Scantily clad baristas give economic jolt to coffee shops
GARDEN GROVE, Calif. -- Even as Starbucks shutters stores, some coffee shops in Southern California's Little Saigon are booming with a formula that seems to defy recession.
They are serving up strong Vietnamese brew, delivered to tables by young women in bikinis, spandex, fishnet sarongs or lingerie, displaying bountiful skin and cleavage.
Lots and lots of cleavage.
"I think it's kind of like Starbucks meets Hooters," says Tina Nguyen, 19, a waitress at Café Lu, who was exposing a bare midriff between tight Lakers jersey and black micro-mini tube skirt.
Like all the six to eight servers on duty at any time, she was teetering on 6-inch platform, stiletto-heeled shoes of clear plastic. She paused to chat and laugh with customers as she delivered $5 servings of thick, sweet iced coffee and refilled bottomless glasses of weak iced tea.
Customers are overwhelmingly male and largely Vietnamese Americans, although men of all ethnicities find their way into Café Lu or one of its many nearby competitors. Ten large TVs line the walls, tuned to sports and cable news. Customers such as James La play Chinese checkers and talk with friends at 40 or more tables.
"It's kind of like a bikini bar, almost," says La, 36, a recent medical school graduate. "It's unique. I don't think other cultures have this."
Indeed, while risqué coffee shops have been tried elsewhere, and bars that display ample amounts of the female form are commonplace, the mixture of eye candy and coffee seems to have taken hold like nowhere else here in the nation's largest Vietnamese community.
Natalie Nguyen, 36, owner of Café Lu, says the concept has been popular for more than two decades in an area that became a magnet for Vietnamese refugees after the fall of Saigon in 1975.
In recent times, she says, more competitors have opened. She estimates there are 50 to 60 such places in this area of Orange County outside Los Angeles. Like her competitors, Nguyen's café doesn't serve alcohol or food.
