SUMMARY

Le Cat Café is located on Girard Avenue in the Brewerytown neighborhood of Philadelphia. The owner, Kathy Jordan, describes the area as recently gentrified, and Le Cat Café is located near local breweries, coffee shops, and restaurants. The entrance to Le Cat Café has a recessed doorway and two large windows that feature the red “Le Cat Café” logo and a signature white cat with a red beret and coffee cup. Inside the café, the Parisian theme continues with Eiffel Tower cat beds, lounging towers, and décor – inspired by the owner’s time spent studying in France.

In 2005, roughly a decade before cat cafes emerged in the United States, Kathy founded Green Street Rescue in Philadelphia. Kathy was already deeply involved in rescue work and when the first cat cafes opened, she saw an opportunity to get more cats adopted. In her words, “I’ve got to get cats adopted out faster, I need a better adoption platform.” Kathy also envisioned the space as a way to educate the community on rescue cats and that the “cute cat they adopted was the one down their street that was filthy, dirty, and covered with fleas that they wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole.”  She wanted to let people know that “they don’t need a purebred; they didn’t have to buy a cat.” For Kathy, opening a cat café facilitated rescue, adoption, and education.

Kathy received a great deal of support from friends to create Le Cat Cafe. Friends volunteered their time and expertise to help with design layouts, carpentry, painting, electrical, and plumbing. They came together, in Kathy’s words, “because it was such a good idea, or because that’s how they could give for their love of cats.” While her friends might not have been able to donate, foster, or adopt, they could give their time and labor, and they gave generously. Building Le Cat Café was a labor of love for her community and the initially bare space was transformed into a beautiful “Purrisian-style” cat café.