London Will Soon Get Its First Official Cat Café

Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium is one step closer to opening in east London, which means that noncommittal animal lovers and adulterous cat owners will finally have a place where they can go work on their manuscripts and sip coffee while playing with a strange kitty.

Cat cafés like Lady Dinah’s are becoming pretty popular around the world, especially in countries like Austria, Russia, and (of course) Japan. The concept is simple: ordinary cafés are pretty uninspiring. Who wants to sit near a bunch of mouth-breathing humans as they slam their fingers into their dirty Macbook keyboards? Serial killers, probably. Since most people aren’t serial killers, they’d prefer to share their café spaces with appreciative, well-socialized cats. Lady Dinah’s will have designated areas where patrons can play with the house cats, which are all humane society rescues.

The only catch is that the cats can’t be anywhere near the Emporium’s food prep area, because a) gross, and b) dozens of cats meowing for food is a noise that cannot be drowned out with indie coffee shop music