Friday, February 22, 2013

Attic Cat / Cat Attic - cat cafe in Gangnam


I love cat cafes. Luckily I have a great one only a block away from my apartment. If you go to Gangnam Station, exit 10...take an immediate left down a little street (sort of a driveway, or more of a parking lot when I went). There was a person dressed up like an orange cat with a sign pointing the right way, but he/she may not always be there. Still you will see a building with green and yellow bubbles. That is where you turn.


Anyway, walk a short ways until that road ends. The cat cafe will be in front of you (a little to the right) on the 4th floor of the building. You will see a place named Pomato, and the cafe is to the right of that. The cat cafe sign will be on the wall of windows above the 7-11. The elevator is through the door immediately left of the 7-11.



Okay so on to the cafe itself. If you have read about any other cat cafes this is pretty much the same. You walk in, put some slippers on (putting your shoes in a cubby hole), and disinfect your hands. There are also spare sets of slippers for use if you need to run off to the restroom while you are visiting the cafe - this way you don't have to waste time putting on your shoes. Then you go through another door and up to the counter, pay your $8 or 8,000 won, then order a drink (the first drink is free with the entry fee). Then you have a seat. This place was also cool enough to have little cabinets for you to put your things. Somewhere in this process, you will be introduced to the rules, which vary per cat cafe but are pretty much all the same (don't feed the cat human food or drink, don't wake sleeping cats, don't mess with cats when they are eating, don't pull cat's tails, don't pick up and hug cats, etc).


  Then you start enjoying the orgy of cat love that is running, lounging, stalking, or sleeping in the room. My previous cat cafe visit was lacking in cat loving. Most of the cats seemed disinterested in people and a little on the snooty side. I figured this was the norm since cats aren't always the most sociable with people they don't know (as opposed to dogs who love you the moment you walk in the door). This cafe, however, had lots of loving cats eager for pets and attention. 



Periodically, one of the workers (possibly the owner or manager of the place) would come out and either give people a little cat food on their hands to feed to the cats, pass out snacks to give to the cats (the kittens were not allowed the food or the treats, which was a little sad but I guess I understood it), or use a pole with a feather on a string to make the cats play and do various tricks - not to mention some instructed mischief. He had a lot of fun with it, the cats seemed to enjoy it, and the patrons all laughed and played along.
 
 

I stayed for quite a while (there is no time limit for staying beyond their normal business hours) before I decided I really needed to go and get some productive things done, but not before one of the cats took up residence on my coat (which I had sitting on the bench). That cat slept peacefully for some time before I finally had to nudge him off so I could leave. That was a sad time indeed.

Finally, I gave the girl at the desk my empty cup, traded my slippers for my tennis shoes, then I headed down and out of the building. Luckily, it's so close, I know I can go back any time. There also seemed to be some sort of stamp/punch card you could get for return/repeat visits, so I will have to look into that for next time.

Attic Cat Cafe Info

website: http://www.godabang.com
phone number: 02-3481-3123 (in Korea)
open hours: I believe it is 1pm ~ 10pm
--seems there are others in Myeongdong and Hongdae as well (and a few other places according to the website). I can't read the website, so I can't be certain of what it says.

1 comment:

  1. hi, I could you send me an email to this cat café? I can't find it on their website because I don't speak the language.

    Thanks :-)

    ReplyDelete