If you’re a cat lover, Whiskers and Soda on Garland Road might be paradise.
At the membership-based cat cafe, felines lounge in chairs, in beds and on table tops while sometimes receiving pets from humans. They also have the option to climb up onto shelves, ceiling rafters and cat furniture.
Humans inside the cafe wear shoe coverings to prevent tracking in anything unwanted around the cats and to soften the blow in case a cat tail is stepped on. Visitors are also given a set of ground rules — cats are not to be picked up and carried around, sleeping felines shouldn’t be woken up, volume inside the cafe should be normal and not too loud, young children are required to be supervised. And please, no flash photography.
“What we always ask people to do is just sit down,” says Rob Stovall, one of the cafe’s owners. “They’ll come to you. The ones that want love and attention, and they’ll come right up to you, and then you can hold them and everything, but if you just pick one up, you’re risking getting scratched or bit.”
Coffee drinks with punny names (Capurrcino, Amerigato, Meow Mocha, Long Cat Latte, Meowchiato, Cold Mew Brew and Iced Catfee) are served alongside pastries in a corner of the large room encased by glass to keep the cats from tainting the food and beverages as well as out of harm’s way. The cafe’s pastry and coffee supply comes from two East Dallas establishments — Lakewood’s Leila Bakery & Cafe and Cultivar Coffee Roasting Co., which is down the street from Whiskers and Soda…