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Polly Want a Latte? The (Inevitable) Rise of Bird Cafes

January 4, 2017 by Meredith Mann No Comments

You’ve heard of Internet cafes. You may even have heard of cat cafes. (While I have yet to make it down to Philadelphia’s Kawaii Kitty Cafe, I can attest that Le Cat Cafe—and its kitty yoga nights—are awesome.)

Introducing the newest coffeeshop trend: the bird cafe. (From—where else?—Japan.)

Plunk down some yen and, cappuccino in hand, you can while away an hour or so in the company of chatty parakeets, uncharacteristically friendly owls, and pretty parrots. The growing popularity of the cafes suggests that they represent a way for busy professionals, or folks whose leases don’t allow pets, to de-stress by interacting with birds. (Let’s hope they serve bird-friendly coffee.)

All of the feels, none of the cage-cleanup? Sounds like a fun way to spend your next layover in Tokyo. (I’ll meet you back at the gate, though, after making a beeline for a cat cafe.)

Coffee Owls image credit to Emma Steigerwald.

Written by Meredith Mann
The lowly Red-winged Blackbirds in suburban New York triggered Meredith Mann's interest in birds. Five years later, she's explored some of the the USA's coolest hotspots, from Plum Island in Massachusetts to the Magic Hedge in Chicago to the deserts of Fallon, Nevada. She recently migrated from the Windy City (where she proudly served as a Chicago Bird Collision Monitor, rescuing migrants from skyscrapers and sidewalks) to Philadelphia, where she plans to find new editing and writing gigs; keep up her cool-finds chronicle, Blog5B; and discover which cheesesteak really is the best. And she will accept any and all invitations to bird Cape May, NJ.