The first thing visitors might notice inside Black Cat Spa and Lounge is the scent. It drifts through the air – earthy, citrusy or warmly spiced, depending on which custom candle is glowing – and signals that the world outside has been dialed down a few degrees.
The second thing is the quiet. It’s not a clinical hush but an atmosphere that invites the body to unclench.
That feeling is deliberate – the fingerprint of owner Shahla Ahmed, whose soft voice and measured movements mirror the space she’s created on Broad Street. The business is new, but her careful decisions about every chair, scent blend and experience make it clear the idea has lived with her for years.
“Everything I do is intentional,” she says. “I want to be inclusive of all kinds of people in all kinds of bodies because it’s such an intimate thing to receive a massage. And I want people to feel like they’re truly cared for.”
A creative heart
Ahmed describes herself as a creative before anything else. Her background weaves through watercolor sketches, photography assignments and a career in luxury spas, all shaped by a life lived in many places around the world.
Her ties to the Middle East – where she lived on and off throughout childhood, mostly in Jordan – surface in subtle design choices and scent memories she’s carried for years. One of the spa’s signature candle fragrances, White Ember, draws from those recollections.
“I’m half Middle Eastern, so White Ember reminds me of the marketplaces in the Middle East,” she says.
As a young adult, she briefly lived in Abu Dhabi, where she worked as a freelance photographer. Creativity fueled her then as it does now; she still travels with a small watercolor kit and a sketchbook. Those artistic impulses eventually informed the spa’s visual identity, from hand-selected furniture to the art-lined lounge spaces.
Finding the whisper
For all Ahmed’s varied experiences, one vocation kept resurfacing in her mind.
“I always had that voice deep down that whispered it,” she says. “For many years it was, ‘Massage, massage, massage,’ and I ignored it.”
Even as she pursued a degree in biology, that urge persisted.
“Every time I’d lie down on a table for a massage, I thought, ‘You could be doing this.’”
Eventually, Ahmed listened.
Her career unfolded at respected luxury resorts, including the Grand National in Opelika, Alabama – one of the largest public golf courses in the country, known for drawing visitors from around the world – and later at the celebrated Blackberry Farm in Walland. She became a lead therapist, training teams and immersing herself in hospitality environments where attention to detail was a baseline expectation.
Those years gave her more than expertise; they shaped her understanding of what makes an experience soothing: not just a treatment, but a sequence of small, thoughtful touches.
“To me, luxury is someone showing up and saying, ‘I care,’” she says. “You can spend all the money in the world, but if you feel like the person didn’t care, then the experience could have just been anywhere.”
A space rooted in humanity
Ahmed’s vision for Black Cat grew from that philosophy. She loved the lounges found in high-end resort spas – spaces where guests could linger after a massage – but she wanted something less sterile, more personal.
The name came unexpectedly while she was cooking Christmas dinner with friends. Someone floated “The Black Cat,” and she recognized the connection immediately. It was a nod to her own aging cat, Lilu, who still launched into zoomies despite being 13. Lilu had been a steady presence throughout her adulthood, a source of comfort through countless transitions, and the name felt right.
From there, the aesthetic direction emerged. The entrance lounge is the most intimate reflection of her life, featuring photographs of her mother and grandmother – one taken by Ahmed herself – and comfortable, vintage-inspired furniture she collected piece by piece.
Upstairs, the introvert lounge takes on a whimsical woodland feel. It’s filled with floor pillows, soft textures and artwork that leans toward dreamlike. The space is devoted to people who want to journal quietly, unwind without small talk, or simply disappear into their thoughts.
“I’m an introvert,” she admits. “Some days I do want to converse with strangers, and other days I want to sit up there and journal alone. ‘Nobody talk to me; don’t look at me.’”
The scents of memory
Black Cat’s signature scents are among its defining elements. Just as Ahmed’s design choices draw from the places that shaped her, so do the spa’s custom candle blends – Ash Root, Golden Hour and White Ember – each of which is tied to a personal memory.
Ash Root captures the feeling of “waking up after a night around a campfire, with dew, soot and traces of laughter lingering in the air,” she says. Golden Hour reaches back to summer days in hayfields, where Ahmed ate oranges under the sun. White Ember evokes the spice-rich marketplaces of the Middle East she knew throughout childhood.
The candles, like everything else in the space, are meant to anchor guests in a sensory experience. For her, relaxation begins the moment someone steps through the door – well before a robe is offered or the massage table is prepared.
The luxury of being considered
Ahmed’s attention to detail continues in the treatment room, where an advanced automated massage table anchors a space designed to give both her and her client plenty of room to move comfortably. It’s fully articulated – from the face cradle to the foot and head sections – allowing her to place clients into what she calls a “zero gravity position.”
“I don’t think massage should be painful,” she says. “If you’re in pain, then you’re not able to heal, which is the whole point of being there.”
She aims for a balance: firm enough to work the muscles, gentle enough to keep the body open to rest.
Guests receive a robe, slippers, a steam towel and access to a buffet of fruit-infused water, teas and snacks. But the devotion to comfort goes deeper. The table can hold up to 500 pounds and adjusts to meet a wide range of physical needs. The spa carries plus-size robes. The restroom is fully ADA compliant. For Ahmed, inclusivity is inseparable from hospitality.
From the placement of a weighted hot pack to the way she gently lays a weighted eye pillow once a guest turns face up, she treats each step as part of a cohesive ritual.
“I have a particular way of placing things that helps calm the mind,” she says.
Her recommended treatment for first-time clients, a Swedish service called Return to Softness, encapsulates her philosophy. It’s “indulgent without being overwhelming and structured without being clinical,” she says.
“You can get a massage anywhere, and there are great massage therapists in town. This is just how I do it.”
Designed for stillness
One of the most unusual elements of Black Cat is the lounge component. For Ahmed, it’s not an add-on but a centerpiece of the business.
“The lounge is vital to me,” she says. “You can get a massage and feel relaxed, but the moment you get in your car and fight traffic, you undo so much of it. You’re right back in survival mode.”
Her goal is to create the opposite of survival mode. The spa is intentionally “digital-light.” There’s no Wi-Fi, and while phones aren’t banned, the space is designed to make them easy to set aside.
“This space is vintage-inspired for a reason,” she says. “It was a time before we had modern technology, and I wanted to tap into that.”
She envisions the lounge as a community space where people can show up in pajamas, curl up with a journal, sink into a sofa or sprawl on a floor pillow. Local artwork – much of it featuring black cats – is displayed throughout and available for purchase. Boutique retail items such as hand-painted earrings, aromatherapy bracelets, customized coloring books, journals and greeting cards fill a small nook near the entrance, catering to those who want to enhance their lounge session or take a piece of the experience home.
It is, in many respects, the kind of place where creativity and rest blend naturally. Ahmed wants laughter drifting through the rooms and artists dropping by with sketchbooks. She even envisions guests making it a weekly ritual – arriving on Fridays in pajamas, slipping into a robe and slippers and taking time for themselves.
Lounge sessions cost $30 for two hours, with the option to add time for $10 an hour. Shahla encourages visitors to visit the space even if they’re not ready to book.
“If you don’t want to spend $30 for a couple hours in a place you’ve never seen, we’ll give you a tour and you can decide whether it’s a place for you or even for somebody else you know and love.”
Her weekly schedule is still growing; currently, massages are offered Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and lounge days run Tuesday through Saturday.
Eventually she plans to hire another therapist – an addition she says will require intensive training to ensure the experience matches her standards.
A space to be human
What distinguishes Black Cat is not just its mixture of services, but its underlying ethos. Ahmed talks often about humanity – its needs, the way it responds when given permission to rest.
“I encourage people to make themselves a priority and relaxation a priority,” she says. “There’s so much to be gained from that time of just letting go.”
She also knows the power of connection. Her gentle demeanor has been a part of her life for as long as she can remember.
“When I was in first grade, my classmates would come up to me and say listening to me was relaxing,” she laughs.
That voice has become part of the atmosphere at Black Cat, and she’s even considering making it an offering.
“I’ve been thinking about adding an additional 20 minutes of conversation at the end because I love talking one-on-one,” she says. “That fuels me. I’m an introvert, so one-on-one is the way. I love learning about and connecting with people.”
A growing vision
Though the spa is new, Ahmed’s plans for it stretch far ahead. She hopes to host small events – bridal showers, baby showers, even intimate weddings. She wants an environment where people feel free to read, create, nap or simply be still.
“As the business grows, my focus will stay the same – creating a peaceful, inclusive space where people can unwind at their own pace. If I can keep offering that kind of simplicity, then I think Black Cat will find a lasting place in Chattanooga.”