Real struggles of owners behind the curtains to keep cat coffee running in Ha Noi

Cats constantly sneeze in the air-conditioned room is only one of the few worries that Ms. Trang- the owner of the Ổ Mèo Tea House has to face with.

Ổ Mèo Tea house - one of the many cat cafe in the heart of Ha Noi

( Photo by Enews reporters)

Opened in mid-2022, O Meo Tea House has received a lot of support and love from the cat lover community. The cafe is simply a small 2-storey house, located in a small corner in the alley. The first floor is both a cafe - with drinks, food served like other regular cafes, and a house for cats. The second floor is used as a resting place for the owner of the cat cafe.

As soon as we walked in, we could already feel the warmth of this place. Customers who come here will all sit in the same room, enjoy drinks, relax and play with cats.

The cafe has about 15 cats with different types of species . The oldest and the most chubby cat is a breed of British Shorthair named Phệ Xám. He is 3 years old and weighs nearly 7kg. The youngest babies are about 2-3 months old. The strangest baby cat would be the Sphynx cat, or hairless cat, named Nhan Tran since he is inside-out.

Experience at cat coffee

( Photo by Enews reporters)

If you go there during lunch break, evening or days-off, it is not difficult to see the scene of customers filling up the shop to have fun with cats. In addition to young people, cat cafe is also noticed and frequented by a group of parents and children.

ENews's experience at cat coffee

( Video by ENews reporters)

Difficulties of cat cafe model:

Sharing with our E News reporters team , Ms. Trang- proprietor of the O Meo Tea House, has mentioned some difficulties and hidden corners of this business model:

1. Cats easily get sick, sneeze if staying in the air-conditioned room for too long.

The cafe's space is almost closed because of the characteristics of the cat cafe business model- has many cats . Therefore, the room must have air conditioning to guarantee the comfort of visitors in the cat cafe. Ironically, cats are warm-loving animals, so staying in an air-conditioned room for a long time might make them a bit uncomfortable, and some cats which can't take the cold may sneeze. The shop owner solves these problems by wearing clothes for the cats.

The Sphynx cat has to wear clothes

( Photo by ENews reporters)

2. Wipe the cat's eyes twice a day

The very first impression that the E News reporters team felt when coming here was how fragrant and clean the cats were. Ms Trang shared that: cleaning cats is the hardest task ever. The peculiarity of cats is that they are prone to infections and have much eye rheum, so they must wipe cats' eyes twice a day. She further mentioned that regular cat cleaning is a must- to -do thing in order to maintain the cafe's clientele.

The owner ( left picture) and the staff ( right picture) are cleaning cat's eyes

( Photos by ENews reporters)

3. Cats rush for each other to fight

There are roughly 15 cats at the cafe and it is common for these cats to "loathe each other ". Typically, they just growl lightly, but sometimes they will rush to bite each other. Although this is not harmful for cats, it occasionally gives visitors a little fright.

4. Cats scratch and bite customers

According to the owner, there have been a few instances when patrons who were feeding or holding cats got scratched. The reason is that the cat is upset at that time, or when feeding the cat, the cat mistakes the customer's hand for food. Fortunately, there have been no cases of serious injuries, mainly skin injuries and the cafe shop was promptly overcome by disinfecting and dressing the wounds for customers.

5. In the midnight, cats arbitrary take the pate, treats, and end up dumping it all over the cafe

The store also offers cat treats and pate in addition to serving drinks and snacks for customers. As a result, cat food is stocked on racks all throughout the cafe's space. There are individual sly cats stealing food when the shop is closed, causing the staff to clean up the next morning.

O Meo Tea House's cats food shelf

( Photo by ENews reporters)

Thanks to the proprietor’s marketing knowledge, she has promoted her café on social networks and sells cat products such as cat sand, cat food, cat supplies, and equipment. Moreover, the business has been based on money earned through social media and serving drinks at the bar to cover the costs of cats. Ms Trang expressed her wishes in the future that she also wants to improve the quality of café facilities, as well as expand the business into a place to distribute and provide food and household items for cats.

Cat cafes originated in Taiwan, with the world's first cat cafe: Cat Flower Garden opening in Taipei in 1998. However, the cat cafe only became popular when they made their way to Japan. Nowadays, cat cafes are well-known and opened all around the world.  

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