Spokane’s first cat cafe now open

Spokane’s first cat cafe is now open for patrons to enjoy a coffee and potentially adopt rescue cats from SpokAnimal.

Spokane residents Justyn and Tori Cozza opened Kitty Cantina at 6704 N. Nevada St. in north Spokane on Monday with safety regulations and capacity limits in place under Phase 2 of the state’s Safe Start plan.

Kitty Cantina delayed opening of its kitty lounge in April because of coronavirus-related restrictions and was offering drive-thru service at the cafe for the past two weeks.

The concept behind Kitty Cantina is to potentially find cats a “forever home” by increasing exposure to potential adopters, who may not otherwise meet the felines in a traditional shelter, co-owner Cozza said.

The kitty lounge, which is currently home to nine cats adoptable through a partnership with SpokAnimal, is in the same building as the cafe but is separated by a glass wall. Cats are not allowed in the cafe, but customers can bring in food and drinks into the kitty lounge, Cozza said.

The lounge is limited to six visitors at a time because of virus-related restrictions. Reservations, which can be booked on Kitty Cantina’s website, kittycantina.com , are encouraged. It costs $6 to visit with the cats for 50 minutes and includes a $2 drink credit or a $1 adult beverage credit.

Patrons can also visit the lounge on a walk-in basis if there’s space available.

The adoption process is similar to a shelter. Paperwork is completed in the cafe, and the shelter fee collected goes directly to SpokAnimal, Cozza said.

“We are just over the moon to be partnered with them,” said Dori Peck, executive director of SpokAnimal, adding the idea for the cafe and cat sanctuary has been in the works for awhile. “We appreciate our partnership and we are so excited about this.”

Adoption fees for the cats, which are sterilized, microchipped and vaccinated, are based on their age. Kittens up to 6 months old are $130, cats up to a year old are $85 and cats older than a year are $65, Peck said.

Cats remain in the kitty lounge until adopted. The oldest cat will be sponsored with the intent to increase adoption chances, with 5% of Kitty Cantina’s merchandise sales going toward the adoption fee.

The lounge is open 1-6 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays on a reservation-only basis. It is also open 1-8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and open 1-6 p.m. Sundays. The cafe is open daily beginning at 6 a.m.

The cafe serves Doma Coffee at its full service espresso bar and a variety of sandwiches, pastries and desserts, including a “cat cookie” from Lilac Bakery. Adult beverages include Meow-Mosas and craft beers from YaYa Brewing Co. and Lumberbeard Brewing.

The Cozzas’ idea for Kitty Cantina was sparked after a trip to a cat cafe in Portland.

They researched the concept and also visited Neko, a Seattle-based cat cafe, which has a business model similar to Kitty Cantina, Cozza said.

The couple launched a Kickstarter campaign in November to help fund the cat cafe.

It garnered more than $13,500 from nearly 300 backers.

However, lenders required the couple to have a primary stream of funding for the project in addition to backing from the Kickstarter campaign, Cozza said.

The couple subsequently obtained financing from Washington Trust Bank, he added.

It took months of searching before the Cozzas secured a site for Kitty Cantina in January, Justyn Cozza said.

“Half the battle was finding a place that would work with the layout,” he said. “We had to add a room within a room, and we really wanted a drive-thru and lots of windows for the cats. Price and location is huge for this kind of thing and, most of all, we needed a landlord who would support it.”

So far, the response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive toward the cat cafe, Cozza said.

Customers placed 400 reservations within the first 24 hours of opening to visit the kitty lounge, and the remainder of June is nearly booked, he said.

“I know there’s a lot of people interested, so reservations are encouraged to plan ahead,” Cozza said.