Tinker's Cat Café — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

It’s a cute café, however, I couldn’t spend an hour here without being very bored. I could only spend 30 minutes here, and I was on a date, and then we decided to leave. They have an expansive menu, but only for caffeinated drinks or regular drinks. As for food, maybe 7 pastries and that was it. And majority being vegan. That’s great for vegans, but not everyone else. In my opinion, to be a true café you need a bit more options, like sandwiches or non-dessert items. None of that there. They had lots of gifty items for sale as well, like shirts, stickers, etc. Which is nice and the items were cute. Didn’t see prices on all items though. Now the main spot is the cat lounge. “Get your kitty fix” as they say. Seating was very limited, about 8 chairs in the center if you plan to eat in there, and it was just one square table. Personally for a date purpose, it wasn’t as pleasant sitting at a table with strangers or kids. There is an option to eat outside of the room and then go in, but we thought it would be more enjoyable inside. Other than petting and playing with cats, there isn’t much to do. Yes, there’s cat-themed books and games, but with such little seating and one table, there isn’t much room to do it. The cats were cute, clean, and looked well fed (almost too well fed with how chunky some of them looked). They had lots of toys and space to hang around, and if they get overwhelmed they had a place’s to get away, either up high or in another room. The idea that some of them can be adopted too is really good as well. However, the shy ones or cats that don’t want attention could be very stressed there. There was one cat who didn’t want anything to do with people and would swat them away or growl. That’s a cat scratch waiting to happen for a child unfamiliar with cats. If they aren’t that social or accepting of pets, they probably shouldn’t be there and be worked on more at the shelter. The room itself was really pretty though. A nice cat-theme with a big window for light to come in. They have a bird feeder outside so cats watch the birds. If there was a bit more seating, it’d be a nice cozy room. If they had a tv playing some stuff quietly, like animal planet or something, that might make it more entertaining. This place is a cool idea in concept, but they’ve still got a way to go before it could become a really amazing experience. I don’t know if I’d really comeback since I can just volunteer at a shelter to socialize with...

The coffee is great here! The employees were very nice. I went on a Saturday which probably wasn’t a good choice because it was very crowded with minimal seating. The cats were all so cute and friendly.

However, there are rules when it comes to how guests are supposed to interact with cats at cat cafes, and they don’t seem to care for enforcing those rules. With that said, during my visit, there were probably 8 adults and 5 children in the cat room during my visit. The children were very loud and constantly followed/bothered/grabbed at any cat they could see, until the cat would get so freaked out it would run away from us all into their little private area and hide for the majority of the time. If a cat was sleeping, they would try to wake it up, poke at it, or grab it’s tail multiple times. The cats seemed so scared and stressed out by all of it. The other adults in the room (I’m guessing some of them HAD to be parents of these kids, at least I hope so) ignored the misbehavior and said nothing to the kids. An employee would occasionally check out the room and they either didn’t see anything wrong happening, or didn’t care enough to enforce the rules.

I hate being that person calling out “rule breakers”, but I felt so bad for the cats if this is something they have to put up with regularly. They were visibly stressed and scared. This can’t be good for their well being and it’s not good for business because most of the cats spent the hour trying to hide from us all because those kids were so rowdy. Most of the cats were hiding (if not being chased into hiding by kids) so I only got to see/pet two cats all together. My fiancée and I made small comments a couple times very politely to let them know to be more gentle with the cats, but that was no good. As soon as time was up and the kids left, I saw the cats slowly came out of hiding.

Please enforce your rules better when it comes to interacting with the cats. ESPECIALLY when people come in with children. You need to have someone walk them through the proper ways to communicate with cats before they can even go in. If you care about the animals and the business, you will want to do better at creating a calm and welcoming environment for the animals who spend their lives there. It’s not fair to them or to your customers when you allow people to come in and ruin the experience...

The space is wonderfully remodeled, and the cat room is clean with a multitude of perches and comfy resting spots for the cats. There's a whole bucket of toys for the awake/playful cats! A large center table allows a customer to chill and read while surrounded by sleeping or stalking felines. Very pleasant space, overall!

The staff didn't know too much about each cat, but that knowledge will come with time.

My biggest concern is the pricing. $8/hour is prohibitively expensive for regular attendance. Currently, their multi-passes don't save you money (10 visits is $80, instead of, say, $75 or $70), so there's no incentive to purchase a multi-pass. An annual pass is $800!!! For comparison, San Diego's cat cafe just requires a purchase of an item (drink, snack, etc. $3) as the admission fee, else charges an entry fee of $5 if you're not feeling peckish.

Tinker's is still a bit rigid in their timing-- you can only go in on the hour. We were there 10 mins before the hour, and even though there were only 2 others in the cat room and no more reservations, we had to wait "in case a big group comes in" so everyone could go in together. At 2 pm on a weekday afternoon. So we waited, two others came in right before 2 pm, and we all went in just after the hour. The others left after 30 mins, but since a cat "chose" me, I couldn't move lest I disturb a sleeping cat ;)

Hopefully as the owners/staff become more comfortable with the ebb and flow, they'll be more flexible with the time restrictions.

I got a small drip coffee, which was decent, although reminiscent of some of the newer roasters' styles (low acidity).

I love the concept of cat cafes-- helping cats get adopted while providing a healthy space for socialization and freedom of movement, and providing a de-stress spot for humans whose living situations might preclude owning a pet.

I hope as Tinker's gets a consistent customer base, they'll be able to address the high entrance fee and timing restrictions.

P.S. Upon returning home, my roommate's cat was MAD at the smells on our clothes, lol! He sniffed us over, huffing and hackling the entire time, perhaps fearful we were planning to replace him with...