Looking for a way to relax between classes? Need a pick-me-up? As The Cafe Meow says, get catffeinated! The Cafe Meow has two locations: one in New Hope and one in Roseville – only an eight-minute drive from campus.
The Cafe Meow is a cafe with two rooms: the coffee shop and the cat lounge. The coffee shop side, covered in cat decor and cat-themed merchandise, offers all kinds of drinks and pastries. In addition to your standard coffee and tea beverages, they offer a handful of cat-themed drinks, such as the Calico and the Sassy Cat, plus seasonal drinks like the Maple Paw or the Black Kittea Lemonade. The pastries sold at The Cafe Meow include macarons, scones and brownies, all of which are made at local bakeries.
While the coffee shop has delicious offerings and cute decorations, the cat lounge is the big seller at this cafe. Customers can make reservations online for one hour of time with the cats or can walk in and check for availability, although it’s not guaranteed.
A typical hour in the cat lounge costs $10.50 for a weekday or $15.00 for a weekend. However, if this is too expensive for you (let’s face it, college students aren’t exactly bathing in money), they advertise deals such as “Happy Meower” where you can pay as little as $3.50 to spend 15 minutes with the cats on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.
When you purchase time in the cat lounge, you receive a quick run-down of their rules before being let into cat heaven. To make it even better, you can bring the coffee and pastries you purchase in-store into the lounge with you — what’s better than coffee and cats?
I visited The Cafe Meow on a late Sunday afternoon, where there were over a dozen people in the coffee shop, and a fully booked group going into the cat lounge at the top of the hour. I came about 15 minutes before my time slot started, which was a perfect amount of time to get my coffee and check in for my reservation.
I ordered their signature coffee drink, The Cafe Meow, which is a white mocha with butterscotch and cinnamon — available both hot and iced — in addition to a cranberry scone. My friend and sophomore, Ellie Lopata, visited the cafe with me. She ordered the Black Kittea Lemonade and a brownie.
The Cafe Meow drink was fantastic: the cinnamon and butterscotch offering a hint of extra sweetness without making the drink overly sweet (if you like your coffee super sweet, I would suggest asking for extra flavor.) After trying the Black Kittea Lemonade as well, I can say that it’s a great option for those who aren’t big coffee fans or for when you need something refreshing on an (absurdly) hot fall day!
The scone and brownie were both delicious and quite large in proportion, so even though they do not offer full meals, the pastries themselves can be quite filling. The pastries came wrapped in plastic wrap and slightly chilled, which made it easy to put in your bag or bring into the cat lounge.
The one hour I spent in the cat lounge was a remarkable experience, which is coming from a cat lover who’s never been able to have their own. The Cafe Meow has over 20 cats in their lounge, all of which are adoptable. The cats living at the cafe change frequently, as there have been over 690 cats adopted since February 2018.
While there are so many cats in the lounge at once, they all act as they want, and customers are asked not to pick any of them up. There are a handful of seats and tables scattered around the lounge, so if the cats aren’t paying attention to you, you can feel free to sit down and just enjoy your cat-themed coffee.
There are tons of cat trees, shelves and beds for the cats to hang out on, in addition to the food, water and litter boxes that are available to the cats at all times. The cats had a wide range of personalities, all of which could be found posted on the wall in the lounge. There were cats sleeping, playing with customers and running around the room, so you really get to see the cats being themselves.
My personal favorite was Winnifred, a sweet and shy girl who was curious about everything around her. Multiple of the cats, including Winnifred, were pending adoption — even when they’d only been there for a couple of weeks.
The Cafe Meow is a great place to hang out off campus if you need some caffeine and some good cat-petting. They have tons of options for hanging out in the cat lounge depending on your budget, but even if you can’t get into the lounge, you can always watch the cats through the window in the cafe! If you’re planning to visit The Cafe Meow soon, make sure to check out their website to see their hours and availability.