We just received word that KitTea, which will be the first cat café to open in San Francisco—and the second in the Bay Area—has been issued all the necessary permits to begin work at its storefront space at 96 Gough Street in Hayes Valley. Construction officially begins January 2, KitTea founder Courtney Hatt tells Curbed. "The construction should take 2-3 months, and we are really hoping for a late March opening," she says. That's not a sure thing yet, Hatt cautions: "it is such a difficult thing to determine until we are very, very close!"
As you recall, KitTea is part tea house, part kitty-adoption emporium, with a health-code-mandated separation between the café and feline domains. Much like Oakland's Cat Town, KitTea will partner with rescue operations, hosting between 10 and 12 cats in need of a home at one time.
Last we checked in, preliminary designs for the space showed off a bevy of perches for the cats—from a "peek-a-boo" cat play wall to a "Zen retreat" for the shy ones—and normal chairs for people, which, who are we kidding, will probably be annexed by the cats, too. There's also something referred to as the "wall-mounted cat rack," so we're looking forward to seeing how that works.
· Here Now, a Photo Tour of Cat Town, America's First Cat Café [Curbed SF]
· Is the KitTea Design Hip Enough to Woo the Snooty Cats of SF? [Curbed SF]
· Phew: SF's First Cat Café Inks Lease, Construction Begins ASAP [Curbed SF]
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