Portland's Future Cat Cafe Seeks to Raise $45,000

Could Portland be forging ahead in the hotly contested race to open America's first permanent cat cafe? Eater PDX reports that Purringtons Cat Lounge is in talks with the local health department to finalize a menu for the human-feline hangout, and in the meantime has launched a fundraiser.

It was originally thought that Purringtons would be limited to serving simple snacks like popcorn and beef jerky due to health code regulations, but now, founder Kristen Castillo says Purringtons "will now have no restrictions on what food [it] can offer," and further promises a "small but lovely menu." (There will also be coffee, tea, beer and wine, but probably only for the humans?)

Castillo is currently in lease negotations for a space and has started an IndieGogo campaign with the aim of raising $45,000 to get the cat cafe up and running.

Purringtons will feature a lineup of 10 cats, and just as with the recent cat cafe pop-up in New York, all of them will be available for adoption. For the human patrons, there will also be free wi-fi, reading material, and possibly "a reservations-based system, depending on demand." (If the Cronut-like queues at the NYC cat cafe are any indication, that will probably prove necessary.)

The West Coast is currently going nuts for cat cafes, with projects in the works in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland.

· PDX's Cat Cafe Has Launched a Fundraising Campaign [-EPDX-]
· Purringtons Cat Lounge & Cafe [Indiegogo]
· A Cat Cafe Is In The Works For Portland, OR [-E-]
· All Cats Coverage on Eater [-E-]