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Happy Monday!
On the same morning that Free Press business reporter Gabrielle Piché told me a Starbucks in Osborne Village shut its doors due to rising crime in the area, I learned that Cleocatra Café is opening a second location in the exact same neighbourhood.
Cleocatra Café manager Harry Ho visits one of the cats in the animal viewing area at its 859 Portage Ave. location. One year — and about 150 cat adoptions — after opening, the Winnipeg business is expanding to a second, larger location ‘as fast as we can,’ Ho says. (Ruth Bonneville / Free Press files)
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The original Cleocatra Café on Portage Avenue, which has seen more than 150 cats adopted since it opened a year ago, is the latest in a string of Winnipeg coffee spots that encourage feline interaction to promote rehoming.
It’s so popular, the café’s owner Harry Ho told Gabrielle, “we have to have a second location as fast as we can.”
That morning, as Gabrielle and I shared an escalator up to the third-floor newsroom, she never theorized on what the Starbucks closure on River Avenue and Osborne Street says about our propensity for expensive lattes.
But I’d say you can be fairly certain that the opening of another cat café in our city speaks volumes about our care and compassion for cats. I love that!
And maybe one day, not just cats but other adoptable animals like, say, the ‘micro pigs’ at the Mipig Café in Japan, can find a bit of comfort on a warm lap in Winnipeg.
Shiho Kitagawa, an executive at a mipig cafe, holds a pig Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, in Tokyo. The pigs, a miniature breed, trotted about the room, looking for a cozy lap to cuddle up. Customers pay $15 for the first 30 minutes and a reservation is required. (Eugene Hoshiko / The Associated Press))
Have a great week!
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