Catzen Coffee is a new coffee shop that opened up off Grand Ave and Albert St in St. Paul. It has all the tasty treats and warm coffee that come with any coffee shop, but comes with a twist: it has 10 cats in the shop at all hours of the day for customers to interact with.
“We’re in the middle of three colleges right here, tons of college kids who are away from home, who don’t have their pets with them,” said Vanessa Beardsley, owner of Catzen Coffee. “The world is stressful, and it’s getting more stressful, and they’ve just come off COVID, so I thought I really want to create a third space and create really good coffee.”
Catzen opened on January 1 and has been growing slowly but surely. The cats at the coffee shop are brought in from St. Paul’s Humane Society and local breeders.
Elpis Enterprises has been an early partner in their growth, providing our remade coffee bean tote bags for sale at the location. The bags have helped Catzen promote Elpis’s presence in the community, and Elpis has helped to get the word out on this new coffee shop within the community.
“It was right up the alley of the things that I want to promote here in the shop, which is local products. Products that have a purpose, products that do well, and I love the bags themselves. They are great, so yeah, it really fits.”
Beardsley started Catzen to provide a new coffee shop in a St. Paul neighborhood that has seen many closed in recent years. She hopes Catzen can become a consistent, cozy place for people to hang out, relax, and bond with the cats that help them decompress from the stresses of the world.
“We have so many people that are just really complementary and grateful to have this space and have it in the neighborhood, and that makes me feel really good.”
And the bags brought in from Elpis Enterprises have also been a hit with customers. Catzen has also been able to put its logo on these bags and even have cats crawl into them from time to time.
“Oh, it’s been great. The bags sell well, I love them, and I have them displayed on my shelf, which is really nice, and they look great. I did a nice social media splash when they came out and explained Elpis and explained what they do… It makes me feel really good. It makes me feel like I’m fulfilling the vision I had with my shop, which was to do good in the community.”
Catzen is located at 1416 Grand Ave in St. Paul. 45-minute reservations are required for customers to interact with the cats and can be made at this link.
