Long before Tim Hortons, Second Cup or Starbucks set up shop in Canada, there were the elegant coffee houses of Vienna. For centuries, guests would lounge for hours sipping their drinks and chatting with friends.
But since May, a twist on Viennese café culture has given some customers the ‘purrrfect’ experience.
Welcome to Café Neko (Neko means “cat” in Japanese), where the coffee is strong, the cakes are sweet…and the cats are cuddly.
Yes. Cats. It’s not the Broadway musical that’s bringing in business, but rather, the company of five feline hosts who are allowed to wander freely in this cafe or even sit on the laps of customers.
Café Neko’s owner, Takako Ishimitsu, rescued Luca, Momo, Moritz, Sonja, and Thomas from an animal shelter in Vienna. Ishimitsu got the idea for the business back in her native Japan where cat cafés are the norm.
She explains that apartment building rules prevent many Japanese people from owning pets, unless they live on higher floors. The cafés allow cat lovers some one-on-one time, minus the responsibility of being a pet owner.
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The idea is working. Café Neko attracts feline friendship-seeking customers like Julie Boesch. “We can’t have cats because of our flat – there is a carpet on the floor. But here at Café Neko, we can cuddle them. So we really like it,” she tells Global National‘s Stuart Greer.
In Vienna, cat cafés used to be a completely foreign concept. Ishimitsu spent three years trying to open her business, dealing with the city over hygiene issues and health permits. “It was very difficult to negotiate with the city government,” she says.
But her efforts have paid off. And customers don’t seem to mind sitting in chairs that double as scratching posts or sharing a table with a furry stranger.
Ishimitsu hopes to double the number of her café-dwelling kitties, as more and more curious customers come here satisfy their fix for caffeine and cats. When the business first opened, there were six cats, but one of them was too shy around strangers. He has since taken up residence in Ishimitsu’s home.
Café Neko encourages its customers to donate to animal shelters or adopt their own cats.
And dog lovers beware. Fido and Rover are banned from entering the premises.
Follow Stuart on Twitter: @globalgreer
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