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Lattes at a drive-through cafe outside Redwood City in San Mateo County will not be served, as originally intended, by female baristas wearing bikinis, as they are at other locations of the Bay Area cafe chain Pink Pantherz. Instead, cafe workers at the San Mateo County Pink Pantherz will be more fully clad in tank tops and shorts. The cafe has agreed to voluntarily bowdlerize its business, also changing its logo and the names of some of its beverages, in response to pushback from community members.
Scandalized local parents responded to the not-yet-opened cafe with a petition against it, and in a compromise, owners Jose Carmona made the changes. Area parent Christina Heltsley reportedly negotiated with Carmona. She calls the compromise a victory for the community.
About 1,500 signatures were gathered in opposition to the new Pink Pantherz business. A group of fifth graders from nearby nonprofit charity the Siena Youth Center even wrote their own letters of objection to Pink Pantherz. That group had originally planned a protest today at the cafe. But now, with the concessions made, the organizers of that protest are dressing it up a bit differently: They’re billing, it instead, as a celebration.
The cafe’s drinks, meanwhile — including beverages elsewhere dubbed a “Bootycall” and “Birthday Sex” — are also being reframed. They’re now advertised as a “Peach Call” and a “Birthday Cake.”
