Cat cafes are on the rise in Kentucky. Check out these four locations that offer quality time with kitties while you enjoy your favorite beverages.
Animal cafes have become a viral sensation in recent years, and it would appear that they’re here to stay. In some places, like Tokyo, Japan, they’ve become big tourist attractions, where visitors can hang out with cats, capybaras, and more while enjoying yummy drinks and snacks. The Instagram pics alone are worth indulging in the cafe, but you don’t have to travel to Germany, Singapore, or any other country with famous animal cafes to get in on the fun.
No, we have four cat cafes right here in Kentucky. The first cat cafe in the Bluegrass State was the Purrfect Day Cafe in Louisville, and it proved so successful that the company opened a second location in Covington. They’re joined by two other cat cafes, one in Georgetown and one in Paducah.
Rather than being tourist traps, stateside cat cafes typically operate in conjunction with animal rescues to help place cats in furrever homes. In most cases, the cats live in the cafes full-time, and guests book time slots to come hang out with them while enjoying light refreshments. Some cat cafes even have free WiFi for guests who want to get some work done in the company of new feline friends. The goal is twofold: everyone has a good time, and the cats are adopted one by one as visitors fall in love with them.
With that established, let’s take a look at Kentucky’s four cat cafes so you can get in on the action directly.
1. Central Purrk Cat Cafe
Address: 401 Outlet Center Dr #260, Georgetown, KY 40324
Hours: Wednesday-Saturday: 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sunday: 12 p.m.-5 p.m.
If you live in central Kentucky, you have two cat cafes relatively close to you, one of them being Central Purrk Cat Cafe. This establishment is unique, as many cat cafes only offer drinks to guests who specifically visit to see the resident kitties. However, Central Purrk operates as a fully fledged coffee shop but has a separate Cat Lounge where you can interact with the sweet fur babies while sipping your drink and nibbling on baked goods from a local business called The Midway Bakery.
The Cat Lounge can hold up to eight people, and reservations are highly recommended by the cafe to help ensure you get time with the cats. Walking in is acceptable, but the lounge may already be full when you arrive. The lounge holds 10 cats at any given time, so you’re bound to have a good time.
Meanwhile, Central Purrk’s menu is a dream because there’s something for everyone. The cafe has more macaron flavors than you can count on two hands, and the drink menu includes freshly ground coffee, dirty sodas, blended frappes in fun flavors like Twix and cookie dough, and various teas, lemonades, and more. Central Purrk, run by a husband-and-wife team, also hosts trivia nights and yoga sessions, among other events, so you can get your coffee and cat fixes in myriad ways.
2. Purrfect Day Cafe Louisville
Address: 1741 Bardstown Rd, Louisville, KY 40205
Hours: Tuesday-Thursday: 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Friday-Saturday: 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sunday: 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
The second of central Kentucky’s two cat cafes is Purrfect Day Cafe in Louisville. This cafe changed everything when it opened in 2018, breaking ground on a genre of stores that had yet to hit Kentucky. Purrfect Day Cafe partners with the Kentucky Humane Society to show off the organization’s cats and help get them into forever homes. Since opening eight years ago, the cafe has helped more than 10,000 adoptions go through.
Purrfect Day’s menu has everything you’d want from a traditional coffee bar, like drip coffee, chai, hot chocolate, and a few other tea flavors, but it also has alcohol options. The cafe has five wine options and six beers, as well as 13 cocktail options. These range in flavor from fruity to tart and come with fun names. Take the Barn Cat (a mixture of bourbon, blackberry syrup, and lemonade) or the Purrloma (a mixture of tequila, Sprite, grapefruit juice, and lime juice) as perfect examples. You can also add alcohol to other menu items, such as the Chocolate Peppermint Dream, which contains hot cocoa, peppermint schnapps, pure cane syrup, and whipped cream.
Booking sessions to enjoy scrumptious drinks and spend time with the cats is easy on Purrfect Day’s website. General everyday sessions are $15 for 50 minutes of cat time with a maximum of 14 people in the room, and drinks are paid separately upon arrival. Outside of regular sessions, Purrfect Day hosts candle-making classes, trivia nights, drag bingo nights, and more with the cats.
3. Purrfect Day Cafe Covington
Address: 25 W 8th St, Covington, KY 41011
Hours: Tuesday-Friday: 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday: 10 a.m.-8:30 p.m.
Anyone near the Kentucky-Ohio border needs to visit the second Purrfect Day Cafe location in Covington. Many of the above details about Purrfect Day’s Louisville location hold true for the Covington storefront, including the number of folks allowed in the cat room, the price of the 50-minute session, and even most of the menu.
One major difference is that the Covington location offers a curated snack menu that includes cake pops, kettle-cooked chips, Rice Krispie treats shaped like cats, cat-shaped pretzels from Tuba Baking Co., five different scone flavors from Najlas Bakery, and more.
Purrfect Day Cafe Covington also hosts events like those at its sister store in Louisville. Here, you can attend trivia nights, cozy reading nights, crafting sessions, adoption events, and more—all with kitties galore.
4. Tortitude Cat Café
Address: 2420 New Holt Rd, Paducah, KY 42001
Hours: Tuesday-Thursday: 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Friday: 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday: 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sunday: 12 p.m.-6 p.m.
You may have been wondering if there are any cat cafes in Western Kentucky, and if so, you’re in luck. Enter Tortitude Cat Café, a shop in Paducah that partners with four cat rescues—Catt’s Cats, All About The Cats, Jackson Purchase Forgotten Felines, and Huntingdon TNR—to connect felines with families. Because it partners with several organizations, Tortitude typically houses between 15 and 20 furry friends at any given time.
Tortitude Cat Café offers reservations in 30-minute and 60-minute increments at $7 and $12, respectively. Like with other cat cafes, walk-ins are accepted if there’s room available, but the only way to secure access to the cats’ lounge is to make a reservation ahead of time. When you arrive, you’re greeted with a cute and cozy entrance area complete with a bakery case full of cat-shaped cookies and packaged snacks. Of course, there’s plenty of coffee to go around, too.
One of our favorite details is the dry-erase board that keeps track of how many adoptions have been made at the cafe. What number will it be when you visit? There’s only one way to find out!
