A triumphant mood hung in the air at East Village cafe Boris & Horton as good boys and good girls scribbled, barked, splashed and eyed an array of treats.
“We’re here twice a day during the week,” said Monica Hu, a longtime customer, with her three footprints on her feet last Sunday. “There’s no place like it in town.”
The 2,100-square-foot cafe at the corner of 12th Street and Avenue A spans three former storefronts, which have been converted into a sit-down dining area where dogs are allowed but food can’t be ordered, a people-only seating area, and a takeout window . (The separation is what makes it a dog-friendly cafe, rather than a dog cafe, in the style of cat cafes that provide companionship.) Logan Mikhly and her father, Coppy Holzman, opened the place in 2018 and a second location in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, last summer.
Sunday’s festive scene represented a swift turnaround for the owners, who had announced on February 15 that they were closing both Boris & Horton locations, much to the shock and dismay of loyal customers. Within about a week, a GoFundMe campaign sparked by many of those customers raised about $250,000 to keep the business afloat. The outpouring of community support convinced Ms. Mikhly and Mr. Holzman to reconsider.
“It made us kind of nervous,” Ms. Mikhly said. “We didn’t want to take people’s money and not have a plan for it.” Be wary of becoming another small business saved by the community only to close again, she and her father decided to rethink their business model. They reopened Boris & Horton, with some critical changes, on March 11th.
For starters, he said, “we are working with our landlords to renegotiate the leases.” The owners refused to share their new rent for fear of scrapping negotiations. Nate Mallon, a broker in the deal for the Williamsburg space, said rents near the Brooklyn cafe have been consistently in the $110 to $125 per square foot range and those near the East Village cafe are similar.
However, a number of underlying factors contributed to Boris & Horton’s stumble, including the costs involved in running a dog-friendly cafe. The business faced higher insurance premiums, had to hire extra staff to clean up dog hair and accidents and, under city Health Department guidelines, could only use disposable utensils, plates and cups.
In addition to those rising costs, Ms. Mikhly said, “we had a tough holiday season.” A canine respiratory virus spread, forcing patrons to cancel reservations for dog birthday parties and event reservations at the venue.
“We decided to give it up,” Ms. Mikhly said.
When the closing took place announced on Instagram in February, more than 1,800 comments flooded in. Dog owners, dog lovers, animal rescues and pet influencers expressed their sadness at the news.
Among them was Amanda Gerzog, a 28-year-old digital marketing strategist who works out of the East Village location several times a week. As soon as she heard that, she walked across the street from her apartment to the cafe.
“I could see that people were surprised and saddened, as I was,” Ms. Gerzog said. And her family dog died around the same time, which “lit a little bigger fire under me,” she said.
From a coffee table, Mrs. Gerzog started one GoFundMe campaign to “take advantage of that shock we were all feeling,” he said. “I knew I just had to show the owners how much the community appreciated them.”
“Amanda really pushed us,” Mr. Holzman said. “We’re very glad he did.”
As donations poured in, Ms. Gerzog reached out to local news outlets and social media accounts such as New York natives and Dog Jokes Comic to spread awareness.
Ari Shaffir, a prominent comedian who frequented the cafe since its early days, posted a video asking followers to donate. “It’s a real gem in the East Village,” Mr. Shaffir says in the clip. “Let’s support small businesses.”
In less than a week, over $20,000 was raised. At that point, Ms. Mikhly and Mr. Holzman asked Ms. Gerzog to stop the campaign and asked that the initial funds be used to pay workers during the shutdown. The owners then launched their own campaign. Donations, from a few dollars to $12,000, continued to pour in.
To his fans, Boris & Horton was one Third Place where everyone seemed to know your name — or at least your dog’s.
In fact, many of the cafe patrons do not have pets. “It’s our way of having a dog without having a dog,” says Hannah Isenhart, 25, a regular who lives nearby with her boyfriend, Brett Rojas, 26.
But not everyone was so supportive. Some people on social media pointed out that the cafe always seemed busy and blamed an unsophisticated, and perhaps naive, business model for its problems. Neither Ms. Mikhly nor Mr. Holzman had experience in the hospitality industry before opening Boris & Horton — named after their own dogs. They said the idea for the cafe just came to them one day while walking the dogs.
Then last week, Boris & Horton landed in New York magazine Approval table — an awful score of recent cultural events on a grid — in the ignominious realm of the lowbrow/despicable. “We didn’t like our place in it,” Ms. Mikhly said, “but we jumped at the chance to be included in something so iconic.”
While the reopening has been smooth, futureproofing has required several changes to the cafes’ business model.
Walking was never a problem: Both locations are close to dog parks and major subway stops. But during the week, many patrons used the cafes as co-working spaces, staying for “six or seven” hours, Ms Mikhly said, and some letting their dogs play in the designated area while they worked.
“The dogs are busy,” she said, “so it’s basically like daycare.” Cafes provided this service for the price of a cup of coffee, while pet sitting in New York can cost around $50 to $70 a day.
So owners now have a suggested visit fee, in addition to the price of food or drink: $5 without a dog, $10 with one. “Something like a museum,” Mr. Holtzman said.
There’s a new, optional subscription, at $40 a month, which provides invitations to exclusive events and a big goodie bag every month.
And laptops are now banned on weekends after 10am. However, last Sunday around 3:30pm, more than five guests left. “We’ve received some pushback,” Mr. Holzman said, “so we’re reevaluating how quickly we’re going to bring all the changes.”
“I’m a little worried about when the publicity wears off,” said Quincy Green, 30, a manager at the East Village location, “but I’m optimistic. I love this place.”