Clark County’s first cat cafe, located off of Fourth Plain Boulevard in Vancouver, held its grand opening on Friday, July 24.
Milky and Coco’s Kit-Tea Cafe is a cat-themed cafe with a menu full of cat puns and an extra designated room where customers can spend up to an hour playing with 25 adoptable cats.
“Animal lovers, we all share this fondness for our furry critters,” said Diana Perez, co-owner of Milky and Coco’s Kit-tea Cafe. “It’s uniting, the ability to come and experience something different in Southwest Washington.”
Not too long after retiring, Perez was traveling in Utah and experienced the unique coziness of cat cafes.
“I was just wowed by the business model,” Perez said.
After pitching the idea to the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, she found out that there were two other people who also had been thinking about starting a cat cafe.
“Vince (Le) had a grandmother with dementia, and it was cats that helped her cope better with daily life,” Perez said. “Christiana (Alfonso) had just gotten let go from her corporate company, so she was also trying to figure out what she was going to do.”
The three chose to meet each other and, after doing so, they decided to become equal business partners and open the cat cafe together.
Now, several months removed from the meeting, the cafe has gone through a soft opening period providing coffee and kitties that can be adopted from Furry Friends, a local Vancouver cat rescue.
“We reached out to furry friends and they were like, ‘we will do whatever you need to help you. We’re there for you,’” Perez said.
Furry Friends provides Milky and Coco’s with the cats and the volunteers necessary to do wellness checks and take care of the feline friends.
Each of the cats that roam around the room are also available for adoption, with dozens having already been picked up by new families.
“We’ve been going through the journey as new people to just starting a business,” Perez said.
Along the path to opening the cafe, Perez, Le and Alfonso had to overcome several obstacles.
Loan availability was very low since the business hadn’t been open very long.
Snares were hit with both landlords not wanting to improve some of the available locations and commercial realtors either not taking them seriously or not believing in the business possibilities.
The three entrepreneurs caught their break when they received financial help from Fourth Plain Forward, a local nonprofit focused on helping local businesses, and found their third realtor.
“We were able to get a loan from Fourth Plain Forward through the Department of Commerce, so that helped,” Perez said. “Through Bridge City Contracting, they referred us to Andi Costello, and she found this excellent place.”
Once the pieces fell into place, the three owners poured a lot of time and effort into preparing the location for the vision they held.
“We’ve done a lot of this ourselves other than the electrical, plumbing and the wall partition,” Perez said.
On top of their own work, the cafe features the artwork of local Clark County artists, the coffee and tea are locally sourced, and the cafe provides special events for the local community.
On Wednesdays, senior living centers can bring their residents to spend time with the cats.
Other days, the cafe hosts special events such as board game night, community workshops and even cat yoga.
“This is that third space where you can get away from whatever chaos you’re going through and reground, recalibrate, re-everything, because cats have that calming effect,” Perez said.
Milky and Coco’s Kit-tea Cafe is located at 5000 East Fourth Plain Blvd., E103, Vancouver. It is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
For more information, visit milkyandcocoskitteacafe.com and follow them on social media @milkyandcocoskitteacafe.
