Dana Okafor
Founder & owner
Fostered cats for a decade before opening the cafe. Still does the Saturday morning shift and still cries at every adoption.
About us
The room, the cats and the coffee
Comfy Cat Cafe started as a winter experiment. Dana had fostered cats for years and kept noticing the same thing: people who came to meet a cat stayed for an hour, drank whatever was in the pot and left calmer than they arrived. A cafe seemed like the obvious next step.
We found the space on Corydon in the spring of 2019, spent a summer building cat walks along the walls, and opened in October with six residents. Word travelled the way it does in Winnipeg, and by December the weekend slots were booked a fortnight out.
The cats have always come through Prairie Paws Rescue. They arrive vet-checked, vaccinated and fixed, live in the lounge until they find their person, and go home with a folder of notes from the staff who know them best. More than two hundred have left that way.
Since 2019
What we care about
Calm cats, honest coffee, no gimmicks
We keep the lounge capped at twelve guests, give every cat a place to retreat that people cannot reach, and close one day a week so the residents get the room to themselves. The coffee is roasted in small batches by a Winnipeg roaster, the milk is local, and we bake in the mornings. That is the whole philosophy.
- 212+ Cats adopted
- 48,000+ Cups poured
- 12 Resident cats
- 7 Years on Corydon
The humans
Small team, big soft spot
Priya Sandhu
Head barista
Built the drinks menu, sources the beans and runs the latte-art board behind the bar. Responsible for the maple oat latte.
Marc Tremblay
Cat care lead
Former vet tech. Knows every resident's quirks, medications and preferred nap spot, and writes the notes that go home with each adopter.
Ellie Bouchard
Events & adoptions
Runs the Thursday nights, the birthday parties and the paperwork with Prairie Paws. If you have emailed us, you have probably talked to Ellie.
Kind words
What regulars say
I came in for a coffee on a minus-thirty day in January and have been here every week since. The flat white is the best in the city and Nimbus is, frankly, my therapist.
Hannah W.Regulars Pass holder
We visited three times before we applied, exactly like they suggested, and it made all the difference. The folder of notes Marc wrote about her was spot on. She still sleeps on the radiator.
Devin & SamAdopted Clementine, 2026
Fourteen eight-year-olds, twelve cats and not a single scratch. The staff ran the whole thing and the kids talked about the cat-manners talk for weeks. Cake was good too.
Aisha K.Booked a birthday buyout
I am not flexible and I am not a morning person, but cat yoga is the one thing I will get up for. Toffee slept on my mat for the entire savasana. Ten out of ten.
Tom L.Sunday yoga
I do not even go into the lounge most days. I come for the morning bun and the sourdough toast and to be judged by Biscuit from the counter. Worth it.
Renée D.Coffee bar regular
Come and meet them
Every hour in the lounge includes a drink, and every cat you meet is looking for a home.