Design
The Long Regulatory Road to America's First Cat Cafe
Pending a whole lot of permits, one could open in San Francisco this summer.
Cat cafes, where guests can sip coffee while petting or playing with a cast of resident felines, have been a thing in Japan since the mid-2000s. More recently, they’ve spread to European cities like London, Paris, Vienna, and Madrid. But strict food service industry regulations have thus far made it difficult for the concept to come to the United States.
Last September, reports of a cat cafe possibly opening in Boston got cat enthusiasts (a.k.a., The Internet) particularly excited. The folks behind Miaou Boston told Boston Magazine that their biggest hurdle was "getting permission to allow animals on the restaurant’s premises.” Since then, they have not updated their social media accounts and could not be reached for this story.