Cat Heaven Café opens in the Bevo Mill neighborhood

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Photo by Jenny Agnew

When a bar turns into a cat café in 2021, one might assume that it’s due to the pandemic. For Shot Heaven bar, however, it wasn’t just the pandemic that led owner Dan Manchanda to transform the South City bar into Cat Heaven Café (5233 Gravois). It was also a stroke, and ironically, given the bar’s name, gunshots fired in December 2020.

Manchanda bought the bar, located in the Bevo Mill neighborhood, in 2007 from his sister and took on many roles, from manager to bouncer. Before his stroke, in 2017, Manchanda, who also owns Hi-Way Florist in the same neighborhood, was typically able to control fists from flying in his establishment. But as a result of the stroke, he has difficulty moving his left arm and leg, and he was no longer able to manage the rowdier clientele.

In December 2020, a customer reportedly left the bar after an altercation, grabbed a gun from his car, and fired three shots through the door. Two people suffered injuries to their feet, and another’s stomach was grazed. Because there was a pandemic curfew at the time and the shooting took place after the curfew, Manchanda was forced to close for 30 days. In the midst of the pandemic, when bars and restaurants were already struggling to stay afloat, a month’s closing during the holiday season was like a death knell for the business. Of the sometime late-night violence in the neighborhood, Manchanda says, “In the city, it’s hard: If you want the business, you get the problems.”

After the temporary closing and a neighborhood petition circulated to permanently shut down the establishment, Manchanda was ready to let go of the bar. His partner, Jessica Milot, who moved in with him after his stroke to help him recover, asked what he would want to do every day if he had the choice. “Be with cats,” he answered. Milot said, “OK, let’s do a cat café.”

Courtesy Cat Heaven Cafe

Cat Heaven Café was born. Although Manchanda has several cats at home, he'd never heard of the idea of a cat café, so he began to do some research and spoke to Paul Scimone, who co-owns the Cheshire Grin Cat Café, also in the city. At both the Cheshire Grin and Cat Heaven, the cafés house adoptable rescue cats that live together and freely roam in a designated area, much like they would in a foster home. Customers can interact with the cats for fun or as potential adopters. After securing the necessary permits, participating in a virtual public hearing, and passing an inspection from the Missouri Department of Agriculture, Manchanda was ready to welcome his first group of cats.

Photo by Jenny Agnew

The 10 cats currently at Cat Heaven Café come from the Center for Animal Rescue & Enrichment of St. Louis (CARE STL), the nonprofit contracted with the city to manage the care part of the city’s animal care and control. For cats who normally reside in kennels at a shelter, living in a comfortable, home-like setting is markedly better for their physical and emotional health and improves their chances of being adopted. Manchanda had never heard of CARE STL until Liz Mausshardt, the feline manager there, reached out to him after seeing his Facebook post announcing the café. One of his goals is to help spread the word about the organization’s adoptable animals.

Photo by Jenny Agnew

Manchanda shared that “80 percent of [his] dreams have cats in them somewhere, somehow—they’re always popping up.” The same could be said for the space itself. The eye can’t land anywhere in the café’s cat room without seeing a cat or something feline-related. One cat sleeps inside a tower while another poses on the top level, beneath a sign that jokes about owning multiple cats. 

Photo by Jenny Agnew

Drawers have been pulled from a dresser and sit on the floor with plush beds inside, providing comfy dens for napping. Tiny bowls with cat drawings are handed out for treat time, and a water fountain waits for water-loving kitties to dip their toes. (Manchanda himself bears the tell-tale sign of a cat lover: an abstract pattern of red scratches adorns his arms and legs.)

With adoptable Catrick Swayze, Backpack, and Baike competing for his attention, Manchanda explains that the food at the café will be similar to what was previously served at the bar: hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries, mozzarella sticks, soups, and mini tacos, for example, with the addition of a charcuterie board and cat-themed dishes, such as the Kitty Heaven Platter (chicken salad, tuna salad, and cottage cheese). Breakfast items include pastries, bagel sandwiches, yogurt parfaits, and the house specialty, Cat Cakes (cat-shaped pancakes).

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Courtesy Cat Heaven Cafe

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Courtesy Cat Heaven Cafe

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Courtesy Cat Heaven Cafe

In lieu of beer and spirits (the liquor license is gone), the café will offer coffee, tea, and specialty drinks. With the help of coffee consultant The Bean Doctor, Manchanda chose Dubuque Coffee Company’s products to serve. Monthly tea specials are in the works, according to Milot, who shared that October’s flavor is butterfly pea flower, a blue herbal tea that turns purple when lemon is added. As she presents the collection of blooming teas that will be available, a kitten comes closer for inspection and proceeds to groom herself when she grows bored with the conversation. “They stay classy around here,” Milot jokes.

Photo by Jenny Agnew

In order to meet the cats at the café, patrons will pay a modest donation that will support both the nonprofit Cat Heaven and CARE STL—a donation that comes with a free drink. Inside the room, the friendlier cats and kittens appear quickly, vying for chin rubs, while the shy ones hang back a bit. Manchanda will help socialize the shyer cats to prepare them for adoption, and those customers with enough patience (and treats) may also participate in enrichment. While food is not allowed in the cat room, one can bring in a drink, relax on the couch, take advantage of the free wifi, and feel stress disappear.

Photo by Jenny Agnew

Dan Manchanda

Those interested in adopting a cat will be directed to CARE STL’s online application system, and once the cat is adopted, another one will be sent from the shelter to the café. One cat, Dopey, is already on a trial adoption with Manchanda and will live at the café as an ambassador. For a cat who came from a hoarding situation and has struggled to find a forever family, Dopey—now named Big Papa—has hit the jackpot.

“These cats have brought so much life to the room,” Milot says. “I remember this room and even with all the people, it was never as full of life as it is with all these kittens.” 

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Photo by Jenny Agnew

Say hello to Dopey

Note: Agnew is a former employee of CARE STL.