The Hello Kitty Secret Garden pop-up will run inside the shop from 1 June to 31 August and is set to serve themed afternoon tea for £40 per person (£20 for guests under 8 years old).
Dishes confirmed so far are expected to include “Mama’s Homemade Apple Pie Biskie” – a cakey biscuit filled with buttercream and jam that is a Cutter & Squidge signature dish ‒ and “Kitty’s Mud Pie Chocolate Dream Cake”. The afternoon tea will also offer a vegetarian option.
Reservations are now open for times from 11am to 5pm, with the cafe able to serve 110 people per day for the afternoon tea.
Co-founder of Cutter & Squidge, Annabel Lui, said: "SanRio [Hello Kitty creators] approached us with the idea and we loved it! We spent a few months developing the format and now it is coming to life. We’ve been fans of the character since our childhood, and to us this opportunity is a dream come true. We also find that the two brands are both friendly, playful and with a love for beautiful things. Expect a lot of cuteness."
Cutter & Squidge is a bakery group from Annabel and Emily Lui, two north west London-based sisters who bake celebration cakes to order and also run the Soho café on London’s Brewer Street. Their overarching philosophy is that they never use colourings, artificial flavourings or preservatives, and that they use only “just as much sugar and fat needed to make something delicious”.
The venue will not be the first eastern-style cat café in London, after Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium opened in 2014, claiming to be London’s first cat café but arguably inspired by well-established versions seen in Japanese and Taiwanese cities.
Hello Kitty is a fictional cartoon character created by the Japanese company SanRio. First designed in the 1970s aimed at young girls, the character has now become loved by adults too, and is worth billions, being printed on all kinds of merchandise and products, and the focus of games, films, and even two theme parks in Japan.