Siblings Andy Iglesias and Gina Lazo are the owners of the newly opened The Farmer’s Cat Café, a coffee shop that works with a local animal rescue service to help find cats their forever home. This unique business model has taken root in many major cities across the country, but this is the first cat café in Fayetteville. 

Iglesias and his wife both moved around a lot from being in the military until his wife got orders to Fort Bragg and they decided to settle in the area. His sister relocated to the city to pursue this family business endeavor. The space used to be a car lot before the family purchased it. They shared that they initially thought of opening up a restaurant, but then they settled on bringing this popular concept to Fayetteville. 

“We wanted to do a family business. So our family…we all purchased this land right here, and we were thinking about what we were going to do with this little building. We were trying to make it into a restaurant originally, and then we measured out the square footage, and it just wasn't happening, it wasn't feasible. My sister had never heard of a cat café…my wife took me to them because when I was overseas my wife was at ECU going to college, and at the apartment we were at we couldn't have pets, so that's where we went and saw our first cat cafe, around that area. So [we] figured it would be a pretty good idea,” shared Iglesias. 

The café, located at 2589 Gillespie Street, had a soft opening at the end of February and plans to celebrate their grand opening in late March or early April. The business features a cat lounge and a coffee bar with indoor and outdoor seating.

Guests can enjoy delicious drinks and snacks from the coffee bar. Cookies, muffins, lattes, frappes, smoothies and more are all available. The business’s coffee supplier is Cactus Creek Coffee based out of Aberdeen, NC. The owners were able to spend a couple days training with the distributor to perfect the craft before they began serving customers. 

“It's definitely a dream come true, especially being a family business…it's definitely the American dream,” remarked Lazos.

The café works with T.A.R.A. Rescue, a nonprofit foster-based organization, to adopt out cats. Jessica Hinojosa works with T.A.R.A. and the café to bring in cats that will be comfortable in the café setting for guests to pet, play with and possibly even bring home. Adoption costs are $120 or $125 with a card. All cats are microchipped and vaccinated. After being open for just under two weeks the café has already celebrated five successful adoptions. 

The cost to spend time in the cat lounge is $13.50 per person for 50 minutes. Children must be 10 years or older to go into the cat lounge. The café also offers "Kiddos & Kittens" on special dates and times for children five and up. Guests are allowed to bring drinks into the cat lounge if they wish, but food must be kept in the dining area. 

As the business grows, the owners hope to become even more engaged in the community. The building has outlets for food trucks to plug in so they intend to partner with food trucks in the future. There is also an open outdoor space where they intend to host farmer’s markets with local vendors and entrepreneurs. 

The Farmer’s Cat Café is open Monday, Wednesday - Saturday from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. and on Sundays from 12 p.m. until 6 p.m. They are closed on Tuesdays. 

To learn more about T.A.R.A. visit their website at https://tararescue.org/. To keep up with The Farmer’s Cat Café follow their Facebook page or visit their website https://farmerscatcafe.com/.