Bikini Barista Cafe Scandalizes San Mateo County Residents

A growing chain of drive-through cafes staffed by scantily clad baristas is threatening to open on a main strip of San Mateo County. That was reportedly the talk of the town at a recent San Mateo County Board of Supervisors meeting, during which some community members expressed their stern disapproval for a potential Pink Pantherz at 2797 El Camino Real.

Pink Pantherz runs cafes in Fremont, Modesto, and Fresno, operated by lingerie-wearing women selling drinks with provocative names — blended ice beverages include a “Bootycall,” (with peach, mango, passion fruit, and pineapple juice) and a “Hard On” (with blue raspberry and watermelon). The new San Mateo County location is planned for just outside Redwood City on the road to Atherton.

Despite objections and the laws of good taste, Pink Pantherz looks likely to open: Zoning would preclude an “adult entertainment” business at the site, but provided — per planning codes — that employees have “completely and opaquely covered human genitals, pubic region, buttock and female breast below a point immediately above the top of the areola,” Pink Pantherz is in the clear. And with no alterations needed to the site, formerly Caffino, no hearings are necessary for the bikini cafe to proceed.

• Peninsula neighbors buzzed up over bikini-clad baristas [San Jose Mercury news]
• ‘Bikini barista’ chain spreading through NorCal, and not everyone’s happy about it [SFGate]