Month: May 2014

San Diego an Underrated Coffee City

Posted on by The Cat Cafe San Diego

While the main draw for The Cat Cafe is going to be the cats, obviously, without good coffee to offer to patrons, it’s just not going to work.  That’s why it’s so great to be starting this venture at a time when the coffee scene is about to take off in San Diego.

I realize that people think of many things before coffee comes up when they think of San Diego.  But that doesn’t mean it’s not something that visitors and residents alike can’t enjoy.

Sprudge, which focuses on the coffee scene, recently named San Diego as one of its top five most underrated coffee cities.  You know that your city has arrived when a coffee competition draws people from Seattle.  Can you think of a city with a better reputation when it comes to a good cup of joe?

A competition at a coffee shop

You might think that a county with 430 coffee houses and a population of around three million might be a little over saturated.  But according to the publisher of The Espresso, that’s spreading things a little thin.  And the Small Business Administration concurs, saying that the ideal ratio of coffee shops to residents is one per 10,000 residents.  This means that there could be as many as nearly 6,800 shops in the county before it gets too crowded.

And The Cat Cafe will have one thing that makes it unique among all of the coffee shops in all of San Diego County.

It will be the only one with cats from the San Diego Humane Society who are available for adoption.

May 14 Update for The Cat Cafe

Posted on by The Cat Cafe San Diego

A big challenge for any business that’s looking to open is getting publicity.  That’s why we were so happy to have been highlighted by NBC San Diego, Eater, and Zagat.

And we just got a little more.

The pop up cat cafe in New York that was sponsored by Purina had waits of hours for people to get in to play with the cats in there.  As much as I want The Cat Cafe to be a successful venture, I hope that the only time there is a long wait like that is when Comic-Con is in town.

Very Happy The Cat Cafe Was Featured in Eatocracy

Well, the incredible response to the pop up cat cafe prompted CNN’s Eatocracy to take a look at the cat cafes that are working to open this year in the United States.  Eatocracy’s writer is a cat lover herself, with “two cats that [she’s] fiercely in love with.”

She highlighted the challenges that all cat cafes in the United States are dealing with — most importantly, the ban that health departments have on allowing animals in areas where food is served.  Did you know that having your dog on the patio at a restaurant is a violation of California law?

The author notes that none of the cat cafes in the United States are open yet.  She says that we’re all in various stages of pre-opening.  If you want a look at the real thing, she says, take a look at Tokyo, where there are dozens of cat cafes.

You can take a look at her post, which she titled “these cafes are cool for cats.”

It’s always nice to get some publicity, and it’s nice to be talked about in the same article as the people who got me started down this path — Courtney Hatt and David Braginsky of KitTea.

Thanks as always for visiting!

May 13 Update for The Cat Cafe

Posted on by The Cat Cafe San Diego

Hey, everyone.  It’s been a while since we updated you but we’ve got a number of things going on.  First, the crowd funding campaign for The Cat Cafe got a big surprise when someone offered to match contributions dollar for dollar up to $5,000.

Can you Send some of these to The Cat Cafe?I’ve often said that this is like a public broadcasting fundraising campaign, and now it’s even more like one.  You hear them talk about how there’s a dollar for dollar match, and The Cat Cafe is no different.

Please become a contributor and your donation is doubled.  Think about all the good you can do and how you can help save cats with your contribution.

No amount is too small, so please visit The Cat Cafe’s Indiegogo campaign and contribute.

Second, we got that piece of paper from the State of California.  As much as I’d like to just run the business under my own name, that’s just not a possibility these days.  There are too many risks associated with opening a business, and that’s why people opening them need to form a limited liability corporation or incorporate.

I chose to go with the LLC route, and I sent the paperwork in to the State of California about a week ago.  They’ve entered my LLC into their database, and I’m waiting for the document that makes everything official.

That piece of paper with the State of California is what allowed me to take the next step, which is to get the lease paperwork done.  Without the LLC, there would have been too much at risk.  All the paperwork for this business needs to be done through the LLC.

And so I’ve asked the owner of the property that I’ll be leasing to put together a two year lease, with an option to extend the lease for another five years.

Exciting things are happening for The Cat Cafe, but it all comes back to getting the funding.  Please become a contributor today!

April 30

Posted on by The Cat Cafe San Diego

It’s nice to get some local press for The Cat Cafe.  Here’s what the people at San Diego Eater had to say.

It’s happening, cat fanciers. San Diegan Tony Wang is attempting to bring the cat café, a current craze in Asia, to local animal lovers. Eater spoke to Wang, who let the cat out of the bag and told us that he’s secured a location at 3rd and Island, in a 1,200-square-foot space that used to be a dry cleaners.

Click here to see the rest of the story.

April 29

Posted on by The Cat Cafe San Diego

We’re very happy to have been featured in NBC San Diego’s The Scene!

Here’s what they had to say about us.

San Diego Cat Café Could Be First in Country

The café will also serve as a foster home for adoptable cats

The World Through a Cat's Eyes

You might have seen them on Animal Planet: Coffee shops where customers can interact with feline friends, especially popular in Asia.

They’re called cat cafés, and San Diego entrepreneur Tony Wang hopes to open the first one in the U.S.

Although Wang is what you’d call a “cat person” – he’s got three cats of his own – he said that’s not the reason he’s pursuing this business venture.

“San Diego doesn’t need just another coffee shop,” he said.

For the rest of the article, please visit the NBC San Diego website.