Tinker's Cat Café
While we were in Salt Lake City last week, we made sure to stop at the new cat café that opened up about a month and a half ago! Tinker's Cat Café is the first of its kind in Utah: a place where you can grab yourself a beverage and sweet treat and hang out with adorable adoptable kitties at the same time! It's heaven for a cat lady like me. ;)
I supported the Kickstarter almost two years ago, so I was very excited to finally get a chance to visit, especially since it opened after I moved!
Tinker's is situated in a cute little building just south of downtown Salt Lake City. You walk into the café part, where you can order an assortment of drinks and pick out a treat (or two—no one will judge). Their snacks come from City Cakes & Café, known for their vegan goodies! You would never know their baked goodies were vegan—trust me. ;) They're so good!
My boyfriend grabbed a mocha for himself, and I got a peppermint hot chocolate. 'Tis the season!
If you are waiting for your time to visit the kitties, there's ample space to sit and enjoy your drink or work on your computer, just like in a regular coffee shop.
Cassie
Alaska
Next is kitty time! Only a limited number of people can visit the kitties per hour. We made reservations to secure our spot, but they allow walk-ins if the hour isn't full. Weekends fill up quickly so definitely make reservations ahead of time if that's when you're planning on coming in. It costs $8 per person, per hour to spend time with the cats, but it's worth it; all of the money goes straight back into their care. We had so much fun hanging out with the kitties and snapping their cute faces. The hour flew by!
The room is set up with a table and chairs and lots of other places to sit and play or pet the cats. I loved how "catified" the room was (that's a Jackson Galaxy word, haha). The room featured lots of soft beds to lay on, scratching posts, stick-on window shelves, and an entire wall of regular shelves that the cats can scale if they so please. I tried to convince my boyfriend that we needed something like that in our place, but he was quick to shut that idea down. ;) There's also (human) games available to play and cat toys if you want to bring out their frisky side!
Kamet
Nala
The kitties at Tinker's are all available for adoption (except the long-haired black cat, their resident cat, not shown in any photos) and all come from Salt Lake County Animal Services, the largest no-kill shelter in Utah. I absolutely love that they partner with a shelter! This kind of environment is so much better for the cats than shelter cages; it's more relaxing and they're able to come out of their shells and show off their personalities! As of this post, Tinker's has facilitated 15 adoptions since they opened in early November. Isn't that amazing?! I would absolutely love to open a cat café in Boise!
If you ever find yourself in Salt Lake City and love cats, I highly recommend blocking out an hour of time to spend with the kitties at Tinker's! :)
