Allison Geyer
Object of adoration at the new Cat Cafe Mad.
The soft opening of Madison’s first “cat cafe” drew scores of curious, feline-loving humans, but the cats themselves seemed to still be warming up to the idea.
At one point Monday night, more than 30 patrons were milling about Cat Cafe Mad, hopeful for some feline attention, but only a handful of the bravest cats were interested in participating. (I spritzed my ankles with catnip spray before leaving my house to check out the cafe, which I thought would make me a popular guest, but it only succeeded in driving one kitten temporarily insane.)
An employee tried, valiantly, to drag some cats out from the back room where most of them were hiding, but really, the cats are calling the shots. A few felines — aloof but apparently still interested in watching the spectacle — perched in cubby holes built along the wall of the cafe. But that structure is off-limits for petting, patrons learned. The cats need a “home” space for an escape when they’re tired of attention.
Allison Geyer
The human clientele, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying the novelty — even if the cat-to-person ratio was a bit low. People of all ages and types turned out on Monday, including a sketch artist who was attempting to draw the elusive cats and a woman who was reading a cat-themed adventure novel.
The cafe, located at 1925 Monroe St., seems to still be coming together. Wisconsin law prevents Cat Cafe Mad from being a “full cafe,” so owner Cheryl Glover compromised by making the drinks self-service and separating the beverage area from the cat play area. There's a Keurig machine for coffee and tea and a mini-fridge stocked with soda and water.
The cat cafe concept originated in Asia nearly two decades ago, but it has recently started gaining popularity in the U.S. Glover got the idea to open a cat cafe after visiting her daughter, a Ph.D. student in archaeology at UW-Madison, when she was living in South Korea on a Fulbright scholarship.
“When my son and I went to visit, one of the first things she did was take us to a cat cafe,” Glover says. “We had a blast.”
Any new business is bound to run into a few kinks in the beginning — particularly a business that depends on the cooperation of cats. Here’s hoping our feline friends continue to get comfortable in their new home. When they’re ready, they’ll certainly have lots of fans waiting for them to come out and play.
