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North America’s first cat cafe opens in Montreal

WATCH: A group of cats recently adopted from Montreal’s SPCA has a new home. As Mike Armstrong reports, they now find themselves as the featured attraction in a unique café for cat lovers.

MONTREAL – The Café des Chats on Saint Denis street is Montreal’s newest, and perhaps most unique, coffee house yet.

It’s home to eight cats who interact with clients as they sit back and enjoy a cup of coffee.

The cafe opened its doors to the public for the first time on Saturday.

Hundreds of people stopped by to discover the original concept.

“It’s a great opportunity for people who don’t have a cat at home,” said Nicholas Girouard, who told Global News he has been waiting months for the place to open.

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“I have three at home but I just can’t get enough of cats, so I love this place.”

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The Café des Chats is apparently the first of its kind in North America.

Owner Youssef Labib got the idea from Asia where cat cafes are seeing great success.

“He wanted to open a cafe in Montreal that had a theme that nobody had done yet,” said Labib’s partner Nadine Spencer.

“After many hours of research, he saw that it was doing super well over in Asia and thought why not bring something like this to Montreal.”

Spencer says the cafe takes hygiene very serious and conforms with sanitary regulation.

“The kitchen had to be behind closed doors to make sure for hygiene that the cats had no access,” she said.

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Otherwise, the cats have free range of the place.

They even have a separate room to retreat to if they aren’t feeling social.

WATCH: Reporter Sarah Volstad experiences Montreal’s first cat cafe

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