Students returning to the city for the fall semester can find a fresh place to destress and unwind at Boston’s newest and only cat café, A Sanctuary Café.
Since opening its doors over the summer, the café has been gaining popularity with the help of viral online videos and the influx of college students in the city.
“We’re crazy busy on weekends,” said Rachel VanRyswood, a barista at the café. “The difference since school’s in, we’re so much slower on weekdays compared to our weekends.”
VanRyswood began working at the café shortly after opening in July and has seen it slowly grow since its initial inception.
The idea for the café had been in the works since 2020, with plans being temporarily put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. Boston’s rules and restrictions around businesses became more intense, making it harder for the café to get off the ground initially.
“Boston is very, very strict about having animals in food spaces,” said VanRyswood, something that had to be heavily considered for one of the shop’s main attractions: the cats.
The café is currently home to nine cats, all from local Boston shelters, who are spending their time getting acclimated to their new space. Out of all of them, VanRyswood’s favorite is named Leopold Macintosh, or Mack for short.
“He’s very friendly and he loves to jump on the high spaces that we have around and show off to everybody,” said VanRyswood. She frequently visits the cat lounge, where she can play and interact with the cats on her break.
Although VanRyswood gets to spend quality time with the cats as they get used to the environment, the same luxury is not yet available to the general public quite yet. The cat lounge is separate from the main part of the café at the moment, but patrons still seem to enjoy their presence there.
“My favorite part of the café was looking at the cats through the window and seeing them play with the staff and all their toys,” said Cailee Lavoie, a senior at Suffolk. “I didn’t get to interact with them but I want to go back when they open up the lounges.”
Aside from cats and coffee, the establishment also has several other components. A big portion of the store is a micro-bookstore themed around cats, Boston stories and other local interests. Additionally, the café features pastries made by Massachusetts-based organizations.
The café’s management places a strong importance on community and environment, with compostable containers being used for serving and a portion of the earnings going towards nonprofits.
“It is all kind of going back into the workers and donating,” said VanRyswood. “And every book that’s sold in the bookstore, there is one book donated to a Boston public school student.”
The café is continuing to expand its space, with the promise of the cat lounge’s opening being in the next couple of weeks. Once the lounge is open for public access, you will be able to make online reservations to visit with the cats. The projected price for a reservation is currently $35 to $40 per person, a cost that would include complimentary coffee and tea.
A Sanctuary Café is located at 80 Charles St., closest to the Charles/MGH station. To get more updates regarding the continued opening of the café, you can monitor their website or follow @asanctuarycafe on Instagram.
There is currently no concrete timeline in place for when the cat lounge would become public beyond the reservation system, but VanRyswood said ultimately, “it’s up to the cats.”
