Mauhaus Cat Cafe & Lounge
4:18 PM
Located on Sutton
Boulevard in Maplewood, Mauhaus brings a unique coffee experience to an area saturated with good coffeehouses. Its mission is twofold: satisfy your caffeine craving and help get cats adopted. The space is divided into two rooms. When you
first walk in, the espresso machine and register stand just inside the
door. The area where the cats stay is separated by floor-to-ceiling windows and
two sets of doors to thwart kitty escape attempts. This also prevents cat hair from ending up in your latte or on your pastry. Bar seating
in front of the glass wall dividing the space lets you peek in at the cats
while you wait your turn to get in.
Yes, you have to wait. The number of people allowed in is limited to
avoid overwhelming the cats, so if you walk in off the street, there's no
guarantee you'll make it inside the cat room. For this reason, they recommend making a reservation,
which requires a $10 deposit per person. The trick is this money is nonrefundable.
It goes toward food and drinks ordered, but anything left over is considered
a donation to the shop. With the price of the pastries and coffee, it’s not difficult to hit that $10 mark. Still, that’s more than most people regularly spend at a coffee shop.
Based on the turn
out opening weekend, the extra cost didn’t scare anyone off. The spots were
almost completely filled when I made my reservation for 6pm Sunday night – not
exactly prime coffee time. When I arrived it was packed with a wide variety of
people. A few kids were sprawled on the floor playing with the animals, and one girl wore a cat-ear headband. Many adults baby-talked to the cats the whole time, while
others sat quietly beside sleeping felines and looked peaceful.
One thing was
clear: everyone was there for the kitty entertainment.
And these cats
delivered. It’s like the owners auditioned the animals to find the perfect
cast for the shop. They all were well behaved and somehow unperturbed by
countless strangers in their business. There were two stars of the show. A rambunctious little tabby climbed, played with toys, and pounced on other
cats, but wasn’t so fiesty that he bit or scratched customers. My
favorite was an ultra-soft calico who slept the entire time and had an
endless capacity for being petted.
The space itself
was interesting, though not the most comfortable. It was designed more for the cats than
the patrons with plenty of nooks for hiding and structures for climbing. Toys
were scattered across the floor and beds were placed on most surfaces for the
cats to curl up. For the customers, there were a couple tables and chairs, as
well as large pillows on the floor and benches in front of the windows looking out to the street. It’s a fairly small room full of furry distractions, so it’s not ideal for getting work done.
When my allotted
hour was up, I left wondering what will happen when the novelty wears off. Will
people treat this place as a regular coffee spot to grab a cup of joe on the
way to work or to get a little work done? Will the efforts the shop makes to find these animals homes be enough of an appeal? Perhaps I underestimate the draw of these cats, but my guess is that eventually, they won't be enough. The space and the coffee will have to satisfy customers as well to make this shop successful.
This is where
Mauhaus needs work. The space is not ideal for the usual café activities like
meetings and internet surfing, and the drinks are mediocre.
The drinks were especially disappointing
because the coffee has potential to be great. Mauhaus serves La Cosecha coffee,
which makes a smooth, chocolaty espresso. They also use a manual Londinium, so
with the right training, the barista should be able to get good foam.
Unfortunately, the cortado and cappuccino I tried were off. The milk on the
cappuccino was scalded and the foam was sloppy. The cortado looked exactly like
the sloppy cappuccino, only with less milk. It should have had foam more like a
latte.
Hopefully after a couple weeks being open and more training, Mauhaus can work out the kinks. They'll need to. The cats will make it easy to
get people to spend that first $10, but to get people to come back for a second and third cup, the coffee will have to improve.
0 comments