Capawcino Cat Café: Coffee and Paw-sitivity!
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Loading... - Farhan Hosen
- 31 Jan 2023
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Capawcino Cat Cafe is genuinely one of the happiest places you can visit. Located above Mehedi Mart in Bashundhara, it's the first ever cat cafe in Dhaka. You are immediately greeted with a burst of life upon entering the cafe with its rooftop setup, refreshing decor and paw shaped stepping stones that lead you to the main attraction of the cafe: a cat zone with around 20 cats! Much like some of the rescued felines the cafe cares for, their story to better days too is filled with highs and lows and we caught up with Rahat Rahman, the founder, to uncover it.
"I wanted a place where my cat and its kittens can play in," Rahat stated, as he explained the origins of Capawcino. The software engineering graduate had a cat named Ryzen that had given birth to kittens and the felines were turning out to be a handful for Rahat's family. "Cat cafes have been a concept in Japan for a while now and I wanted to introduce something like this in Bangladesh, not just so that my cats can always have a place to play in but also to show people how amazing cats can be and help them get rid of their fears and also teach them how to raise cats," he added. Rahat had pitched the ideas to numerous investors but unfortunately, he couldn't find anyone who shared his enthusiasm or vision until he stumbled upon a Facebook post of a friend. "My friend Tanimul made a post from his profile expressing how Dhaka needs a pet cafe and his interest in opening one. I had the intention from 2014 and by that time, I had also saved up some money from freelancing so I reached out to him," he explains. Thus, Rahat, Tanimul and two other friends made an investment to open the first ever cat cafe in Dhaka in February 2019. Tragedy struck Rahat's life as Ryzen, his cat of 9 and a half years sadly passed away just before the opening. But life taketh, life giveth and the cafe itself garnered huge attention and also gave Rahat and co the opportunity to rescue more cats and give them shelter. "Business was great, we had 15 cats and served some of the best coffee and waffles in that area. People from all over Dhaka came to visit us," Rahat elaborated. Read More…
