It's a sad story for sure, but Mewsic Kitty Cafe's goodbye message to customers is pretty punny:
"We’ll continue to be open regular hours and hope to get LOTS of cats adopted before we have to say 'y’all come back meow' for the last time and wish everyone 'happy tails,'" part of the message to customers reads.
The cafe on Nolensville Pike near I-440 — which was the state's first cat cafe when it opened in April 2018 — will shut down Sept. 30, owners said, because COVID-19 hasn't been kind to kitties.
Between mandatory lockdowns and restrictions on stores, the cafe lost more than half its business, married owners Maegan and Thien Phan said.
"There is no end in sight to the uncertainty and considerable financial impact this has had on Mewsic Kitty," Maegan Phan wrote in her goodbye message.
Before that, traffic was the cat's meow.
More and more customers were paying $7 for 30 minutes to play with the 18 cats and kittens zipping around the tables, cat toys, climbing poles and big drums and drum cases. An hour costs $12.
"I felt like we were getting busier, with an upswing in name recognition, and more people in the door," Maegan Phan said. "We went from four days a week to six days a week toward the end of 2019, and it was looking good, going the right direction."
Also improving was the cafe's cat adoption program, in partnership with Nashville Cat Rescue. Nearly 300 have found new homes since the cafe opened.
Two more cat cafes have opened in Middle Tennessee since Mewsic Kitty Cafe did: The Catio near Opry Mills and Catfeine Cat Cafe in Murfreesboro.
The Phans said they still are holding out hope that someone will come forward to keep their business open. In the meantime, they are grateful for the fun and cat community building Mewsic Kitty Cafe inspired.
"We had visitors from all over the the world," said Thien Phan, who was Tim McGraw's tour videographer for years. "I don’t think we ever had someone come in here who didn’t smile or have a good time."
Reach Brad Schmitt at brad@tennessean.com or 615-259-8384 or on Twitter @bradschmitt.
"cafe" - Google News
September 08, 2020 at 05:06PM
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Mewsic Kitty Cafe bids customers 'happy tails' after losing more than 50% of sales over COVID-19 - Tennessean
"cafe" - Google News
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