Café Schnurrke: Cologne’s cat café!

23. November 202118. November 2021 Mia Jaap 2 Comments cat, cat cafe, cologne

Opened in 2014, Café Schnurrke is well established in Cologne’s café scene. It’s also the only cat café in Cologne. Let’s meet Lora, Cleo, Cheri and Freddy!

It took many years for cat cafés to appear in Germany. These kinds of cafés already existed for years in Japan and South Korea. This even led to other animal cafés like bunny or dog cafés. None of these have reached Germany yet.

Café Schnurrke is located near Cologne’s Hansaring Station, just a short walk from the busy central station. It’s a quiet street with a record store, comic book shop and a lamp shop. Like other cat cafés it has two doors to prevent the cats from strolling outside. There’s some cute fan art between door one and two.

With any cat café, there is no guarantee that the cats will actually come to you. The four cats have different personalities and there’s plenty of space for them to hide or sleep. I liked the construction beneath the ceiling. The cats can basically cross the whole café without coming into contact with humans.

Thus it’s important that the café is also enjoyable when the cats are asleep the whole time or somewhere else. The interior is vintage: chairs, couches, tables, carpets. There is no entrance fee for the café, but the owners ask customers to at least spend six euro there. They have various drinks, cakes and soup, all vegan. Café Schnurrke also provides various card games.

Cat disturbing work — Cat using a MacBook

Café Schnurrke: Cat relaxing — Cat looking

Café Schnurrke: wide view with cat bridge — I do like the vintage vibe of the café

Playing with cats

I’d recommend a reservation for evenings and weekends. There are also a few events at the café – although it’s unlikely to arrive just when they do a yoga session with cats, it’s best to check out the website before.

On my evening visit, the cats were very interested in the carpet and notebook. When I visited the café again in the early morning, cat Cleo decided to interrupt my study session. I taught her a bit high intermediate Japanese. That’s a useful skill for a cat to have!

Café Schnurrke: Cat in a chair — That white cat is not seeking human attention

The Area

Interesting stores in that area include the Underground Recordstore, PIN-UP Comics and the LampenManuFaktur. You may also visit church St. Ursula which has an impressive “golden chamber”. Both LampenManuFaktur and St. Ursula have limited opening hours.