DipDapTheSlap
Bingus
Saturday, 5:45 am, overcast
Somewhere, on a relatively quiet street in Tokyo's Meguro City, there is a cafe. At first glance, it may seem like your average spot for sweets and drinks. But take a closer look - notice the little hole in the bottom of the door? The sketchy patterns along the base of the bamboo fence? The aroma of fresh grass and Nepata cataria? This is a haven for the neighborhood's many local cats as much as it is for its people. It occupies a little corner of the street huddled with potted plants and bamboo patio furniture. The air is humid with an after-rain aroma, sweetened by the blooms of hydrangeas skirting the red brick of the cafe. The frosted window glass shines like mica; it's spotlessly clean, just like everything else inside (including the litter boxes - cleverly disguised as potted plants - which have been picked through just this morning). The menu board standees have been freshly painted.
The cafe consists of a front room, a parlor, and a back room. The front room is the social space where customers can order and sit at the counter, set up at one of the tables and watch the passersby from the windows, or share their adoption stories on the message board. The open room to the side is the parlor, separated by a chique wooden gate, where the numerous resident cats live their days. The parlor is designed as a cat sanctuary, with shelves and rope-wrapped trees, a hanging bridge across the ceiling, tunnels and hidey-holes galore, with full view to the street corner outside via large bay windows. The parlor shares a door with the back room. This multipurpose space allows the cafe's residents to retire to their kennels, and the staff to their lounge. It functions as storage, workspace, and rest area. The coffee shop-cat sanctuary hybrid has just finished remodeling, redecorating and rehiring. A large hand-painted cloth banner hangs above the entance.
Cats Au Lait
Grand Reopening!
Grand Reopening!