “We’re going to have these characters living here, and hopefully people will get to know individual cats and want to come see them.”
As for the drinks, Beardsley plans to serve espresso and espresso drinks — she’s working with All Beans Considered, a consultancy run by native espresso skilled Mary Hallbrooks — plus mocktails. Food-wise, the menu will consist largely of reasonably priced handheld breakfast and lunch snacks, together with treats from close by Hot Hands Pie & Biscuit, and ‘charCATerie’ boards.
And with regards to the den, it’s all about being cozy and comfortable. We can anticipate loads of smooth couches and chairs to chill out with the cats, she stated, plus a hearth. There’ll even be wall furnishings for cats to leap onto and lie on.
The cats may even have access to a personal downstairs house the place their meals and litter containers shall be, in addition to spots for them to go in the event that they’re feeling overstimulated.
And in a classroom house on the cafe aspect, Beardsley hopes to supply public occasions — espresso tastings with Hallbrooks, possibly, or youngsters’ read-alouds — and host personal teams like knitting circles and ebook golf equipment.
The imaginative and prescient for the business has been a few 12 months within the making, she stated.
“My first thought was, we all need a place to de-stress,” she stated. “I decided to design what I would go to if I needed to decompress.”
Catzen is at the moment leasing the house from Rob Yang, who runs the native streetwear model Phenom. Beardsley, who beforehand labored as an legal professional, is within the course of of buying the building, she stated.
For now, Beardsley and Frances Brown, who would be the cafe’s supervisor, are spitballing concepts. Maybe they’ll match the cats with collar cameras, so we are able to watch movies on-line of their nighttime exploits. Maybe they’ll supply matching snacks or drinks, one for a human and one for a cat.
“We’re having a real struggle because we want to just buy some kittens right now!” she stated, laughing. “We’re probably not quite at that point yet.”
Catzen Coffee Bar & Den: Opening fall 2024 at 1416 Grand Ave.; catzencoffee.com
