What´s the hottest ticket in London these days?
A table by the window in The Shard? Tickets to the latest version of Hamlet starring Benedict Cumberbatch?
Wrong. That would be a booking at a certain east London cafe. This place has turned back the likes of Katy Perry in recent times and you´d be hard pressed to score a table before the year was out.
The unassuming entrance of Lady Dinah´s
And why all the fuss? Cats! Practical cats, dramatical cats, pragmatical cats, fanatical cats, oratorical cats, delphioracle cats… inside Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium you´ll find almost the full spectrum of T. S. Eliot´s cats.
Introducing the cats that live at Lady Dinah´s
This café was set up primarily to care for rescued cats so the entire space is like a feline Disneyland with every nook and cranny filled with fun wheels, toys and nesting perches.
Guests are carefully briefed, sanitised and wormed… i mean warned, before entering the emporium. Don’t even think about picking up one of the ten cats mid-snooze or feeding them your macaron crumbs. If they approach you however, it´s game on.
Chicken salad and goats cheese criossant
A £5 cover charge goes towards the welfare of the cats and there´s also a reasonably priced menu spanning cakes, salads, croissants and hot/cold drinks. But you´re not coming here here for the food, it´s all about the cats and don´t they know it.
While half the cats there spent the afternoon horizontal by the front window, I did manage a little play time with Wookie, Loki and Petra (or was it Biscuit?).
Romeo hitches a ride with a staff member
A copy of this handy cat bio is provided in the cafe so you can read up on the needs and desires of each cat.
Do you love cats?
Bookings are taken online only and vouchers are also available, perfect for all your crazy cat friends. Let me know if you manage to get in and stir any cats from their window slumber!
Lady Dinah´s Cat Emporium: 152-154 Bethnal Green Road, Shoreditch, London, E26DG
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