Cat cafes

Japan is rife with opportunities to eat alongside our feline friends, and now the cat cafe concept is spreading like wildfire around the globe. The original cat cafe opened in Taiwan in 1998, with the quirky-minded Japanese embracing the concept in 2005 and eagerly multiplying it. Cafe de Chats is already drawing crowds in Paris, as is Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium in London. Now, the aptly named KitTea is set to open in San Francisco, while Cat Town Cafe sidles into Oakland. Vancouver residents will be able to accompany their WiFi browsing and coffee sipping with a side of ambient purring at Catfé this year and a Melbourne couple recently started crowdfunding to open Australia’s first adaptation. A selection of Brisbane cafes sport a dog-friendly vibe – perhaps cats aren’t too far off being the new brunch companion.

Hip-hop yoga

With all the stretchy, bendy, strength-building goodness of a Vinyasa yoga class, hip-hop yoga ramps up the ab-crunching opportunities with workouts performed to the tune of Jay Z, Kanye West and Frank Ocean. Maha Yoga studio in Venice Beach is run by former Men at Work band member and yoga teacher Steve Ross, which is where Australian yogi Sammy Veall trained to bring the concept home. Sammy has since created Yoga 213, which operates its upbeat yoga classes in Sydney and Melbourne. Here’s hoping the studio next expands in a northerly direction.

The sandwich shop

Brooklyn has Saltie, Melbourne has Pope Joan and Sydney has Lucky Pickle. While Lady Marmalade in Stones Corner has taken out official ranks in the sandwich-crafting sport, there’s room in Brisbane for a specialty sandwich shop where the focus is specifically on layering together prisms of flavour. Simple ingredients done well is key to the perfect sandwich. We still daydream of the day we can once again lock lips with Saltie’s infamous Scuttlebutt, which combines egg, feta, capers, black olives, pickled vegetables and pimento aioli.