You can’t buy a mocha, a mimosa or a caffé Americano at the new Cattyshack Café. They’re not on the menu.
What you can get: A meow-cha, a meow-mosa and a caffé Ameri-gato.
They’re the same drinks, of course — just with a kitty-cat spin.
In fact, almost everything at the Gulf Coast Town Center cafe has a cat theme (and a golf theme, too). There’s cat-shaped food. A cat-sized golf cart with a scratch-able steering wheel. Even a bathroom sign urging visitors to “PLEASE WASH YOUR PAWS.”
And then there’s the main attraction: A room-full of cats where visitors can hang out and sip coffee for 50 minutes.
It’s Lee County’s first cat café, and it opened last week at Gulf Coast Town Center.
“We’re excited,” says Andrew Townsend, who owns the new café with fiancée Amber Redfern. “We’re just happy to finally be able to bring this to Fort Myers.”
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There are more than 100 cat cafés in the United States, Redfern says, but none of them are in Southwest Florida. Planet Tails in Naples closed several years ago.
Cattyshack had been tentatively scheduled to open in January, but permitting delays and the coronavirus kept pushing back their opening day. That hasn't stopped curious cat lovers from peering through the café windows, though — or sometimes just walking right in.
“People are just walking in off the streets,” Redfern says. “It’s obvious that we’re not open, but people walk in and they’re just so excited."
Now the cafe is finally open, taking over the former Fresh Planet Cafe space at the town center, near The Cigar Bar and Outback. The cats — the purring heart of the operation — started arriving June 9.
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Like other cat cafés, Cattyshack lets visitors drink coffee and eat while spending time with free-roaming cats (no cages). If the cats get stressed, they can flee through a small, cat-shaped door into a neighboring “escape room” that’s inaccessible to guests. That’s where the cats can use the litter boxes, eat, nap or just relax.
You can even adopt one of the cats, if you want. They come straight from Gulf Coast Humane Society.
The timing is perfect, says the humane society’s executive director, Jennifer Galloway. It’s kitten season in Southwest Florida, and Cattyshack is another way to find them homes.
“Their success is our success,” Galloway says. “Because the more successful they are, the more adoptions we’ll have. And we’ll be able to spread our message.”
The café’s golf theme comes from Townsend’s love of the Chevy Chase movie “Caddyshack.”
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched it," he told The News-Press last year. "And we both golf. We’re not the best …”
The 2,100-square-foot café is divided into two rooms: The main café on one side, where people order their food and drinks; and a cat room where 15-20 cats can lounge and frolic on catwalks, cat furniture and a putting green shaped like a paw.For a $15 fee, people can take their coffee and food into the room for about 50 minutes and hang out with the kitties. Reservations are required.
"It’s a relaxing, calming environment," Redfern told The News-Press last year. "The cats are fun, and there’s toys and you can interact with them.”
The café sells coffee, beer and wine (including a full espresso bar), grab-and-go foods such as grilled-cheese sandwiches and pasta salad, and specialty drinks such as their “cereal milk lattes”— lattes made from milk that’s been soaking in Captain Crunch, Frosted Flakes and other breakfast cereals. The fresh-roasted beans come from Fort Myers-based Chocolatte’s Coffee and Roasting.
The various coffee drinks have cat-themed names such as The Tabby, The Calico, The Tuxedo and a soothing lavender latte called The Cat Nap.
To keep things hygienic, separate air-conditioner systems prevent the “cat air” in The Mulligan Room from mixing with the café air, Townsend says. Plus there’s an airlock-like vestibule between the two rooms.
Redfern and Townsend eventually plan to hold special events at the café , including cat yoga, cat crafts and painting with cats. The room will be available for group rentals.
Cattyshack Cat Café is at 9901 Gulf Coast Main St. NO. D-140, San Carlos Park. Visit facebook.com/cattyshackcafe or cattyshackcafe.com for more.
Three new, tweaked restaurants open in downtown Fort Myers
• The Wine Room, founded by Sarah Newcomb, could open at 1544 Broadway Ave., downtown Fort Myers as soon as July. The concept will offer more than 30 varieties of wines, including five from a California private label that will have unique and locally significant names like Caloosahatchee Chardonnay and Music Walk Merlot.
Newcomb's shop will have 38 seats and a sleek look with room for 800 bottles of wine. The space used to be a watch repair shop adjacent to Hotel Indigo. Customers will be able to order takeout food from the nearby Standard and Seed & Bean Market.
“I chose downtown Fort Myers because there’s nothing like this downtown,” Newcomb said. “This will be very clean and upscale. You can have a glass for $10, or you can have a glass of wine for $40, because we’re going to have a whole range."
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• The pandemic created an opportunity for Cape Coral-based Wild About Popcorn to take over the lease previously held by Sidecar Treats at 1512 Hendry St. The new popcorn shop opened June 1 between Downtown House of Pizza and the Cigar Bar.
Owner Julie Caracappa founded the original location, still in business at 1311 Del Prado Blvd., Cape Coral following a 30-year career as a pediatric emergency room nurse.
“It was a timing thing more than anything else,” Ed Caracappa said. “We knew we were going to open a second location. Downtown Fort Myers was always where we wanted to be. When the opportunity came, we jumped on it. It’s a historic building we are in. Patio de Leon is right behind us. All of these other top places are our neighbors. That all helps drive traffic to us.”
• When Green Cup Cafe closed in mid-March, Robert Padgorski and Jennifer Carbajal missed it so much they bought it. Tucked in at 1412 Dean St. between Bay and First streets, Green Cup offers a range of plant-based smoothies, sandwiches, desserts and more. The cafe is slated to reopen in July.
“I didn’t want to see that disappear,” Padgorski said. “I ended up calling the number and meeting with the lady, and here we are.
“We’re keeping most everything. A lot of the favorites will still be on there. You’ll see a few things go, but you’ll see some new items to the menu."
Connect with these reporters: Charles Runnells (Facebook), @charlesrunnells (Twitter), @crunnells1 (Instagram); David Dorsey (Facebook), @DavidADorsey (Twitter).
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June 25, 2020 at 10:02PM
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Restaurant news: Cat cafe opens; wine, popcorn, new Green Cup debut in downtown Fort Myers - The News-Press
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