Sip & Purr Moving to Brady Street

Sip & Purr. Photo by Dave Reid.

Happy tails to Sip & Purr. The cat cafe is preparing to hit the trail, relocating from the East Side to Brady Street early next year.

Owner Katy McHugh announced the upcoming move in a social media post, touting the new location’s proximity to Downtown and the Deer District.

“Not only is Sip & Purr a cat adoption location, we’re a popular destination,” she wrote. “Our new location will be more accessible to folks, allowing us to continue our mission of saving cats!”

Indeed, the future location, 833 E. Brady St., is about a mile northeast of the entertainment hub anchored by Fiserv Forum. But that’s not the cafe’s only connection to the Milwaukee Bucks.

Three Leaf Partners, led by Bucks guard Pat Connaughton, constructed the two-story, 5,142-square-foot building on Brady St. in 2021. McHugh will purchase the property to house its new location. The deal is expected to finalize later this year, according to a news release.

In addition to the first-floor retail space, which will be occupied by Sip & Purr, the building contains a 2,400-square-foot, three-bedroom apartment on its second floor.

Sip & Purr will remain at its current address, 2021 E. Ivanhoe Pl., until its lease ends on Dec. 31, at which point the operation will move into its new space.

For now, “it’s business as usual” for Sip & Purr, which features a retail and boutique space; a cafe serving tea, coffee, alcoholic beverages and pastries; and a cat lounge where guests can mingle with roaming cats — most of which are available for adoption.

Sip & Purr opened as the Milwaukee’s first cat cafe in 2018. Since then, the business reports it has facilitated the adoption of more than 1,300 cats in partnership with Lakeland Animal Shelter in Delavan.

McHugh, who is also a flight attendant, has retrieved cats from at least 10 countries including Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar and Turkey.

The original concept has grown to include a foster program and an international effort called the Sip & Purr Scholarship Adoption Program.

Earlier this year, McHugh expressed frustration with the pedestrianized Ivanhoe Plaza. At a June Department of Public Works meeting, McHugh told committee members that her “revenue, sales and traffic declined 51% since Ivanhoe Place was closed off to traffic.”

As a result, McHugh said that she was “obviously looking to relocate Sip & Purr.”

But a portion of Brady Street could see similar pedestrianization measures in the future. A study is underway to consider options for transforming the street using a “pedestrian-first” approach. The four-block area under consideration runs from Humboldt Avenue — two blocks east of the cafe building — to Cambridge and Farwell avenues.

At the Public Works meeting, at which the safety of Brady St. was discussed, McHugh said she thinks small changes, such as speed bumps and reduced parking, would best serve the area. “Closing off the street is not going to stop the reckless driving here,” she said.

Update: A previous version of this article stated that the Brady Street cafe site could see pedestrianization. The portion proposed for potential pedestrianization is a couple blocks to the east.