The purr-fect cup of coffee: An inside look at why cat cafes are on the rise

Since opening in 2017, Mac Tabby cat cafes in North Carolina have helped hundreds of cats find their forever home. The cafes have saved a few lucky humans too.

Across the U.S., the number of cat cafes has increased over the past five years, according to Yelp, and the establishments are becoming more mainstream. After starting in Taiwan and Japan in the 1990s and early 2000s, cat cafes now play an important role in U.S. towns by fostering stray cats and adopting them out to cafe patrons. The places themselves – filled with coffee, snacks and sometimes alcoholic beverage options – are an oasis for humans as much as cats, owners and regulars told USA TODAY.

"If I'm not at my home and anybody's looking for me, all they got to do is come down here," said 67-year-old Jet Taylor, who frequents the Mac Tabby in Concord, North Carolina. Taylor loves gray tabbies and black cats. He goes to the cat cafe almost daily to read his airplane and motorcycle magazines, and get cat cuddles.

"My guests come in one way and leave that cat room another way, with a sense of calm happiness," said Cindy Skop, who opened the Kitty Cat Lounge in Lakeland, Florida, in 2023 and partners with Saving Paws Rescue of Florida.

To date, 2024 had the highest number of cat café business pages added to Yelp than any other year prior, according to Yelp, with North Carolina, Florida and Hawaii seeing major growth of cat cafes after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fostering tips: He foster failed immediately. But it was because 'something went very right.'

'A certain kind of magic'

The Mac Tabby cat cafe chain in North Carolina boasts three locations: Charlotte, Concord and Salisbury. At any time, about 15 cats from the rescue group Princeton's Meow are at each of the cafes, and nearly 1,900 have been adopted by patrons over the past eight years, said owner and "lead cat wrangler" Lori Konawalik.

"When we started, people weren't quite sure what they were, there was a lot of explaining how they worked and what they were," Konawalik, 45, said. "Nowadays people come in knowing the general concept."

Aside from their popularity, cat cafes are giving cats a better life, said Deanna Roach, who adopted two cats from Mac Tabby's Charlotte location.

“If they make it to Mac Tabby, they’re almost home, they have hit the cat jackpot," Roach said.

In Mecklenburg County, where Charlotte is located, shelters were at capacity the last two years and the euthanasia rates were up, the local animal control department said in public reports.

Polk County, home to the Kitty Cat Lounge, has in recent years euthanized more cats than any other Florida county, according to data from the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. Animal control department data obtained by USA TODAY shows over 3,500 cats were euthanized in 2024.

Many cat cafes require reservations so not too many people crowd the cat room, which is commonly separate from the cafe counter. The first time Roach went to Mac Tabby, she booked three 30-minute slots in the cat room because she knew "we're going to need longer than a half hour," Roach said. Soon, Roach and her husband adopted two female tabbies, named Dori and Miki.

"Dori was a cat that had lived outside for a long time and you had to earn her love and trust," Roach, 58, said. "Miki was of the mentality, like, ‘Come on, pet me!'"

More Americans own pets now than before the COVID-19 pandemic, which in turn has driven demand for cat cafes, said Yelp Trend Expert Tara Lewis. Searches on Yelp for "adopt a cat" are up nearly 500% since 2019, Lewis said.

"These cafes are the perfect spot for cat lovers to meet and spend time with adoptable kitties before they officially bring them home," said Lewis, who recently visited Meó Maison, a Parisian-inspired cafe that opened in Washington, D.C. in 2023.

Roach said she sees Mac Tabby and other cat cafes becoming more popular among college students and renters, two groups that have a harder time keeping pets due to housing restrictions. Skop said she sometimes sees young people from nearby schools who had a bad day come in and leave feeling better. Cat lovers visiting from out of town also know to search for cat cafes, Konawalik said.

“For a period of time, you immerse yourself in a room with at least 12 cats who are hungry for attention, and there’s so much excitement you almost go back to a childlike state, it’s a certain kind of magic," Roach said.

Stray cats: What the 'cat distribution system' is and how it works

How many cat cafes are there?

When Mac Tabby opened its first location in 2017, it was the second cat cafe in the state, Konawalik said.

"Now there's pretty much one in every city, give or take," Konawalik said.

Searches for "cat cafes near me" increased by 78,700% from February 2020 to February 2024, according to an analysis by Yelp provided to USA TODAY.

During that time, the number of cat cafes nationwide went from nearly 75 to over 200, according to an analysis of business profiles across the Yelp platform.

"It seems like you can't go far in Florida without tripping on one, they're going up everywhere," Skop, 56, said.

'She's rescuing people too'

In Concord, North Carolina, Taylor has his own spot in the corner of Mac Tabby, where one recent afternoon he sipped a sugar-free vanilla latte as he worked on his 2024 tax filing. He keeps an eye on the cafe entrance, and when there are no other patrons to give the cats attention, Taylor sets his work aside and plops down on the floor of the cat room.

"Some of the cats really like the little spring toys or they like the feathers on the end of the string, and sometimes they really just want to curl up in your lap and go right to sleep, and quite frankly, I enjoy that probably as much as anything," Taylor said.

Taylor has not adopted a cat from Mac Tabby, but the animals in the building have bolstered his mental health in the years since flooding nearly destroyed he and his wife's home, and chronic health issues began to wage war on their bodies, he said.

"I would be willing to bet you could put a heart rate monitor on me and when I'm sitting there petting a cat, my heart rate goes down," Taylor said.

Perched at his spot, Taylor said he sees patrons walk in burdened by the stress of current events, politics and just everyday life. But they leave feeling better, he said.

"As soon as you walk in the door, you just leave all of that outside," Taylor said. "I told Lori one day, besides rescuing cats, she's rescuing people too."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cat cafes are on the rise: Why many are seeking the purr-fect spot