LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- COVID-19 was no catnap at the Purrfect Day Cat Café on Bardstown Road. The pandemic was a full-on slumber.
Kayla Fraley, a supervisor of the cat café — where customers can interact with 26 kittens while enjoying a snack or beverage — says while cat adoptions at the café remained steady, business was affected overall.
"The part of people coming in and hanging out did slow down a bit," she said.
But now, the customers and their frequent screams of joy are back.
"The warm weather has brought a lot of people," she said. "People walk past and see that we have kittens and cats in the room, so they just have to pop in and see what's going on."
A kitten and customer bond at Purrfect Day Cat Cafe. (WDRB Photo)
Fraley says it's not just at Purrfect Day. All of Bardstown Road in the Highlands seems to be quickly waking up.
Wednesday, a trolley full of people, including Councilwoman Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-8, wanted that reawakening to continue.
"People, I think, are so excited to have something to go out and do," Chambers Armstrong said.
On the pleasant afternoon, she and other partners kicked off the inaugural Bardstown Road Neighborhood Night, a brand new idea to help revive a corridor the pandemic hit hard.
"We saw a lot of small businesses and restaurants have to close down, and they saw decreased revenue, and they were financially hurting," said the councilwoman.
Councilwoman Cassie Chambers Armstrong joins others on the inaugural trolley ride. (WDRB Photo)
Now through November, on the third Wednesday each month, Chambers Armstrong and others will host a promotion and celebration of businesses on the corridor — complete with live music, eating and shopping, and free trolley rides from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. The trolley makes ten stops along Bardstown Road, from Broadway to Douglass Loop.
At Purrfect Day Cat Café, Fraley likes the idea.
"We would love to see more people coming out to the Highlands and the way it used to be before COVID," she said.
Chambers Armstrong, meanwhile, hopes the idea will extend beyond 2021 and become part of the identity of Bardstown Road.
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