Pascale Bonnefoy in Want Legs with Your Coffee (Global Post, April 9) documents cafes in Santiago (Chile).
You consume your coffee standing and the main attraction is not the Barista but the girls in tight clothes or even scantily clad ones in the steamy (sleazy) version.
In a detached manner, Tex Rubinowitz explains the concept in Cafe with Legs as applied by two of the pioneers, CAFÉ HAITI and CAFÉ CARIBE which started decades ago:
"Colloquially called „Café with legs“, as there is not a single chair or
table to be found in their spacious interior. Instead, a seemingly
endless chrome-coated bar meanders through the room, with the coffee
drinkers – almost exclusively male – lined up along it. On the other
side of the bar – and this is the real unique feature of these cafés –
the waitresses, all of them uniformly dressed in very short,
body-clutching dresses, are lined up as well on an elevated floor, so
the guests are at direct eye-level with their breasts, a distinctly
dominant position, as though in a roleplay."
table to be found in their spacious interior. Instead, a seemingly
endless chrome-coated bar meanders through the room, with the coffee
drinkers – almost exclusively male – lined up along it. On the other
side of the bar – and this is the real unique feature of these cafés –
the waitresses, all of them uniformly dressed in very short,
body-clutching dresses, are lined up as well on an elevated floor, so
the guests are at direct eye-level with their breasts, a distinctly
dominant position, as though in a roleplay."
The piece is illustrated with photographies of Hertha Hurnaus.
A Wanderlust column by Felipe Ossa (Salon, May 2000) looked at the more steamy (sleazy) version.
Strange Brew!
Loosely related: Kiwis in London Show How Great a Cup of Java Can Be