As usual, we’ve been busy at affoGATO Cat Cafe!
First, great news: we made it through Zoning approval! That means we’re halfway through the city review process. Now we need approval from Building and Housing, then we will be allowed to complete our renovations and get inspected. In the meantime, we’ve been doing any minor work that we can, including preparing the walls for painting, building our cafe cabinets, etc. As soon as we get approval, we should be able to move forward very quickly!
Summertime means lots of community events around Cleveland!
Last week, Rising Star hosted us at their Lakewood location for an amazing coffee tasting event. Guests each received one of these adorable cat cupcakes from A Cookie and a Cupcake, as well as gift bags with an exclusive mug.
Thanks to everyone who attended and gave us feedback on the different coffee options. Together, we picked a delicious blend of Mexican and Colombian coffee, called the Get Off The Counter Blend. 10% of the profits from the retail sale of this coffee in our cafe will be donated to benefit animal-related causes.
We were invited to participate in Walkabout Tremont for the first time yesterday, an event that showcases the best of Tremont’s creative side on the second Friday of every month with extended hours at galleries and shops, restaurant and bar specials, street performers, pop-up art, neighborhood walking tours, and much more. Since we’re not open yet, we just had a small info booth. But we were incredibly happy that so many of you stopped by to say hello and ask questions about the cafe! Your enthusiasm is infectious, and keeps us motivated to open as quickly as possible!
Tomorrow, June 15, we’ll be participating in the Taste of Tremont from noon to 8pm. Come find us in Lucky Park (Professor and Starkweather), where we’ll be selling Rising Star cold brew, Storehouse iced tea, and the first run of T-shirts and stickers with our logo on them!
All of the money we raise will be used for our renovations, so please come and support us! Parking fills up quickly, so we encourage you to use alternative transit (bus, bike, rideshare) and come early!
On this note, we have an IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT for our donors! As you know, we have been emailing everyone to coordinate your rewards. Everyone who donated to our campaign can come to our booth tomorrow if they want to pick up their stickers in person. We tried our very best to get the special donor T-shirts/sweatshirts in time for this event, but since they’re more unique, printing takes longer. Check it out:
That writing inside the cat is all of our public donors’ names! Also, the sweatshirt has the text logo on the sleeve, which is not shown.
We’re very sorry that you will not be able to pick them up tomorrow with the stickers, but we definitely think these exclusive items will be worth the wait! We will coordinate pickup/mailing them as soon as they are delivered.
We can’t wait to share more updates as we make progress towards opening, which we still hope to be in very early August. We’re adding more equipment and furniture all the time, and are planning to paint this week! We’ll be posting tons of pictures of that and the Taste of Tremont tomorrow on our Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @affoGATOcatcafe.