TK Best Cat Cafes in California

There are cat cafés scattered all over the USA — most of which could use your help more than ever due to lockdown. But despite the existence of more than 100 cat cafés nationally, the concept itself is a recent import. Cat cafés as we know them began in Taiwan, but exploded in popularity in Japan, where they were seen as a way to spend time with animals who you might not be able to have otherwise.

Like how some schools have therapy dogs to help stressed out students cramming for exams, spending an hour or two in the company of cats can do wonders for your stress levels. Cat cafés on this side of the world tend to focus more on adoption than purely temporary companionship, but that doesn’t mean you can only do one or the other.

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In the USA, cat cafés first appeared in California, which has remained a stronghold for these feline funhouses. Despite strict regulations that make it difficult to combine the food part of the cat café with the cat part of the cat café, there are now around 13 scattered across the state.

The oldest of these is Cat Town Oakland, which was founded in 2014 — narrowly beating KitTea in San Francisco which was founded earlier, but was delayed from opening by regulatory requirements. As if cats and coffee weren’t enticing enough, KitTea hosts pilates classes (followed by a glass of wine) on Fridays. tktk

CatCafe Lounge is the only non-profit cat café in the LA area. Like most cat cafés, all the inhabitants of are available to adopt, and the majority of these kitties come from community fosters via the Stray Cat Alliance’s “Safe at Home” program, which prevents bottle babies from ever stepping paw in a shelter. 

Last summer, CatCafe Lounge opened a kitten-centric pop-up on Venice Blvd called Tiny Beans. The timing of the pop-up was specifically aimed at helping with the summer boom in kitten births. “Tens of thousands of kittens are born in the LA area between spring and fall,” says CatCafe founder Kristi Labrenz, and the vast majority are destined to be euthanized or end up as one of the three million street cats in LA county.

It’s hard to get an exact count of how many cat cafés exist in the golden state, due to it being difficult to run a small business, as well the existential questions about what actually counts as a “cat café” (though The Neighbor’s Cat list seems to be pretty on top of things). Here are some other cat cafés to visit in California to check out:

The Purrmaid Café & Adoption Center in Ventura County and Mini Cat Town in San Jose, for starters, are both non-profit organizations, like CatCafe Lounge. This is important if you want to be sure that as much of your money as possible goes directly to supporting the rescue cats. As Labrenz explained with Cat Cafe, “every penny goes to new implementations to help cats, and keep current locations running.” 

If you want the most Instagrammable trip to a cat café, then Crumb and Whiskers LA is the way to go. With a plant wall, neon signs, and the occasional famous guest, it’s definitely the most glamorous option. Feline Good Social Club in Long Beach offers “Paint and Purrs” fundraiser events, where you can make a painting while hanging out with the kitties. If you’ve ever been to a sip-and-paint evening, you’ve got an idea of what you’re in for — but with the money going to a good cause (and a lot more fluff stuck to your painting at the end).

Elsewhere in CA? Here are a few more up-and-running cat cafés:

Cat & Craft, Vista 

The Cat Cafe, San Diego 

Cat Cafe Rescue, Chino Hills 

Cat Therapy, Santa Barbara 

Catmosphere, Laguna 

The Dancing Cat, San Jose