Move over Mickey and Minnie, The Kitty Beautiful Cat Café has come to town. The café, owned by Heather and David Strauss, held its grand opening in November and is the purrfect place for drinks — coffee, espresso, teas, beer, wine, crafted sodas, cold-pressed juices — or just some yummy snacks. The menu was created with as many locally sourced items as possible.

Cat lovers Heather and David have an 11-year-old rescue tuxedo kitty named Somewhere. “The idea of spending every day with a bunch of kitties was about the most appealing thing there was,” they say about opening up a cat café. “Also, we wanted to start a business that would allow our entire family to work together. Our two children are both on the autism spectrum, and we wanted to be able to give them employment opportunities that otherwise are very difficult for young adults with autism.”

And there are the cats on the other side of the café that you can visit with a $10 cover fee to help with the cost of housing and feeding the cats. The Kitty Beautiful Cat Café partnered with The Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando for kitties needing their forever homes.

The café offers cat yoga every Saturday morning and will soon be adding another class. “We do Mew-vie Nights once a month where we watch a movie projected on the wall with the cats,” David says. “We have date night specials a couple evenings a week and are going to start doing board game and card game nights. And we’ve started doing Murder Mystery Parties with the cats, which is a lot of fun. We definitely want to continue adding new and fun reasons to visit the cafe, such as staged theatrical readings, spoken word events, and more, even for those unfortunate folks who are allergic to cats!”

The café also works with the UCF Center for Autism and Related Disabilities to offer employment for young adults on the autism spectrum. “Our son has been with UCF CARD since he was about 10 years old,” Heather says. “They have done so many things for us and have helped my son have a more normal childhood by doing simple things [such] as playing miniature golf and bowling with other kids. He has learned what behaviors are acceptable and what are not. They have even come to his school to observe and make suggestions in the classroom. We can never repay UCF CARD for what they have given to us, but we wanted to be able to do what we can for the autistic people they work with every day.”

David leaves us with this about opening the café: “We thought that once in your life you need to take a leap of faith and try and make a dream come true.”

Top Photo: ©diane555 | Getty Images