I live in a neighborhood where a lot of new retail businesses open, perhaps encouraged by a loan from Mom and Dad, or just a unique idea.
Small restaurants, nail salons, barber shops, bookstores, tea parlors, gourmet beer shops and travel agencies come – and, as often as not, go – in the space of a few months.
The one that has met with the most head scratching on my part is Neko-hi! Café de Gatos (cat cafe), which, as it turns out, is probably the most unique business in the area. Moreover, my cluelessness puts me out of step with the young people of Guadalajara, one of whom not only casually informed me that neko means cat in Japanese, but also pointed out that locals have even adopted a derogatory Japanese word – otaku – meaning an obsessed person, especially one whose obsession is Japanese comic books. (I lived in Japan for two years, so discovering I was out of date on internationalized Japanese culture was disconcerting.)
Not that all locals are in the know. Neko-hi! is the first and only cat cafe in Guadalajara, its owner, Nancy, informed me. Of course, there are a lot in Japan, where they enjoy a puzzling but robust success, I’m told. But in Mexico, so far there are only two others, one in Mexico City and the other in Monterrey.
After poking around for a few minutes outside Neko-hi!, glimpsing a person inside carrying a cat around, wondering if customers brought their cats here, wondering what would happen if I showed up at the door of this apparently pet-friendly spot with my dog, wondering where to find the stairwell leading down to its recessed location, wondering if anybody sat at the canopied picnic table outside its door, wondering, indeed, if there were any customers at all, or if the place would go broke in a few weeks, I entered and discovered, first of all, that the concept is that customers simply enjoy the five cats who live on the premises – customers do not bring their own pets.
This was fairly surprising, but I learned that not only were there a healthy number of cat-admiring customers sitting or lounging at the four tables and having coffee, tea or dessert, but that this was the off-hour.
“Saturdays are the busiest time, and also evenings, before we close at 9,” Nancy informed me, adding that the picnic table outdoors is only for people waiting to come in.
People waiting to come in?
“Yes, too many people inside upset the cats.”
Dogs, naturally, upset the cats too. So that answered another question.
The five cats calmly sitting, strolling, looking out the window or heading for their private chambers (where the litter box probably resides) via a small cat door at the base of a large door, did not appear to be exceptional. There were two adolescents – an all-black youngster and another who looked to be pure Siamese – yet Nancy told me they were siblings.
“They’re all adopted, so we don’t know much about them.”
Nancy explained that Neko-hi! is only two months old and that she and her husband got the idea when they visited Japan two years ago and found a country full of cat cafes.
“But the concept in Japan is different. When people enter, they say ‘I’m going to stay an hour’ and pay an hourly fee. The only thing they serve is coffee from a vending machine.” Meaning the customers really yearn to hang out with cats.
Neko-hi! serves a variety of hot and cold coffee (made in an espresso machine), tea, frappes, smoothies and other beverages at standard prices. They have about five desserts, including, naturally enough for animal lovers, vegan options made with soy or almond milk, and a vegan dessert, panque de platano (banana bread).
The very cute prima donna cat, Pimi, sauntered up to me amicably and when I tried to pet her, nimbly leaped out of reach onto a network of pink, wooden wall structures, designed by Nancy. Besides cavorting on these structures, Pimi’s other mission in life is to escape the air-conditioned confines of Neko-hi! for the little garden outside, from which she has to be regularly retrieved.
Neko-hi! Café de Gatos, Avenida La Paz 2155-D, Colonia Lafayette, Guadalajara, 1 1/2 blocks east of Union. Open Tuesday to Sunday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Closed Mondays.