Happy Cat Cafe works to establish home in Grand Rapids

With over 2,600 likes on its Facebook page in just three days, the future Happy Cat Cafe is finally garnering the kind of public support it needs for entrepreneur Kati Palmurkar to create one here in in Grand Rapids. 

“It’s all large cities that opened cafes so far, but I know with Grand Rapids' focus on helping local small businesses, our tight-knit community could support this revolutionary idea,” Palmurkar says.  “I had to make a website in 24 hours just so I had somewhere to direct the traffic and give people more information. It seems like the cafe is something that people have been waiting for.” 

Palmurkar says the concept of a cat cafe grew in Japan and Taiwan in the '90s, with over 100 cafes in Tokyo alone. The space is half normal cafe, half “all-out cat room” - so, customers can order an espresso and a bagel from the non-cat area and then spend time playing or sitting with cats in a connected storefront. 

Palmurkar says she’s looking to feature local bakeries and coffee roasters, and already has plans to partner with local shelters to promote pet adoption, though the actual location is not 100 percent firm quite yet.

“This cafe is a partnership between so many parts of the Grand Rapids Community, and will be an oasis for animal lovers,” she says. “Why would you stop in at a normal cafe, when you can stop into our cafe and know that everything you purchase is benefiting the families cultivating the fair trade coffee, and the cats that will get a second chance at a forever home in the cafe, and is sustainability minded and cares deeply about our environment?” 

Palmurkar says she’ll be launching a Kickstarter campaign soon to raise funds for redevelopment of a space, but thinks Happy Cat Cafe has a bright future in Grand Rapids. 

“I believe in the triple bottom line, people (and cats), planet, and profits,” she says. “Everything we do is to enrich the lives of the people and animals in the Grand Rapids community, and make our little corner of the world a little bit brighter — the whole ‘think globally, act locally’ has always been in my heart.” 

Visit Happy Cat Cafe on Facebook for more information. 

Written by Anya Zentmeyer, Development News Editor
Images courtesy of Happy Cat Cafe