What if I told you you could sip a latte and stare at a blank Final Draft page while surrounded by rats? You’d say, of course you can—at every single coffee shop in New York. But now you can also do it in San Francisco.
The people behind the San Francisco Dungeon, (“an exciting mix of nine live actor shows, 200 years of history, 360 degree sets, and authentic storytelling,” in Alcatraz, according to its website) are opening up a pop-up, The Black Rat Café, which is like a cat café but the cats are rats.
“We’re obviously following all food code and hygiene requirements,” said the Dungeon’s Matthew Clarkson in an interview with Eater. Are they though? Because isn’t the point of health codes specifically to ensure that there isn’t a rat sitting next to you at the community table working on the crossword puzzle????
From Eater:
For $50 per person, participants will be led into the basement of the Dungeon, set up with tables, tablecloths, and lanterns — “it is quite dark in our dungeon,” says Clarkson. There, they’ll be served coffee, tea, and pastries, but all food — none of it prepared on-site — will be cleared out before the rats scurry in...
The rats will come from Rattie Ratz, a nonprofit that rescues domestic rats.
Cole Kourvais, another Dungeon rep, told Money, “This is an opportunity to remind people that, while rats were public enemy number one in the 1900s, today, they are more than acceptable as house pets and café guests.”
“House pets” and “café guests” are extremely generous ways of describing the family of 12 that has kicked me out of my own apartment, but okay San Francisco!