BRAND-NEW PALTZ — Jessica Strika has actually operated in restaurant management for many years. As a cat enthusiast herself, in some cases she would go to the Dutchess County SPCA to decompress and go to the cats, and eventually embraced 2: Luca and Tut-tut.
So it made good sense that Strika would integrate her hospitality experience and her love of felines into a business. She and her hubby Justin opened a cat coffee shop in Beacon in 2020. The name “Beans” — a nod to the coffee they serve and a cat’s toe beans — was too best, she said.
Despite the troubles of beginning a little business endeavor throughout the pandemic, Beans Cat Cafe has actually ended up being a feeling, just like other cat coffee shops throughout the nation. In recent years, cat coffee shops have actually emerged all over, consisting of New York City and the Capital Region. But up until now, Beans Cat Cafe is the just one of its kind in the Hudson Valley.
Even though their very first place remained in Beacon, Strika said New Paltz was constantly on their radar due to its distance to a big college and the appeal of remaining in a walkable neighborhood. Within 3 months of opening in Beacon, Strika said she started tracking the number of weeks were left up until thye might broaden to New Paltz, composing the countdown on a white boards in the back of the coffee shop.
Three years and 474 embraced cats later on, the countdown is now at almost no and Beans Cat Cafe is all set to open a 2nd place on July 14 at 11 Church St. in New Paltz, the space that previously housed Commissary.
The procedure of opening a cat coffee shop is long and needs additional documentation and allows, due to stringent health department policies when it comes to having food and animals in one space. But don’t fret: Just like in Beacon, the coffee shop has 2 different locations without any complimentary air flow in between the 2 areas, so no quantity of cat fur lands in your beverage. In the Cat Lounge, customers sit and cuddle with the cats, while in the Cafe, visitors can attempt deals coffees, teas, lattes and baked items from Mad Batters Pastries.
Between 10 to 15 furr-legged pals will be complimentary to stroll in the coffee shop, all of them available for adoption through the very same partners at the Hudson Valley Animal Rescue & Sanctuary. The coffee shop does not take a commission from the adoption charge, Strika said. They’re simply cultivating in such a way.
As far as the menu goes, Strika said customers can anticipate the very same drink and baked items choices like macarons with cat deals with on them, croissants, danishes and cookies with the possibility of including brand-new offerings like boba tea or nitro cold brew in the future. The New Paltz place likewise will keep rates to access the Cat Lounge ($7 per individual for half an hour or $12.50 per individual for a complete hour with a $49 room leasing choice) and is thinking about senior and trainee discount rates, a hassle-free method for those participating in SUNY New Paltz to get some “cat therapy.”
Unless you’re allergic, the appeal of a cat coffee shop is apparent. Up-for-adoption cats get to interact socially and stroll easily instead of being restricted to a shelter cage, while people might discover their next finest friend or merely experience the psychological health advantages of getting love from purring makers.
“I think it’s going to be a good stress relief for (students). Even now in Beacon, we have a lot of the SUNY New Paltz kids come all the way out, so I think being more accessible and somewhere a lot closer to them is going to be helpful,” said Strika, including that they’re considering working together with the college to help trainees with their psychological health. “I imagine being fully removed from your environment, your pets, your family, etc., that’s got to be really stressful for them, especially with the state of mental health in our country.”
Strika and her hubby were influenced by cat coffee shops in Taiwan and Japan, where lots of houses don’t permit family pets. But unlike cat coffee shops in Asia, where cats tend to reside in the coffee shops completely, in the U.S., there’s a larger concentrate on separating cats from the coffee shop location and motivating adoptions, Strika said.
“We want to put some good back into the world. We want to be able to help pets,” Strika said. “It’s really nice to be able to have my own store and work for myself, but still be able to do it with a purpose and a mission and ultimately felt like a little more good into the world. Especially with the animals.”
