via Mauhaus
Cat Cafe
The cat-loving couples behind Mauhaus, St. Louis' first cat cafe. (L to R) Ben Triola & Dana Huth, and Taylor Maxwell & Niklaus Risler.
Update: This story has been updated with information about Mauhaus' location and partnership with Tenth Life Cat Rescue. Read on for more.
Thanks to two enterprising, cat-loving couples, St. Louis is finally destined for its very own cat cafe, where customers can munch on pastries and sip their coffee while cuddling with a kitty.
Inspired by popular kitty coffee shops in Taiwan, the first American cat cafe opened in Oakland, California, in November 2014. Now the founders of Mauhaus Cat Cafe and Lounge, St. Louis’ first ever cat cafe, say they’ll open their cafe for the feline-inclined sometime next year.
“Our main focus in this, it’s not money, it’s going to be about the cats,” Mauhaus cofounder Taylor Maxwell tells SLM. “We want them to be happy, and we want people to come enjoy them. That’s really what it’s all about.”
Owners hope to open Mauhaus in spring or summer 2016. The cafe will serve teas, coffee and rotating menu of small plates and baked goods. Since the cafe’s concept hinges on quality time with cats, not on getting a speedy cup of joe to go, the cafe’s offerings will be “really labor-intensive, love-intensive drinks, something you can’t find anywhere else,” Maxwell says.
Maxwell won’t reveal the location of the future cat cafe, though she hints that it will be near the St. Louis city-county borderline. (Our guess? Maplewood.) Mauhaus has signed an agreement to purchase its own space, and Maxwell says she’ll release more details when the building’s current occupant leaves.
Update, August 24: Mauhaus made a big announcement over the weekend. Looks like the cat’s finally out of the bag:
It’s no wonder Mauhaus chose Maplewood for its new digs. Mauhaus co-founders Ben Triola and Dana Huth are also co-founders of Rampant Interactive, located in Maplewood, and the cafe is partnering with fellow Maplewood business Traveling Tea.
Where in Maplewood? Mauhaus is still pussy-footing around that question:
Mauhaus owners expect to open the cat cafe in 2016.
Update, July 17: Mauhaus announced this week a new partnership Tenth Life Cat Rescue, which will provide adoptable feline furballs to the cafe. The groups are celebrating their new partnership with a (already sold-out) pop-up kitty cafe Wednesday, July 29, in the Tenth Life storefront space on Cherokee Street.
"At Tenth Life, our mission is giving cats the lives they deserve," says Elizabeth Frick, Tenth Life's executive director, in a statement. "Working with Mauhaus, we will have the opportunity to house even more cats and dramatically increase their exposure to potential adopters."
Our original story continues below.
via flickr
Coffee with a side of snuggle.
Maxwell decided to launch a cat cafe after graduating with a degree in web development from Webster University—a degree she says she “wasn’t really interested in.”
“I started looking at jobs, and I was like, I really don’t want to do any of these,” Maxwell says. “I really didn’t know what I was going to do with my life.”
Maxwell stopped looking for jobs and started thinking about using her savings to build something new: a cat cafe. She enlisted her boyfriend of two years, Niklaus Risler, and called Tenth Life cat rescue about a possible partnership.
Turns out, they weren’t the first. Another longtime, cat-loving couple, Dana Huth and Ben Triola, had reached out to the rescue non-profit about opening a cat cafe.
“It worked out really well for the four of us,” Maxwell says. “We’re all cat lovers, very deeply impassioned about cats.”
They’ll need that passion to navigate the bureaucratic obstacles that arise when trying to mix food service with live animals. Legally, the cafe will likely be two separate businesses: a cat kennel/shelter on one side and a cafe on the other. Maxwell says health department workers have been “extremely supportive” in helping them create two interlocked businesses.
But the cafe won’t feel like two different businesses. A hallway will divide the cafe’s counter and kitchen from the cat lounge, but the space will be “really cohesive in style and theme and feel.”
“We’re trying to keep the cafe part of it as small as possible to maximize the lounge space,” Maxwell says. “We’d like to have ten to 15 cats, which sounds like a lot, but we’re going to use a lot of vertical space.”
Before its official opening, Mauhaus plans to hold a celebration announcing which animal organization will help supply and care for the cafe’s cats.
“We want it to be a good living space for [the cats,]” Maxwell says. “We want them to find homes. It’s a labor of love, for sure.”
Follow Mauhaus on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates and/or adorable cat pics.
