When will Sacramento’s first cat cafe open in midtown? ‘We haven’t given up,’ owners say

A mother-daughter duo promised Sacramento residents a space where cats and coffee lovers could mingle under one roof.

Roughly three years later, Capital Cat Café has yet to open its doors.

In 2021, co-owners Laura and Emalee Ousley announced plans to open a restaurant at 701 16th St. in midtown Sacramento with food, drinks and adoptable cats.

The idea was met with tremendous community support.

However, one failed opening attempt after another pushed the Ousleys to step back from engaging with their roughly 5,000 Instagram followers.

In a Tuesday phone interview with The Sacramento Bee, Laura Ousley said she and her daughter are going “through the hurdles” of starting a new business in the city.

“Both Emalee and I are at a place where we definitely hope and want it to work, but we don’t want to get our hopes up because we have already been disappointed,” Ousley said.

She cited miscommunication and business costs as a couple of the reasons behind the delayed opening.

“We don’t have deep pockets,” Ousley said.

What inspired Sacramento’s first cat café?

Laura and Emalee Ousley spent years working separately in the food and customer service industries before dipping their toes in feline dining, according to a previous Bee story.

They visited cat cafés across the globe, from New Zealand to Australia.

Pop-up shops in Oakland were particularly inspiring.

When will Capital Cat Café open?

There’s no set opening date for Capital Cat Café, which is slated for a roughly 2,200-square-foot space adjacent to Lulu’s Kitchen.

The café is in the permitting process, meaning the Ousleys do not have the green light to start construction until all city criteria are met.

This includes structural changes to the building.

The space is currently bare, with exposed walls and insulation, cement floors and large windows.

“We went out way too fast thinking this was going to happen pretty relatively quickly, and it didn’t,” Ousley said.

One week ago, she and her daughter resubmitted plans to city officials to obtain a permit.

Ousley said she expects to hear back from city officials sometime next week on whether or not her business can progress to the next step.

A “no” from the city means the café would be set back at least two to three months.

“We haven’t given up,” she said. “We’re just hoping that we can get this resolved.”

What would midtown restaurant look like?

Capital Cat Café’s menu could include coffee, espresso, beer, wine, cocktails, baked goods and small lunch plates.

Adoptable cats would be housed in a separate room for “therapeutic joy,” Laura Ousley said.

“We are still very passionate about our idea and really want it to come to fruition, but we are also guarded,” she said.

Is feline dining on the rise?

Feline dining will be new to Sacramento, but the concept has been gaining traction across the United States and the world over the past several years.

Taiwan is credited with conceptualizing the idea.

The first U.S. cat café, Cat Town, opened in 2014 in Oakland.

These are cat-themed eateries scattered across California, with locations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chico and Santa Barbara.

This story was originally published May 22, 2024 at 10:44 AM.