The Minnesota Cat Cafe You Need to Visit | Jessica Burge, Cafe Meow #007

[Music] Hi everyone, it's Karissa from Shining Light on Minnesota. We are in New Hope today with Jessica from Cafe Meow. Hi Jessica. Hi. Thank you so much for having us today. Yeah, of course. Why don't you tell our viewers and everybody that's listening a little bit about your story and how you guys got started here? Yeah. So, back in 2014, before we even opened the cafe, we were looking into what a cat cafe was. And there was a popup cat cafe that kind of broke the market for all of the United States. Wow. And um when I saw that, I was like, "Wow, that's so neat and so cool. It helps cats get adopted." And I was like, "How do I make that happen here in Minnesota?" So for four years I looked into it, researched uh how to do it, how we could bring that concept to Minnesota and um in 2018 we opened our first location over in Minneapolis. Oh, nice. And so this is our second location. Um so we opened our second location four years later and we are able to help 60 cats now find homes at a time. Yeah. Wow. That's amazing. That's so cool. Yes. So, when people come here, do they have the intention to adopt or how does that all work? Yeah, people can definitely have the intention to adopt. Um, we're definitely here to facilitate adoptions um with these cats, but there isn't the need to feel like you have to adopt. We're also a cat therapy relaxing place where you can come hang out with cats if you have cats at home. um or if you have maybe somebody with allergies at home or you can't have a cow of your own, this is a great place to come socialize with these cats, prepare them for adoption and also come relax with, you know, a friend or have a good time. Um if you're a cat person, you don't really have these social opportunities like dog people do because you can't really bring your cat places. But um here we get to socialize with each other and we our cat people personalities get to come out. We see people come in and like families and they'll end up leaving asking when they're going to come in next. Two families that don't know each other and they plan it out so that they can meet again when they come here. Are there specific hours that people can come to the cafe versus the cat lounge? Um they're all the same. So we open at 11:00 Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then um at 10:00 on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And if you come in, you can come visit the cats or the come in for coffee. It's your choice. There is a fee to go into the cat lounge. Um, and we do have happy me hour, of course. It's like a smaller fee to go in for a shorter period of time. Um, because we do foster these cats, so we pay for all their food and care while they stay here. So, that helps cover that. Okay. Um, what about age restrictions? Are there specific age restrictions or anything like that for when people can and can't see cats based on their their feeding and everything like that? Yeah, so um age minimum is 7 years old to come in during general admission, but a lot of parents who do have younger kids who want to come in, um they can do exclusive admission where they can come have a party with all of their friends and really get to enjoy the cat cafe experience. Um we do that so that there's not an overwhelming amount of uh kids during general admission because it can make um the older adults have a little bit of a a less of a fun time if there's always a kid coming up into their space which there's many respectful children but when it's a lot of kids that can go out for the overwhelming. Yeah. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about your menu that you have here and what what people can expect when they come to the cafe side. Yeah. So, we have specialty coffee and tea. Um, all of it's organic and fair trade, of course. And we work with like local um uh roasters and sorry, tea suppliers here in Minnesota. So, Northern Lights Tea Company is over in the Skyway. They uh specialize in loose leaf tea and we have all their loose leaf tees here. And then we also have um backstory, they just switched their name um coffee beans here and um so they're delicious fair trade and um our coffee is some of the best coffee in town to be honest. Um one of our like specialty um coffees that everybody really enjoys. It's called the Cafe Meow. Okay. And it is a white chocolate butterscotch mocha. Oh, yummy. And it's so good. It's got a little bit of cinnamon on top and it's got all those rich flavors that really makes it come together. Perfect. So, how did you come up with the name and your other location? Is that right in Minneapolis or is that where where's the other location that the people can go to? The other location used to be located in Minneapolis, but we actually moved that location out recently. Um, in October, uh, we moved it to Roseville. Oh, nice. So, now we have a location here in Minnesota in Roseville and New Hope. Perfect. And it looks like you're growing a lot. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your cat histories that you take in and you foster, are they local? Are they from all over? Yeah. So, our rescues that we work with, um, there's two at each location. And they foster them until they can come to the cafe. Uh these cats are mainly cats that are either surrendered from families that can want to keep them for various reasons or they're strays or feral cats that they find TNR is um trapneuter and release. We work with uh one really big TNR program over in Wisconsin actually. So they're the least local because they're not Minnesota based, but they do a great job over there. And this is really their only opportunity in a a city space to really get those cats that otherwise would um you know have very short lives and may you know not live at all without their help um into good homes because in the city here there's more opportunity to get them adopted is that varies in the country. Okay. Got it. So how do people when they want to or think about taking that adoption step how what is the process that they take? Yeah, it depends on the rescue. So, uh, since we were four rescues, uh, people would come in, come meet the cat, and if they fell in love with a specific cat at the cafe, they'd reach out to the rescue. Some have online applications that they can just fill out um, and then like within a couple of days, they'll find out if they've been approved or not. Whereas others have um, home visits and things like that that they like to follow up. Yeah. I sometimes say, "What if the cats get to their house and it's just the cats aren't adapting well?" Things like that. There's a process for all of that as well. Yeah, each rescue has a return policy that allows for returns of course. Um, you know, we always uh want to provide enough information to the doctors as well to help them because when you are um introducing a new cat to a current cat situation, it can be a tough and long adjustment. Yes, it can take months um with some cats because uh uh unlike here where we have a variety of different cats all the time moving in and out. So, there's all these different smells in a a like a home situation. Um there's only one cat. They're dominant and that's their space. So, you really have to take it slow, make sure that you separate them to begin with and things like that. So, we give them plenty of resources so that they're able to do that more smoothly. For sure. Do you ever have any cats that you've gotten back a couple times or go through that process? Looks like you train them and you feed them and you get them healthy again and then you get them back in. Yes, there's been a couple of cases where um a cat's just down on their luck. Um and they have the opportunity to go to a home and the home just doesn't work out for one reason or another and we see them back once or twice and we're always happy to have them back. Yeah. But it's heartbreaking for that cat, too. It is. Yes. But we always know that in the end, the home that they stay with is the best home for them. So, um, we're just happy to be a part of them finding that place. Perfect. How many cats do you have here at this location right now? Uh, right now we have 22 cats. We can have up to 30. Wow, that's a lot. That's exciting, though. I mean, it's good to see that you're making a difference. Yeah. Do you do a lot of charity or do a lot of volunteering or have cat events, things like that to help? Yeah, so we have several large events throughout the year um that help raise funds for our rescue partners. Um one of them's called Eline Fest. It's hosted in June and um essentially what we do is we have like donation based cat sign. Um we have uh usually a raffle going on, coloring contests, just a bunch of fun things. Yeah. To bring people in to get them donating and then we raise those funds for our rescues. Um and then in the fall we have something similar called rescue week. Um and then every um person who comes in has the opportunity to also donate. We um give those donations every month to our rescue partners. Perfect. And um like some certain sales that we produce. So, we have these Minnesota cap shirts. One that I'm wearing. Um, and if you purchase one of these shirts, $5 of every purchase, uh, Minnesota cat shirt goes to our rescue partners as well. Perfect. So, so when people come into the cafe, they're not only just here to enjoy and be with the cats, but they can also donate, and some of the proceeds will also go to help those missions. Yes. Exactly. Nice. That's super exciting. So, what are your plans for the future? What are your hopes and dreams? I mean, the hope is always to have, you know, uh, multiple locations throughout the Twin Cities. I think two is a good amount for now, and we'll see how they do. Um, I've just moved one location and opened this location within a one-year time frame. So, it's hard to think past that at this point. Um, but this was really the goal from the beginning is to help as many cats as I trend. And as long as the community keeps supporting it and shows that um they want us to be here to help these cats, we will continue to do that and put the money back into growing the business and helping more cats. Absolutely. If people are trying to find you, how can they find you? Are you on social media, email, Google? Where can they where can they look to start and find your location and address and everything? Yeah, we have our website the cafeenow.com. Um, and that's where you can find most of our information. Um, otherwise we are also at the cafegmail.com. Okay. Um, so people can email us if they have questions or inquiries. Perfect. And if people want to donate, like you said before, they can just stop in and do that. Can they do that online as well? They can. Yeah, we have um helping the cats page on our website. Nice. So, there's uh options and ways for people on that page that describe like if you want to donate um food or litter or you know uh cash donations and how to do that. Um and uh yeah, it it's great opportunity. A lot of people will even come in with um extra cat food that their cat refused to eat all of a sudden and we'll take that if we don't use it for the cats here. We always provide that to our rescue partners who always are able to make use of it. Yeah. Perfect. So, I know that some control has done some work here. How can we help out? Can we do like a cat of the month or sometimes, you know, bring some of your cats in? I know we do that with some of the dog rescue places, things like that. Do you ever do anything like that where you have a specific just rotating the cats in and out to kind of help? Yeah. So, what we do is uh we have an email list and we promote uh cats during that email list. Um so, we have a cat here right now. He's a tuxedo and he's been here for a long time. Yeah. Um and his name is Catman Jude. He's got a little red bow on and he is a staff favorite because he's he just always wants to be next to people. Yeah, he wants he'll paw at you to climb up and try to be like coy and he's very affectionate, but for some reason he just has not been adopted. So there are cats like that that we try to feature in. Absolutely. Ones that have been here long or short ter shortterm that you know would just be a great fit for so many different people. Exactly. Do you get a lot of events or do you have a lot of people come in here as large groups? Yeah. Um we actually had um an office come in and do cat yoga all together. Um so it's like a monthly event we hold as well as people can request large parties or groups to do cat yoga and essentially it's a yoga class in the cat load with all the babies. Okay. Um very similar to goat yoga because I know that's pretty popular. Um and then we have like other events as well that I guess I should mention. We have um a monthly event called cato. Okay. which is uh cat bingo. How fun is it? It's a lot of fun. It's free to play. It's um every second Wednesday of the month at this location, every first Wednesday of the month at the other location in um and then sometimes we have paint your cat on campus where you can come in um and this instructor walks you through exactly how to paint your cat that you have at home. He's actually done some of our art here at the cafe. Yeah, I've noticed those those are really eye-catching when you come in. So that's that's super fun. I know that that's a big thing right now, painting everything like that. Yeah. So, Christmas time, do you have any Christmas events coming up or anything like that for the cats? Um, not right now. Um, Christmas is really a hard time. A lot of people are out of town. So, Yep. I get that. Outstanding. Well, we appreciate you having us here today and we look forward to going to your Roseville location as well and just letting all our viewers hear and find out. And one more time, how can they find you or where can they find you at? Yeah, the cafeow.com is the best way to find us. Um, and then I guess we also have social media, Facebook and Instagram. Perfect. Sounds good. Well, thank you so much for having us today. Yeah, thank you. Make your