Boris & Horton Dog Café In East Village Shuts Down, But Talks May Be Underway with a New Potential Owner
A passerby got a tip from the founders of the shop that it would reopen in 2025 with a new owner. The store closed at the end of November after running out of funds despite a GoFund Me campaign that raised $250,000.
| 11 Dec 2024 | 05:11
Boris & Horton shuttered its last surviving location on Avenue A at the end of November, as promised, but reportedly may pass off operations to a new buyer. (
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A sign announcing Boris & Horton’s impending closure, which was put up in November. (
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The last surviving location of the beloved Boris & Horton dog café, on Avenue A in the East Village closed after it ran out of operating funds. However, a passerby who had talked to café founder Coppy Holman told Straus News that somebody offering to buy the shop had apparently come forward, at least according to Holman. That raises the hope the shop may reopen in 2025 but for now it remains shut down.
A Dec. 11 visit to the shop by Straus News showed papered-over windows, with the poster put up last month to indicate its looming end-of-November closure still up.
”We’re closing at the end of November. Please tip generously and email info@borisandhorton.com if you know of any gigs that might be of interest to our amazing team. Thanks for an incredible almost 7 years. We love you!” the sign reads.
The closure was further explained in an Instagram post on the café franchise’s official account in mid-November: “Over the past several months, we’ve been in discussion with a few potential buyers but unfortunately haven’t been able to close a deal...we hold onto hope that Boris & Horton can begin a new chapter, perhaps with someone from our incredible community stepping in to carry on this journey.”
The dog café was notable for being the first venue of its kind to achieve certification from New York State’s Department of Health, by partitioning its food operations from its dog operations.
Holman and Logan Mikhly, Boris & Horton’s other erstwhile owner, famously put out a GoFundMe seeking $250,000 to keep the shop open back in February. They wanted the cash to hire an events manager and fix the AC system in the Avenue A café, in addition to putting the money towards a Brooklyn location that ended up closing over the summer anyway. The Brooklyn shop’s closure, despite the fundraising haul, reportedly led to death threats against Holman and Mikhly; some people speculated, without evidence, that they had embezzled the funds.
The Instagram post announcing the pending closure of the Avenue A store directly addressed the fundraiser, which Boris & Horton said could not stem structural financial issues. “We had big plans to use the funds to bring in additional leadership and enhance our events and merchandise offerings,” the owners said. “Despite these efforts, we’ve experienced a drop in our monthly subscriptions, with almost 90 percent churn, and our sales are slightly down compared to last year when we made our [initial] decision to close.”
Boris & Horton did host plenty of quirky and well-liked events before its closure, such as dog-inclusive trivia night, exercise bingo, comedy nights, and art classes.
But