Local Man Wants To Bring A Japanese Style Cat Café To Downtown Los Angeles

Inspired by a a year in Tokyo, Los Angeles resident Carlos Wong is looking to bring a Japanese style cat café to downtown Los Angeles. Calling it “Catfe”, Carlos has put together the business plan, created the logo and got the okay from both the Los Angeles Department of Health and Los Angeles Animal Services with the proviso that the cats and food remain separate. He is now taking the next step of raising the funds through KickStarter to realize this dream. Similar places are already coming to both San Francisco and Oakland, so the demand for cat cafés is certainly there. In fact, Laughing Squid’s good friend in LA, Tara Tiger Brown, is very much in support of it.

I have visited a Kitty and Bunny Cafe in Tokyo and am so excited that someone is finally trying to bring one of these delightful establishments to LA. I am also very glad to hear that you want to partner with shelters and help cats find their forever homes. My hope is that you setup shop in Downtown LA. It’s accessible to the westside and eastside and is becoming a hip ‘hood in its own right.

The aspect of humans and cats helping each other is a very important part of Carlos’ mission.

Catfe serves to create something more than just a place to come and enjoy your time with cats and coffee. Because of the unique nature of this establishment, we seek to take full embrace of it and create a stronger community through it.We want Catfe to be a hub where we can spread the awareness of pet health and safety, hold adoptions from nearby shelters, have animal therapy sessions with local non-profits that are specifically geared towards children and the elderly, the possibilities truly reach far!

Carlos is looking to raise $350,000 by March 31, 2014. He explains why he is looking to raise so much money.

We want to have the funds to have a great location, both for our guests and our cats, and enough to cover all of the expenses that are required to open a regular cafe, plus all of the expenses required to have everything we need to keep the cats happy and healthy(Toys, food, vet visits, etc.) Plus enough of a cushion just in case there come any unexpected costs, we realize that is totally possible because this is such a new concept to LA, and permits and licensing fees may pop up where they were not expected.

Once he meets his fundraising goals, Carlos hopes to open Catfe within six months. We wish him well.

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips