Beloved dog cafe Boris & Horton had its last bark in Brooklyn
It’s been a busy few months for the Boris & Horton team. In February of this year, New York City’s first dog-friendly cafe chainlet—which has locations in Manhattan (at 195 Avenue A in the East Village) and Brooklyn (510 Driggs Ave in Williamsburg)—successfully fundraised $250,000 to keep the sweet concept open and running.
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However, it looks like even a quarter of a million wasn’t enough, as father-daughter owners Logan Mikhly and Coppy Holzman recently announced on social media that the year-old Brooklyn outpost would sadly be shuttering for real by the end of May. (The East Village original will, for now, continue to operate.)
“After much consideration and evaluation, we’ve made the difficult decision to close our Brooklyn location at the end of this month,” read the team’s closing announcement, which was posted to Instagram on Tuesday, May 21. “We know that many of you donated in the hopes of keeping Brooklyn open, and we are heartbroken to let you down. This was not a decision we made lightly. We tried partnering with other local businesses, hiring an events manager, adding more programming, and other ways to bring in foot traffic, but despite our best efforts, sales have just been too weak to support the store.”
While the owners acknowledged that they will “miss all of our regulars in Brooklyn and all of the amazing artists and brands that teamed up with us over the last year,” the closure of the Williamsburg cafe means that the Boris & Horton team can “devote all of our resources to keeping our East Village location healthy and sustainable.” Despite initially believing earlier this year that they’d also have to shut the Manhattan location, “we’re happy to share that the East Village store has been doing well lately, thanks in large part to the incredible support from all of you and the new initiatives we’ve rolled out,” Mikhly and Holzman added.
So while it is a shame that Brooklyn-based doggos will now have to go elsewhere for their pup cups, at least NYC won’t be fully missing Boris & Horton after all.