Sarasota loves animals. The city is known for its pet-friendly amenities, from a dedicated dog beach to boutique pet shops to hotels catering to pets to restaurants with plenty of outside seating for our furry friends. Now, two new animal-focused businesses have opened up in the Rosemary District, further building our bona fides.
Katy’s Cat Café
Katy’s Cat Café opened on Boulevard of the Arts six weeks ago. Owner Marian Morcos, 26, was inspired to open the café—named after her 17-year-old Russian blue cat—after visiting a cat café in Denver when she was 18.
“I didn’t know something like that could exist,” she says. “I was glued to the idea, and eight years later, here we are: I have a cat café. I studied engineering in college, and could have gone into that, but I wanted to be happy now, so I figured out how to do it.”
At Katy’s, the business is separated into two experiences. One side of the space is a fully operational beverage and ice cream outlet, which the public can visit without paying a fee to hang with the cats. Or, for $20 per visit or $128 for a monthly membership (which includes a 50 percent discount on beverages), you can enter the “cat lounge,” where adoptable cats and kittens from Satchel’s Last Resort laze about. If you fall in love with one, you can submit an adoption application to Satchel’s, which has assisted with eight adoptions from the café already.
“I understand that it seems like a steep cost,” Morcos says of the fees. “But we are trying to give our cats the best care and attention that they could possibly have while they’re here with us. That includes good food, careful attention and a great environment.”
The café operates as a hybrid business model; the beverage side runs as a for-profit business, and Morcos will receive her 501(c)(3) status for the Cat Lounge later this month…