Little Lions Social Club creates a warm, minimalistic home for the stray cats of Los Angeles, moving their beds from overheated downtown concrete to plush couches resembling pebbles. In partnership with Friends of Normie Rescue, Little Lions provides a sanctuary and foster home for cats, who can later be adopted by visitors.
The cat lounge began as two friends’ desire to save as many stray cats as possible, an extension of animal fosters. Edric Goh and his wife, Tandy Tu, soon realized there were too many to save in their Central LA home.
“During kitten season, you just see them scatter everywhere, and a lot of them don’t make it through hot summers or the rainy days,” Goh said. “We just wanted to do this as a passion project and help out different animal shelters to onboard as a large foster for the cats.”
Now, the lounge operates on weekends, blocked off into three sections: “Daydreaming,” “Nap with Cats” and “After Dark.” Goh and Tu also organize events at the lounge, like animated movie nights and collaborations with JIJI’s Jazz Club.
During regular programming throughout the weekend, Little Lions breaks down Saturday and Sunday into three-hour time blocks. Unlike other large cat cafes like Crumbs and Whiskers, visitors pay a flat rate of $42 for the three hours, rather than paying for 30- or 60-minute time blocks.
“If you see a cat for the first time, it takes a long time for them to warm up to you, so the three-hour format is intentionally made for that reason,” Goh said.
Sarah Kang, a senior studying art at USC on the pre-veterinary path, works at Little Lion’s as a “tearista,” where she curated tea blends for guests like “Golden Lavender,” a mix of lemongrass, ginger, honey and port marigold or a simple white tea blend.
Kang said that she has been fascinated with animals since she was little, but also loves the self-expression and comfort art brings her. Kang is specifically drawn to cats’ behaviors: how they eat, play and emote. She empathizes with mistreated animals, like pitbulls who are often stereotyped as overly aggressive, which she said increased her desire to pursue veterinary studies.
“There’s no way every animal is bad,” said Kang. “They’ve only experienced things differently, and they probably have, like, in a way, trust issues. It’s very similar to what people have too.”
A highlight of Little Lions’ experience is the variety of cats roaming the space, each with unique names and personalities for each type of visitor, their titles and adoption sites linked on the Little Lions website.
Frankey, a tabby one-year-old male cat, loves to, as Kang said, “bully” the other cats, scaling cat climbing structures and whacking projections of orange fish, but Kang said that Frankey acts friendly and lovingly with visitors, especially children.
Frankey’s journey from metropolitan litter boxes to a cozy home amongst weekends of toys represents the community that Little Lions hopes to bring to feline friends and human occupants. A third-space in the Arts District, Kang said the lounge is working on future projects for students ahead of the midterm season.
Drawing a sketch of cats sitting around a table, Kang said the lounge hopes to encourage USC students to study at Little Lions when they’re hoping to escape campus libraries.
“A lot of my friends who came here to study, they loved it, because it’s very peaceful and quiet,” Kang said.
Even for a night of coloring, Melissa Jimenez, 20, and Daniel Cono, 19, from Palm Springs, said that they enjoyed their experience at Little Lions and hope to come back, even though they both have multiple cats of their own at home.
For students far from home hoping to share space with cats or those simply looking for fresh tea and ambient lighting to supplement their midterm exam studies, Little Lions provides what can only be called a sanctuary for anyone, feline or friend alike.
Edited by Sammie Yen and Andriana Yatsyshyn.