Boris & Horton opened in the East Village, billed as the city’s first dog cafe, where humans and their pets eat and hang out. It’s similar to a regular cafe, but there are more customers with floppy ears and wagging tails, and it’s part of a trend of similar stores that have popped up in New York and elsewhere.
The cafe serves snacks and pastries for humans and dogs (the cafe is for humans only). After several years of success, Boris & Horton opened a second branch in Brooklyn last spring.
To comply with local health department regulations, human food and pet food are prepared separately, and dog food is served in single-use disposable containers. The cafe portion of the business is in a separate space adjacent to the seating area.
Although Boris & Horton was often very active, the business recently began to suffer. There were problems at the Williamsburg location, including a delay in its beer and wine permit, and then a mysterious canine respiratory disease began spreading in several states before the holiday season, keeping people away during the period Boris & Horton’s busiest of the year.
“Holiday events were canceled because of it, a few corporate events were canceled because people weren’t comfortable,” Mikhly said. “We just haven’t had that holiday bump that we usually have.”
“We’ve had a few tough weekends where we normally see our highest revenue, but it just didn’t happen,” she said. “We were starting to feel quite worried.”
Last month, she and her father made the difficult decision to close both locations. They said they felt they had no choice.
“We finalized everything quite quickly. We wanted to give our staff enough time to look for other employment and the community enough time to say goodbye,” Mikhly said.
But the community was not willing to give up the cafes. Almost immediately, customers rallied.
“It was a shock to me that they were closing,” said Amanda Gerzog, 28, who lives near the East Village and has been a regular customer at Boris & Horton’s for six years. “I was devastated, but also determined.”
Gerzog, a social media marketer, often works remotely at the cafe. As a dog lover who doesn’t have a dog at home, she jumped at the chance to be around dogs all day.
“That’s one of the reasons I go,” she said. “There is a unique sense of community that you feel in the café. Boris & Horton is a place I love to spend hours.
She knew other New Yorkers felt the same way. So Gerzog launched a GoFundMe campaign to save the small business. In just a few days, more than $20,000 was donated.
“I’m so happy that the community feels the same way I do,” Gerzog said. “This is definitely a business that does not deserve to close its doors.”
Mikhly and his father were stunned by the support.
“People made it a point to help us,” Mikhly said, explaining that some people came forward with other deals, including a technician who fixed the air conditioning at one of the cafes.
“We also heard from people about what coffee meant to them,” Mikhly said. “People had a stronger connection there than I ever thought.”
With this in mind, Mikhly and his father launched their own fundraising campaign and raised more than $250,000, all from individuals. The average donation was around $60.
“We are so grateful,” Mikhly said, adding that they temporarily closed both cafes for repairs and improvements. Both Boris & Horton locations reopened on Monday.
“We now feel quite invigorated and revitalized,” Mikhly said.
Boris & Horton is one of a growing number of restaurants and cafes that cater to four-legged customers in the United States and around the world. For the most part, Mikhly said, the dogs are well-behaved.
“Owners are very aware of whether their dogs are suitable for a dog-friendly cafe,” she said, noting that the cafe’s floors are cement to prevent damage from dog accidents – which sometimes happen. “We take rapid cleaning very seriously. »
People come to spend time with their dogs – who are welcome to go outside off-leash – but also to socialize. “If you come to the cafe, you’ll notice people are watching from their laptops, they’re talking to their neighbors,” Mikhly said. “It’s a much more social environment than a typical coffee shop.”
They named the cafe after Holzman’s 8-year-old pitbull mix, Boris, and Mikhly’s 14-year-old Chihuahua-poodle mix, Horton.
“We find that dogs are definitely a catalyst for conversation,” Mikhly said, adding that they also partner with shelters and rescue services to host adoption events regularly. Around 3,000 dogs were adopted through cafe events.
Many regular restaurants are tapping into the doggie trend and offering separate outdoor patio menus for dogs, complete with non-alcoholic “doggy beer,” ice creams in seasonal flavors, and grilled steak served with steamed vegetables. Some hotels also welcome puppies, offering them bathrobes and treats. Dogs can even go see films at a British cinema chain.
At Dogue in San Francisco, pet owners can sign their dogs up for a $75 tasting menu on Sundays.
“Our tasting menu is now sold out until April,” said Rahmi Massarweh, chef and owner of Dogue, which opened in 2022.
The multi-course meal contains what Massarweh calls “primary proteins” – which are meats and seafood that “dogs would naturally eat in an ancestral form,” he said, citing antelope heart wild as an example. Dogue also manufactures and sells packaged dog food, as well as “Pawtisserie” – pastries designed for dogs.
Dogue does not serve human food but offers owners free drinks.
Experts say one of the benefits of dog-friendly businesses is that they strengthen humans’ mental health and bonds between them.
“Some of the most important relationships we have are those with our pet dogs,” said Philip Tedeschi, founder of the Institute for the Human-Animal Connection at the University of Denver.
Tedeschi said dogs make us more present and engaged. They serve as a “social lubricant,” encouraging people to feel more comfortable in their interactions with others. Being around dogs “reduces levels of cortisol or stress neurotransmitters that often prevent people from interacting with each other,” Tedeschi said. It also activates oxytocin and serotonin, which make humans more likely to be social, he said.
Tedeschi said he’s not surprised that businesses are increasingly catering to dogs — or that a community has rallied to prevent a set of dog cafes from closing.
“Dogs and other animals can teach us a lot about relationships and how we can treat each other,” he said.
