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Purringtons Cat Lounge has cashed in one of its nine lives.
The owners of Portland's only cat cafe—in which patrons can sip beer and coffee in the presence of adoptable felines—announced in October that they would be shuttering the business ahead of a planned move out of state, unless someone offered to buy it off them.
Related: Portland's Only Cat Café Is Closing.
It didn't appear that they had any takers, and the bar has sat dim and meow-less on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard since early December.
But cat cafes always land on their feet, apparently.
On Jan. 15, a post on Purringtons' Facebook page announced that they had indeed found buyers. This week, former owners Sergio and Kristen Castillo made the transition real, writing what they called their "last post as the founders of Purringtons Cat Lounge" and officially handing over the keys to the new owners. It will now be run by Garrett Simpson, a longtime volunteer at Cat Adoption Team, the Sherwood-based shelter that provides the bar with cats, and partner Helen Harris.
"Our little baby is in good hands!" the Castillos wrote on Facebook.
Simpson tells WW he and Harris plan to redesign the bar area and expand the cafe side "for people who may not be going into the cat lounge to sit and eat and drink." The food and beverage menu will also be revamped.
A firm reopening date has yet to be set. But for now, just, uh, ignore that last thing we said about Purringtons when we thought it was dead and gone.
Correction: A previous version of this article misidentified co-owner Helen Harris. WW regrets the error.