A popular feline-themed cafe based in Beacon may soon be opening a new location in New Paltz.
Beans Cat Cafe owners Jessica Cruz and Justin Strika came before the Village of New Paltz Planning Board for the first time last week for a site review and special use of their plans to turn 11 Church Street into their new location.
Cruz and Strika opened their Beacon Beans Cat Cafe in November 2020, fulfilling a storyline that according to their website, saw Cruz turn into “a crazy cat lady” after getting her first cat at the age of 18. Before turning their professional lives to Beans Cat Cafe, Cruz was a manager in the restaurant industry and Strika a direct support professional with the Anderson Center for Autism.
In Beacon, the pair have helped facilitate the adoption of around 450 shelter cats, and they hope visitors to their future New Paltz location will respond similarly.
Though Beans is quite literally a cat cafe, the operations are technically separate.
“Our space is divided into two sections,” said Cruz. “One where people can come in and purchase beverages and pre-made snacks, and then we host shelter cats in the other section from Hudson Valley Animal Rescue that people can come in and spend time with, and (the cats) are also made available for adoption.”
The feline side of Beans allows visitors to pay for a block of time to spend with the cats, who also have spaces where they can hide if they’re not up to interacting. The Beans website (beanscatcafe.com) features a current lineup of cats, including their names and personality traits. The website also features an alumni page of cats in their new homes.
Visitors to Beans Cat Cafe are asked to adhere to a set of rules designed to ensure interactions between humans and cats go well for everyone.
“This is the cats’ home,” reads the first rule. “Respect the cats, respect the humans.”
Many of the rules are common sense, particularly for those who have experience with cats. The central theme is that the cats set their own boundaries, and visitors to Beans Cat Cafe are expected to respect those boundaries.
Time in the cat cafe is booked in increments of 30 or 60 minutes, with private sessions for up to eight people available.
Predictably, dogs are not allowed in the cat side of the business, but depending upon local health rules would be allowed inside the cafe side within reason, said Cruz. She added that they’ve already been in contact with the Ulster County Department of Health and told that as long as there is a solid wall dividing the cafe and the cats, then they shouldn’t have any issues.
The business has applied for a Special Use Permit to transform the former Lagusta’s Luscious Commissary at 11 Church Street into the new cat cafe.
Planning Board members — even those who identified themselves as dog people — expressed enthusiasm for the project and hoped to be able to set a public hearing soon to allow Beans Cat Cafe to get closer to possibly opening quicker. First, the project will go before the Ulster County Planning Board, likely in early April.
“We have to get some response back from the Ulster County Planning board before we can set a public hearing,” said Village Planning Board chairman John Litton. “If they disagree with it for whatever reason, we’d have to work through that. Not that we think that they will.”
Should the project proceed smoothly, it could be set for a public hearing at the Village Planning Board meeting scheduled for Tuesday, April 18 and could be approved by early May.
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