Finally. A pop-up cafe brings 'mewsic' to cat lovers' ears

The time has come for Nashville to get with the quirky, cuddly craze that’s purring around Atlanta, Austin and Charleston.

For those who have lusted after the chance to socialize and sip among a clowder of felines, Mewsic Kitty Café (yes, you read that right) will sate the desire – for now.

The four-day pop-up cat café at Atmalogy is a prelude to a permanent brick-and-mortar place – or in pet adoption parlance, a forever home – next summer, said Maegan Phan, co-founder along with her husband Thien.

Over the weekend cat lovers can reserve their spot for cat yoga, cat "mewvie" night or just sit back and have a coffee or adult drink with cats – just don’t bring your own cat.

Mewsic Kitty has gotten a lot of interest from cat lovers of all ages, said Phan, for whom this is a passion project. She works in marketing at the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute.

Cat cafes originated in Japan and made their way across the Pacific, first in waves of pop-ups.

Then the storefronts began to open.

There are more than two dozen around the country. Regionally there’s Blue Cat Café in Austin, soon-to-open River Kitty Café in Evansville, Ind., Java Cats Cafe in Atlanta, which is getting a second location.

“As they made their way into the South, my husband and I were like, ‘OK, it’s time. Why hasn’t this happened in Nashville?” said Phan.

Over the course of the next year the Phans want to have a few more pop-ups as they scout out the best location for their café. Food and drinks will be prepared in another room behind a closed door so the pop-up concept is okay with public health officials, Phan said.

Mewsic Kitty will pay homage to Nashville’s music roots, Phan said. She and her husband, a behind the scenes videographer and photographer in the country industry, are keeping some of the ways they plan to “cat-ify” Nashville’s music history secret. But there will be puns.

(Purrhaps Dolly Purrton, Keith Furban and Florida Georgia Feline will be regulars.)

Most cafes partner with local animal shelters to get their kitty guests, and the model helps the shelters free up space. More than 250 cats have gone home with their new humans since Pounce Cat Cafe + Wine Bar opened in Charleston, S.C., in December.

Working with Pounce is proving important, particularly in the summer months when it’s kitten season, said Kay Hyman, spokeswoman for the Charleston Animal Society. Thirty-eight kittens arrived on Tuesday. Pounce handles adoption paperwork at its location while the animal society makes sure the cats are healthy, vaccinated and spayed or neutered.

“What that has done is it has alleviated the overpopulation problem we have in the shelter,” said Hyman. “It’s been amazing.”

Mewsic Kitty is working with Nashville Cat Rescue. A dozen adoptable cats will be at the pop-up, and when there is a storefront the cats will stay overnight.

Cats, with their funny expressions, odd antics and obsession with boxes, have come to inhabit every corner of the internet with memes and videos. In a phenomenon chronicled by the BBC and The New York Times as well as in an exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image, cats have won the internet.

But as any cat human knows: cats go where they want, when they want.

“Whether the ‘crazy cat lady’ turned into the ‘crazy, cool cat lady,’ or it’s a Taylor Swift thing (she owns two cats), I think the internet has done incredible things for people with passions of all kinds,” said Phan. “(Mewsic Kitty is for) people who think it would be really chill to having a drink in a room with cats at the end of a hard day.”

Reach Holly Fletcher at hfletcher@tennessean.com or 615-259-8287 and on Twitter @hollyfletcher.

About Mewsic Kitty Cafe

Cat Yoga - 8 AM Saturday, 7/1
Mewvie Night - 7 PM Sunday, 7/2
Mewsic in the Cat Lounge - 6 - 8 PM Monday, 7/3
Closed for cat naps each day at 2 PM.
Tickets $12.99-$25 required. 

Tickets can be purchased at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mewsic-kitty-cafe-pop-up-tickets-35029826153

atmalogy, 2320 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN 37203