Crescent City Cat Club - New Orleans, Louisiana

Laissez les bon temps rouler!  (Let the good times roll!)

Every year, approximately 11 million people visit the wondrous City of New Orleans – and for so many good reasons! New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz and if you visit the French Quarter’s Frenchman Street at any time of the day, you’ll be able to listen to all genres of live music while imbibing a Sazerac and nibbling on some red beans and rice. Personally, I enjoy drinking a local Abita Purple Haze with a shrimp poboy. OMG…my mouth is watering now… NOLA provides solace for those party animals who want to experience Mardis Gras on Bourbon Street and rip their tops off if they snag a pair of beads.  New Orleans is a foodie’s Garden of Eden where there is no such thing as a bad meal.  Even the most touristy of places offers you a tasty and hearty supper with extra Southern TLC.  I really can’t say enough for how awesome and fun New Orleans is and I've only been twice, but there’s a little known secret that most of the “Top Things to do in the Big Easy” might not include and it has to do with a little animal that goes “Meow.” Give up?! OK – it’s a cat café!

In December of 2018, my husband and I celebrated his birthday with a trip to The City That Care Forgot, so, of course, we had to check out their local cat café – Crescent City Cat Club.   This is the first cat lounge I’ve visited that was called a “club” as opposed to a “café,” “lounge” or “boutique.”  What made this cat club visit even cooler and even more unique than any other cat cafe I've been to is that there's a guest cottage in the rear of the cat club that we rented for the weekend on Airbnb!  So, now I can officially say that I've had a sleepover at a cat cafe.  I'm definitely a rare species.  Check out the guest cottage here:  http://crescentcitycatclub.com/apt-rentals/.  It was a very cozy place to sleep and unlike what you might think, no, there were no cats hanging around the guest cottage and walking all over our things.  There was no cat hair to be seen and no litter boxes to be smelt. Esylah was our gracious and kind host (and also the owner of the cat club) who ensured our stay was a PURRfect one (which it was).  The night we arrived, we had some VERY curious kitties peeking out the window at us as we were walking back to the cottage (see the photo below). Their looks were so inquisitive!  I can't help but laugh every time I look at this photo!  LoL  We planned that any future trips to NOLA will include booking the kitty cottage - as long as it's available seeing as how I imagine its awesomeness might be hitting the streets.  Plus, for you jazz fans out there, it was less than a 10-minute walk to Frenchman Street.  Double bonus!  OK – let’s get back to the cat café…

Crescent City operates out of a home converted into business. And you can’t miss it – it’s lime green and purple!

Once you step inside the cat club, yes, you’re greeted by a bunch of kitty cats with Creole accent meows (not really), but you also get to admire the bright spray painted artwork on the walls of the cat café that just make this place so much cooler!  The cat club is a shotgun style home where you can see from the front of the club straight to the back.  I had a lot of fun playing with the cats using the laser pointer and running it from front to back and back to front and front to back and on and on.  Poor cats definitely got their workout when I was there. There are several places to sit including tables and chairs and an animal print couch where could post up with your laptop and work, or just relax and wait for some kitties to cautiously make their way over to you and happily curl up on your lap for an afternoon nap. 

There are kitty toys galore and a large group of cats willing to play. Another first was that the Crescent Club housed the most cats I’ve ever seen at a cat café.  I believe they had close to 20! Another first for me (at that time anyway) was that Crescent City also has a kitten room where all the cutie little kitty babies live. The adult cats are not allowed to go into the kitten room, but adult people are and let me tell you, your heart expands bigger than the Grinch’s when you see those precious fur baby faces <sigh>.  I wanted them all...

We were able to visit the cat club every day that we were in town because we stayed in the cat cottage (it was an added perk of booking the cottage), so we took full advantage of it when we weren’t out stuffing our faces with beignets.  Esylah is such a wonderful host and loving cat mom to all of the cats at Crescent City, so her positivity made our stay even more enriching.  I loved the Crescent City’s vibe and mission and wish them all the best.  We'll be visiting the Big Easy again and when we do, we'll be heading right on back to the Club for some more love.

<3 B

Crescent City Cat Club is located at 1021 Marigny Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70117.  Reservations are not required.  http://crescentcitycatclub.com/