SAN FRANCISCO—KitTea will be opening it’s doors to the Mission District sometime before November, co-founder Courtney Hatt told the San Francisco News. The café’s new location will be at 1266 Valencia Street, in a historic brick building that is walking distance from Dolores Park.
KitTea came to Hays Valley in 2015 becoming the city’s first and only interactive feline café. Hatt told the San Francisco News that due to the city’s lack of action for small “non-essential” businesses KitTea could no longer afford their rent in Hayes Valley.
“They really failed us and we felt very abandoned in our many attempts to reach out for help and assistance. The only reason KitTea is still here is due to the support of our friends and community,” Hatt disclosed to the San Francisco News. She started a Gofundme for KitTea in late March when they were ordered to shut down. The money goes to support and care for all of the rescued cats of KitTea. The fundraiser has been able to surpass it’s goal of $40,000 reaching $44,635 as of September 29.
Despite surpassing their fundraiser goal, Hatt said in an email that, “Sadly I can’t say we have been doing very well.” KitTea was able to secure their PPP loan, but according to Hatt it was much smaller than expected and only lasted 2 months.
KitTea rescues cats who are lost in the shelter system or are at-risk for euthanization. The café is currently sheltering 22 cats, 14 of them are “puurmanent” residents and eight of them are currently adoptable, according to Hatt.
“A few of our resident kitties really miss the floods of human interaction they would receive on a daily basis. We went from having 80-100 guests visit them in a day to 2-6 per day,” Hatt said in an email.
She is looking to KitTea’s new location in the Mission District as a fresh start. The new location will have twice as big of a lounge area and KitTea will be able to have two separate booking experiences for cats and kittens. Hatt told the San Francisco News that amidst these uncertain times, “KitTea is a place to forget it all, quiet your mind and enjoy the healing power of cats.”
