Tip: Don't feed the cats caffeine..
Tip: Don't feed the cats caffeine. COURTESY OF MATTHEW LEUNG PHOTOGRAPHY

No, it’s not a place that serves cats. Nor is it a cafe run by cat baristas (sadly). As the Seattle Globalist reported, the Seattle Meowtropolitan will be a “community hub for people in Seattle who love cats.” Unlike cat cafes in Asia, where the primary focus is on allowing people to hang out with cats that aren’t their own (for a fee), the proprietors of Seattle’s first cat cafe plan to team up with a local shelter to feature adoptable cats on one side of their business, and a regular cafe (serving "cat-themed baked goods" and Herkimer Coffee) on the other. (Guests will be allowed to bring their coffee and pastries into the cat side, at their own risk.)

"The idea of the cat cafe has been around for years. We saw that cats were taking over the world, and decided we should help the cause," wrote co-owner Matt Lai in an email. "After searching online last summer (around August), we discovered that the closest cat cafe that had been planned was in San Francisco. So it was decided: we'd be the ones to bring the concept to Seattle, and add to it by working with shelters to bring adoptable cats into the cafe." (The nation's first permanent cat cafe, Cat Town Cafe, in Oakland, has a similar goal.)

Seattle Meowtropolitan's target opening date is July 2015 at a to-be-determined location. "Our location prospects are tricky since there are land use regulations regarding businesses involving animals, so we are not ready to confirm," Lai continued. "We are working with a land use lawyer to get the issues ironed out to make sure we are on track to open this summer." Lai and his fellow owners—Andrew Hsieh and Louisa Liu (all recent graduates of UW)—also have to finish fundraising. Their Indiegogo campaign raised about $12,000 of their $50,000 goal. "We are in talks with potential investors to raise the rest of the seed fund," said Lai.