Racy coffee shop tones down after uproar
Christina Heltsley was driving home from work through Redwood City one afternoon when she stamped on her brakes and did a double-take. There on El Camino Real, a black sign that previously read “Caffino” in large, white letters had been repainted pink — and sported the provocative silhouette of a woman with a note that promised, “Bikini Shop, Coming Soon.”
The coffee shop called Pink Pantherz Espresso, where baristas wear swimsuits and drinks have names like “Bootycall” and “Panty Dropper,” was coming to town. And for Heltsley and a slew of others in the community, the idea went down like a month-old latte.
That was two months ago. Since then, opposition to the shop had grown so fierce, with residents storming government meetings in San Mateo County and gathering nearly 1,500 signatures demanding the place be banned, that a protest was planned at the new spot on Friday. But then came an intensive discussion between the opponents and the cafe’s owner about exploitation, self-expression and community respect — and in the end, they all came to an agreement.
That protest planned for Friday is now a celebration of that agreement.
Owner Jose Carmona, who already runs three Pink Pantherz shops in Northern California, will have his employees cover up with more clothing. He has also changed the erotic names of the drinks, and removed the silhouette sign.
His business model isn’t dying anytime soon, he notes. But neither is the question: Are businesses with scantily clad women self-expression or exploitation, especially in a post-#MeToo world?
Heltsley considers it exploitation — and she’s glad for the discussion.
“They misjudged how this community knows how to advocate and has a really strong voice,” said Heltsley, executive director of the nearby Siena Youth Center, which provides services to more than 150 kids each year.
After reading about 25 letters sent to him from residents and children, including a 15-person fifth-grade class from the Siena Youth Center, Carmona called Heltsley to offer concessions.
Diana Caamal, 10, was one of the fifth-graders who penned a letter to Carmona expressing her discomfort at having to walk by the establishment.
“Men will just walk there and look at their bodies ... weird,” she said.
The new location will open Friday, and closing time will be 4 p.m., an hour and a half before the youth center’s demonstration starts. And when the march-turned intocelebration happens Friday, Heltsley will be there.
“It’s a victory for the community,” Heltsley said. “It’s a victory for men and women. It’s a victory for families. It’s a victory for democracy.”
Businesses featuring women scantily dressed are anything but new. Perhaps best known is the restaurant chain Hooters, where waitresses in short orange shorts and tight white tank tops serve hot wings in more than 420 restaurants in 42 states and 29 countries. The franchise has four locations in the Bay Area.
For at least two women who work in the Fremont location of Pink Pantherz, the question is not one of exploitation. They said it’s a matter of opportunity and freedom of self-expression.
“It should be more about women empowerment, and you should be happy that women feel comfortable working in their bikinis,” said one, Brittany Doll, a stage name for one of the women working at the Fremont cafe.
On a recent day, the 27-year-old was working behind the counter as a man approached the window.
“Hi, honey,” he said before ordering a caramel frappe and breakfast.
Doll, dressed in a pink bikini with diamond studs and duct tape over her nipples (to prevent any “nip slips,” she said), smiled back and mixed his drink along with making a bacon sandwich.
“I don’t see how a bikini is showing a wrong image, because if you go to the beach everyone is wearing a bikini,” she said. “If you go to Hawaii, aren’t there little bars where people are serving stuff in their bikini?”
Carmona founded Pink Pantherz in 2014, opening outposts in Modesto, Fremont and Fresno. The idea wasn’t original, he said — he’d already seen similar businesses in areas from Washington state to Southern California.
He waited three years to perfect the business model, drinks and customer service, he said, before attempting to open the newest location. That’s when he ran into the serious opposition.
Carmona said he has never had a report of sexual harassment — or any complaints — from his employees.
Experts, however, say there’s risk involved with a business like Carmona’s.
According to California law, employers are required to take necessary measures to prevent sexual harassment, said Dan Gilleon, an attorney who specializes in the issue. And “the problem with this,” he said, “is they’re kinda drawing a big target on their back.”
For Heltsley and other families in the area, the issue was the “hypersexualization of women and objectification,” she said. They simply didn’t want their children to get the wrong message.
“We want our girls to lead with their hearts and their heads and not their bodies,” Heltsley said. “And one stereotypical way of looking isn’t what we are trying to teach our girls or our boys.”
The law on this subject is a little less direct.
The area of San Mateo County where the cafe sits is across the street from Redwood City, technically outside city limits, so it falls under county jurisdiction. San Mateo County’s zoning code requires the shop to “completely and opaquely cover” employees’ “genitals, pubic region, buttock and and female breast below a point immediately above the top of the areola” for it to avoid being designated as an adult entertainment business.
Under those rules, Carmona’s shop was allowable — but the community spoke louder, he said, so he listened.
Carmona said he will implement a new uniform — booty shorts that cover the buttocks and bikini tops that shield against underside views of breasts. The beverage names will change: Birthday Sex to Birthday Cake and Bootycall to Peach Call.
“I can’t believe we are going to have to take the names down, but we want to make sure we are part of the community,” Carmona said.