SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – The COVID-19 pandemic has hurt businesses across the country. Many Americans are facing layoffs and furloughs. One Syracuse woman, Alisha Reynolds, decided to use this time of uncertainty to do something unexpected.
Reynolds worked in a corporate job for most of her life, along with her husband. Before the plans for the café had even come to light, Reynolds knew she was looking for something else.
“Last January, I was working three corporate jobs and decided it was time for a change,” she said.
Her husband was directly impacted by COVID-19 when he lost his job and Reynolds didn’t. While working, Reynolds decided to open up her own business in the Syracuse area. Her choice of establishment is something called a cat café.
A cat café is a place where cats from local shelters can go to find a potential adopter. These cats are moved from the shelter to the café for about a week, with the hope that the cats will be adopted. Customers can order a latte or a coffee beforehand and then enter a separate room to see the cats.
Reynolds set up shop in Syracuse two weeks ago and named her café Pawsitivitea CNY. The café recently had its “soft opening.” A soft opening is when a business will slowly start operations to make sure that what is in place, will work. During the soft opening, there have been three official adoptions from the café, and more are pending. Reynolds has not been paying for advertising.
“The biggest thing right now is word of mouth and social media,” she said.
A cat café was something that Syracuse was missing, Reynolds said. While on a road trip with her husband, Reynolds noticed cat cafés in different places. She said she enjoys helping animals so an establishment like this caught her attention.
Reynolds is currently the only one working at Pawsitivitea while she works out the ‘kinks.’ For the soft opening, Reynolds set up a reservation system to limit the number of customers who can come in at a time. The maximum capacity is seven. These reservations are also in place to comply with New York state coronavirus health and safety protocols. After every visit Reynolds said she sanitizes the tables and common areas after customers leave.
Reynolds said the current capacity gives “plenty of space to be apart from each other or in little groups.”
Since Pawsitivitea had three adoptions so far, Reynolds expects the trend to continue. Reynolds said the grand opening of the café is in the works and she expects a date to be set in the next few weeks.
