Kansas is a top state for cat lovers! The Sunflower State is currently home to four cat cafes. More precisely, three cat cafes and an utterly unique cat lounge + bookstore. By our cat math, that is more than one cat cafe per million Kansan, which is higher than many much larger states. The latest cat on the scene is the fabulous newf Topeka Cat Cafe in the capitol city. Not surprisingly, Kansas cat cafes are concentrated in the eastern, more populated area of the state. Wichita is set to get its first cat cafe with the opening of Snick’s Cat Cafe coming in fall 2024.
History of Kansas Cat Cafes
The first Kansas cat cafe debuted in 2022 with the opening of Second Cup Cat Cafe in Olathe. While neighboring Missouri hit the cat cafe map in 2016, and the Kansas City area gained its first cat cafe in 2018 with the opening of Whiskers Cat Cafe KC, Olathe’s Second Cup Cat Cafe opened as the as first cat cafe in the Jayhawk state.
Not only is Second Cup the 1st cat cafe in the state, it is the 1st serving the sprawling Johnson County and the Kansas side of Kansas City. Cats are the star at Second Cup! The cafe typically has about twenty cats, and they often also have kittens. Also unique to Second Cup is their vibrant community of cat lovers and a chonky calendar of Cat-ivities.
2023 was big year for Kansas cat cafe openings with the debut of the Espurresso Cat Cafe in Lawrence and the unique literary cat lounge, Literary Cat Co. in Pittsburg.
Good Neighbors: Cat Cafes In All Directions
Kansas is in good company: all of the states bordering Kansas have cat cafes. In fact, Colorado has the distinction of being among the earliest cat cafe states, with opening of the venerable Denver Cat Company in late 2014. To the east, Missouri is home to ten cat cafes, many of which are readily accessible to Interstate 70 if you making a Colorado roadtrip. Heading north to Nebraska, you’ll find the extraordinary Felius Cat Cafe (temporarily closed until early July 2024 as they expand & relocate). To the south, you’ll find don’t stress meowt serving the entire state of Oklahoma! Don’t stress! The Oklahoma city location of don’t stress meowt (awarded Best OKC Coffee in 2024!) is to be joined by a second location in Tulsa in Fall 2024.
