CNY Scout
Feline fine
BY AMY BLEIER LONG
For a purr-fectly heartwarming experience, get your tail to Pawsitivitea CNY Café & Cat Lounge in Syracuse. The city’s first cat café offers a place to slow down with some adoptable cool cats. Owner and Syracuse native Alisha Reynolds has always been an animal lover; she and her husband currently have 11 birds and four cats. An impromptu visit to a Virginia cat café in 2017 made an impression and the quiet, mellow atmosphere inspired her to recreate that feeling here. “It’s just a nice little thing and, I mean, who doesn’t like to relax with a bunch of cats? It’s been proven that petting cats relaxes people,” Reynolds says. Studies have indeed found that cats lower stress and blood pressure in humans and the frequency of their purr vibrations has been reported to promote healing. Located in the Market Commons Building at the CNY Regional Market, Pawsitivitea’s soft opening was in September and its grand opening in December. She and her husband spent months
Reynolds designed the space to be quiet and calming, with soothing wall colors and comfortable furniture. When she toured the space initially, she was taken by the abundance of natural light.
renovating three adjacent storefronts into two distinct spaces: the café and the cat lounge. All of the furniture was thrifted or found on Facebook Marketplace and Reynolds gave some pieces updates. When she couldn’t find a pastry case she liked, she 78
CENTRAL NEW YORK MAGAZINE
M A R C H /A P R I L
For more, visit Pawsitivitea CNY Café & Cat Lounge, 2100 Park St. Space 309, Syracuse, 315-807-8936, pawsitiviteacny.com.
