A beloved dog café said it will reopen after its customers and community rallied to bring in $250,000 in donations following its sudden closure earlier this month.
Dog-friendly café Boris & Horton, which has locations in Alphabet City and North Williamsburg, announced on Feb. 15 via Instagram that it would close imminently. It did not cite a reason for the closure.
“We figured we’d just have a really great last 10 days,” said co-owner Logan Mikhly. “And then our customers essentially just said: ‘No.’”
Longtime customer Amanda Gerzon, who works in social media marketing, was so disheartened by the news that she started a GoFundMe to raise $20,000 for the business.
“They are such a gem of an establishment,” said Gerzon, who does not have a dog. “I work remotely, so I go there to get my little dog fix in.”
She said she reached her goal in about a week.
The outpouring of support spurred the owners to create their own fundraiser, which reached its $250,000 goal within days.
They said the money was needed for capital improvements like replacing air condition, renovating spaces, and hiring new management staff to streamline operations.
Now the café hopes to reopen in the next few weeks, according to Mikhly. The two locations remain closed as of publication.
New York’s first “Department of Health-approved dog-friendly café”
Boris & Horton, which Mikhly and her father Coppy Holzman first opened on Avenue A in 2018, advertised itself as New York’s first “Department of Health-approved dog-friendly café.”
“If you ask the health department, they will tell you that we are a café with an adjacent dog-friendly space,” said Mikhly, the daughter.
The complicated regulatory dance that allows the cafés to exist added extra overhead costs that were part of the initial decision to close, Mikhly said.
Because the cafés both serve food and allow dogs, they are subject to extra regulations from the city’s health department. The spaces are partitioned into a “café side” and a “dog side,” with separate HVAC systems and cleaning regimens for each, Mikhly said.
Customers enter on the dog side, order food, then briefly leave their pet behind to pick up their food on the café side, before returning to the dog side to eat.
All tableware and utensils are disposable, as they cannot move back across the café/dog barrier, and the dog side has a full-time staff member to monitor behavior, clean and deal with the occasional accident.
“The hair and dander is really tough on our air conditioning and we end up with high maintenance fees and have to replace it,” Mikhly said. “It’s a bigger thing than any old café saying they need a new air conditioner.” Because of the disposable tableware, even the businesses’ trash pickup costs are higher than similar cafés, she said.
But Mikhly said that although the cash infusion is helpful, it is no guarantee that Boris & Horton will have a sustainable model going forward.
She said she is bringing in new management staff to help with cost control as well as food and beverage expertise, and looking to build out the cafés’ event management, especially in the newer Williamsburg location, which has a beer and wine permit.
“We’re open 12 hours a day, and the coffee shop is kicking for like, five,” Mikhly said. “We want to maximize evening events as well.”
The crisis also gives them a chance to implement some needed policy changes. Because the doggie vibes are so pleasant, Mikhly said customers tend to order one thing and then stay for hours, which was a drag on revenue.
“Given that this is an open conversation with customers and they know what we’re dealing with, it’s making it a little bit easier to implement some of these changes,” Mikhly said. “When we come back, things might be slightly different.”
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